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Book Review
| Lt. Charles Gatewood & His Apache Wars Memoir. By Charles B. Gatewood. Edited and additional text by Louis Kraft. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005. xxxvii + 283 pp. Illustrations, map, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95; £30.50.)
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Until fairly recently, Charles B. Gate-wood was one of the forgotten figures in the Chiracahua Apache campaigns of the late-nineteenth century. With Lt. Charles Gatewood & his Apache Wars Memoir, editor Louis Kraft helps rectify this omission by publishing the army officer's writings for the first time. Best known for orchestrating Geronimo's 1886 surrender at Canon de los Embudos, Sonora, Mexico, this book reveals that the lieutenant also was involved in other significant events along the U. S.-Mexican border between 1878 and 1886. What emerges from Gatewood's own words is an exciting, if often sad, tale of one officer's efforts to protect Indian rights. The entire narrative serves as an allegory of the consequences sometimes paid for upholding minority rights against majority opinion. |
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As Louis Kraft notes, Lt. Gatewood's life was cut short before completing his memoir. As such, the editor has pieced together the lieutenant's unfinished writings. Because of the nature of the remaining texts, the book at times has a disjointed, non-linear progression. Details on the lieutenant's family and friends are likewise incomplete. Even so, the memoir is a fascinating read. To fill in missing details, Kraft has provided excellent commentary and footnotes. Readers will find invaluable Lt. Gatewood's accounts of his service as chief of Apache scouts, commander of the White Mountain Apache Reservation, and later aide-de-camp to General Nelson Miles. Significant chapters also detail Gatewood's role as reservation judge, his struggles with local non-Indians, and finally, his conflicts with his commanding officers. As the memoir makes clear, Gatewood's steadfast defense of Apache rights won the officer the respect of the Apaches, a trust that proved vital in convincing Geronimo to surrender for the last time. |
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Ultimately, Gatewood's writings present a tragic tale of the lieutenant's battles to protect his Apache wards and later to receive due credit for his role in ending the cavalry's last campaign against the Chiracahua Apaches. Inter-cavalry and personal rivalries resulted in General Miles, Captain Henry Lawton, and army surgeon Leonard Wood receiving the lion's share of accolades over Lt. Gatewood. It is plain from the memoir that the lieutenant's stand for Apache rights cost him dearly in career advancement and mental health. |
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Kraft's work is a welcome addition to the literature of the frontier army and Apache relations. The memoir's only weaknesses stem from the unfinished nature of the lieutenant's text and Kraft's uncritical acceptance of Gatewood's side of the story. Despite these criticisms, the book should provide students of military history and Native American studies a valuable primary source and fascinating chronicle of Apache life in the early reservation era. |
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| Mark Edwin Miller
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| Southern Utah University |
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ISSN 1939-8603
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