Gallinas Massacre | |||||||
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Part of the American Civil War and the Apache Wars | |||||||
An Apache warrior waiting for an ambush | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Confederate States | Mescalero Apache | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
4 cavalry | ~30 warriors | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3 killed | unknown |
The Gallinas massacre or the Gallinas Mountains massacre was an engagement of the Apache Wars on September 2, 1861, between a war party of Mescalero Apache warriors and four Confederate soldiers in the Gallinas Mountains of what is now Lincoln County, New Mexico. The incident occurred early in the American Civil War, at a time when the area was claimed by the Confederate States of America as part of Confederate Arizona and military control of the territory had not yet been decisively established by either Union or Confederate forces.