Devil Doc
When Death smiles, Corpsmen smile back
It was on this day in 1886 that Geronimo, the last major Native American military leader to fight against the U.S., surrendered in Arizona. Geronimo wasn't ever officially a chief. He was a medicine man. But after his mother, wife, and children were killed by Mexican troops, he joined leading raiding parties, attacking Mexican and American settlers in the Southwest.
By the early 1880s, the Apaches had largely been defeated by American troops. Their chief, Cochise, was dead, and the U.S. government forced them to live on a barren reservation in San Carlos, Arizona. As a last-ditch effort, Geronimo organized a group of warriors to fight one last war of resistance. He fought for five years, and many military historians believe he was one of the most brilliant guerilla warfare strategists in history.
For the final five months, Geronimo led a band of only thirty-seven men, pursued by five thousand soldiers, one quarter of the entire U.S. military. Geronimo kept eluding capture. His men left no footprints because they walked only on rocks.
But Geronimo and his men finally got tired of living in the mountains, and so they surrendered on this day in 1886 to General Nelson Miles in a place called Skeleton Canyon.
Geronimo was essentially a prisoner of war for the rest of his life, but he became something of a celebrity. He made a living by selling the buttons off his jacket and autographed photos of himself, and he appeared at an exhibit at the St Louis World's Fair in 1904. He never saw Arizona again. Much of the land that he fought the Americans for remains uninhabited today.
Doc.
By the early 1880s, the Apaches had largely been defeated by American troops. Their chief, Cochise, was dead, and the U.S. government forced them to live on a barren reservation in San Carlos, Arizona. As a last-ditch effort, Geronimo organized a group of warriors to fight one last war of resistance. He fought for five years, and many military historians believe he was one of the most brilliant guerilla warfare strategists in history.
For the final five months, Geronimo led a band of only thirty-seven men, pursued by five thousand soldiers, one quarter of the entire U.S. military. Geronimo kept eluding capture. His men left no footprints because they walked only on rocks.
But Geronimo and his men finally got tired of living in the mountains, and so they surrendered on this day in 1886 to General Nelson Miles in a place called Skeleton Canyon.
Geronimo was essentially a prisoner of war for the rest of his life, but he became something of a celebrity. He made a living by selling the buttons off his jacket and autographed photos of himself, and he appeared at an exhibit at the St Louis World's Fair in 1904. He never saw Arizona again. Much of the land that he fought the Americans for remains uninhabited today.
Doc.
