"The Farce of the Tombstone Rangers " Topic

"Bloody and brutal was the conflict between the Apaches and the white settlers, but there was one episode of a farce. It occurred in 1883, when General Crook was organizing an expedition into Mexico against Geronimo.

While Crook was organizing the expedition a party of barroom Indian fighters who called themselves the "Tombstone Rangers" and who were well fortified with bottled spirits, patriotically set out for San Carlos to massacre all the reservation Apaches. Before they reached the southern edge of the reservation, however, they ran out of both whiskey and courage. They continued on their way with diminished enthusiasm until they saw an old Apache man out gathering mescal…."
Full text here
link

Amicalement
Armand

When I lived in Tucson I went to a Cavalry Wars Museum. I was reading one of the battle reports from the time. It played out something like this… One private was shot to death in the outhouse. The Apaches stole several horses and the unit's goat mascot. The troopers organized a pursuit force and tracked the Apaches to their camp. The Apaches were gone but the enraged troopers found the remains of their goat, the Apaches ate it for dinner. The horses were never recovered and the Apaches got away.

The more I read about "battles" from this time they all sound like drunken Hill Billy skirmishes.