During the month of July the cavalry were so worn out, a fresh start was made with only infantry and Indian scouts. Assistant Leonard Wood was given the command of the infantry, while Lieutenant Brown led the scouts. These charged the camp of the hostiles and captured all their ponies and baggage, but the elusive Geronimo and his band escaped, to supply themselves with fresh horses from the nearest corral.
When the infantry in turn became exhausted and their shoes worn out on the rocks, they were sent back to the supply camp for rest, while fresh cavalry, under Lieut. A. L. Smith, continued the campaign.
General Miles's order at this time was: "Commanding officers are expected to continue a pursuit until capture, or until they are assured a fresh command is on the trail." In obedience to this command, the hunt for Geronimo was taken up by twenty-five different detachments representing four regiments.
This continuous trailing, together with five encounters, soon convinced the Apaches that there was no safety in Arizona, and they hurried to the mountain fastnesses of the Sierra Madre in Sonora, where they frequently rise 6,000 and 7,000 feet above the plain, which is a mile above sea level.
Surgeon Wood, in his report, describes Sonora as "a continuous mass of mountains of the most rugged character. Range follows range with hardly an excuse for a valley, unless the narrow cañons be so considered." Spencer says these cañons are a mile deep.
Lawton's command now resumed the trail, clinging to it like bloodhounds, in spite of heat, hunger, thirst and fatigue. Geronimo and Naiche could not shake him off. Pursued and pursuers reached a point three hundred miles south of the boundary line.
The relays of troops on their trail night and day were too much even for Geronimo's band, in spite of their marvelous powers of endurance. They were at last perfectly exhausted and willing to surrender. At this time Lieut. C. B. Gatewood, of the Sixth Cavalry, at the risk of his life, went into Geronimo's camp, where he met him face to face and demanded his surrender. As he and his entire band were helpless and hopeless they expressed themselves as willing to submit.
The only terms Lawton or his superior, General Miles, would consider was unconditional surrender. At last, after some consultation with his warriors, the oft-killed and much surrendering Apache submitted himself to the United States authorities on the morning of September 3, 1886, at Skeleton Cañon, Arizona. When the band surrendered, General Miles noticed that Chief Naiche was not among the Indians; and messengers were sent after him to induce him to come in; but he delayed until the evening of the next day. The chief explained that his delay was due to two reasons. In the first place, he was fearful of being treated as his grandfather, Mangus Colorado, had been, that is, murdered after he surrendered.
His second reason for delay was that he thought it appropriate that he, the son of the great war-chief, Cochise, and the first chief of the Chiricahuas, should be the last to lay down his arms and cease fighting the white men, whom he and his fathers had fought for two centuries.
Never was the surrender of so small a number of savages deemed of more importance. Twenty-two warriors comprised the entire fighting force that remained. About eighteen months had been spent in the pursuit, which covered a distance of two thousand miles. General Miles had been in command just twenty-one weeks, during which time his men traversed more than one thousand miles.