Fight of the Week: The Battle of Lincoln

The date: July 15^th through 19^th, 1878. The place: Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory. The men: The Lincoln County Regulators versus the Murphy-Dolan Faction and the United States Army. The fight: The Battle of Lincoln, the largest confrontation in the range war known as the Lincoln County War, which led to the fame of Billy the Kid.

Billy the Kid, one of the Lincoln County Regulators

The four day fight had its roots in the Lincoln County war, an ongoing conflict between an established store owner and his partner, Lawrence Murphy & James Dolan, and John Tunstall & Alexander McSween, newcomers who owned a competing store, over who controlled the sale of dry goods in Lincoln County, New Mexico. Murphy and Dolan had a monopoly on dry goods in the county, and were reluctant to give up any business to tenderfoots. Tunstall and McSween had the backing of cattleman John Chisum. Both sides gathered forces including lawmen and outlaws alike. The Murphy-Dolan faction had the support of the local Sheriff and the Jesse Evans Gang. Tunstall-McSween hired their own group, known as the Lincoln County Regulators.

The climax of the war was the Battle of Lincoln. On the 15^th of July, McSween gathered the Regulators in town. Nearby, the members of the Murphy-Dolan faction’s forces gathered and began riding toward the town in force. When the Regulators received word of this, they elected to remain in town instead of fleeing. The Murphy-Dolan faction rode in from the west, surrounding the McSween house, which housed the Regulators as well as the new school teacher and the Presbyterian minister and his family.

Lincoln, New Mexico, as it looked at the time

The Murphy Dolan gang believed they had taken the Regulators by surprise, but this was not the case. When they began firing, they were met with sporadic gunfire from the Regulators for most of the day, wounding five of the Murphy-Dolan posse. At half past four in the afternoon a United States Cavalry detachment from nearby Fort Stanton, under the command of Lt. George Smith, arrived and placed themselves between the two factions, effectively stopping the gunplay.

United States Cavalry

Shooting continued between the two groups until July 18^th. By this time Colonel Nathan Dudley had arrived from Ft. Stanton and had taken command. One of his soldiers was wounded, and he gave the order for the Army to stop the conflict, which would ultimately assist the Murphy-Dolan faction. On the 19^th, the Murphy-Dolan posse set fire to the house.

Dazed by the smoke, McSween staggered from the house and tried to surrender, but was shot and killed, nine shots passing through his body. The other Regulators, with the exception of two who had been killed in the four days of fighting, were able to flee unharmed. For their trouble, the Murphy-Dolan faction suffered several wounded and two killed.

After the battle, and with McSween, one of the business partners involved in the feud, dead, the Regulators were disbanded, effectively ending the conflict. Also, President Rutherford Hayes dismissed the governor of New Mexico and replaced him with Lew Wallace, a Civil War general and author of Ben Hur. For most of the Regulators, Wallace let them go free, while for others, such as Billy the Kid, he issued warrants. With the end of the Battle of Lincoln also came the end of the Lincoln County War, a conflict which had led to twenty-two men dead over who controlled a county’s dry goods stores.