many white settlers as possible. Their actions
closed down Apache Pass, the only route to
California from southern Arizona. The mili-
tary was hard-pressed to contain these depre-
dations because the Civil War had com-
menced and many garrisons had been
withdrawn. At length, Gen. James H. Carleton
advanced with 3,000 California volunteers
and attempted to reopen communications
with the east. In July 1862, his men moved
into Apache Pass, where Cochise and Mangas
awaited them behind breastworks. The
Apaches stoutly resisted and retreated only
after being dislodged by howitzer fire. When
Mangas was captured and executed by the
Californians in 1863, Cochise became the
principal war chief of the Apache nation.
From his stronghold in the Dragoon Moun-
tains of southern Arizona, Cochise continued
raiding settlements with impunity. The
Apaches were masters of mobile hit-and-run
tactics; they would strike like lightning out of
nowhere, then seemingly disappear into the
desert without a trace. However, in June 1871
Gen. George Crook arrived as head of the De-
partment of Arizona. He immediately began
the novel and highly effective tactic of employ-
ing pacified Apache scouts against the raiders.
Cochise, once cornered, agreed to negotiate
with Crook, but only with the understanding
that his people would not be deported to a
reservation in New Mexico. Crook agreed ini-
tially, but when this condition could not be
met, Cochise denounced him and fled back to
the mountains with a small band of followers.
In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant dis-
patched Gen. Oliver O. Howard to Arizona as
his personal peace envoy. Howard took the
unusual measure of sending scout Thomas J.
Jeffords, a former friend of Cochise, into his
camp. Cochise respected bravery and listened
to Jeffords’s appeal. After several days of ne-
gotiations, he agreed to parley with Howard.
When the general promised to allow the
Apaches to remain on their ancestral home-
land in Arizona, with Jeffords as their agent,
the fighting stopped. Cochise lived peacefully
for two more years and died on the reserva-
tion on June 9, 1874. Cochise County, Arizona,
was named in his memory. His successor was
the more militant Geronimo.Bibliography
Aleshire, Peter. Cochise: The Life and Times of a Great
Apache Chief.New York: Wiley, 2001; Cramer, Harry
G. “Tom Jeffords, Indian Agent.” Journal of Arizona
History17 (1976): 265–300; Roberts, David. Once
They Moved Like the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo, and
the Apache Wars.New York: Simon and Schuster,
1993; Schoenberger, Dale T. “Lieutenant George N.
Bascom at Apache Pass, 1861.” Chronicles of Okla-
homa51 (1973): 84–91; Sweeney, Edwin R. Cochise:
Chiricahua Apache Chief.Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1991; Tyler, Barbara Ann. “Apache
Warfare under the Leadership of Cochise.” Unpub-
lished master’s thesis, Texas Christian University,
1965; Worcester, Donald E. The Apaches: Eagles of
the Southwest.Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1979.COCHRANE, ALEXANDERFORESTERINGLIS
Cochrane, Alexander Forester Inglis
(April 22, 1758–January 26, 1831)
English Admiral
A
s commander in chief of the North
American naval station, Cochrane
helped orchestrate an ambitious am-phibious campaign against America’s coastal
cities during the War of 1812. Although suc-
cessful in the capture of Washington, D.C., his