Lt.George N. Bascom, a young and inexperienced officer in the US army, sucessfully managed to turn Cochise, formerly one of the least hostile Apache leaders, into an unforgiving enemy of the Americans in 1861.
Cochise's Chock!onen band had been falsely accused of a raid on a ranch during which livestock had been stolen and an Irish boy named Mickey Free kidnapped. Invited into Bascom's camp under a flag of truce Cochise and his delegation were seized and taken prisoner.
Using his knife to slash an opening in the tent Cochise escaped under a hail of gunfire, suffering a leg wound in the process. However Bascom succeeded in capturing a number of the Indians who had been waiting for him and had six of them, including Cochise's brother and two of his nephews, hung.
Cochise responded by joining his father-in-law Mangas Coloradas in the defence of Apache Pass from further white encroachment. The US army responded by declaring the Apache tribe hostile and at war with the US.
Mickey Free was later found living happily among the Apache and grew up to become a well-known interpreter.