Ft Huachuca AZ Canteen 5 Token - 1888

April 2024

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OB incuse: CANTEEN FORT HUACHUCA 5c; Rx: blank
This historical gem is listed in Birt (Arizona Tokens) & Peter Spooner (Arizona Trade Tokens) as issued between 1888 and 1895 as R8 rarity with only about 7 - 12 known. Note the shape of the top part of the '5', it looks like a pendant on a staff similar to the kind cavalry soldiers carried to identify their troop. Do you think this was intentional?

The installation was founded to counter the Chiricahua Apache threat and secure the border with Mexico. On 3 March 1877, Captain Samuel Marmaduke Whitside led two companies of the 6th Cavalry and chose a site at the base of the Huachuca Mountains that provided sheltering hills and a perennial stream. In 1882, Camp Huachuca was redesignated a fort.
General Nelson A. Miles controlled Fort Huachuca as his headquarters and against Geronimo in 1886. After the surrender of Geronimo in 1886, the Apache threat was essentially extinguished, but the army continued to operate Fort Huachuca because of its strategic border position. In 1913, the fort became the base for the "Buffalo Soldiers", the 10th Cavalry Regiment, which was composed of African Americans. It served this purpose for twenty years. During General Pershing's failed Punitive Expedition of 1916–1917, he used the fort as a forward logistics and supply base. From 1916–1917, the base was commanded by Charles Young, the first African American to be promoted to colonel. [Wikipedia]
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