The Scouts of General Crook by western artist Howard Terpning

The Scouts of General Crook by western artist Howard Terpning.

 

The Apaches were guerilla fighters of the higest order. Raiding parties were usually small, yet they ran the army ragged until at last General George Crook decided to set Apache against Apache by enlisting them as scouts. It proved to be an effective tactic. By and large, the scouts performed loyally and well, tracking down their renegade cousins as ordered....It was these scouts' dogged service which allowed the army finally to harass Geronimo and his followers to their 1886 surrender in Mexico's Sierra Madres. In a classic bit of treachery, as Geronimo and his Chiricahua warriors were placed on a train for exile and imprisonment in Florida, Gen.Nelson A. Miles ordered the Apache scouts then present to be shipped off with them. This was their reward for faithful service to the U.S. government. (The Art of Howard Terpning - Elmer Kelton)

 

Print released 1985.