Victorio's War

Victorio's War
Part of the Apache Wars, Apache–Mexico Wars

Victorio
Date1879–1880[1]
Location
Southwest United States, Northwestern Mexico
Result Joint Mexico–U.S. victory
Belligerents
 United States
Mexico		 Apache
Commanders and leaders
United States Philip Sheridan
Joaquin Terrazas		 Victorio †
Nana
Strength
ca. 2,000 ca. 150

The Apache can endure fatigue and famine and can live without water for periods that would kill the hardiest mountaineer ... In fighting them we must of necessity be the pursuers and unless we can surprise them by sudden and unexpected attack, the advantage is all in their favor ... You rarely see an Indian; you see the puff of smoke and hear the whiz of his bullets, but the Indian is thoroughly hidden in his rocks ...

—General George Crook[2]

Victorio's War, or the Victorio Campaign, was an armed conflict between the Apache followers of Chief Victorio, the United States, and Mexico beginning in September 1879. Faced with arrest and forcible relocation from his homeland in New Mexico to San Carlos Indian Reservation in southeastern Arizona, Victorio led a guerrilla war across southern New Mexico, west Texas and northern Mexico. Victorio fought many battles and skirmishes with the United States Army and raided several settlements until the Mexican Army killed him and most of his warriors in October 1880 in the Battle of Tres Castillos. After Victorio's death, his lieutenant Nana led a raid in 1881.[3]

Scholar Dan Thrapp wrote of Victorio's War that "never again were [Apache] fighters in such numbers to roam and ravage that country, nor were they again to be so ably led and managed."[4] Victorio, according to scholar Robert N. Watt, "is widely acknowledged as being one of the best guerrilla leaders of the Apache Wars."[5]

  1. ^ Michno, pp. 335–340
  2. ^ Haley, p. 396
  3. ^ "Buffalo Soldiers & Chief Victorio". Archived from the original on 2007-09-21. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
  4. ^ Thrapp, Dan L. (1974), Victorio and the Mimbes Apaches, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 312
  5. ^ Watt. Robert N. (2011), "Victorio's Military and Political Leadership of the Warm Springs Apaches", War in History, Vol. 18 (4), p. 457