The Bascom Affair

[cinemo]

In general, the date for the raid on John Ward`s ranch is given as Januar 27th, 1861. For years I have doubted this date because various books and articles point to an earlier date, but I never found any real proof for an earlier date. Just recently, I found an interesting article that finally clarifies this question.

That article, >THE BASCOM AFFAIR< was written by Charles K. Mills and published in „ The Cochise Quarterly “ Vol. 22, No. 2 , Summer 1993

www.cochisecountyhistoricalsociety.org/journals/cchs-vol-22-no-02-summer-1993.pdf

[cinemo]

Three official reports were written on that incident, two of them by Lieutenant Bascom and the third one by General Bernard John Dowling Irwin , about 26 years later. For the reports, please see that link:

home.army.mil/huachuca/application/files/2316/6577/8845/Vol_11_1999_Garrison_Life.pdf ( Pages 102 - 110)

[cinemo]

The Bascom Affair marked the beginning of open warfare between Cochise and the Americans, although not the beginning of hostilities. Relations between the two races had been strained for well over a year before the fateful incident. To blame this Bascom incident for the following decade of war, as Cochise and others have maintained, is a gross oversimplification. There were other important factors that contributed to the longevity of the so-called Cochise War of 1861-1872, not the least of which was the military's inability to subdue the Chiricahua leader. But as one prominent historian wrote, even if the Bascom incident had not occurred, "there doubtless would still have been an Apache war." ( Excerpt from the article below)

In 1989, Edwin R. Sweeney wrote an article about that theme

Citation :
Sweeney, Edwin R.. "Cochise and the Prelude to the Bascom Affair." New Mexico Historical Review 64, 4 (1989) . digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmhr/vol64/iss4/3

digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2991&context=nmhr