First Lieutenant Charles King was half a mile from camp when the arrows started. He had climbed a mesa near Sunset Pass on the afternoon of November 1, 1874, hoping for a better view of the surrounding terrain in Coconino County, Arizona. The Tonto Apaches he was hunting had been watching him the whole time. Within minutes, King lay crumpled among the rocks, struck twice in the head by arrows and once in the right arm by a bullet. The ambush at Sunset Pass would end as a tactical failure for the United States Army, but it produced three Medals of Honor and, eventually, a novel by the very officer who nearly died there.
The trouble began in October 1874, when a Tonto band raided a settler's livestock in the Tonto Basin. The theft set in motion the kind of pursuit that defined the Yavapai War: fast, improvised, and dangerous. On the morning of November 1, about forty men of the 5th Cavalry rode out from Camp Verde, accompanied by Apache scouts who tracked for the Army even as their own people fought against it. The patrol covered ground quickly, reaching Sunset Pass near the Little Colorado River by that same day. King chose the spot to make camp for the night, unaware that the raiders he sought were already positioned among the boulders and rocks of the mesa above.
King's decision to climb the mesa for reconnaissance seemed routine. He took a few men and began hiking upward. The Tontos had prepared well, concealing themselves behind rocks along the ascent. When King and his small party were fully exposed, a sudden volley of arrows and bullets erupted from the hiding places. King went down almost immediately. The wounds were severe: two arrow strikes to the head and a bullet through his right arm. He was close to unconscious when Sergeant Bernard Taylor charged forward under heavy fire, lifted the lieutenant, and carried him all the way back to camp. Second Lieutenant George O. Eaton took command and fought the Apaches for a time before pulling back. The engagement was over quickly, and by any military measure, it was a defeat.
The failed pursuit demanded a response. On November 17, Camp Verde launched another expedition under Second Lieutenant Eaton, this time accompanied by the legendary frontiersman Al Sieber and his Apache scouts. They headed east along West Clear Creek, then northeast above the Mogollon Rim. On November 24, Eaton encountered Captain Robert H. Montgomery's patrol, which had been searching farther east without success. Eaton had no orders to continue beyond that point, but he pressed on anyway and picked up the trail Montgomery had missed. Two hours before sunset, they found the hostiles. The skirmish that followed killed two warriors and captured six women and children, with no American casualties. The second attempt succeeded where the first had not.
The battle earned three men the Medal of Honor: Sergeant Bernard Taylor for his rescue of King, along with George Deary and Rudolph von Medem for their conduct in the fight and related engagements. King himself survived his wounds but was forced to retire from the regular Army at the rank of captain, his injuries too debilitating for continued service. What came next no one could have predicted. King turned to writing and became one of the most popular novelists of his era. In 1890, he published a book titled Sunset Pass, drawing directly on the ambush that nearly killed him. The retired soldier was not finished with war, either. He volunteered to serve as a general in the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, returning to uniform decades after the arrows had struck him down on that Arizona mesa.
Sunset Pass sits at approximately 34.85N, 110.92W in Coconino County, Arizona, near the Little Colorado River. The terrain is classic high desert with mesas and boulder fields. From altitude, look for the gap in the terrain where the pass cuts through. The Mogollon Rim is visible to the south and west. Nearest airports: Flagstaff Pulliam (KFLG) approximately 50nm northwest, Show Low Regional (KSOW) approximately 45nm east. Expect clear visibility in dry conditions with occasional dust haze.