Part II  ---   Cochise's War -- cont.
 

     January, 1863.  Less than six months after the Apache Pass battle, Mangas Coloradas was once again showing signs of wanting peace with the Americans -- at least with those now flooding his New Mexico homelands near Piños Altos.  Mangas by this time was up in years and must have been weary of fighting the eternal tide of white settlers and miners -- and the demoralizing experience while fighting alongside Cochise at Apache Pass would have done little to harden his resolve to continue the fight (in fact, he had nearly died in a side skirmish associated with that battle when a young soldier named John Teal shot Mangas off his horse, ending the engagement and causing Mangas' followers to rush him southward into Janos where a doctor under threat of his life managed to patch the old Indian up).

     But the army had other ideas, shared no doubt by the majority of jittery settlers in the area.  To them Mangas was just as bad as Cochise and was thoroughly detested.  Mangas had sent out feelers, showing his willingness to enter back into peace talks. 
 

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MANGAS COLORADAS: Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches - by Edwin R. Sweeney Unquestionably the finest and most comprehensive study of the life of Managas Coloradas ever written.

     It was in January 1863 that a party of goldseekers entered the Piños Altos area, led by Joseph Reddeford Walker.  They had been severly spooked during their travels by persistent Apache sign.  They were headed for the gold fields at Burro Mountain and had grown wary enough to plot a daring capture, thinking that their only chance of traversing Mangas Coloradas' home turf was to take the chief hostage.

     Fort McLane was an abandoned fort lying some 20 miles east of Piños Altos.  The party arrived there just before the coincidental arrival of small military force under Capt. E.D. Shirland.  This was actually an advance party sent out by General Joseph R. West, Commander of the District of Arizona.  West, acting on orders from General Carlton, was preparing punish the local Apaches for various depredations, both real and perceived, and Mangas Coloradas happened to be the major target.

     Walker's group was delighted to have the army's protection, and went about sharing their kidnapping plans with West's men.  It seemed in line with the purpose of the campaign and it was agreed they should travel to Piños Altos.  Once there, they began displaying a white flag in hopes of drawing in Mangas, or at least an Apache contingent that could contact him. 

     Their wait was a short one.  Mangas, with a party of warriors, approached soon after their arrival.  Negotiations began with a surplus of caution shown by both sides.  At some distance, in broken Spanish, the two parties communicated.  Eventually Mangas came in with three or four other Indians, bolstered by the presence of the white flag, still hopeful, it would seem, that he could trust the Americans.  Immediately he was drawn upon and ordered to surrender, which he did, displaying great shock and disbelief.  His followers were ordered to withdraw (one among them was apparently a son) and were promised the chief's safe return once the miners made it to safety.

     Once they returned to Fort McLane, Mangas abruptly became the prisoner of the U.S. Army, by order of General West, who had just arrived with his force.  That night, January 18, 1863, which was recorded as  brutally cold and desolate, Mangas was placed under guard, out in the open, under the "care" of a small contingent of guards.  They had been given an order to match the bleakness of the night:

     What exactly took place that cold night will never be fully known, as several accounts exist.  But historians generally accept the story given by Daniel Ellis Conner, a member of the Walker party, who had been standing sentry over the miner's near where the soliders were keeping Mangas.  In short, he stated that the two guards spent a good deal of time harrassing the chief while he lay near the fire, trying to sleep.  They were apparently poking him at random with the fire-heated tips of their bayonets, trying to get a rise out of him.  Mangas eventually erupted in a hail of broken Spanish, rising up on one elbow, declaring that he was no child to be played with.  At this point, he was shot dead by both sentinels.

     Officially it was reported that he was killed during an escape attempt.

     As brutal as this was, it was not the end of the insult.  The next morning the dead chief was scalped and then dumped into a ravine, where his body was hastily covered.  Days later, yet more brutality befell the great chief when soliders uncovered the corpse and removed Mangas' huge head (a feature for which he was long famous, and one that went along well with his overall giant stature).  It was boiled in a kettle to remove the flesh, and then shipped east.

     If Cochise had been insensed with the Americans prior to this indignity, we can only imagine the extent of his bitterness upon receiving word of his father-in-law's death and the unforgivable violations that followed it.