Fort Bowie Research Paper

Fort Bowie played an important part in the wars with the Chiricahua Apache in year 1861. Lieutenant George Bascom confronted Cochise in a confrontation that lasted over twenty-five years in bloody conflicts between the Apache and the U.S. Army. General James H. Carleton, who founded the Fort, lead an army eastward in 1862 to check the Confederate offensive in New Mexico. A battle occurred when Cochise and his allies ambushed the soldiers but the soldiers ended up being victorious. Fort Bowie served as the headquarters to General George Crook while he battled deep into Mexico that ended with the surrender of the infamous Geronimo and his warriors.
The Navajo stronghold of Canyon de Chelly was the location of the conquest of the Navajo Indians by U.S. Army Colonel Christopher C. Carson. On January 12, 1864 Carson invaded the stronghold and attacked the Navajo. A number of battles took place between the Indians and Carson’s forces. On January 16th, the famished Navajos numbering around eight thousand surrendered. …show more content…
In April 1865 a settler took the life of one the Hualapai leaders which began a war. In retaliation for the murder they cut off the Fort Mojave-Prescott Toll Road to the Colorado River and assaulted anyone trying to get through. A man by the name of Captain W.H. Hardy soon brought about a peace agreement and the fighting stopped. Another tribal leader, Chief Wauba Yuma, was murdered over a treaty dispute and the assaults began anew. Due to the renewed raids by the Hualapai the Fort Mojave Cavalry was sent out which resulted in the cavalry fighting in a number of battles. The war lasted until December, 1868 and the Hualapai surrendered due to whooping cough and dysentery thinning their warrior ranks and the violence ended a few years