Wrath of Cochise

January 14, 2013
This enthralling chronicle of cultural misunderstandings far surpasses the title’s parameters. Mort (The Hemingway Patrols) examines the 1861 kidnapping of the 12-year-old son of a white Arizona rancher, the U.S. army’s efforts to find him, and the decades of cross-cultural violence that ensued when the army blamed the wrong guy. The author contends that Lt. George Bascom’s mistaken conviction that local native chief Cochise ordered the kidnapping was a result of Bascom’s ignorance of power dynamics between groups of Chiricahuas, one of many populations whites referred to as “Apache,” a term without organizational meaning for those to whom it was ascribed. Mort is as equally thorough in describing white society’s views of the natives as he is in illuminating the complex Chiricahuas, their precise and imagery-laden language, leadership structures, and ideas about revenge. He daringly pushes past conflicting historical records, but is always cautious to clearly signal narrative flourishes. Beyond the thrilling tale of the kidnapping and the Apache Wars, Mort’s history is also a meditation on the metaphysical underpinnings of each belligerent’s ways of thinking, and how the differences between them contributed to the viciousness of the conflict. 16 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Don Fehr, Trident Media Group.

February 15, 2013

Cochise was a Chiricahua Apache leader who rose to prominence among his people in the 1850s for his skills as a warrior, which he prominently displayed in raids into Mexico. Although in a constant state of war with Mexicans, the Chiricahua Apache remained at peace with the United States until February 1861, when Lt. George Bascom falsely accused Cochise of kidnapping an American boy. Cochise offered to help Bascom locate the child, who, Cochise believed, had been kidnapped by the Coyotero Apache. Bascom refused the offer and instead kidnapped members of Cochise's family, eventually executing Cochise's brother and two nephews. Mort (The Hemingway Patrols: Ernest Hemingway and His Hunt for the U-Boats) examines how Bascom's ignorance of the Apache led him to begin a war with both Cochise and Mangas Coloradas that lasted more than 25 years and cost the lives of many. VERDICT Although Mort chronicles only the incident that sparked the conflict, he offers vivid insights into not only the subsequent wars with the Apaches, but also into how other conflicts in the West were exacerbated by the inexperience and arrogance of officers in the U.S. military. Recommended for all readers interested in the conquest of the American West.--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2013
Second-tier, oddly old-fashioned military history by former naval officer Mort (The Hemingway Patrols, 2009). In February 1861, a young Anglo boy disappeared from a ranch near the borders of New Mexico, Arizona and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua, territory that was home to several Apache bands. Suspicion fell on the closest of them, led by the well-known fighter Cochise, who had long distinguished himself in battle against the Mexican army. An American officer named George Bascom questioned Cochise and, not believing what he heard, took several of Cochise's family members hostage. Cochise escaped in a hail of gunfire. It turned out that Cochise's band was not at fault after all, but the damage was done, and the Bascom Affair touched off the Apache Wars, which would last off and on for more than half a century. The Bascom Affair is a fixture in every history of those wars, and Mort doesn't turn up much that is new. Indeed, his approach reads as if written half a century ago, before ethnohistorical research helped establish the Apache point of view on such matters; his bibliography lacks some central texts, and so it is that he is given to pat explanations--writing, for instance, that the Apaches raided because "they simply liked it," and not, as Grenville Goodwin and other anthropologists have observed, because it was an enterprise as much cultural as economic and military in nature. Just so, he perpetuates tales about gruesome torture that have long been revealed to be canards--although, to be sure, ugly behavior took place on both sides. Mort's history, overall, is of the Zane Grey school, readable enough but more yarn than true history. Readers with an interest in the subject would do better to begin with David Roberts' far superior Once They Moved Like the Wind (1993).

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March 15, 2013
In 1848, as a result of victory in the Mexican War, the U.S. acquired vast lands in the Southwest, but the U.S. government also inherited a chronic problem that had plagued Mexico for decades: the inability to contain the constant raiding and other depredations by various bands of Apaches. For the U.S., the problem would ebb and flow but would not be fully resolved for another four decades. Perhaps the most well-known and even admired Apache leader in this struggle was Cochise, who led the Chiricahua band. His particular dispute with Americans was supposedly triggered by a young and inexperienced lieutenant, Charles Bascom, who unjustly accused Cochise of kidnapping a young boy. Mort has written an absorbing and balanced account of the origins of the conflict that moves past much of the mythology surrounding it. For example, Cochise, though certainly a charismatic leader of his people, was also a brutal warrior who endorsed torture and the murder of innocents. The U.S. government and white settlers were equally capable of savagery. This is a well-done chronicle of a harsh war fought in a harsh environment.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)