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YEARS OF WAR
The 1860's in the Chiricahua Apache Homeland
Cochise made national headlines in February, 1861, when a young Army officer, Lieutenant George Bascom, confronted him at the Butterfield Overland Mail stage station in Apache Pass and attempted to hold Cochise and several members of his family hostage. Bascom falsely accused Cochise of responsibility for a raid on a local ranch, in which cattle had been driven off and a young Mexican boy taken captive.
Cochise cut his way out of the tent in which he was held, and organized his group to besiege Lt. Bascom. Cochise attempted to negotiate a solution, but Bascomb was insistent that he return the captive boy - who Cochise did not have. The siege was broken off fourteen days later. At least nine Chiricahua, including Cochise's brother and two nephews, and fifteen others had died.
Prior to this incident, Cochise's Chokonen had maintained good relations with Americans. The
Bascomb Affair(as it is generally known) or
Cut-the-tent(as it is called by the Chiricahua), destroyed these relations and launched 10 years of bloody warfare that resulted in the destruction of American settlements and Chiricahua camps throughout southern Arizona. More than four thousand lives were lost. In time, the Mexican boy who had been the object of Bascomb's demands reappeared - among the Western Apache, not the Chiricahua.
Raiding continued throughout the 1860's. The Army pursued Cochise and his people, but he was a master strategist, and intimately familiar with the land. Even so, the continuous fighting saw the number of Chiricahuas grow fewer and fewer. In 1869 Cochise began negotiating with the U.S. Government to bring about peace.