Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858-1894 (review)

Apache resistance to Anglo-American influx centered on Southeast Arizona during the latter part of the nineteenth century. This resistance was a true barrier to white settlement. It rivaled the Sioux-Cheyenne barrier of the Northern Plains and the Comanche-Kiowa barrier of the Southern Plains. The Apaches' relatively small numbers, due to the harshness of their desert environment, dictated almost exclusive guerrilla warfare. Apache warriors proved capable of creating havoc out of all proportion to their numbers. The most resistant of the Apache bands were the Chiricahuas, whose homeland centered on the Dragoon and Chiricahua islands of mountains in Southeastern Arizona.

Fort Bowie, planted in Apache Pass on the northern side of the Chiricahua Range, was the center of operations against the Chiricahuas from 1861 to 1886. The famous Apache war leader, Cochise, led the Chiricahua resistance from 1861 to 1872, and Geronimo rose to prominence in the latter 1870s and into the1880s.

Author Douglas McChristian is especially adept at weaving authoritative analysis into his thoroughly researched and well written narrative. This is not just an uninspiring recitation of facts but an insightful interpretation of the human drama that unfolded in the Southwest. In addition, McChristian gives us a balanced perspective from both the Apache and the military viewpoint.

The number of clashes between soldier, civilian, and Apache in the Fort Bowie general area was enlightening even to this reviewer who spent four winter seasons working at Fort Bowie in the 1970s.

An aside—the National Park Service has done justice to the Fort Bowie adobe ruins and Apache Pass by not overdeveloping the site. The road through Apache Pass remains unpaved and the one-mile hike from the trail head to the fort ruins gives one an authentic feel for the terrain and environment in which warrior and soldier struggled, lived, and died.

This book is strongly recommended to anyone interested in the Apache wars, but one must be interested in the subject to enjoy it.

A couple of minor criticisms of the book. McChristian fails to relay the intense dislike that General George Crook developed for his military superior, General Philip Sheridan, which culminated in Crook being relieved of command by Sheridan in 1886. Also, no mention is made of the Chiricahua army scouts being sent to Florida along with their hostile brethren upon the final surrender of Geronimo.