The Apache and Lincoln County Wars, 1870-1896

Under the post-Civil War administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877), the U.S. government developed a new Indian policy. Grant denounced the U.S. government's longstanding treatment of the nation's indigenous inhabitants as "one of embarrassment, and expense, and has been attended with continuous robberies, murders, and wars." He promised a series of reforms emphasizing cultural assimilation rather than physical destruction, which became known as the Peace Policy. These reforms included devoting U.S. resources to peacefully moving Native Americans onto reservations as well as promoting farming and Christianity among them. The new measures led to the appointment of Lieutenant A.G. Hennissee as the first Mescalero Indian Agent since the start of the Civil War. Hennissee began to reach out to the few isolated Mescalero bands in the Sierra Blanca, promising protection, land, and even a school if they returned to the vicinity around Fort Stanton.

The Mescalero began to come back to the Fort Stanton area in large numbers in 1870. Hennissee convinced Chief José de la Paz and twenty-seven members of his band to resettle around the post at the start of the year. Once there, they began to grow maize and other crops to sell to the fort. Word of their decent treatment spread among the Mescalero diaspora. Cadete, who had been living in the Great Plains with the Comanche, crossed the Llano Estacado with his followers later that summer. By the following year, over 830 Mescalero had returned to their homeland around Fort Stanton.

Despite Hennissee’s promises, the Mescalero faced conditions that were once again perilous. As part of the Peace Policy's reforms, the U.S. government declared in 1871 that indigenous tribes were no longer independent nations but "wards" of the state. The Mescalero, as a result, were ordered to live within the confines of an unofficial reservation around Fort Stanton as they waited for the U.S. government to establish a formal one and provide promised supplies. In the meantime, the U.S. government pursued "Peace by Force" against any tribes that refused to adhere to the new Peace Policy. As part of this strategy, the U.S. military launched campaigns against Apache groups who protested moving onto a reservation and interned them with the Mescalero. In 1872, 350 Lipans. from Texas and 310 Chiricahua from Arizona lived among the Mescalero before being resettled on their own reservations later that year. The Lipans and Chiricahua strained the limited resources available among the Mescalero. But this brief period together led to the establishment of lasting social bonds that subsequently shaped U.S.-Apache relations and ultimately united the three groups.

In 1873, the U.S. government finally established a new reservation for the Mescalero. In comparison to their preCivil War confines, the new reservation was located further south and west. Fort Stanton, once located at the center of the Mescalero reservation, was now pushed to its northeastern margins. These changes reflected the influx of Anglo settlers to the area and their prioritization, especially around Lincoln. The newcomers gained access to the Rio Bonito and much of zúuníidu, which comprised the best lands for ranching and farming. The Mescalero, on the other hand, received the less-fertile lands in the Sierra Blanca and Sacramento Mountains.

The Mescalero came into conflict with nearby settlers almost immediately, usually over livestock and whiskey. Ranchers repeatedly accused the Mescalero of stealing their horses and cattle. These accusations were usually false. The Mescalero often received the blame for the work of Anglo cattle-rustlers and horse thieves, or when nearby stock accidently wandered onto their reservation. But some members of the tribe did engage in livestock theft, often at the behest of other settlers who sold them whiskey. Mescalero leaders tried and failed to stop this destructive trade. In 1872, Cadete traveled to Mesilla to testify against selling whiskey on Indian lands. On the journey, however, he was waylaid and killed, most likely by whiskey traders.

The perception among ranchers that Mescalero stole their livestock led them to appeal to the troops at Fort Stanton to return the stolen goods. Their pleas led to sorties in which soldiers arbitrarily arrested Mescalero leaders to compel them to give up alleged offenders and their plundered livestock. Such encounters occasionally led to violence. In 1873, soldiers surprised a Mescalero encampment and opened fire when frightened Mescalero attempted to flee, killing seven men, women, and children. On other occasions, startled Mescalero bands abandoned their possessions leaving them destitute.

The Mescalero also had to contend with outlaws. In 1874 and 1875, Anglo gangs attacked several Mescalero encampments, killing several women and children, and stealing their horses. The soldiers at Fort Stanton, as a result, increasingly shifted their patrols to hunting down groups of Anglo criminals and troublemakers. But conditions remained so unsafe that Cadete’s successors, Estrella and Peso, avoided traveling to Fort Stanton as much as possible. Capping off these calamities and adding to the state of fear, the influx of settlers brought disease to the area. In 1876, smallpox broke out in Lincoln and spread to the Mescalero. The epidemic killed around one quarter of the tribe.

The reestablishment of the Mescalero reservation coincided with Fort Stanton's renovation and expansion. In 1870, stone masons began major repairs and rebuilt a number of structures that had remained in ruins since the Civil War, most notably the barracks. Over the next ten years, the U.S. military added a host of new buildings to Fort Stanton. The old commanding officer's quarters was torn down and replaced with a new one. Also added to the parade ground was a guard house and adjutant's office. To the east of the parade ground, four laundress quarters were built as well as a new stables. These new structures were similar to the fort's original structures from the 1850s. They were constructed out of the same material, notably nearby quarried sandstone and harvested timber from the surrounding forests, and featured the same undressed stone walls and shingled roofs. These additions transformed Fort Stanton from a frontier outpost into a significant settlement.

Fort Stanton's expansion and the reestablishment of the Mescalero reservation bolstered its economic importance to the settlers based in Lincoln. Federal contracts to furnish them with supplies became the primary markets for most of the agricultural and livestock goods the settlers produced. The Murphy Company, founded by the former post commanders Murphy and Fritz, developed a local monopoly on provisioning the fort and the reservation. Fritz died in 1874 and Murphy, whose health was deteriorating, promoted a young clerk named James Dolan to become his new partner. Together Murphy and Dolan wielded their market control to set artificially low prices on crops and beef to force local settlers into debt. This economic control allowed the business partners to exert their authority over the area's farmers and ranchers or, conversely, force them into bankruptcy to seize their assets. While such measures caused Murphy and Dolan to become the dominant figures in Lincoln, they also generated popular disdain within the community.

In 1876, a new group emerged that attempted to break the Murphy Company's local monopoly. John Tunstall, a recent migrant to the area, and Alexander McSween, a local lawyer, opened a general store in Lincoln with the financial backing of the cattle magnate John Chisum. Business competition between the Murphy-Dolan and Tunstall-McSween factions overlapped with competing claims to Fritz's insurance policy. Murphy demanded proceeds from the policy to cover debts that Fritz allegedly owed him. McSween, in turn, represented Fritz's brother and sister, who were the inheritors of Murphy's former partner's estate. Tensions boiled over in January 1878, when Murphy dispatched Sheriff William Brady to Tunstall's Ranch, ostensibly to seize cattle as restitution for the amount owed from Fitz's insurance policy. Brady and his deputies instead killed Tunstall.

Tunstall's murder unleashed mayhem in Lincoln. Local officials sympathetic to the Tunstall-McSween faction issued warrants for Brady and his men's arrest. They also deputized the armed members of the Tunstall-McSween faction known as the Regulators, which included William "Billy the Kid" Bonney, to help execute the warrants. A group of Regulators subsequently hunted down and killed several members of the MurphyDolan faction. Local law enforcement, as a result, devolved into acts of vigilante justice among the two factions.

In March 1878, Governor Samuel Beach Axtell traveled to Fort Stanton to survey the trouble. Axtell, however, was not a neutral party. He was a close associate of the small group of powerbrokers known as the Santa Fe Ring that dominated the region's politics. At the time of Axtell's arrival, Murphy and Dolan had already developed strong financial ties with the Santa Ring. They had borrowed more than $20,000 from the First National Bank of Santa Fe, which was owned and operated by Stephen Elkins and Thomas Catron, two of the leading figures of the Santa Fe Ring. Axtell and his associates thus had a financial interest in maintaining the Murphy Company's local monopoly. The governor consequently issued several decrees that favored the Murphy-Dolan faction. He fired the local officials that had issued the warrants against Sheriff Brady and his men, in effect granting the Murphy-Dolan faction control over local law enforcement. The governor also ordered the troops stationed at Fort Stanton to assist Sheriff Brady and his deputies in arresting members of the Tunstall-McSween faction.

The troops stationed at Fort Stanton were Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry under the Command of Colonel Nathan Dudley. Deployed in New Mexico since 1875, the Ninth Cavalry's primary focus was to ensure that the Apache remained on their reservations. Axtell’s command, however, forced them to intervene in civil matters. Dudley led his Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Stanton to help Sheriff Brady execute warrants of arrest for members of the Tunstall-McSween faction, particularly the Regulators.

Governor Axtell's unequal attempts to quell the violence failed. In April, the Regulators killed Sheriff Brady and one his deputies on the main street in Lincoln. Over the next month, the two factions fought each other in a series of gunbattles. The violence spilled over onto the Mescalero reservation when the Regulators killed an affiliate of the Murphy-Dolan faction at Blazer's Ranch, now the town of Mescalero. In May, Axtell returned to the area and appointed George W. Peppin, one of Brady's deputies, as the new sheriff. He also once again ordered Dudley to assist local law enforcement against the Tunstall-McSween faction. At this point, the federal government stepped in. The commander of Fort Stanton received orders from the Department of War that he was no longer allowed to use his troops to help local law enforcement.

In July, the Lincoln County War reached its climax. The two factions fortified their respective stores and battled each other in the streets of the town. Sheriff Peppin appealed to the troops at Fort Stanton for assistance, claiming that innocent civilians were "being persecuted by a lawless mob." Dudley dispatched several of his soldiers to survey the situation and members of the Tunstall-McSween faction allegedly fired at one of the Buffalo Soldiers. Dudley, despite his orders to not intervene in the conflict, led his troops into Lincoln and brought with them a howitzer and a Gatling gun. While Dudley’s troops focused on rescuing citizens trapped in the crossfire, they also pointed their cannons at the positions of Tunstall-McSween faction. Many Regulators fled, which allowed members of the Murphy-Dolan faction to set fire to McSween's house. They killed McSween and several of his supporters when they attempted to escape the flames. The death of the McSween, in which the soldiers at Fort Stanton played a crucial if indirect role, at last brought the conflict to a close.

The Lincoln County War ended with no winners. Murphy died shortly before the final Battle of Lincoln. Dolan declared bankruptcy soon thereafter and spent the rest of his life suffering from alcoholism. The surviving Regulators became fugitives and outlaws. Military authorities subsequently relieved Dudley of his command and he spent the next year in military and civilian trials. The courts eventually concluded that Dudley had not disobeyed orders and exonerated him of any responsibility for the violence. Despite Dudley's exoneration, the government indirectly denounced the events in Lincoln with the passage of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prevented the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement.

The end of the Lincoln County War coincided with growing unrest among the Apache. In 1878, the U.S. government ordered Chiricahua Apache bands living in Warm Springs, Arizona to relocate to a new reservation at San Carlos. Many instead chose to flee under the leadership of chiefs Victorio and Nana. Victorio and his followers initially fled to Mexico, but Nana and his band sought refuge among the Mescalero. Over the next year, the Chiricahua negotiated for an alternative to San Carlos until the U.S. government finally agreed that they could resettle at the Mescalero reservation. After the agreement, Victorio surrendered and moved to the area with his followers. By the summer of 1879, there were nearly 150 Chiricahua Apache living on the Mescalero reservation, with more on their way from San Carlos.

The Chiricahua did not remain among the Mescalero for long. Authorities in Grant County issued warrants charging Victorio with murder and livestock theft. Officials in the Bureau of Indian Affairs considered expunging the indictments to avoid further unrest among the Apache. But Victorio learned of the charges before they could make a decision and fled in July 1879. Around 250 Mescalero under the leadership of chief Caballero who were fed up with the conditions on their own reservation joined Victorio along with all the Chiricahua. This mixed Apache force spent the next year and a half raiding across southern New Mexico and northern Mexico.

The U.S. military responded to the Apache insurrection by deploying the Ninth Cavalry and Tenth Cavalry in a massive dragnet across southern New Mexico and west Texas. The Black cavalrymen chased Victorio and his followers across the southwest, but to little avail. Their horses were generally lower quality than those of the Apache and could not keep up. Victorio recognized this weakness and intentionally led the buffalo soldiers on long treks to force their mounts to go lame. Due to this strategy, the Ninth Cavalry began to suffer from an acute shortage of serviceable horses.

Colonel Edward Hatch, the commander of the New Mexico Military District and commanding officer of the Ninth Cavalry, blamed the Mescalero that had remained on their reservation for Victorio’s success. Despite having little evidence, Hatch suspected that the Mescalero were clandestinely supplying the rebel Apache with weapons and horses. In April 1880, Hatch ordered three battalions of the Ninth Cavalry from Fort Stanton and Fort Bliss to enter the Mescalero reservation and disarm its inhabitants. The sudden emergence of large numbers of troops, however, frightened the Mescalero and caused many to flee. Perceiving them as hostile, the soldiers opened fire and killed fourteen people. The soldiers also seized all the fugitives' horses and mules, likely to replenish their own dwindling supply of mounts.

Victorio and his followers subsequently fled to Chihuahua. But they remained fugitives with the Mexican army on their heels. In August 1880, the Mescalero under Caballero tried to return home, but Victorio killed the Mescalero chief and forced the rest of the Mescalero to remain. This situation did not last long. In October, Mexican troops ambushed the Apache and killed Victorio. Most of the Mescalero, however, were fortuitously away from the camp hunting. Some then returned home while others joined with another group survivors led by Chiricahua chief Nana. This latter group crossed back into the United States and continued to raid across New Mexico and Arizona until finally surrendering to U.S. forces in 1883.

The death of Victorio altered conditions on the Mescalero reservation. U.S. troops, who had been occupying the reservation since the brutal disarmament operation, finally withdrew and returned to Fort Stanton and Fort Bliss. Many of the surviving 580 Mescalero blamed the recent turmoil and violence on the rebel Apache. Consequently, when a group of Chiricahua under the leadership of Geronimo, Nana, and Naiche broke out of San Carlos in 1885, no dissident Mescalero joined them. Instead, roughly half of the Mescalero volunteered as U.S. Army Indian Scouts. They served alongside the Fourth Cavalry, who had replaced the Ninth Cavalry in 1881. The Mescalero scouts helped General Crook to track down and capture Geronimo, Nana, and Naiche in 1886, marking the final chapter of the Apache Wars.

The region's pacification diminished the military significance of Fort Stanton. The soldiers stationed at the post continued to conduct patrols, but they were little more than war games. Soldiers chased other soldiers pretending to be raiding parties across the desert. Among the participants of such exercises was a recent West Point Graduate, Lieutenant John J. Pershing. The future commander of the Pancho Villa Expedition (1916- 1917) and American Expeditionary Force (1917-1920) later wrote glowingly of his time at Fort Stanton. He claimed that he "lived like a king," spending much of his free time hunting and fishing. Like so many others before and after him, Pershing enjoyed his time in zúuníidu.

Fort Stanton's built environment continued to develop during the late 1880s and 1890s. A new officer's quarters was built (extinct) on the parade ground as well as the original grain silos near the stables. These silos stored crops from the new farmland established on the northside of the Rio Bonito. Most of the changes, however, emphasized domestic comfort rather than frontier utility. Porches, wings, and new windows were added to the officer's quarters, barracks, guard house, and adjutant’s office. Indoor plumbing and even an ice machine was finally installed in the early 1890s.

Fort Stanton's beautification coincided with its military decline. In 1890, the U.S. government declared the frontier formally closed. By this point, the U.S. military had abandoned nearly all the military forts in New Mexico. Fort Stanton remained in operation in large part due to its economic importance to the inhabitants of Lincoln. Nevertheless, its garrison withered. By 1893, only fifteen men were stationed at Fort Stanton. They no longer even conducted simulated patrols, but instead focused on maintaining and guarding the fort. Finally, the U.S. military officially abandoned Fort Stanton in 1896. Fort Stanton's role as a frontier military outpost came to an end.

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