Atsa-Dt-Ls 5 July 2005 Memorandum

ATSA-DT-LS 5 July 2005 MEMORANDUM for CPT DELLINGER, Small Group Instructor, Captain's Career Course, U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School, Fort Bliss, Texas 79916. Battle Analysis of the Battle of Hembrillo Basin, 1880 Define the battlefield (Engagement): The Hembrillo Basis was the scene of the largest Apache-Cavalry battle of what is called the "Victorio War." a. On April 6, 1880, two companies of Buffalo Soldiers, African-American troops of the 9th Cavalry led by Capt. Hjenry Carroll engaged with the Warm Springs Apache, led by Chief Victorio, also known as Lone Wolf.

Ambush in Massacre Canyon," essay by Gene Bullinger at http://www.buffalosoldier.net/BuffaloSoldiers & Chief Victorio.htm. Battle of Hembrillo Basin," IIS News, Sept. 2000 at http://www.irish-surveyors.ie/ Hembrillo Battlefield," article at http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/FactSheets/brillo.htm Victorio's War: A Closer Look, Ambush in Massacre Canyon," article at: http://www.buffalosoldier.net/BuffaloSoldiers&ChiefVictorio.htm c. Evaluation of research sources.

Of the four resources found on the Internet, "Battle of Hembrillo Basin" is perhaps the best because it is a primary source, an article written by two archeologists who dug up the remains and artifacts of the battlefield and were able to reconstruct the battle. The other resources are written by historians who cannot help imposing their own "take" on what happened. In general, however, all the resources give credible information. 2. Review the stratigic setting. Hembrillo Basin is in the San Andres Mountains of New Mexico.

Las Animas, where the battle took place, drops off the Continental Divide in the Black Range eastward to the Rio Grande. It is surrounded by heavily timbered high cliffs with elevations from seven to nine thousand feet. The Las Animas canyon walls are pinnacled and rugged, with a maze of side canyons, caves, and overhangs. a. The causes of the conflict: President Grant's administration endorsed what it called a "Peace Policy" while the Indian Bureau had a policy of concentration.

Victorio and the Warm Springs Apache had been promised they could stay in a reservation in their home territory, Ojo Caliente, New Mexico Territory. But they were repeatedly denied their promised reservation and transferred from place to place.

Victorio's people, after having been promised that they could remain at Ojo Caliente, were forced to move to Arizona to live among other Apaches who were their enemies, "and on a reservation of the desert best known for its pestilence and the death of hundreds of Apache men, women and children." Victorio fled from there but eventually turned himself in at Fort Stanton. At Fort Stanton the government would not give his people their promised food allotments. Colonel Hatch of the Ninth U.S.

Cavalry had complained in a letter to General Sheridan that the Apaches were going to starve, but General Sheridan took no noice of Hatch's letter. Victorio's people were near starvation. This triggered his decision to leave. He took his people to the highlands of Ojo Caliente. The U.S. Army's job was to find them and to force submission. In September, 1879 Victorio attacked near Camp Ojo Caliente, and captured eighteen mules and fifty cavalry horses. Five black troopers and three civilians (who were guarding the animals) were killed.

Colonel Edward Hatch put four companies of the Ninth Cavalry in the field to find Victorio and either capture him or kill him. This was the beginning of the Victorio War. Chief Victorio eluded the Army for five months. Then he took his people to Hembrillo Basin in the San Andres Mountains. b. Comparison of the principal antagonists: Victorio was considered the finest guerilla fighter ever known and a noble opponent for the United States Army. Chief Victorio never had more than one hundred warriors and usually less than 50.

He had perhaps 50 more Mescalero allies as well. In the past he had encountered troopers from the Ninth Cvalry and each time he was victorious in the field. The Army had more than one thousand men in the field chasing him, four companies from the Ninth Cavalry. 3. Review the tactical situation: Victorio had the advantage of knowing the terrain very well. He and his warriors were in the heights of Las Animas and in the side canyon. a.

Victorio had a commanding view from the heights of all the surrounding area below, and there was no way the two companies of troopers could approach the Apaches without being hit. b. Chief Victorio had between 50 and 100 Apache warriors; the Army had Company B. under the command of Lt. Byron Dawson and Company E, under command of Capt. Ambrose Hooker, plus Navajo scouts c. The Army objective was to surprise Victorio. Victorio's objective was to draw the Army into a trap. d.

The Buffalo Soldiers advanced on horseback up into the mountains where they believed Victorio was. Victorio waited for them up in the high cliffs where he would be able to see them coming. 4. The action: a.

The troopers rode into a three-way trap with Victorio's men firing from the heights of Las Animas and from the side canyon They were suddenly surrounded and fell in a heavy concentration of rifle and arrow fire at the junction of Las Animas Creek (and Canyon) and a side canyon now known as Massacre Canyon. Archeologists in 1999 picked up and mapped hundreds of rifle and pistol cartridges from the battlefield. The troopers had nothing to hide behind but boulders, a few rock shelves, and the trees. b.

Taking advantage of what limited cover there was on the low ridge, the troopers held off Victorio and his warriors throughout the night. In the morning Victorio's men moved in on them. c. But just as the Apaches were ready to attack the troops, cavalry reinforcements arrived from the north and west. The reinforcing troops included two additional companies of Buffalo Soldiers, 106 Apache scouts, and one company of 6th Cavalry from Arizona. d. Victorio retreated to Victorio Ridge, a long ridge to the south.

There they fought a rear-guard action, as the women and children escaped by climbing out of the basin to the south. The reinforced 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. Fighting a rear-guard action from each of the ridge tops that rise out of the Hembrillo Basin, the Apache disengaged.

The troops, exhausted and thirsty, fell back to the arroyos, and dug holes in the streambed in search of water. They camped overnight in the Hembrillo Basin, then moved east to the white sands on April 8. Victorio and his people went west to the Black Range the Mescalero allies went back to Mescalero. e. The outcome. The outcome was that Chief Victorio escaped once more, while the Army lost two men.