Lincoln County War
Encyclopedia
The Lincoln County War was a 19th-century range war
between two factions during the Old West
period. Numerous notable figures of the American West were involved, including Billy the Kid
, aka William Henry McCarty; sheriff
s William Brady
and Pat Garrett
; cattle rancher John Chisum
, lawyer and businessman Alexander McSween
, and the general store
monopolist
Lawrence Murphy
.
The conflict arose between two factions over the control of dry goods
trade in the county. The older, established faction was led by Murphy and his business partner, James Dolan
, who had a dry goods monopoly
run through Murphy's general store. Young newcomers to the county, English-born John Tunstall
and his business partner Alexander McSween, with backing from established cattleman John Chisum, opened a competing store in 1876. The two sides gathered lawmen, businessmen, and criminal gangs to their support. The Murphy-Dolan faction were allied with Lincoln County Sheriff Brady, and supported by the Jesse Evans Gang. The Tunstall-McSween faction organized their own posse of armed men, known as the Regulators
, to defend their position, and had their own lawman, town constable Richard "Dick" Brewer.
The conflict was marked by back-and-forth revenge killings, starting with the murder of Tunstall by members of the Evans Gang. In revenge for this and other killings, the Regulators killed Sheriff Brady. Further killings continued unabated for several months, climaxing in the Battle of Lincoln, a four-day gunfight and siege that resulted in the death of McSween and the scattering of the Regulators. After Pat Garrett was named County Sheriff in 1880, he hunted down the remaining Regulators, including Billy the Kid.
The government contracts, along with their monopoly on merchandise and financing for farms and ranches, allowed Murphy, Dolan and their partner Riley to run Lincoln County as a personal fiefdom. Murphy and Dolan refused to give up their monopoly. In February 1878, in a court case that was eventually dismissed, they obtained a court order to seize all of McSween's assets, but mistakenly included all of Tunstall's assets with those of McSween. Sheriff Brady formed a posse to attach Tunstall's remaining assets at his ranch some 70 miles from Lincoln. Few local citizens would join Brady's posse, which enlisted a gang of outlaws known as the Jesse Evans Gang. Lawrence Murphy and Dolan also enlisted the John Kinney Gang
.
Tunstall's cowhands and other local citizens formed a group known as the Regulators to avenge his murder, since the Territorialcriminal justice system was controlled by allies of Murphy, Dolan & Co. While the Regulators at various times consisted of dozens of American and Mexican cowboys, the main dozen or so members were known as the "iron clad", including McCarty, Richard "Dick" Brewer, Frank McNab
, Doc Scurlock, Jim French
, John Middleton
, George Coe
, Frank Coe
, Jose Chavez y Chavez
, Charlie Bowdre
, Tom O'Folliard
, Fred Waite
(a Chickasaw
), and Henry Newton Brown.
The Regulators set out to apprehend the sheriff's posse members who had murdered Tunstall. After the Regulators were deputized by the Lincoln County justice of the peace, together with Constable Martinez, they attempted to serve the legally issued warrants on Tunstall's murderers. Sheriff Brady arrested and jailed Martinez and his deputies in defiance of their deputized status. They gained release and searched for Tunstall's murderers. They found Buck Morton, Dick Lloyd, and Frank Baker near the Rio Peñasco. Morton surrendered after a five-mile (8 km) running gunfight on the condition that he and his fellow deputy sheriff, Frank Baker, would be returned alive to Lincoln. The Regulator captain Dick Brewer assured them they would be taken to Lincoln, but other Regulators insisted on killing the prisoners. William McCloskey, also a friend of Morton, resisted such action.
. Hill died and Evans was severely wounded. While Evans was at Fort Stanton for medical treatment, he was arrested on an old federal warrant for stealing stock from an Indian reservation.
On April 1, 1878, the Regulators French, McNab, Middleton, Waite, Brown and Billy the Kid attacked Brady and his deputies on the main street of Lincoln. Brady died of at least a dozen gunshot wounds, and Deputy George W. Hindman
was also fatally wounded. McCarty and French broke cover and dashed to Brady's body, possibly to get his arrest warrant for McSween or to recover McCarty's rifle, which Brady had kept from a prior arrest. A surviving deputy, Billy Matthews, wounded both men with one bullet that passed through each of them. French's wound was so severe that he had to be temporarily harbored by Sam Corbet in a crawlspace in Corbet's house.
Three days after the murders of Brady and Hindman, the Regulators headed southwest from the area around Lincoln, reaching Blazer's Mills, a sawmill and trading post that supplied beef to the Mescalero
Apache
s. They came upon the rancher Buckshot Roberts
, listed on their arrest warrant as one of Tunstall's murderers. In the ensuing conflict, known as the Gunfight at Blazer's Mill
, they mortally wounded Roberts, but he killed Brewer and wounded Middleton, Scurlock, and Coe, and grazing McCarty.
. They engaged in a shootout with the Regulators McNab, Saunders, and Frank Coe at the Fritz Ranch. McNab died in the gunfire, Saunders was badly wounded, and Frank Coe captured.
The next day, the Seven Rivers members Tom Green, Charles Marshall, Jim Patterson and John Galvin were killed in Lincoln, and although the Regulators were blamed, this was never proven. Frank Coe escaped custody some time after his capture, allegedly with the assistance of Deputy Sheriff Wallace Olinger, who gave him a pistol.
The day after McNab's death the Regulator known as the "iron clad" took up defensive positions in the town of Lincoln, trading shots with Dolan men as well as US Army cavalry. "Dutch Charley" Kruling, a Dolan man, was wounded by rifle fire by George Coe. By shooting at government troops, the Regulators gained a new set of enemies. On May 15, the Regulators tracked down and captured the Seven Rivers gang member Manuel Segovia, who is believed to have shot McNab. They shot him during an alleged escape. Around the time of Segovia's death, the Regulator "iron clad" gained a new member, a young Texas cowpoke named Tom O'Folliard
.
Over the next three days, the men exchanged shots and shouts. Tom Cullens, one of the McSween house defenders, was killed by a stray bullet. The Dolan cowboy Charlie Crawford was shot at a distance of 500 yards (457.2 m) by Doc Scurlock's father-in-law, Fernando Herrera. Around this time, Henry Brown, George Coe, and Joe Smith slipped out of the McSween house to the Tunstall store, where they chased two Dolan men into an outhouse with rifle fire and forced them to dive into the bottom to escape. The impasse continued until the arrival of US Army troops under the command of Colonel
Nathan Dudley
. When these troops pointed cannons at the Ellis store and other positions, Doc Scurlock and his men broke from their positions, as did Chavez's cowboys, leaving those left in the McSween house to their fate.
On the afternoon of July 19, the soldiers set the house afire. As the flames spread and night fell, Susan McSween and the other woman and five children were granted safe passage out of the house, while the men inside continued to fight the fire. By 9 p.m., those left inside got set to break out the back door of the burning house. Jim French went out first, followed by Billy the Kid, O'Folliard, and Jose Chavez y Chavez. The Dolan men saw them running and opened fire, killing Harvey Morris, McSween's law partner. Some troopers moved into the back yard to take those left into custody when a close-order gunfight erupted. Alexander McSween and the Seven Rivers cowboy Bob Beckwith both died, as did Francisco Zamora, Vicente Romero and Yginio Salazar. Three other Mexican Regulators got away in the confusion, to rendezvous with the "iron clad" members yards away.
, and a few other friends, with whom he rustled cattle and committed other crimes. Eventually the sheriff Pat Garrett and his posse tracked down and killed O'Folliard, Bowdre, and, in July 1881, the "Kid". The three men were buried at Fort Sumner, New Mexico
.
Range war
A range war is a type of conflict that occurs in agrarian or stockrearing societies. Typically fought over water rights or grazing rights to unfenced/unowned land, it could pit competing farmers or ranchers against each other...
between two factions during the Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
period. Numerous notable figures of the American West were involved, including Billy the Kid
Billy the Kid
William H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
, aka William Henry McCarty; sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
s William Brady
William J. Brady
William J. Brady was the sheriff of Lincoln County during the Lincoln County Wars in New Mexico, United States. He was killed in an ambush, aged 48, in which Billy the Kid took part.-Early life:...
and Pat Garrett
Pat Garrett
Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender, and customs agent who was best known for killing Billy the Kid...
; cattle rancher John Chisum
John Chisum
John Simpson Chisum was a wealthy cattle baron in the American West in the mid-to-late 19th century. Born in Hardeman County, Tennessee, Chisum's family moved to Texas in 1837, with Chisum finding work as a building contractor...
, lawyer and businessman Alexander McSween
Alexander McSween
Alexander McSween was a prominent figure during the Lincoln County War of the Old West, and a central character, alongside John Tunstall, opposing the "Murphy-Dolan Faction".-Early life:...
, and the general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
monopolist
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
Lawrence Murphy
Lawrence Murphy
Lawrence Murphy was an Irish-American businessman of the Old West, and a main instigator of the Lincoln County War.-Early life:...
.
The conflict arose between two factions over the control of dry goods
Dry goods
Dry goods are products such as textiles, ready-to-wear clothing, and sundries. In U.S. retailing, a dry goods store carries consumer goods that are distinct from those carried by hardware stores and grocery stores, though "dry goods" as a term for textiles has been dated back to 1742 in England or...
trade in the county. The older, established faction was led by Murphy and his business partner, James Dolan
James Dolan (Lincoln County War)
James Dolan was an Old West businessman, cattleman, and a key factor in the Lincoln County War, in New Mexico, which launched Billy the Kid to fame.-Early life and Murphy association:...
, who had a dry goods monopoly
Monopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
run through Murphy's general store. Young newcomers to the county, English-born John Tunstall
John Tunstall
John Henry Tunstall , born in England, became a rancher and merchant in New Mexico, where he became a prominent figure and was the first man killed in the Lincoln County War, an economic and political conflict perhaps compounded by ethnic rivalries.-Early life and education:John Henry Tunstall was...
and his business partner Alexander McSween, with backing from established cattleman John Chisum, opened a competing store in 1876. The two sides gathered lawmen, businessmen, and criminal gangs to their support. The Murphy-Dolan faction were allied with Lincoln County Sheriff Brady, and supported by the Jesse Evans Gang. The Tunstall-McSween faction organized their own posse of armed men, known as the Regulators
Lincoln County Regulators
The Lincoln County Regulators was a deputized posse in Lincoln County, New Mexico during the Lincoln County War, consisting of a dozen or so members who wanted revenge for the killing of their boss, John Tunstall...
, to defend their position, and had their own lawman, town constable Richard "Dick" Brewer.
The conflict was marked by back-and-forth revenge killings, starting with the murder of Tunstall by members of the Evans Gang. In revenge for this and other killings, the Regulators killed Sheriff Brady. Further killings continued unabated for several months, climaxing in the Battle of Lincoln, a four-day gunfight and siege that resulted in the death of McSween and the scattering of the Regulators. After Pat Garrett was named County Sheriff in 1880, he hunted down the remaining Regulators, including Billy the Kid.
War
In November 1876, a wealthy Englishman named John Tunstall arrived in Lincoln County, New Mexico where he intended to develop a cattle ranch, store, and bank in partnership with the young attorney Alexander McSween and cattleman John Chisum. They discovered that Lincoln County was controlled both economically and politically by Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan, the proprietors of LG Murphy and Co., the only store in the county. The factons were ethnically at odds, with the Murphy faction mostly Irish Catholic, while Tunstall and his allies were mostly Scots-Irish Protestants. LG Murphy and Co. loaned thousands of dollars to the Territorial Governor, and the Territorial Attorney General eventually held the mortgage on the firm. Tunstall learned that Murphy and Dolan, who bought much of their cattle from rustlers, had lucrative beef contracts from the United States government to supply forts and Indian agencies.The government contracts, along with their monopoly on merchandise and financing for farms and ranches, allowed Murphy, Dolan and their partner Riley to run Lincoln County as a personal fiefdom. Murphy and Dolan refused to give up their monopoly. In February 1878, in a court case that was eventually dismissed, they obtained a court order to seize all of McSween's assets, but mistakenly included all of Tunstall's assets with those of McSween. Sheriff Brady formed a posse to attach Tunstall's remaining assets at his ranch some 70 miles from Lincoln. Few local citizens would join Brady's posse, which enlisted a gang of outlaws known as the Jesse Evans Gang. Lawrence Murphy and Dolan also enlisted the John Kinney Gang
John Kinney Gang
The John Kinney Gang, also known as the Rio Grande Posse, was an outlaw gang of the old West, which operated during the mid-1870s into the mid-1880s....
.
Killing of John Tunstall
On February 18, 1878, members of the Sheriff's posse caught up to Tunstall, who was herding his last nine horses back to Lincoln. Frank Warner Angel, a special investigator for the Secretary of the Interior, later determined that Tunstall was shot in "cold blood" by Jesse Evans, William Morton, and Tom Hill. Tunstall's murder was witnessed from a distance by several of his men, including Richard Brewer and Billy the Kid. Tunstall's murder catalyzed the Lincoln County War.Tunstall's cowhands and other local citizens formed a group known as the Regulators to avenge his murder, since the Territorialcriminal justice system was controlled by allies of Murphy, Dolan & Co. While the Regulators at various times consisted of dozens of American and Mexican cowboys, the main dozen or so members were known as the "iron clad", including McCarty, Richard "Dick" Brewer, Frank McNab
Frank McNab
Frank McNab was a member of the Regulators who fought on behalf of John Tunstall during the Lincoln County War.Of Scottish origin, McNab was a "cattle detective" who worked for Hunter, Evans, & Company, which was managed by New Mexico cattleman John Chisum. McNab's job was to track down those who...
, Doc Scurlock, Jim French
Jim French (cowboy)
Jim French was a New Mexican cowboy.Out of all Regulators, French remains the most mysterious. Not much is known about him, such as where he came from or how he came to work for John Tunstall. He was known to be a large, powerful man, variously reported to be either half-Indian or half-black...
, John Middleton
John Middleton (cowboy)
John Middleton was friend of Billy the Kid and a key member of the Regulators, who fought on behalf of John Tunstall during the Lincoln County War....
, George Coe
George Coe (Lincoln County War)
George Washington Coe was an Old West cowboy and for a time gunman alongside Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War.Coe was born in Missouri, and ventured to New Mexico Territory in his youth, around 1871, alongside his cousin, Frank, to work on a ranch near Fort Stanton belonging to a...
, Frank Coe
Frank Coe (Lincoln County War)
Frank Coe was an Old West cowboy and for a time gunman in the company of Billy the Kid, as a member of the Lincoln County Regulators.-Biography:...
, Jose Chavez y Chavez
Jose Chavez y Chavez
Jose Chavez y Chavez was an outlaw from the U.S. state of New Mexico. He was said to be of Mexican-American and Native American ancestry...
, Charlie Bowdre
Charlie Bowdre
Charles Bowdre was an American cowboy and outlaw. He was an associate and member of Billy the Kid's gang.-Early life:...
, Tom O'Folliard
Tom O'Folliard
Tom O'Folliard was the best friend of the famous outlaw William Bonney . Both were members of the Regulators, a gang of cattle rustlers operating in the New Mexico Territory....
, Fred Waite
Fred Waite
Fred Waite, , was a Chickasaw cowboy who joined Billy the Kid's gang. He left the gang to return to his people....
(a Chickasaw
Chickasaw
The Chickasaw are Native American people originally from the region that would become the Southeastern United States...
), and Henry Newton Brown.
The Regulators set out to apprehend the sheriff's posse members who had murdered Tunstall. After the Regulators were deputized by the Lincoln County justice of the peace, together with Constable Martinez, they attempted to serve the legally issued warrants on Tunstall's murderers. Sheriff Brady arrested and jailed Martinez and his deputies in defiance of their deputized status. They gained release and searched for Tunstall's murderers. They found Buck Morton, Dick Lloyd, and Frank Baker near the Rio Peñasco. Morton surrendered after a five-mile (8 km) running gunfight on the condition that he and his fellow deputy sheriff, Frank Baker, would be returned alive to Lincoln. The Regulator captain Dick Brewer assured them they would be taken to Lincoln, but other Regulators insisted on killing the prisoners. William McCloskey, also a friend of Morton, resisted such action.
Blackwater Massacre
On March 9, 1878, the third day of the journey back to Lincoln, the Regulators killed McCloskey, Morton, and Baker in the Capitan foothills along the Blackwater Creek. They claimed that Morton murdered McCloskey and tried to escape with Baker, forcing them to kill the two prisoners. Few believed the story, as they thought it unlikely that Morton would have killed his only friend in the group. As the bodies of Morton and Baker each bore eleven bullet holes, one for each Regulator, Utley believes that the Regulators murdered them and killed McCloskey for opposing them. Nolan writes that Morton took ten bullets, and Baker was shot five times. That same day, Tunstall's other two killers, Tom Hill and Jesse Evans, were shot while trying to rob a sheep drover near Tularosa, New MexicoTularosa, New Mexico
Tularosa is a village in Otero County, New Mexico, United States. It shares its name with the Tularosa Basin, in which the town is located. To the east, Tularosa is flanked by the western edge of the Sacramento Mountains. The population was 2,864 at the 2000 census...
. Hill died and Evans was severely wounded. While Evans was at Fort Stanton for medical treatment, he was arrested on an old federal warrant for stealing stock from an Indian reservation.
Killing of William Brady
Sheriff Brady asked for assistance from the Territorial Attorney General, Thomas Benton Catron, to put down this "anarchy". Catron turned to the Territorial Governor Samuel B. Axtell. The governor decreed that John Wilson, the Justice of the Peace, had been illegally appointed by the Lincoln County Commissioners. Wilson had deputized the Regulators and issued the warrants for Tunstall's murderers. Axtell's decree meant that the Regulators' actions, formerly considered legal, were now beyond the law.On April 1, 1878, the Regulators French, McNab, Middleton, Waite, Brown and Billy the Kid attacked Brady and his deputies on the main street of Lincoln. Brady died of at least a dozen gunshot wounds, and Deputy George W. Hindman
George W. Hindman
George W. Hindman was a 19th-century American cowboy and law enforcement officer serving as a deputy sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico during the early months of the Lincoln County War...
was also fatally wounded. McCarty and French broke cover and dashed to Brady's body, possibly to get his arrest warrant for McSween or to recover McCarty's rifle, which Brady had kept from a prior arrest. A surviving deputy, Billy Matthews, wounded both men with one bullet that passed through each of them. French's wound was so severe that he had to be temporarily harbored by Sam Corbet in a crawlspace in Corbet's house.
Gunfight at Blazer's Mill
Mescalero
Mescalero is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southcentral New Mexico...
Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s. They came upon the rancher Buckshot Roberts
Buckshot Roberts
Andrew L. "Buckshot" Roberts was an American buffalo hunter and cowboy whose last stand against the Lincoln County Regulators during the Gunfight of Blazer's Mills near Lincoln, New Mexico is a part of frontier legend....
, listed on their arrest warrant as one of Tunstall's murderers. In the ensuing conflict, known as the Gunfight at Blazer's Mill
Gunfight of Blazer's Mills
The Gunfight of Blazer's Mills was a shootout between what were known as the Lincoln County Regulators and buffalo hunter Buckshot Roberts.-The gunfight:...
, they mortally wounded Roberts, but he killed Brewer and wounded Middleton, Scurlock, and Coe, and grazing McCarty.
Gunfight at Fritz's Ranch
After Brewer's death, the Regulators elected McNab as their captain. On April 29, 1878, Sheriff Peppin was directing a posse that included the Jesse Evans Gang and the Seven Rivers WarriorsSeven Rivers Warriors
The Seven Rivers Warriors were an outlaw gang of the Old West known primarily due to their part in the Lincoln County War.-Formation:The gang was initially formed during the mid-1870s by disgruntled small ranchers, feeling themselves victimized by the large cattle holdings of ranchers such as John...
. They engaged in a shootout with the Regulators McNab, Saunders, and Frank Coe at the Fritz Ranch. McNab died in the gunfire, Saunders was badly wounded, and Frank Coe captured.
The next day, the Seven Rivers members Tom Green, Charles Marshall, Jim Patterson and John Galvin were killed in Lincoln, and although the Regulators were blamed, this was never proven. Frank Coe escaped custody some time after his capture, allegedly with the assistance of Deputy Sheriff Wallace Olinger, who gave him a pistol.
The day after McNab's death the Regulator known as the "iron clad" took up defensive positions in the town of Lincoln, trading shots with Dolan men as well as US Army cavalry. "Dutch Charley" Kruling, a Dolan man, was wounded by rifle fire by George Coe. By shooting at government troops, the Regulators gained a new set of enemies. On May 15, the Regulators tracked down and captured the Seven Rivers gang member Manuel Segovia, who is believed to have shot McNab. They shot him during an alleged escape. Around the time of Segovia's death, the Regulator "iron clad" gained a new member, a young Texas cowpoke named Tom O'Folliard
Tom O'Folliard
Tom O'Folliard was the best friend of the famous outlaw William Bonney . Both were members of the Regulators, a gang of cattle rustlers operating in the New Mexico Territory....
.
Battle of Lincoln
A large confrontation between the two forces took place on the afternoon of July 15, 1878, when the Regulators were surrounded in Lincoln in two different positions; the McSween house and the Ellis store. Facing them were the Dolan/Murphy/Seven Rivers cowboys. In the Ellis store were Scurlock, Bowdre, Middleton, Frank Coe, and several others. About 20 Mexican Regulators, led by Josefita Chavez, were also positioned around town. In the McSween house were Alex 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 vaqueros.Over the next three days, the men exchanged shots and shouts. Tom Cullens, one of the McSween house defenders, was killed by a stray bullet. The Dolan cowboy Charlie Crawford was shot at a distance of 500 yards (457.2 m) by Doc Scurlock's father-in-law, Fernando Herrera. Around this time, Henry Brown, George Coe, and Joe Smith slipped out of the McSween house to the Tunstall store, where they chased two Dolan men into an outhouse with rifle fire and forced them to dive into the bottom to escape. The impasse continued until the arrival of US Army troops under the command of Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Nathan Dudley
Nathan Dudley
Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley was a soldier who served as a Colonel of Volunteers and sometimes as an acting Brigadier General of Volunteers for the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Early military career:...
. When these troops pointed cannons at the Ellis store and other positions, Doc Scurlock and his men broke from their positions, as did Chavez's cowboys, leaving those left in the McSween house to their fate.
On the afternoon of July 19, the soldiers set the house afire. As the flames spread and night fell, Susan McSween and the other woman and five children were granted safe passage out of the house, while the men inside continued to fight the fire. By 9 p.m., those left inside got set to break out the back door of the burning house. Jim French went out first, followed by Billy the Kid, O'Folliard, and Jose Chavez y Chavez. The Dolan men saw them running and opened fire, killing Harvey Morris, McSween's law partner. Some troopers moved into the back yard to take those left into custody when a close-order gunfight erupted. Alexander McSween and the Seven Rivers cowboy Bob Beckwith both died, as did Francisco Zamora, Vicente Romero and Yginio Salazar. Three other Mexican Regulators got away in the confusion, to rendezvous with the "iron clad" members yards away.
Aftermath
The Lincoln County War accomplished little other than to foster distrust and animosity in the area. The surviving Regulators, most notably Billy the Kid, continued as fugitives. Gradually, his fellow gunmen scattered to their various fates, and he rode with Bowdre, O'Folliard, Dave RudabaughDave Rudabaugh
David Rudabaugh , was an outlaw and gunfighter in the American Old West. Modern writers often refer to him as "Dirty Dave" on account of his alleged aversion to water, no evidence has emerged to show that he was ever referred to as such in his own lifetime.-Early life:Rudabaugh was born as David...
, and a few other friends, with whom he rustled cattle and committed other crimes. Eventually the sheriff Pat Garrett and his posse tracked down and killed O'Folliard, Bowdre, and, in July 1881, the "Kid". The three men were buried at Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner, New Mexico
Fort Sumner is a village in De Baca County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,249 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of De Baca County...
.
Sources
- Nolan, Frederick (1998). "The West of Billy the Kid". Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806130822
- Utley, Robert M. (1987) High Noon in Lincoln: Violence on the Western Frontier, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque. ISBN 0-8263-1201-2
- Utley, Robert M. (1989) Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803295588
- Wallis, Michael (2007). Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 0393060683