Battle of Placito

The Battle of Placito or Battle of the Placito was an engagement between ethnic Mexican settlers, Confederate soldiers and Apache warriors. It took place at the now abandoned village of Placitas in Confederate Arizona. The action is a part of the Apache Wars of the mid to late nineteenth century.

Battle of Placito
Part of the American Civil War, Apache Wars

Arizona militia during the Civil War.
DateSeptember 8, 1861
Location
Placitas, New Mexico Territory (USA), Arizona Territory (CSA);
now in Lincoln County, New Mexico
Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
 Confederate States Apache
Commanders and leaders
John Pulliam unknown
Strength
~20 unknown
Casualties and losses
unknown 5 killed

Battle

Following the Gallinas Massacre, Lieutenant John Pulliam of the Confederate garrison at Fort Stanton, returned from his patrol in the Gallinas Mountains where he searched for the three dead soldiers, massacred a week earlier.

He arrived at Fort Stanton on September 8, 1861. That same evening a dispatch arrived from the Placito, a Spanish era settlement, occupied by Mexican settlers. The dispatch detailed a current Apache assault on the town, ten miles below the fort. Pulliam was ordered to proceed to the village with fifteen men to help protect its citizens.

After arriving, at night, Pulliam, his fifteen men and an unknown number of Mexican men, drove the Apaches out of town and then fought off the Apaches all night at a further range. Eventually the natives gave up and retreated back into the surrounding desert.

Casualties are unknown, except for the Apaches who suffered at least five men killed by Pulliam's squad. An unknown number of Apache wounded escaped the fighting. The Lieutenant and his men arrived back at Fort Stanton the following afternoon.

See also

References
  • Thompson, Jerry Don, Colonel John Robert Baylor: Texas Indian Fighter and Confederate Soldier. Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1971.
  • Katheder, Thomas, The Baylors of Newmarket: The Decline and Fall of a Virginia Planter Family. New York and Bloomington, Ind., 2009.
  • Josephy, Alvin M., Jr. (1986). War on the Frontier: The Trans-Mississippi West. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books. ISBN 0-8094-4780-0.

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