January 27, 1861, John Ward watched helplessly as Apache stole 20 cattle and his 12-year old son, Felix. Even though Ward lived only 11 miles south of Fort Buchanan, Arizona, the soldiers were not there to protect his son.

Soldiers did arrive the next day and follow tracks that led toward Cochise's camp. That was all the proof the army needed to blame Cochise, even though it was another group, not his, that did the deed. To most whites, an Indian was an Indian, that's all they needed to know. Never before had Cochise taken a captive. Why should he have then?

Two days later, Lt. Bascom got his orders: "Pursue the Indians and recover the boy made captive by them. Demand the immediate release of the boy and the cattle. If Cochise refuses, you are authorized and instructed to use the force to recover them."

Cochise first heard of the kidnapping days later when the soldiers entered Cochise Canyon where he lived. Cochise wasn't surprised, for troops passed through all the time. Bascom sent word to Cochise he wanted to talk but Cochise didn't respond until supper time. "How," Cochise greeted Bascom. "How," Bascom answered.

Bascom took Cochise and Coyuntra to his tent and even offered them coffee. Cochise was so sure the meeting would be civil that he brought along his brother Coyuntra, a couple of nephews, his wife and two of his children. If he'd had the Ward boy, there is no way he'd have put his loved ones at risk.

"Where is the Ward boy?" Bascom asked. Cochise denied involvement but offered to find out who did it and to try to help get the child back. When Bascom informed him, "Then you are my prisoner," Cochise, coffee cup still in one hand, used the other and his knife to slit the tent, roll out and escape. Coyuntra, who wasn't as fleet of foot, stumbled and fell and was captured.

"Shoot them down!" Bascom shouted and 50 shots rang out. At least one or more of the barrage hit Cochise. All of Cochise's family he'd brought along, in good faith, were captured. At least one of the braves died.

An hour later Cochise appeared atop a nearby hill, his hand raised as if taking a vow in a court of law. "Indian blood is as good as white man's blood," he yelled. "My people did not take the Ward boy. I will have revenge."

The next morning Cochise and Bascom met to try to resolve their differences. "Please release my family," Cochise pleaded. "They will be set free as soon as I have the Ward boy back," Bascom answered. "I did not take the boy," Cochise explained again.

At this point, three Butterfield stage coach employees, trying to help the situation, went to the Apache. "Come back!" Bascom ordered, but they were civilians, not soldiers, so his warning fell on deaf ears.

Of course, Apache captured them to exchange for Cochise's family. Two of the three whites overpowered the Apache and escaped, but not to safety. One was shot in the back, but then rescued. The other got as far as the corral, where he was killed. Such chaos reigned in the fight that it is believed that he very possibly was shot accidentally by the soldiers. The 500 Apache kept on firing spasmodically until evening. That night the soldiers could hear the squaws wailing for their dead.

Noon the next day, Cochise paraded his remaining prisoner high on a hill for Bascom to see. The captive had a noose around his neck and his hands bound behind his back.

"I trade him and sixteen government mules for my family," Cochise offered Bascom. Bascom's anger became more evident to those around him when he realized Cochise's stock offer had been stolen directly from him.

Shortly after three o'clock, a stage arrived at an ambush point where Cochise planned to take more prisoners to trade for his family. The stage arrived hours early and evaded the trap. But Jose Antonio Montoya's wagon train wasn't so lucky. Loaded down with flour, he had no reason to suspect danger. Montoya was simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. For if there was anything Cochise hated worse than Americans, it was Mexicans. The two races had been feuding and fighting and killing each other for ages.

Cochise's men surrounded the teamster, trapping nine Mexicans and three Americans. Cochise stole all the mules, tied the Mexicans by their wrists to the wagon spokes and tortured them. He then had the wagons set afire and the Hispanics murdered.

The American hostages he hoped would be enough barter to get his family back. That night, Cochise had one of his American captives write a note to Bascom. "Treat my people well," it said, "and I will do the same for yours. I have four." The note was attached to a bush for Bascom's men to find. They didn't.

Thinking four hostages wasn't enough since Bascom didn't respond, Cochise sought more ransom. His braves attacked another stage by removing a small bridge to stop it. The driver whipped the mules into a frenzy, making them jump the gap. After that, Apache blocked the road with boulders, which the stage riders had to get out and remove by hand, as they were fired upon from the hills. Finally they did arrive safely, depriving Cochise of more bargaining power.

February 18, Cochise's four captives' bodies were found, mutilated and filled with holes from spears. One was so unrecognizable only gold fillings in his teeth allowed identification.

Cochise realized he wouldn't get his family back. He was right. When Bascom informed Cochise's brother, Coyuntra, he was to be shot, Coyuntra asked to be hanged instead and requested a last shot of whiskey. One brave wasn't so brave and begged for his life. Not Coyuntra, for after singing his death song, he approached the gallows singing and dancing. His last words were, "I'm happy. I killed two Mexicans last month."

The women and children Cochise loved were later released.

Oddly enough, the little boy at the center of this whole fiasco, Felix Ward, survived and chose to live the rest of his life as an Apache. He then adopted the name Mickey Free and became an infamous Indian scout for the American army against the Indians, and died in 1915.

But Lt. Bascom, in his folly, turned loose a scourge upon Arizona and the west in the form of Cochise and his revenge.

Source: Cochise, Edwin R. Sweeney, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991