Bascom Affair
This set the stage for an incident that was the predominant factor in starting Cochise’s eleven year war against the United States, and was a formative element in the long and hard-fought struggle between the Chiricahuas and the United States even after Cochise made his own peace. A detachment of troops under Lt. George H. Bascom attempted to arrest the Indian leader at their camp near the spring and the resulting stand-off lasting several days ended with the deaths of hostages on both sides. The affront angered Cochise so much that he entered into his fight with the Americans, that ended only with a treaty facilitated by his only white friend, a former teamster named Tom Jeffords, and Gen. Oliver O. Howard. But the residual anger of other Apaches for many years resulted in the Apache Wars, a direct result of Bascom's rash actions.
Read more about this topic: Apache Pass
Famous quotes containing the word affair:
“Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tatters. A door is to be painted, a lock to be repaired. I want wood, or oil, or meal, or salt; the house smokes, or I have a headache; then the tax; and an affair to be transacted with a man without heart or brains; and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very awkward word,—these eat up the hours.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)