Charles Bare Gatewood | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nickname(s) | Scipio Africanus "Nanton Bse-che" translated as Big Nose Captain |
| Born | April 5, 1853 Woodstock, Virginia, U.S.A. |
| Died | May 20, 1896 (aged 43) Fort Monroe / Fortress Monroe, Virginia, U.S.A. |
| Place of burial | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Service |  United States Army |
| Years of service | 1877–1896 |
| Rank | First Lieutenant |
| Unit | 6th U.S. Cavalry Regiment |
| Battles / wars | |
| Alma mater | United States Military Academy (West Point, New York) Class of 1877 |
First Lieutenant Charles Bare Gatewood (April 5, 1853 – May 20, 1896) was an American soldier / officer born in Woodstock, Virginia. He was raised in nearby Harrisonburg, Virginia, where his father ran a printing press. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army and assigned to the Army's in the 6th U.S. Cavalry Regiment after graduating from the United States Military Academy on the upper Hudson River, at West Point, New York. Upon assignment to the American Southwest territories, Gatewood led platoons of Apache and Navajo scouts against renegades during the Apache Wars of the 1860s, 1870s and into the 1880s phase of the ongoing century-long American Indian Wars. In 1886, he played a key role in ending the Geronimo Campaign (May 1885 to September 1886), by pursuing, meeting with and persuading Geronimo to cross back over the American-Mexican international border, from where the renegade guerrilla leader was holed up in the mountains of northern Mexico, convincing him to eventually surrender to him and commanding General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925), of the Army.[1]
Beset with health problems due to exposure in the harsh American frontier conditions of the Southwest and the Dakota Territory, Gatewood was critically injured in the Johnson County War (1889-1893) in Johnson County, in the old federal Wyoming Territory.
He retired from the Army in 1895, dying a year later from stomach cancer. Before his retirement he was nominated for the congressional Medal of Honor, but was denied the award.
- ^ Greene (2007) p. 242