General Crook and the Fighting Apaches / Treating Also of the Part Borne by Jimmie Dunn in the days, 1871-1886, When With Soldiers and Pack-trains and Indian Scouts, but Employing the Stronger Weapons of Kindness, Firmness and Honesty, the Gray Fox Worked Hard to the End That the White Men and the Red Men in the Southwest as in the Northwest Might Better Understand One Another

by Edwin L. Sabin

The troops and scouts at Camp Apache, under Major George M. Randall, of the Twenty-third Infantry, were to work in toward the Tonto Basin from the east. The Camp Grant column, under Brevet Major W. H. Brown, were to work up from the south. From the far northwest, at Camp Hualpai, Colonel Julius W. Mason (who had roundly threshed the Apache-Mohaves that had conspired to assassinate General Crook at Date Creek, last summer) was to march down with his Fifth Cavalry and some Hualpais. From Date Creek to the southwest Captain George F. Price, of the Fifth Cavalry, should come on; and from the west the Fort Whipple column, under Major Alexander MacGregor, of the First Cavalry, and the Camp Verde First Cavalry under Colonel C. C. C. Carr, and the Camp McDowell Fifth Cavalry and Pimas and Maricopas under Captain “Jimmie” Burns, were to complete the circle.

They all were to clean the country as they advanced, and close in on the Tonto Basin.

Just before the Camp Grant column started, the general’s final orders were read to all the soldiers and scouts, in line. It was to be a fight to a finish. The Indians who would not surrender must be pursued until killed or captured. Women and children should not be harmed, if possible. Prisoners were to be well treated. Men prisoners should be enlisted as scouts, when they were willing to serve; and full use should be made of them, to discover the hiding-places of the other wild Apaches. And——

“The general commanding the Department wishes to state that no excuse will be accepted for leaving a trail. If the horses become unfit for service, the enemy must be followed on foot. He expects that no sacrifice shall be left untried by officers and men, to make the campaign short, sharp and decisive.”

Antonio Besias the interpreter and guide translated the orders for the Apache scouts. At his first opportunity, Micky asked Jimmie to repeat them. Nan-ta-je also listened attentively. He grunted satisfaction.

“That is good,” commented Micky. “It is straight talk. We will find what we are looking for.”

The Major Brown column out of Camp Grant consisted of Companies L and M of the Fifth Cavalry, commanded by Captain Alfred B. Taylor and Lieutenant Jacob Almy, Lieutenant (Brevet Major) William J. Ross, of the Twenty-first Infantry, who had won honors in the Civil War, and Lieutenant John G. Bourke, of the Third Cavalry, who had been General Crook’s aide-de-camp. They were all good fighting men. Then there were thirty Sierra Blanca Apache scouts—Chief Big Mouth, Alchisé who was called Alchisay, Nan-ta-je whom the soldiers nicknamed “Joe,” Na-kay-do-klun-ni who was nicknamed “Bobby Do-klinny,” and the others, managed by Joe Felmer, Archie MacIntosh and Antonio Besias. Then there was the pack-train of fifty mules, in charge of Pack-Master Jack Long and Assistant Frank Monach, and ten such first-class packers as Jim O’Neill, Chileno John, “Long Jim” Cook and “Short Jim” Cook, Manuel Lopez, old Sam Wisser the German, with Slim Shorty as cook and John Cahill as blacksmith—men tried and true. Then there was Mr. James Daily, General Crook’s brother-in-law who had come out to Whipple last spring with his sister Mrs. Crook, and was “seeing the country” with the cavalry; and Micky Free, who might be counted as a sort of “detached” scout.

Altogether, Jimmie felt convinced, this was the best column in the field. As Patron Jack asserted, it could “lick its weight in wild-cats.”