The Battle of the Mimbres River was a surprise
attack launched by a troop of
American militia
A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
against an encampment of
Chiricahua Apaches along the western shore of the
Mimbres River
The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico.
Course
The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a smal ...
.
On December 4, 1860, a force of thirty armed miners led by
James Henry Tevis
James Henry Tevis (1837–1905) was an Arizona pioneer who founded Teviston, Arizona, later renamed Bowie, Arizona in 1910. His claim to fame was his book, ''Arizona in the '50s'', which was the basis for a TV mini series by Walt Disney in 1964. ...
attacked at sunrise, claiming it was retaliation for stolen livestock. The surprised Apaches, led by
Mangas Coloradas
Mangas Coloradas or Mangus-Colorado (La-choy Ko-kun-noste, alias "Red Sleeve"), or Dasoda-hae ("He Just Sits There") (c. 1793 – January 18, 1863) was an Apache tribal chief and a member of the Mimbreño (Tchihende) division of the Central ...
, were quickly defeated in a short
close quarters action. Four warriors were killed, and an unknown number were wounded. The settlers' casualties are unknown, if any at all. Thirteen women and children were captured and several warriors fled, leaving their families behind. Mangas Coloradas survived. The Americans recovered some of their livestock.
Edwin Russell Sweeney, Mangas Coloradas, chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, University of Oklahoma Press, 1998 pp. 395-397
/ref>
See also
*American Indian Wars
The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settle ...
*Capture of Tucson (1862)
Union forces entered Tucson on May 20, 1862, with a force of 2,000 men without firing a shot.
Background
Just prior to the American Civil War in the late 1850s, the cities of Tucson and Mesilla in southern New Mexico Territory petitioned the ...
References
*Cochise, Ciyé "The First Hundred Years of Nino Cochise" New York: Pyramid Books 1972
*Lavender, David. The Rockies. Revised Edition. N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1975.
*Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West. N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 1987.
*
*Williams, Albert N. Rocky Mountain Country. N.Y.: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1950.
Native American history of New Mexico
Mimbres River
The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico.
Course
The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a smal ...
Mimbres River
The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico.
Course
The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a smal ...
New Mexico Territory
Mimbres River
The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico.
Course
The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a smal ...
the Mimbres River
December 1860 events
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