The Battle at Apache Pass is a 1952 American Western film directed by George Sherman and starring John Lund, Jeff Chandler and Susan Cabot.
The film is a highly fictionalized account combining the events of the Bascom affair of 1861 and the Battle of Apache Pass of 1862.
In 1862 in New Mexico Territory, good relations between Fort Buchanan's commanding officer, Maj. Colton and Chiricahua Apache Indian chief Cochise are threatened by the arrival of government agent Neil Baylor and his dishonest scout Mescal Jack.
In breach of existing treaties, Baylor plans to resettle the Apaches to the San Carlos Reservation, and when Geronimo, the chief of the rival Mogollon Apaches, attacks the Tucson stagecoach and kills women and children, Baylor threatens to also transport the Chiricahuas to San Carlos. When confronted by Colton and Baylor, Cochise calls a council of Apache elders and they vote to banish Geronimo, who must also surrender one of his stagecoach captives, schoolteacher Mary Kearny. After assuring his pregnant wife Nona that his interest in the Mary is not romantic, Cochise brings Mary to Fort Buchanan and entrusts her to Maj. Colton, counseling him that she would be a fine wife.
Baylor and Jack plot with Geronimo to frame Cochise for Geronimo's attack on a ranch. During Colton's inquiry into the attack, his subordinate Lt. Bascom is promised a promotion by Baylor for rescuing the boy who was kidnapped during the attack. Cochise tells Bascom that it was Geronimo who committed the attack, but Bascom accuses him of lying and takes Nona hostage. Three braves are hanged, including Cochise's brother Little Elk. As Cochise mourns and prepares to retaliate against Bascom's position, Mescal Jack approaches him on the pretense of warning of an Army attack, but Cochise calls him a liar and condemns him to death. Colton's trusted Sgt. Reuben Bernard informs him of the situation, causing Colton to close Fort Buchanan and prepare to transfer everyone, including Mary and Baylor, to the more secure Fort Sheridan.
From the hills along the trail, Cochise and Geronimo watch the procession. As shooting begins, the wounded Baylor advances on the Indians' positions, shouting that he is their friend, but Geronimo kills him. Colton and Sgt. Bernard use the expedition's cannon to rout the warriors as Cochise finds Nona, who has been hurt, and takes her to the wagons so that Dr. Carter can treat her. Geronimo calls Cochise a weak leader, but in a one-to-one battle, Cochise wins and, instead of killing Geronimo, banishes him.
Nona's son is born and she gives her friend Mary a precious Apache bracelet. Colton and Mary look at each other with affection and Cochise tells them that time has come for peace as he rides away with Nona.
The Indian Wars encompass more than three centuries of armed conflict between the United States government, American settlers, and Indigenous nations — from the Powhatan Wars of the 1620s through the final Plains campaigns of the late 19th century. The eastern conflicts — King Philip's War (1675–1676), the Tuscarora War (1711–1715), and the Creek and Seminole Wars — largely ended organized Indigenous resistance east of the Mississippi by the 1840s. On the Great Plains, the Sioux Wars (1854–1890), Red River War (1874–1875), and Nez Perce War (1877) followed the displacement wrought by the transcontinental railroad and the near-extinction of the American bison — an estimated 30 to 60 million animals reduced to fewer than 1,000 by 1890. The Ghost Dance religious movement and the massacre at Wounded Knee (December 29, 1890), in which US cavalry killed approximately 250 Lakota men, women, and children, marked the effective end of armed resistance. The Dawes Act (1887) allotted reservation land to individual families, opening millions of acres to white settlement and reducing Indigenous landholdings by about two-thirds over the following decades.
This page covers Bascom Affair — Apache Pass. A full Aubrey report for the area pulls together this battle alongside historic sites, land records, and everything else the record holds within a few miles:
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