With My Face to My Bitter Foes

The third volume takes up the story of the continued struggle for the return of their Ojo Caliente reservation after Victorio’s death at Tres Castillos. Led by Nana, the surviving Chihenne Apaches regrouped and, despite their losses, decided to continue the fight. In January 1881, these Apaches launched several attacks in southern New Mexico but, for the moment, avoided direct confrontation with the US army, choosing to evade their pursuers. Having returned to northern Mexico, Nana returned to New Mexico in July and August to lead one of the legendary raids of the Apache wars between 1860 and 1886. While this event deserves legendary status, the numbers of US troops deployed against the Apaches has been exaggerated. Moreover, the numerical advantage of the actual numbers of US troops deployed was usually offset by the scope and knowledge of the terrain traversed by the Apaches. Most importantly, this was the last time that Apaches would attempt to maintain their independent way of life within the USA. This volume will conclude with an evaluation of winners and losers, legacy of the campaign and lessons to be learned for today from the small wars of the nineteenth century.

"Students of Apache history who read Watt’s With My Face to My Bitter Foes will quickly realize they will want to read his two previous volumes in the Helion & Company series: Horses Worn to Mere Shadows: The Victorio Campaign 1880 (2019) and I Will Not Surrender the Hair of a Horse’s Tail: The Victorio Campaign 1879 (2018) and add them to their library of U.S.-Indian history. Watt’s books should be recognized as the greatest multi-volume contribution to Apache-American history and warfare since Edwin Sweeney’s comprehensive and multi-volume series on the Apache wars were published between 1991 and 2010. Readers will also come to a quick realization that Watt is not just an ivory-tower researcher from the U.K. but a historian who has travelled thousands of miles-multiple-times-to drive and hike through the rugged Southwestern lands where the Apaches fought for their lives and land." True West USA 

"Taken as a whole, these three volumes are a labor of love, constituting the most detailed summary and comprehensive analysis of small-scale conflict between the Native Americans and the United States we may well expect to read in our lifetimes. That should be achievement enough to satisfy any historian." Journal of Military History

"Robert Watt’s masterly work deals with the struggle by Chihenne Apaches for the return of their reservation at Ojo Caliente, N.M." Wild West