Lincoln County Cattle War
The Lincoln County Cattle War was a conflict that took place in the U.S. Borderlands in the 19th century. This "war" broke out between wealthy cattle farmers and businessmen in Lincoln County , New Mexico . A well-known contributor to this war was Henry McCarty (aka William H. Bonney), better known under the name " Billy the Kid ".
prehistory
John Tunstall was a wealthy 24 year old English rancher, banker, and merchant who employed various young drifter such as Billy the Kid. Together with Alexander McSween , a lawyer, and John Chisum , a large cattle farmer with huge herds in the area, Tunstall gathered a gang of rough-and-tumble cowboys around him.
The background was the conflict with a group of businessmen led by the two Irishmen Lawrence Murphy (founder of LG Murphy & Co.) and JJ Dolan ( James Dolan ). Murphy and Dolan were joined by John H. Riley , who also did trading and banking. Dolan and Riley owned a large department store in Lincoln, "The House in the County's Seat." Lincoln was the heart of business in the county at the time.
The department store owners had close ties with state officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the local law enforcement agency, and a criminal organization called the Santa Fe Ring led by Thomas B. Catron .
Tunstall now tried together with Chisum and McSween also in the department store and banking business in Lincoln to gain a foothold. Murphy and Dolan did not want to allow this competition.
The cattle war begins
In February 1878, a few months after Billy the Kid was hired by Tunstall, violence broke out. The immediate cause were disputes over the estate of Dolan's business partner Emil Fritz († 1874). Dolan and Riley had obtained a court order that allowed them to take some of Tunstall's horses because Tunstall allegedly owed them. Tunstall gathered a group of men, mostly criminals, to bring the horses back. Dolan also hired violent cowboys. Most of these criminals belonged to the gang called "The boys" and were led by Jesse Evans , a bandit from Texas. Young Billy the Kid had also once belonged to this gang, as had bandit William Bresnahan, better known as Curly Bill Brocius , who was later shot by Sheriff Wyatt Earp .
On February 18, 1878, John Tunstall met people from Dolan in the pastures. A gun battle broke out in which Tunstall was shot and killed by Jesse Evans, William Morton and Tom Hill. From a distance, Billy the Kid and several other Tunstall people had watched the shooting without being able to intervene. Billy and the others were then sworn in as deputies to catch their employer's killers. Billy the Kid and his group were later called " Regulators ". From now on they tried to find the murderers and also to represent the interests of Tunstall's surviving partners, McSween and Chisum. While the group of regulators at times increased to several dozen people, there was a hard core of members who called themselves "iron clad". These were: Billy the Kid, Richard Brewer, Frank McNab, Josiah Gordon Scurlock , Jim French, John Middleton, George and Frank Coe, Jose Chavez y Chavez , Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, Fred Waite and Henry Brown.
vendetta
The regulators obtained arrest warrants for Dolan's cowboys. The first to be brought by them was William Morton, in the area near the Rio Penasco . Morton finally gave up after a chase and shootout that stretched over 5 miles. He was accompanied by Frank Baker, one of Dolan's men who had not been involved in the murder of Tunstall. Morton gave up on the condition that he and Baker be returned to Lincoln alive. The leader of the regulators, Dick Brewer, reluctantly agreed.
Several other regulators then tried to escape with the two prisoners in order to lynch them, but were initially held back by William McCloskey, a friend of Morton.
On March 9, 1878, the third day of the trip back to Lincoln, McCloskey, Morton and Baker were killed at Blackwater Creek . The regulators later stated that Morton himself murdered McCloskey and then wanted to flee with Baker. They were then shot while trying to escape.
However, it seemed unbelievable that Morton should have killed his only advocate with the regulators. It was also noticeable that both Morton and Baker each had eleven bullet holes in their bodies, which corresponded exactly to the number of regulators. It was therefore assumed that the two were executed by the regulators and that McCloskey was killed for opposing the execution. From then on, the regulators were in turn pursued by the sheriff.
Accidentally on the same day, Tunstall's other two killers, Tom Hill and Jesse Evans, were also caught trying to rob a sheep farmer near Tularosa , New Mexico . In the shooting that followed, Tom Hill was killed and Jesse Evans was badly wounded. Evans was taken to Fort Stanton for medical treatment. There he was arrested on the basis of an old arrest warrant that he stole cattle from an Indian reservation.
On April 1, 1878, regulators Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Brown and Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff William J. Brady and his deputies on Lincoln Main Street. Brady was hit by more than a dozen bullets, and his deputy George Hindman was fatally shot twice. When the shooting ended, Billy the Kid and Jim French went to the dead Sheriff Brady and wanted to either seize the now-issued arrest warrant for Alexander McSween or the sheriff's gun. A surviving deputy then shot the two of them with a rifle and wounded them with a bullet that hit both of them in the leg. French's wound was so big that he could no longer ride away and was temporarily hidden in Sam Corbet's house.
After the murders of Brady and Hindman, the regulators fled southwest and after three days they arrived at Blazers Mill , a trading post that sold meat to the Mescalero Indians. Here they met the rancher Buckshot Roberts , for whom they had an arrest warrant. There was a violent shooting in which Roberts was fatally wounded. However, he was previously able to shoot the leader of the regulators, Dick Brewer, and wounded John Middleton, Josiah "Doc" Scurlock and George Coe.
After Brewer's death, Frank McNab was elected head of the regulators, but was killed in an ambush by Dolan's men nine miles southeast of Lincoln on April 29, 1878. After that, Doc Scurlock became the new leader.
The morning after McNab's death, the hard core of the regulators holed up in Lincoln and began a firefight with Dolan's men and some US cavalrymen who had since been requested. The sole victim in the shootout was Dutch Charley Kruling, one of Dolan's men, who was hit by George Coe with a rifle shot from about 400 meters.
By shooting at government troops in that shootout, the regulators got the soldiers as new opponents. On May 15, 1878, the regulators succeeded in catching Manuel Segovia, the cowboy who shot Frank McNab. Segovia tried to escape and was killed by Billy the Kid and Josefita Chavez. By that time, the hard core of regulators had a new member, Tom O'Folliard, who became Billy the Kids' best friend and constant companion.
The Battle of Lincoln
The climax of the confrontation came when the regulators were surrounded by Lincoln at two different points on July 15, 1878. Some were in McSween's house, some in Ellis's store. Opposite them were all the cowboys from Dolan, Murphy, and Seven Rivers.
In Ellis' shop there was Doc Scurlock, Charlie Bowdre, John Middleton, Frank Coe, and a few others. Other Mexican regulators, led by Josefita Chavez, were scattered across the city. Alexander McSween and his wife Susan, Billy the Kid, Henry Brown, Jim French, Tom O'Folliard, Jose Chavez y Chavez, George Coe and a dozen Mexican cowboys holed up in McSween's house.
The sporadic exchange of fire and words lasted for three days without a decisive fight. There were only two casualties during this period: Tom Cullens was fatally hit by a ricochet in McSween's house, and Dolan's cowboy Charlie Crawford was shot dead 500 meters by Doc Scurlock's father-in-law, Fernando Herrera.
Eventually, government forces under the command of Colonel Nathan Dudley arrived in town to crack down on the regulators. The Ellis store and other entrenchments were shelled with cannons. Doc Scurlock then fled with his men, as did Josefita Chavez with his cowboys.
The defenders of McSween's house were left alone. On the afternoon of July 19th the house was set on fire. Susan McSween was allowed to leave the burning house while the men in the house tried to put out the fire. Eventually they decided to leave the house through the back door. Jim French was the first to leave, followed by Billy the Kid, Tom O'Folliard, and Jose Chavez y Chavez. Dolan's men saw the people fleeing and opened fire. Harvey Morris, McSween's attorney partner, was killed in the process. When the soldiers tried to arrest the fugitives, there was a violent firefight at close range. Alexander McSween and the Seven Rivers cowboy Bob Beckwith were shot, as were Francisco Zamorra and Vicente Romero, Mexican regulators. Yginio Salazar was shot in the back. Three other Mexican regulators escaped and reunited with the hard core regulators.
Review
The Lincoln County Cattle War brought no results, other than the fact that the area did not calm down for years to come. The search for the escaped regulators continued, especially Billy the Kid. The regulators largely dispersed. Doc Scurlock left the area and became a law abiding citizen. With Billy the Kid stayed Charlie Bowdre, Tom O'Folliard, Dave Rudabaugh and a few others, with whom he committed cattle theft and other crimes from then on.
Eventually Tom O'Folliard, Charlie Bowdre and later Billy the Kid were tracked down and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett and his squad. All three were buried in Fort Sumner , New Mexico.
literature
- William Aloysius Keleher: Violence in Lincoln County, 1869-1881. Sunstone Press 2007, ISBN 0865346224 ( limited online version (Google Books) )
Individual evidence
- ^ Eberhard Fritz: Emil Fritz from Monrepos, businessman in New Mexico. The events surrounding the western legend Billy the Kid and their backgrounds in Württemberg. In: Ludwigsburger Geschichtsblätter 65/2011. Pp. 151-165.