Aftermath
Two of Captain Roberts men were killed and three wounded in the battle for the spring. According to a report Colonel Carleton made to Colonel Richard C. Drum on September 20, 1862, about 10 Apaches were killed.
| “ | From the hostile attitude of the Chiricahua, I found it indispensably necessary to establish a post in what is known as Apache Pass; it is known as Fort Bowie, and garrisoned by one hundred rank and file of the Fifth Infantry, California Volunteers, and thirteen rank and file of Company A, First Cavalry, California Volunteers; this post commands the water in that pass. Around this water the Indians have been in the habit of lying in ambush, and shooting the troops and travelers as they came to drink. In this way they have killed three of Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre's command, and in attempting to keep Captain Roberts' company. First Infantry, California Volunteers, away from the spring a fight ensued, in which Captain Roberts had two men killed and two wounded. Captain Roberts reports that the Indians lost ten killed. In this affair the men of Captain Roberts' company are reported as behaving with great gallantry. | ” |
According to Captain Cremony, however, a prominent Apache who was present in the engagement had said that sixty-three warriors were killed by the artillery, while only three died from small arms fire. Said the unnamed Apache, "We would have done well enough if you had not fired wagons at us." The howitzers being on wheels, were called wagons by the Apaches, who were unfamiliar with artillery tactics. Mangas Coloradas himself was wounded in the action, receiving a bullet wound in the chest when attempting to kill one of Roberts' cavalry scouts.
One day after the battle, on the New Mexico side of Apache Pass, the bodies of nine murdered and scalped white civilians were found. Carleton decided that it was necessary to establish a post at the pass to prevent settlers from being ambushed as they passed through it. On July 4, the first units of the California Column reached Mesilla, New Mexico, along the Rio Grande. At the same time, the last remnants of the Confederate army withdrew to Texas.
The 5th California Infantry was ordered to build a fort in Apache Pass, calling it Fort Bowie in honor of their colonel, George Washington Bowie. Carleton was placed in command of the Union's Department of New Mexico, and he continued to campaign against the hostiles in that area.
Today the battlefield and fort are preserved in Fort Bowie National Historic Site. The engagement was portrayed somewhat inaccurately in the 1952 film The Battle at Apache Pass.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Apache Pass
Famous quotes containing the word aftermath:
“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)