Fort Apache was a Indian Wars and Frontier Conflicts engagement fought in Arizona, 1881.
On September 1, 1881, in eastern Arizona Territory, soldiers stationed at Fort Apache found themselves under attack by dozens of mounted White Mountain Apache fighters. This clash, part of the broader Apache Wars, pitted the fort's cavalry garrison against the assembled warriors in a direct confrontation.
On September 1, 1881, in eastern Arizona Territory, soldiers stationed at Fort Apache found themselves under attack by dozens of mounted White Mountain Apache fighters. This clash, part of the broader Apache Wars, pitted the fort's cavalry garrison against the assembled warriors in a direct confrontation.
Colonel Eugene Asa Carr held command at Fort Apache when native warriors struck the post, answering in kind for what had happened at the Battle of Cibecue Creek, where the medicine man Nochaydelklinne lost his life. Certain historians in Arizona have linked this assault directly to the Cibecue Creek fighting as though it were one continuous episode, yet the two clashes unfolded some 40 miles apart, on opposite ends of the Fort Apache Reservation, separated by a gap of two days. Near Whiteriver, Arizona, Apache fighters kept up sustained rifle fire against the fort from a considerable distance, sending volley after volley and landing a number of hits.
Defenders made up of U.S. cavalrymen and their native allies answered the assault, though the attacking Apache never closed beyond the outer edge of their weapons' range throughout the encounter. Fighting continued until dusk, with wave after wave of Apache assaults turned back by return fire. Two days afterward, relief columns marching from Fort Thomas on the San Carlos Indian Reservation reached the scene, only to find the Apache had already melted away into concealment. American losses amounted to just three soldiers wounded, while the toll suffered by the Apache went unrecorded.
The killing of Nochaydelklinne and the assault on the fort pushed several Apache bands toward a common decision: they left the reservations they had only recently settled on, choosing instead to throw in with Geronimo and other leaders bent on war, or simply to flee south into Mexico. Together, the clashes at Cibecue Creek and Fort Apache set off a fresh round of conflict with the Apache across Arizona Territory, a struggle that would not conclude until Geronimo laid down arms at Skeleton Canyon in 1886, five years afterward.
Recognition of the location's significance came in 1998, when the World Monuments Fund placed it on its World Monuments Watch list. Later, the fund secured backing from American Express, the financial-services company, to help finance a master plan for preserving the fort's historic structure.
Approximate location. The nearest recorded settlement is shown; the exact site is unrecorded.
This page covers Fort Apache. 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:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
The account on this page is written by Aubrey Research from cited sources. Wikipedia is cited as a reference; its text is not reproduced. Wikipedia source.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the US, drawing on NRHP records, battlefield archives, census history and geological data to tell the full story of a place.