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The Victorio War of 1879 and 1880 occurred because of the continuing collision of cultures in the Southwest. The war had its origins in the Grant administration's "Peace Policy" and the Indian Bureau's policy of concentration. The Warm Springs Apache were repeatedly denied their promised reservation at Ojo Caliente, New Mexico Territory. Their leader, Victorio, chose to fight rather than submit. The U.S. Army's job was to force submission. Victorio eluded the military for five months before taking his people to Hembrillo Basin in the San Andres Mountains. The Hembrillo Basin was the scene of the largest Apache-Cavalry battle of this war. On the evening of April 6, 1880, two companies of "Buffalo Soldiers ," African American troops of the 9th Cavalry, were led by Capt. Henry Carroll to Victorio's camp via Sulfur Canyon north of Hembrillo.
They were quickly surrounded by approximately 150 Apache warriors. Taking advantage of the limited cover on a low ridge, now dubbed "Carroll's Ridge," the troops held off the Apache throughout the long, dark night. By morning, Carroll and seven troops were wounded, two mortally, and 25 horses were down.
As the sun rose on April 7, the Apache moved closer to the troopers. Just as the Apache massed for attack, cavalry reinforcements arrived from the north and west. The Apache retreated to Victorio Ridge, a long ridge to the south. There they fought a rear-guard action, as their women and children escaped by climbing out of the basin to the south.
The reinforcing troops included two additional companies of "Buffalo Soldiers ," 106 Apache scouts and one company of 6th Cavalry from Arizona. Aligning themselves along this ridge, the troops launched a frontal assault on Victorio Ridge, while Lts. Gatewood and Mills led a flank attack on the Apache camp, which was behind Victorio Ridge and west of Victorio Peak.
The Apache on Victorio Ridge retreated upon hearing the shots from the direction of their camp. Fighting a rear-guard action from each of the ridge tops that rise out of the Hembrillo Basin, the Apache disengaged.
The exhausted troops fell back to the arroyos, digging holes in the streambed in a search for water. Camping in the Hembrillo Basin overnight, the troopers marched east toward the white sands on the evening of April 8. Victorio and his people fled west to the Black Range, while their Mescalero allies returned to Mescalero.
In June, Victorio slipped south of the Mexican border. By July Victorio attempted to recross the border into west Texas, but was turned back by U.S. forces after several clashes. Mexican forces trapped Victorio at Tres Castillos in norhtern Chihuahua. Outnumbered and out of ammunition, Victorio, 60 warriors, and 18 women and children were killed.
Thus the Victorio War came to an end. Ultimately, the story of the Hembrillo Battle and the Victorio War is about people and the problems various cultures have understanding each other.
Above: Capt. Henry Carroll and Apache Chief Victorio One of the participants, Lt. Gatewood, later wrote, "any man of discretion, empowered to adjust Victorio's well-founded claims, could have prevented the bloody and disastrous outbreak of 1879."
Second Lt. Walter Finley, Co. G. 9th Cavalry, echoed these sentiments in a letter to his mother in 1879: "It is the old story, unjust treatment of the Indians by the Govt., treaties broken, promises violated and the Indians moved from one reservation to another against their will, until finally they break out and go on the war path and the Army is called in to kill them. It is hard to fight against and shoot down men when you know they are in the right and are really doing what our fathers did in the Revolution, fighting for their country."
Sgt. Nathan Fletcher, top left, was one of the Buffalo Soldiers pinned down by Victorio on April 6, 1880. This photograph shows the detachment of Buffalo Soldiers which accompanied Col. Hatch's body to Ft. Leavenworth in 1889. During the 1990s, archaeologists from White Sands Missile Range and its contractor, Human Systems Research, conducted extensive research on the battle. They dug up new documents and many artifacts which give a more complete picture of the battle than was ever available before.
For instance, using mostly volunteers and metal detectors, the archaeologists picked up and mapped hundreds of rifle and pistol cartridges from the battlefield -- in fact, more than were found at Little Bighorn.
Jim Wakeman, a former New Mexico State University surveying professor, used the Global Positioning System to precisely plot (with 10 centimeter accuracy) each item on the computer-generated topographical maps he produced for the project.
Then, Doug Scott, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, compared all the cartridges under a microscope to identify unique scratches and firing pin marks. Scott's analysis allowed the researchers to say, for instance, that rifle #6 was used to fire the cartridges found at locations x, y and z and is consistent with other Buffalo Soldier positions.
By putting this into a data base and then electronically mapping it, the researchers were able to lump certain kinds of weapons together in precise locations. They were then able to highlight the weapons most likely used by the Apache and find their positions on the maps. The same was done for the Buffalo Soldier positions.
Now historical researchers can call up different layers of data on the computer maps and, in essence, put things into motion over the period of the battle. These modern tools aid archaeologists in recreating the past and bringing its people to life.
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