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 Camp Thomas troops had arrived; so had those from Fort Bowie, to the southeast. By train other troops, and horses and mules, and ammunition and supplies of all kinds were pouring in. The general and his staff were here. So were Charley Hopkins and “Short Jim” Cook and others of the old-time packers; and Archie MacIntosh and Al Sieber, the chief scouts; and Antonio Besias the interpreter; yes, and Maria Jilda.

It was a great reunion of Crook men.

Reports said that the United States and Mexico had arranged to pursue Indians into each other’s territory, but the United States troops were not to cross the boundary before May 1. In order to make certain that this was understood, the general traveled by the Mexican Central Railroad into the northern Mexican States and talked with the commanding officers there.

When he returned he talked again with “Peaches.” “Peaches” stuck to his story, and when the general directed that the irons be removed from him, “Peaches” said that he was willing to wear them until it was shown that he had spoken only the truth. But the irons were taken off anyway, because Alchisé and other scouts engaged to watch him very closely.

On April 22 there was a parade, and inspection of the whole outfit. That night the Apache scouts held a big war-dance which lasted until morning. They and Micky (who had danced as hard as anybody) were still hot and excited when the column was formed for the advance.

The scouts, and pack-mules, and a line of rumbling army wagons, and portions of seven companies of the Third and Sixth Cavalry, marched from the railroad to the boundary at San Bernardino Springs in southeastern Arizona, one hundred miles by the wagon trail.

Stalwart Captain Emmet Crawford brought in one hundred more Apache scouts from San Carlos. There were war-dances and medicine ceremonies each night. Alchisé and others told the general that their medicine was showing up very strong; the Chiricahuas would surely be found and killed or captured.

“That is so,” asserted Micky, who believed in the medicine.

Six of the cavalry troops were to be left here at the border, to guard it and the wagons with the extra supplies.