uch with their immediate commands, and the
campaign headquarters in touch with its base.

Even before Captain Lawton's command could be made ready the Indians
themselves precipitated the fight. Instead of remaining in the Sierra
Madres, where they were reasonably safe from assault, they commenced a
campaign of violence south of the boundary. This gave both the
American troops and the Mexicans who were operating in conjunction
with them exact knowledge of their whereabouts. On the 27th of April
they came northward, invading the United States. Innumerable outrages
were committed by them which are now part of the history of that
heart-breaking campaign. One, for example, typical of the rest was the
case of the Peck family. Their ranch was surrounded, the family
captured and a number of the ranch hands killed. The husband {38} was
tied and compelled to witness the tortures to which his wife was
submitted. His daughter, thirteen years old, was abducted by the band
and carried nearly three hundred miles. In the meantime Captain
Lawton's command with Wood in charge of the Apache scouts was pursuing
them hotly. A short engagement between the Mexican troops and the
Indians followed. On the heels of this the American troops came up and
the little Peck girl was recaptured. Nightfall, however, prevented any
decisive engagement, and before daybreak the Indians had, slipped
away.

The Indians found it better to divide into two bands, one under
Natchez, which turned to the north, and the other under Geronimo,
which went to the west. The first band was intercepted by Lieutenant
Brett of the Second Cavalry after a heartbreaking pursuit. At one time
the pursuing party was on the trail for twenty-six hours without a
halt, and eighteen hours without water. The men suffered so intensely
from thirst that many of them opened their veins to moisten their lips
with their own blood. But the Indians suffered far more. In Geronimo's
story of those {39} days, published many years later, he wrote: "We
killed cattle to eat whenever we were in need of food, but we
frequently suffered greatly for need of water. At one time we had no
water for two days and nights, and our horses almost died of thirst."
Finally on the evening of June 6th the cavalry came into contact with
Geronimo's band and the Indians were scattered.

For four months Captain Lawton and Leonard Wood pursued the savages
over mountain ranges and through the canyons. During this time th