Making Peace with Cochise: the 1872 Journal of Captain Joseph Alton Sladen

A tribute to the legendary chief and his people and a remembrance of two courageous officers“Cochise€ was a name that struck terror in hearts across the Southwest. Yet in the autumn of 1872, Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard and his aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Joseph Alton Sladen, entered Arizona€™s rocky Dragoon Mountains in search of the elusive Chiricahua Apache chief. Accompanied only by a guide and two Apache scouts, they sought to convince Cochise that the bloody fighting between his people and the Americans must stop. Cochise had already reached that conclusion, but he had found no American official he could trust.Slade, Howard€™s devoted aide, maintained a journal during their two-month quest from Fort Tularosa, New Mexico, to Cochise€™s stronghold. Joseph Sladen€™s journal—enriched by Edwin R. Sweeney€™s introduction, epilogue, and lively notes—is a unique source on Chiricahua lifeways and an engrossing tale of

Sladen, a Civil War veteran and medical school graduate, had the good fortune to accompany Gen. Oliver Howard on his successful attempt to make peace with Cochise, the Apache leader who battled long against the U.S. government and white settlement in his territory. In addition to giving a narrative account of the trip, Sladen also uses the powers of observation honed in his medical training to describe life in the Apache camp. While several historians have used Sladen's journal in manuscript form, Sweeney (Cochise: Chiricahua Apache Chief, Univ. of Oklahoma, 1991) made the extra effort to see to its publication. He has carefully edited it and provided an introduction and copious notes that place the account in proper perspective. This journal will be useful not only to specialists but also to general readers and students interested in Cochise and the Apaches.?Stephen H. Peters, Northern Michigan Univ. Lib., Marquette
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