Cherry Creek Campaign

Cherry Creek Campaign

The Sign Language by Frederic Remington shows an Apache scout and a Buffalo soldier during the Apache Campaign in 1889.
Date	March 2–7, 1890
Location	near Globe, Arizona
Outcome	Apaches defeated 2 killed 1 wounded 3 captured

The Cherry Creek Campaign occurred in March 1890 and was one of the final conflicts between hostile Apaches and the United States Army. It began after a small group of Apaches killed a freight wagon operator, near the San Carlos Reservation, and was part of the larger , beginning in 1889, to round up renegades who had escaped the army's reservations. The American army fought a skirmish with the renegades near Globe, Arizona, at the mouth of Cherry Creek, which resulted in the deaths of two hostiles and the capture of the remaining three. Two men received the Medal of Honor for their service during the campaign.

Following Geronimo's final surrender in September 1886, the majority of the Apache people were sent to either Florida or Alabama as prisoners of war. Only a few companies of Apache Scouts and some small bands of hostiles remained in the southwest. One of the renegades was the famous Indian scout known as the Apache Kid. After leaving the army in 1887, the Apache Kid was arrested near Globe, Arizona in 1889 and sentenced to several years in the Yuma Territorial Prison for the attempted murder of Albert Sieber, the chief of the Apache scouts. However, during the transfer to Yuma, the Apache Kid and a handful of his followers escaped police custody and killed two people in what has been called the Kelvin Grade Massacre. In response, the United States Army launched an operation to catch the Apache Kid and the other renegades who were out raiding across southern Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico. The Kid and his gang were not the only renegades still on the war path, there were several other small bands causing mischief, most notably that of Massai. Another former Apache scout, Massai is suspected of being responsible for a number of deaths in Arizona that were often attributed to the Apache Kid. But even after Massai there were others. On March 2, 1890, a group of five "drunken" renegades killed a wagon driver named Herbert and stole two large horses, about ten miles west of Fort Thomas and the San Carlos reservation. At the time, Fort Thomas was home to Troop K of the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers, under the command of Lieutenant Powhatan Clarke, a Medal of Honor recipient who fought in Geronimo's War.