When I was but a little pup, my family spent a lot of time at the Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. My sister was born with sever cerebral palsy when I was 3-1/2 years old, and for a couple of years my parents trundled us down there at least once a week and sometimes more for physical therapy that was supposed to help her. It didn’t, but you have to try.
That meant a LOT of downtime for a little boy. To keep me from going stir-crazy, my dad read to me. Endlessly. I don’t know the name of the publication, but I can see it in my mind’s eye — a magazine-format collection of history for young readers. Two stories got read over and over and over again. One was the tale of the gruesome end of Blackbeard the Pirate. The other was the tragic tale of the Cut-the-Tent episode, which triggered 25 years of warfare between the U.S. and the Apaches.
So I imbibed the story of Cochise and the Apache Wars very early on. I know the tale by heart and then some — know it far better than I know my own family history. Since those early days of “Read it again, Daddy!” I’ve read dozens of books — history, fiction, biography — on the Apache Wars, some of them multiple times. I never tire of it.
Chiricahua Apache, by Howard Terpening.
I suppose you could argue that, having read Dan Thrapp and Edwin Sweeney, Ange Debo, Eve Ball, and … that I wouldn’t need to bother to pick up the latest foray into the martial history of the desert Southwest. Yeah, right.
I downloaded Paul A. Hutton’s “The Apache Wars: The Hunt for Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and the Captive Boy Who Started the Longest War in American History” the day it was published and I’m already deep into the old, familiar tale.
Why cover this ground again? You mean besides my generally compulsive nature? Hutton is an ace writer, for one thing. He’s one of several narrative historians who, over the past couple of decades, have mastered the art of writing thoroughly, deeply researched history as story. His account of Lt. Bascom, Cochise, and Cut-the-Tent is the best I’ve yet read. He’s got Geronimo’s number, which is a credibility test as far as I’m concerned. And I love the focus on the enigmatic Mickey Free, one of those marginal men, the ones caught between cultures, who walk a crooked and narrow path just trying to find a way in the world. I love those guys.
Hutton is unflinching in the face of the horrors and terrors of the conflict. Nobody fought clean in this long, grinding guerrilla war. The U.S. government was duplicitous in its dealings with the Apaches; the Mexican government was treacherous and brought decades of terror on their own heads through their employment of brutal gangs of scalp hunters; the Apaches themselves were prone to horrific tortures, and wreaked their vengeance for wrongs committed against them indiscriminately. They simply did not care — culturally — whether those upon whom they slaked their revenge were innocent.
Hutton avoids the trap of portraying the Apaches as mere put-upon victims of Manifest Destiny. He gives them agency in their own world and lets them stand upon their own feet, actors in their own tragedy. Tigers of the desert; warriors to the end.
In a recent press interview he said, “This is hard-core warrior stuff. To me, the Apaches are the Vikings of America and there is no reason to make apologies for who they were. These were not a sedentary people. They were raiders.”
Yes!
This is serious history, well told, with empathy and yet with a hard and unforgiving eye. That’s a tough thing to pull off, and it makes “The Apache Wars” a crowning achievement in a distinguished career.
Highest recommendation.
Apache Scout by Howard Terpening.
Paul McNamee says
“one of those marginal men, the ones caught between cultures, who walk a crooked and narrow path just trying to find a way in the world. I love those guys.”
They do make interesting characters.
“‘This is hard-core warrior stuff. To me, the Apaches are the Vikings of America and there is no reason to make apologies for who they were. These were not a sedentary people. They were raiders.'”
Very apt point to make.
JimC says
I love that the victimhood fad is fading, at least among historians. “Empire of the Summer Sun” portrayed the Comanche in all their splendid bararbarism, as did “War of A Thousand Deserts.” Treat these warrior peoples as what they were — warrior peoples!
Matthew says
In King Solomon’s Mines, Haggard through Allan Quatermaine compares the Vikings to the Zulu. Similar to the way Hutton does the Apache. Haggard was a racist by todays standards (though he was far better than many of contemporaries), but he was probably more accurate than a lot of the PC crowd in that regard. Probably came from actually knowing Zulus.
JimC says
I’d forgotten about that, but you are right. The British Imperialists tended to respect the peoples that gave them the most trouble. Hence the Gurkha Regiment. And the Highlanders.
Matthew says
It’s oddly common in war for antagonists to respect one another. I think I remember reading somewhere that Audie Murphy said he like the Germans more than Italians because they put up more of a fight. Many of the Allied commanders admired Rommel. Saladin and Richard the Lion-Hearted admired each other.
Black Tyrone says
And the Irish?
In general never respected despite 40% In the military at one point mid 19th century. A gaping hole in the theory JC
Former HS History teacher with History undergrad degree and graduate degree
JimC says
Well, you’ve got me there. Fantastic handle, by the way.
Black Tyrone says
Thanks JC Sit down and read The Ballad of Boh Da Thone. You’ll enjoy while drifting on the Chinwin.
john roberts says
The British respected their valorous opponents after they’d beaten them. They never whipped the Irish in centuries of trying so they stayed unromanticised.
JimC says
Well played.
Black Tyrone says
John, There are social and economic as well as political reasons. Yes, there is no Sir Walter Scott for the Irish.
Trying to keep it light.. I recall in Gibson’s Brave Heart.. Edward The Long Shanks remarked, No! Send in the Irish they’re cheaper!
In any case the original theory has been addressed.
Jim C has a wonderful site. Best to both of you. Bill aka Black Tyrone
JimC says
Glad you’re here Black Tyrone.
Blood on my Lance at Omdurman says
Disagree the Irish were not respected. The British respected their own Irish troops, believing that they had different strengths and weaknesses than the English troops. The English were very solid, reliable and consistent. The Irish were high-spirited. They had a lot of dash, and they were aggressive, they liked to fight, but they also might panic. Garnet Wolseley said that it took a certain kind of officer to command Irish troops and get the best out of them. Just as some people could not ride a spirited horse, most officers could not successfully command Irish troops.
JimC says
Thanks for stopping by the campfire, Bloody Lance.
John says
I wonder if it was a “Highlights” magazine that Dad read from. They were ubiquitous in medical waiting rooms. I read from many of them myself.
John C.
lane batot says
I think it was in Louis L’Amour’s “Hondo”, that he made the comment that the Apache(at least early on) WELCOMED the intrusion of the whites and Mexicans, as they brought such splendid plundering possibilities! Only when, decades later, they were so overwhelmed, did they reverse their philosophy and become the “Indeh”…..I just read a neat perspective involving apex predators and the trophic effects they create in their environments, that keep the ungulates and other species from destroying the land. Famous environmentalist Aldo Leopold was, at first, very much FOR wiping out predators, feeling like most that less predators mean more deer and elk(which it DOES, but only temporarily!). He completely reversed that notion later on, and he got his epiphany down in the Sierra Madre, where Apaches and Pancho Villa bandits had kept settlement and “progress” at bay for so long, and the ecosystem remained one of the few completely intact in the Southwest, with all the major predators–wolves, cougars, bears, etc.–and the ungulate herds were healthier and the LAND still in excellent, pristine condition, all because of not only the animal predators keeping the ungulates on the move with that “environment of fear”, but also the Apaches(and others) creating the same environment for other humans! Interesting stuff. Seems we NEED some raiding Apaches roaming about again….
JimC says
Yes!
lane batot says
Oops–that term is “Landscape Of Fear”(not “Environment”) created by the predatory types……
john roberts says
Read Kipling’s “The Fuzzy-Wuzzy.” And how can a title be less PC than that? But it’s told in the vouce of a common British trooper and it’s filled with respect for the Nilotic tribesmen who fought for the Mahdi and who alone of all the Empire’s enemies managed to break the British square.
“We sloshed you with Martinis, and it wasn’t hardly fair,
But for all the odds agin ye, Fuzzy-Wuz, by God you broke the Square!”
“‘ere’s to you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your ‘ome in the Sudan,
Y’ere a pore, benighted ‘eathen, but a first class fightin’ man!”
JimC says
Brilliant.
lane batot says
….And I’ll BET the Nilotic Tribesmen DID NOT refer to the invading Brits with perfectly politically correct labels!
JimC says
Yeah, probably not…