Apache "Chiefs Espejo, Nicolás and Antonio led 200 Mescalero warriors ..."

1861 -- one hundred and fifty years ago ...

When Texas Rebel Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor...

was commanding the 2nd. Texas Mounted Rifles,

while also serving as the Confederate Governor of Arizona...


Snippet from Donald S. Frazier's Blood & Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest, 1995.

Snippets from pages 54 - 56.

Note: Both the Union Army & the Confederate Army faced a third military force, one they had to reckon with ... !


"For both armies, hostile Indians constituted an additional military threat.

"While various Apache bands had long been a nuisance for white settlers in the area, Baylor and the Confederates unwittingly arrived just in time to take the initial brunt of a full - blown war.

"An incident with the U.S. troops the preceding February had driven the Apaches to war, which they prosecuted with a fury never before encountered in the region.

"These guerrillas most often operated in bands ranging in strength from 10 to 40 warriors.

"On occasion, several such parties might combine for large - scale attacks.

"West of the Rio Grande, roughly 150 Mimbreños under Mangas Coloradas roamed along the headwaters of the Gila, especially around Pinos Altos.

"Some 150 Chiricahua, under Cochise, plagued the miners at Tubac and travelers on the road between Tucson and Mesilla.

"An additional 500 warriors from various lesser bands roamed between the Gila and the Colorado and would occasionally join in raids.

"East of the river, Chiefs Espejo, Nicolás, and Antonio led 200 Mescalero warriors of the Davis and White Mountain bands across the desolate mountains of far west Texas, eastern New Mexico, and eastern Confederate Arizona.

"Adept at ambush and cruel to captives, the Apaches more than any other of America's indigenous peoples, specialized in stealing livestock.

"These warriors did not understand the white's conflict, but they did claim credit for forcing the retreat of U.S. forces from the various forts; they were now determined to build upon their perceived success and drive the remaining white men from their land.

"The precipitate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the outlying posts was devastating to their settlers who had come to rely on Federal military protection.

"Panic rippled from ranch to ranch.

"The settlers were invited to take away any government stores they wanted, but were urged to leave the area.

"As scheduled, the army withdrew, leaving the the bewildered and yet - unprepared homesteaders to their fate... "

And a pretty grim fate it was, in many cases ... :(