Through these early days it is to be noted, therefore, as a help in
understanding his great work for his country which came later that his
sense of the value of organization grew constantly stronger and
stronger along with a solid belief in the necessity for subordination
to his superior officers and through them to his state and his flag.
The respect which he acquired for the agile Indians went hand in hand
with the knowledge that in the end they could not fail to be captured
and defeated, because they had neither the sense of organization, nor
the intelligence to accept and respect authority which not only would
have given them success, but would in reality have made the whole
campaign unnecessary, had the Indian mind been able to conceive them
in their true light and the Indian character been willing to observe
their never-changing laws.
The result, however, was that the spirit of the Indians was broken by
the white man's relentless determination.
The hostile Apaches were finally disposed of by {55} sending them out
of the territory. They were treated as prisoners of war and the
guarantees that General Miles had given them as conditions of
surrender were respected by the Government, although there was a great
feeing in favor of making them pay the full penalty for their
outrages. President Grover Cleveland expressed himself as hoping that
"nothing will be done with Geronimo which will prevent our treating
him as a prisoner of war, if we cannot hang him, which I would much
prefer."
At the end of the campaign General Miles set about reorganizing his
command. For several months Wood was engaged in practice maneuvers.
The General wished to expand his heliographic system of signaling, and
to that end commenced an extensive survey of the vast unpopulated
tracts of Arizona, which his troops might have to cover in time of
action. Wood was one of the General's chief assistants in this survey,
and in 1889, when he was ordered away, he probably knew as much of
Arizona and the southwestern life as any man ever stationed there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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