The 158th Infantry Regiment ("Bushmasters") is an infantry regiment of the Arizona Army National Guard. Its lineage extends to the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry, organized in 1865, and includes service during the Apache Wars, on the Mexican border, in World War I, throughout the Pacific theater of World War II, in Afghanistan, and during subsequent operations in the Middle East. The sole active element is the 1st Battalion, an Arizona Army National Guard unit for which the 158th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade serves as the Arizona headquarters and which is also aligned with the Hawaii Army National Guard's 29th Infantry Brigade Combat Team.
History
Territorial origins and Apache Wars The official lineage of the 158th Infantry begins with the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry, which was organized and mustered into federal service by companies between September and November 1865. The regiment comprised Companies A, B, C, E and F, totaling slightly more than 350 enlisted men and nine officers. Companies A, E and F were recruited principally among Arizona Territory's Mexican and Mexican-American population. Company B was composed principally of Maricopa people and Company C principally of Pima people. The companies normally operated as separate garrisons and field detachments rather than as a single regiment.
The Spanish motto Cuidado, meaning "Take Care", dates to the regiment's service as the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry. It served as both a warning to those opposing the regiment and a caution to its own soldiers.
Companies B and C helped construct Fort McDowell on the Verde River as a buffer for farms along the Verde and Salt rivers. Companies A and E occupied Camp Lincoln on the Verde River, while Company F established an outpost in Skull Valley. From these posts, the volunteers conducted scouts, guarded farms and settlements, escorted supply and freight trains, and searched the surrounding mountains for Apache raiding parties and camps.
Fort McDowell operations
The regiment's first recorded field operation began on 8 September 1865, when soldiers of Companies B and C accompanied California volunteers on a scout into the Tonto Basin in search of Tonto Apache rancherias. After traveling approximately 110 miles, a Company B advance party located an Apache camp about nine miles east of Green Valley. The volunteers attacked and destroyed the camp before returning to Fort McDowell on 19 September. On 7 October, Company C encountered and routed an Apache group near the mouth of Tonto Creek. The contemporary report recorded five Apache fighters killed and eight people captured.
During the winter of 1865-1866, the Fort McDowell companies continued operations in the Tonto Basin and Mazatzal Mountains despite snow, worn footwear and limited supplies. On 1 January 1866, an Apache force attacked a Company C detachment traveling toward the Pima Villages, killing Hownik Mawkum and Juan Lewis.
In early March, a combined Pima and Maricopa force under Lieutenants Thomas Ewing and John D. Walker located an Apache camp approximately 40 miles from Fort McDowell. Although an accidental discharge alerted its occupants, the volunteers pursued the Apaches until sunrise, destroyed the camp and recovered property belonging to a Company C soldier killed in January.
The largest expedition launched from Fort McDowell began on 27 March 1866. Companies B and C were reinforced by approximately 300 Pima, Maricopa and Tohono O'odham auxiliaries. The force established a temporary supply point on Tonto Creek, followed Apache tracks into the mountains and approached an Apache camp on foot at night. Contemporary reports credited the expedition with 25 Apaches killed, 16 prisoners taken and eight horses recovered that had been identified as taken from the Pima villages. Three Pima soldiers were wounded and one later died.
During March and April, Company C's record of events credited the unit with 23 Apache fighters killed and 12 prisoners taken.
Camp Lincoln operations Companies A and E operated from Camp Lincoln, protecting Verde Valley settlements, scouting the surrounding mountains and maintaining the supply route to Fort Whipple.
On 11 February 1866, Lieutenant Manuel Gallegos, contract surgeon Edward Palmer and 45 soldiers of Company E began a five-day expedition with 30 rounds of ammunition per man. After a night approach, they attacked a group of caves defended by Apaches at daybreak. The action, subsequently called the Battle of the Five Caves, ended with the lower caves taken. The contemporary report recorded 30 Apaches killed and 12 prisoners captured. Seven volunteers were wounded, and the detachment returned to Camp Lincoln on 15 February. Palmer's first-hand account stated that the soldiers marched more than 100 miles over rugged country during the operation.
From 20 to 25 March, Lieutenant Cervantes led 26 Company A soldiers on another expedition from Camp Lincoln. The detachment approached an Apache camp before daylight, attacked at close range, destroyed the camp and returned with two soldiers wounded by arrows. Contemporary accounts differed on the number of Apache casualties.
In mid-April, Captain Hiram Washburn led 25 Company E soldiers westward to improve the wagon route to Fort Whipple. During the movement, the detachment fought an Apache group reported as numbering approximately 30, killed six, wounded several, took one prisoner and continued the route mission.
In early June, an Apache force estimated at approximately 90 people ambushed Sergeant Miguel Elias and nine Company E soldiers escorting supplies from Fort Whipple at Grief Hill west of Camp Lincoln. Elias and one soldier were wounded, cattle were driven off and two pack mules were killed. A follow-up force tracked the Apache raiders toward Black Canyon, and a later patrol recovered two of the cattle. Companies A and E also escorted supply parties and guarded cornfields at the Clear Fork settlement.
Skull Valley operations While Companies B and C operated from Fort McDowell and Companies A and E operated from Camp Lincoln, Company F was assigned to an outpost in Skull Valley southwest of Prescott. Its principal mission was to protect settlers and travelers and escort freight along the Prescott-La Paz road, an important supply route connecting Fort Whipple with the Fort Yuma depot.
In January 1866, a force described in the surviving records as numbering approximately 50 attacked five Company F soldiers guarding an ammunition wagon from Fort Yuma to Fort Whipple about eight miles from Skull Valley. Two guards were killed and a third was wounded during the three-hour fight. The wagon was carrying a large shipment of ammunition intended for Fort Whipple.
From 13 to 27 July, Lieutenant Oscar F. Hutton led 18 Arizona volunteers and 18 California volunteers on an approximately 300-mile expedition through the mountains north of Prescott. The soldiers traveled through rugged country for nearly two weeks before locating a camp. The force attacked and destroyed the camp, killed one of its occupants, wounded two and took two prisoners. The surviving account describes its occupants as Indians but does not identify their tribal affiliation more specifically.
On 13 August, Company F moved to protect another wagon train near Skull Valley after a confrontation developed with a large armed group. The military records identified members of the group as Apache-Mojave, Mojave, Hualapai and Tonto people. Close fighting lasted approximately 45 minutes. One Company F soldier was killed and another suffered severe cuts, while the civilian teamsters remained uninjured. Period reports credited the volunteers with 23 opposing fighters killed and approximately 50 wounded.
The most detailed academic study of the 1st Arizona Volunteer Infantry's service was completed by Lonnie Edward Underhill as a 1979 master's thesis in the University of Arizona Department of History. Underhill reconstructed the regiment's history using original company and regimental muster rolls, company record-of-events cards, expedition reports, post returns, officers' correspondence, War Department records and contemporary Arizona newspapers.
Underhill's examination of the muster rolls counted ten volunteers killed in engagements, thirteen seriously wounded, five deaths from illness and two soldiers killed while fishing near the Verde River. He found that the surviving operational reports collectively credited the volunteers with approximately 150 to 173 Apaches killed, 38 seriously wounded and 58 captured. Underhill cautioned that the totals varied because reports submitted by the Pima and Maricopa companies may have counted some of the same casualties.
In addition to their field operations, the five companies constructed much of their own shelter and post infrastructure while enduring chronic shortages of food, clothing, footwear, transportation and pay. The regiment's companies were mustered out of federal service at different times between September and November 1866.
Territorial militia and Spanish-American War era Between May 1882 and April 1892, Arizona's militia companies were reorganized as the 1st Regiment, Infantry. The territorial militia was redesignated the Arizona National Guard on 19 March 1891. During the Spanish-American War, members of the Arizona National Guard entered federal service through temporary volunteer organizations. Ten officers and 117 enlisted men volunteered for the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Arizona's contingent included troops led by Captains William "Buckey" O'Neill and James H. McClintock, with former Arizona regimental commander Alexander O. Brodie serving as a major.
The Rough Riders fought at Las Guasimas on 24 June 1898, where Brodie and McClintock were wounded. On 1 July, the regiment seized Kettle Hill and continued onto the heights overlooking Santiago. O'Neill was killed during the fighting. The capture of the heights supported the investment of Santiago and preceded the Spanish surrender there.
Arizona also furnished Companies A, B and C and the regimental band of the 1st Territorial Volunteer Infantry, commanded by former territorial governor Myron H. McCord. The Arizona companies assembled at Fort Whipple and departed Prescott on 28 September 1898 to join volunteers from New Mexico, Oklahoma and Indian Territory at Camp Hamilton near Lexington, Kentucky. The regiment later moved to Camp Churchman near Albany, Georgia, and was mustered out in February 1899.
Camp Perry and the Arizona State Flag
The regiment's pre-World War I history is connected with the creation of the flag of Arizona. The Arizona Army National Guard's official history states that a majority of the personnel serving on Arizona's rifle teams at the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, were members of the First Arizona Infantry. Charles W. Harris, captain of the territorial rifle team, had been commissioned as a first lieutenant in Company C, First Arizona Infantry, on 27 July 1909.
During the 1910 National Matches, the Arizona team was reportedly the only participating National Guard team without its own flag or identifying emblem. Harris developed a design incorporating thirteen alternating red and yellow rays, a copper-colored star and a blue lower field. A flag based on the design accompanied the Arizona rifle team to Camp Perry in 1911. The design subsequently became the basis of the Arizona state flag, which was adopted by the state legislature in 1917.
The rifle-team members served before the organization received the 158th Infantry designation. The Army's official lineage records that the First Arizona Infantry was reorganized and redesignated as the 158th Infantry on 3 October 1917. The Camp Perry rifle team's connection to the Bushmasters is therefore through the regiment's organizational lineage.
Mexican Border service