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Show FACTS LEADING 422 OF NEW HISTORY MEXICAN NEW In fact coln. This course the attorney general declined to pursue. before the court of inquiry, asked for by the accused officer, Colonel N. A. M. Dudley, Judge Waldo appeared as counsel for the defense. Later on the governor attempted to appoint Eugene A. In this he was not sustained by the suFiske attorney general. preme court of New Mexico and a vacancy existed in the office from February 14, 1880, to June 22, 1881, when William Breeden was named for the position by Governor Sheldon. The beginning of the so-called Lincoln county war occurred when John H. Tunstel was killed by a sheriff’s posse seeking to levy On attachment THE LINCOLN COUNTY upon property belonging waR to Tunstel. The latter had as friend and employe, William H. Bonney, later famous as ‘‘Billy the Kid.’’ The resulting fights *** and legal contests cannot be properly dignified by the name of ‘‘war’’ imas- 851 On April 1, 1878, a party of five, ‘Billy the Kid,’’ Fred Wait, see Brown, Jim French and one other, adherents of the McSwain faction, wa : secreted in a corral behind Tunstel and McSwain’s store, shot and killed a William Brady, the sheriff of the county, who was opposed to the Me aed faction, and George Hineman, who was with Brady at the time. Tee si fury to the feud and terrorized the law-abiding citizens of the county. i 2 W. Peppin was appointed sheriff by Governor Axtell. Peppin was eo” the side which opposed McSwain which was led by J. J. Dolan and ai of Riley. A party of McSwain men, armed with a warrant, issued by a jus a : the peace, set out for Tularosa to get a man reported to have stolen ian 4 their horses. Among this party of twelve or fourteen were ‘* Billy the ea George W. Coe, Fred Wait, and Henry Brown, the remainder being na ve They stopped on the way and the four Americans went up a hill to aT ae drink at a spring. While kneeling they heard shooting in the direction . Fag remainder of the party, and soon perceived that the Mexicans were — a4 fight with a party of five, belonging to the Dolan and Riley faction. the latter named Bernstein hill and came upon but no one was was killed, ‘‘Billy the Kid’’ killed save Bernstein. Brown and Wait were indicted. and the remaining and his comrades. For his death While returning from four OD eis started rs A hot fight oT tae ‘‘Billy the Kid, Tularosa the Me g iat ey party had another encounter with their enemies near the Mescalero age ee It was April 5, and while they were taking dinner at Dr. Blazer ’s boule mile from the agency, and Coe and John Middleton were standing guard, . ai" known as ‘‘ Buckshot’’ Roberts, heavily armed, rode up on a mule. eres” men determined to arrest him. Dick Brewer called for volunteers to bore ac ‘*Billy the Kid,’’ Charles Bowder, and George W. Coe responded. 3 Win ordered Roberts to throw up his hands, but Roberts, who had his a aaa chester on his lap, responded ‘‘ Not much, Mary Ann.’’ Both men ee Phe simultaneously. Roberts was shot through the stomach, while the bu The ball his gun took effect in George Coe’s hand, tearing it almost to pieces. it ae first struck the gun barrel, thus deflecting it from Coe’s breast. Pee: chen tinued shooting, one shot scraping Coe’s breast, Middleton was hit in t ° ae and Bowder’s cartridge belt was shot off. After driving his foes to a ce Roberts went into the house and taking a feather-bed, placed himself up° MEXICO DURING THE CIVIL WAR 423 much as personal enmity and a general spirit of lawlessness which at the time pervaded the section of New Mexico wherein the events transpired were the real elements of dispute. The events which followed the killing of Tunstel were in reality the culmination of the hatred provoked by many larcenies of range cattle, intensified by the alliance with opposing sides of many persons who had individual scores for adjustment according to the formula of the cowboy period. After the killing of Tunstel his sympathizers organized themselves into a party known as the McSwain faction and a sort of guerilla warfare continued for the following eighteen months until finally broken up by the civil authorities with the aid of the military. The battle that ended the war was fought at Lincoln in July, 1878. Sheriff Peppin had called upon the United States forces as a posse comitatus. The troops consisted of a company of infantry, a troop of cavalry, some artillery — a gatling gun and a twelve pounder. The troops were drawn up before McSwain’s front door, where the latter and some fifteen men were stationed, and demanded the arrest of the entire party. McSwain refused and read the order of President Hayes stating that the military had no authority to interfere or assist the civil authorities. While the attention of the McSwain force was attracted to the parleying in front, some of the opposing faction going to the rear of the house and, as is said, pouring oil on the roof and window sills, set fire to the building. For a long num- front of the door. Dick Brewer, going below the house to an old from which he could see into the door, began firing at Roberts from saw mill, behind a log. Several shots were exchanged and Roberts succeeded in killing Brewer with a ball through the head. About this time a detachment of soldiers from the agency came up and put a stop to the fight by driving off the McSwain men. Roberts died of his wound four hours later. The next fight of importance took place at the Fritz ranch, four miles below Lincoln, one afternoon about sundown. Some thirty men of the Dolan and Riley faction, while unsaddling their horses and making camp at the spring in the stove of walnuts beside the public road, discovered Frank McNabb, Frank Coe, and Abe Sanders riding down the road towards them. Sanders was a nonpartisan, but the other two were McSwain men. A general firing began from McNabb’s horse was Sanders was shot from his horse immediately. the camp. disabled and he took to the hills, but was pursued and surrounded and killed while making a last stand behind a tree. Meanwhile Coe had put his orse to a gallop down the road, but was followed by a shower of bullets. hen he had reached a point in the road fully twelve hundred yards below the ‘amp, a ball from a buffalo hunter’s rifle struck his horse, passing through its ead and coming out at while Coe escaped to the prought to Lincoln. The actions, he escaped and the eye. hills. He next day, joined his The horse turned a summersault in falling, was there surrounded and taken prisoner and while a fight was going on between the two friends. |