He became a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1873 where he earned the nickname Scipio Africanus because of his resemblance to the Roman general of the same name.

[5] In May 1881 he returned back East to Virginia on sick leave because he had developed rheumatism from exposure to the elements in his two years working with the Apache scouts in the harsh Southwest.

[6] Gatewood returned to the Southwest on September 17, 1881, under the command of Colonel Eugene Asa Carr in his campaign against the Cibecue and White Mountain Apaches.

[10] After a clash with local politicians over grazing rights on reservation land, Crook had Gatewood transferred in 1885 to command Navajo Scouts.

[9] That same year Crook resigned his command of the Department of Arizona and Philip Sheridan had him replaced by General Nelson Miles in the Geronimo Campaign.

[9] On July 21, when he reached Carretas, Chihuahua, Gatewood encountered another Army officer, Lieutenant James Parker of the 4th Cavalry, who had orders to follow Geronimo's trail.

"[9] Despite his rapidly deteriorating health, Gatewood refused to quit and Parker guided him to Captain Henry Lawton, who was leading a mission to find and kill Geronimo with the 4th Cavalry.

[16] Agreeing to meet with General Miles, Geronimo's band rode with Gatewood to Lawton's camp in Guadalupe Canyon, the entrance to the United States.

[14] Lawton left for a heliograph station to send word to Miles, leaving Lieutenant Abiel Smith in command.

[18] The following day Naiche surrendered, he had been in a nearby canyon mourning his brother, who had been killed by Mexican soldiers, bringing the Apache wars to an official end in the Southwest.

[20] The city of Tucson, Arizona, held a Gala event to celebrate Geronimo's surrender and invited Gatewood to be the guest of honor, but Miles refused to let him attend.

His regiment was ordered to South Dakota's Pine Ridge Agency in an operation against hostile Sioux Indians, but was not engaged in the final campaign that culminated in the tragedy at Wounded Knee that December.

His condition progressed to the point where he was unable to move his arms, and had medical orders to leave in February 1891 for Hot Springs, South Dakota.

[25] On May 18, 1892, cowboys from the Red Sash Ranch set fire to the fort's Post exchange and planted a bomb in the form of gunpowder in a barracks stove.

[25] Gatewood was responding to the fire and was injured by a bomb blast in a barracks; his left arm was shattered, rendering him too disabled to continuing to serve in the federal Cavalry.

The House in which Gatewood was raised and visited his family after he graduated from West Point, recounted in his memoir, still stands at 352 East Market Street in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

That no material advantages reverted to him is regretted by every officer of his regiment, who extend to his bereaved family their most profound, earnest and sincere sympathy.

[33] The role of Gatewood was portrayed in 1954 by Brett King in the syndicated television series, Stories of the Century, starring and narrated by Jim Davis.

[34] Robert Cummings played First Lieutenant Gatewood in the 1960 episode, "The Last Bugle," on Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, the dramatization of the capture of Geronimo.