I have been contacted by a Tony & Sue Wood who are interested the military record of Charles B. Gatewood. He was the man who captured Geronimo.
Charles B. Gatewood son of
John Gatewood & Emily D. Bare, grandson of
Susannah McKay & Charles Gatewood, gr-grandson of
Jeremiah McKay & Lydia Whitson, gr-gr-grandson of
Moses McKay Sr. & Mary Job gr-gr-gr grandson of
Robert MacKay Sr. & Ann Brown.
At one time the late Hunter B. McKay had a few fellow researcher working on this branch of the family. My only contact has died.
Perhaps other are interested in his historical project.
Their e-mail address
woodyab@opera.iinet.net.au
Here is the section mentioning Charles B. Gatewood:
From "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" p. 411-412.
Bear Coat (Nelson Miles) (who replaced George Crook) took command on April 12, 1886. With full support from the War Department, he quickly put five thousand soldiers into the field (about one-third of the combat strength of the Army). He also had five hundred Apache scouts, and thousands of irregular civilian militia. He organized a flying column of cavalrymen and an expensive system of heliographs to flash messages back and forth across Arizona and New Mexico. The enemy to be subdued by this powerful military force was Geronimo and his "army" of twenty-four warriors, who throughout the summer of 1886 were also under constant pursuit by thousands of soldiers of the Mexican Army.
In the end it was the Big Nose Captain (Lieutenant Charles Gatewood) and two Apache scouts, Martine and Kayitah, who found Geronimo and Naiche hiding out in a canyonof the Sierra Madres. Geronimo laid his rifle down and shook hands with the Big Nose Captain, inquiring calmly about his health. He then asked about matters back in the United States. How were the Chiricahuas faring? Gatewood told him that the Chiricahuas who surrendered had already been shipped to Florida. If Geronimo would surrender to General Miles, he also would probably be sent to Florida to join them.
Geronimo wanted to know all about Bear Coat Miles. Was his voice harsh or agreeable to the ear? Was he cruel or kind-hearted? Did he look you in the eyes or down at the ground when he talked? Would he keep his promises? Then he said to Gatewood: "We want your advice. Consider yourself one of us and not a white man. Remember all that has been said today, and as an Apache, what would you advise us to do under the circumstances?"
"I would trust General Miles and take him at his word," Gatewood replied.
And so Geronimo surrendered for the last time. The Great Father in Washington (Grover Cleveland), who believed all the lurid newspaper tales of Geronimo's deeds, recommended that he be hanged. The counsel of men who knew better prevailed, and Geronimo and his surviving warriors were shipped to Fort Marion, Florida. He found most of his friends dying there in that warm and humid land so unlike the high, dry country of their birth. More than a hundred died of a disease diagnosed as consumption. The government took all their children away from them and sent them to the Indian school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and more than fifty of their children died there.
Not only were the "hostiles" moved to Florida, but so were many of the "friendlies," including the scouts who had worked for Crook. Martine and Kayitah, who led Lieutenant Gatewood to Geronimo's hiding place, did not recieve the ten ponies promised them for their mission; instead they were shipped to imprisonment in Florida. Chato, who had tried to dissuade Geronimo from leaving the reservation and then had helped Crook find him, was suddenly removed from his
rancho and sent to Florida. He lost his land allotment and all his livestock; two of his children were taken to Carlisle, and both died there. The Chiricahuas were marked for extinction; they had fought too hard to keep their freedom.