The Battle of Apache Pass
Date: July 15 - 16, 1862
Location: Between the Dos Cabeza & Chiricahua Mountains, New Mexico Territory
Back in March a massive Union force from California, known as the California Column and led by Colonel James Henry Carleton, began their southeastern march along the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach route, a march that would eventually take them over 900 miles from Fort Yuma, California, across the Arizona Territory (CSA), New Mexico Territory (USA), and Texas (CSA). In May, the California Column had captured Tucson, and in July had aided pro-Union New Mexican militia in capturing Mesilla from the Confederates, then the capital of the Arizona Territory.
Colonel James Henry Carleton
The almost 2,400-strong California Column was far too large to bivouac at one central location and march as one unit without dangerously depleting the water from springs and supplies from the stations along the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach route, so at the beginning of the march, Carleton had ordered the column to proceed forward as staggered groups. One such group was traveling along the route towards the rear of the column: a mixed unit of infantry, cavalry, and artillery, led by Captain Thomas L. Roberts. After Roberts' force crossed the San Pedro river, they began a march 28 miles east towards the next closest source of water that could sustain their unit, Dragoon Springs. The only way to get there, however, was through a mountain pass located between the Dos Cabeza and Chiricahua mountains, known as Apache Pass, and nearing the pass, their situation had become dire. The unit had already traveled about 19 miles from their last source of water at San Pedro, and the unrelenting July heat in the open desert meant their canteens were running dry.
Mangas Coloradas' son (no known photographs exist of Mangas Coloradas) & Geronimo
Perched high above on the walls of the pass, hundreds of Apaches led by Cochise, Mangas Coloradas, and Geronimo lay in wait. In 1861, they led an uprising in reaction to thousands of people from the eastern US flooding the Pinos Altos Mountains after the discovery of gold in 1860 and the Bascom Affair in early 1861, successfully attacking several Confederate units and settlements in the vicinity that year.
With the Confederates in the area defeated by the new Union presence, the brutal war would continue, but now between Union forces and the Apaches.
Shortly after Roberts' force entered the pass, Apaches sprang up from behind seemingly every tree, shrub, and boulder and opened fire. Taken completely by surprise, Roberts rallied his men and ordered a retreat back to the mouth of the pass. As well hidden and entrenched as the Apaches were, Roberts had no choice but to fight through the pass, as a retreat back through the desert meant certain death. Advancing, Roberts ordered a three-pronged attack, with skirmishers taking the hills on either side of the pass and the main force advancing with artillery support down the center.
The skirmishers were able to capture an adobe Butterfield Overland Stagecoach station overlooking the pass and fired back at the Apaches, while Roberts directed artillery fire, their advance coming within 600 yards of Dragoon Spring. Desperate fighting continued until nightfall, with the Apaches suffering heavy losses from artillery fire and Mangas Coloradas suffering a serious chest wound. The Apaches withdrew to regroup, leaving the path the springs wide open. Reaching the springs, Roberts' men drank, ate, and prepared for an Apache counterattack, which came the next morning but was driven off with an artillery bombardment.
Following the fighting, Mangas Coloradas, still healing from his wound, met with the California Column for peace talks and established a temporary alliance. In response to this battle, the US Army commissioned Fort Bowie to be built that year by the battle site to guard Apache Pass.
Fort Bowie c. 1886
Soldiers of the 5th California Infantry Regiment, who built and manned Fort Bowie
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