In An Apache Nightmare, Charles Collins tells the story of the Battle at Cibecue Creek, a pivotal event in the Apache Wars.On August 28, 1881, Col. Eugene Asa Carr left Fort Apache, Arizona Territory, with two cavalry troops and a company of Indian scouts. Their aim was to arrest a Cibecue Apache medicine man, Nock-ay-det-klinne, rumored to be inciting his followers against whites in the area. The arrest at Cibecue Creek was uneventful, but as Carr's forces returned to Fort Apache, the medicine man's followers attacked. The Apaches were soon joined by the Indian scouts, marking the skirmish as the only wholesale mutiny of an Indian scout company in U.S. military history.

Basing his account on extensive primary sources, including testimony from Apaches themselves, Collins describes the events leading up to the incident, recreates the battle, and analyzes its aftermath.