The Wrath of Cochise: The Bascom Affair and the Origins of the Apache Wars

by Terry Mort,
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 23, 2013

Second Lt. George Bascom was “a fine looking fellow” and a gentleman, a white settler of Arizona recalled, “but he was unfortunately a fool.” After all, Bascom’s decision in 1861 to take hostage members of the family of Apache warrior Cochise to force him to return a 12-year-old boy the Apaches had not, in fact, kidnapped, and then to hang the chief’s brother and nephews in retaliation for the torture and murder of the captives the Indians had taken, ignited a war that would devastate the Southwestern frontier.