Gallinas massacre

The Gallinas massacre, also called the Gallinas Mountains massacre, was an armed engagement during the Apache Wars that took place on September 2, 1861, 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 region was claimed by the Confederate States of America as part of Confederate Arizona, and neither Union nor Confederate forces had established decisive military control over the territory.

On September 1, 1861, Confederate Lieutenant John Pulliam, stationed at Fort Stanton, dispatched four soldiers of the Army of New Mexico to the Gallinas Mountains, roughly a day's ride away, with orders to watch for approaching Union forces. Pulliam instructed the men to camp at a safe distance from a mountain spring. The soldiers—identified as T.G. Pemberton, Joseph V. Mosse, Joseph Emmanacker, and Floyd A. Sanders—did not follow this instruction and instead set up camp approximately 100 yards from a creek in a heavily wooded area. It is not recorded which of the four held command.

The following morning, at breakfast time, three Apache warriors were spotted moving through nearby pine trees. The soldiers halted their meal and moved to saddle their horses, at which point a group of approximately 30 Apache warriors, who had surrounded the camp, launched a volley of arrows. The four soldiers took cover behind pine trees and attempted to fire their muskets, but all four weapons failed to discharge—a failure attributed either to possible tampering with the muskets overnight or to dampened gunpowder from mountain dew. The soldiers then drew revolvers, and a skirmish ensued lasting nearly two hours, during which Mosse, Emmanacker, and Pemberton were killed. Sanders, the sole survivor, mounted Mosse's horse and fled down a steep mountain slope, pursued by the Apache warriors in a running fight that continued for approximately ten miles. He returned to Fort Stanton and reported the events to Lieutenant Pulliam. The number of Apache casualties, if any, is not recorded.

Within the following days, a Confederate detachment of 15 men traveled to the Gallinas Mountains and recovered the remains of Mosse and Emmanacker; Pemberton's body was never located. This recovery party returned to Fort Stanton on September 8, and that same evening Lieutenant Pulliam was dispatched with 15 men to Placitas to engage Apache forces there.