Geronimo by Robert M. Utley

Author:Robert M. Utley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2012-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

MILES IN COMMAND, 1886

IN TWO AUTOBIOGRAPHIES GENERAL Nelson A. Miles denied any wish ever to serve in Apache country. When as commanding general of the Department of the Missouri he received orders on April 2, 1886, to replace General Crook as commanding general of the Department of Arizona, he later recalled that “it seemed a very undesirable duty and a most difficult undertaking.” For two years, however, he had freely hurled criticisms at Crook and his methods and, within and outside of the army, strongly implied not only that he could do a better job but that he wanted to. Now he had his chance at what indeed was “a most difficult undertaking.”1

Nelson A. Miles was ambitious, outspoken, pompous, arrogant, vain, and full of self-certitude. He had pushed his military career with every political stratagem he could muster. He believed that his best path to high rank lay with his wife’s uncle, General William Tecumseh Sherman, and the general’s brother, Senator John Sherman of Ohio. By bombarding General Sherman with personal missives, he probably did himself more harm than good, for that formidably ethical general granted no family favors, even when deserved.

By 1886 Nelson A. Miles had accumulated an impressive record, making him the most successful Indian-fighter in the army. As colonel of the Fifth Infantry, his role in the Red River War of 1874–75 was outstanding. His part in the Sioux Wars that followed Custer’s disaster at the Little Bighorn, 1876–81, was decisive. In the same operations, General Crook seemed unable to do anything right, even though fresh from triumphs over the Apaches in Arizona. Crook and Miles harbored an intense dislike of each other; it did not amount to a feud but certainly was seen throughout the army as rivalry—rivalry that spawned Crook v. Miles factions in the army.

In ordering Miles to Arizona, Sheridan gently emphasized the “necessity of making active and prominent use of the regular troops” of his command. This “suggestion” of course reflected Sheridan’s distrust of the Apache scouts, as well as his wish for the credit of ending the Geronimo outbreak to fall to the regulars. In their annual reports late in 1886 both Sheridan and Secretary of War Endicott bluntly stated their views: the scouts could be trusted only to capture or induce their kinsmen to surrender, not to fight or kill them.2

Miles needed no encouragement, for these coincided with his own views. He assigned the mission of running down and destroying or capturing Geronimo and Naiche to regular units. He did not abolish the Apache scouts altogether but retained some as auxiliaries (none Chiricahua or White Mountain), seeking enemy sign and following trails.3

After bolting back to the Sierra Madre on March 31, 1886, Geronimo and Naiche pushed rapidly westward, intent on launching another devastating raid against old adversaries. The first blow fell on April 2 west of Fronteras, only three days after the nighttime escape from Lieutenant Maus. They crossed the Sonora River and embarked on three weeks of death and destruction both east and west of the Magdalena River.

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