In the Shadow of Billy the Kid: Susan McSween and the Lincoln County War

Introduction

1 The events of July 19, 1878, catapulted Susan McSween and a young cowboynamedHenryMcCarty,aliasBillyAntrim,aliasWilliamH.Bonney, alias the Kid into the history books. For four days Susan, her husband Alexander, her sister Elizabeth Shield and the five Shield children, Billy, and at least twelve other men calling themselves “Regulators” and vowing to protect the McSweens hunkered down behind the thick adobe walls of the McSween house in old Lincoln town. Armed to the teeth with Winchester rifles, sawed-off shotguns, and deadly six-shooters, the Regulators faced off against members of the opposition lodged in strategic locations around Lincoln. Both sides were fighting for control of the mercantile economy of southeastern New Mexico, which included lucrative federal contracts to supply beef, corn, and additional provisions to the military at nearby Fort Stanton and to the Mescalero Apache reservation. In what became known as the Lincoln County War, the two factions turned Lincoln County into a war zone, and the usually peaceful village of Lincoln became an armed camp. On July 15 alone, the first day of the standoff, an estimated one hundred bullets tore through the town. Innocent bystanders pulled their children inside, secured what livestock they could, and tried to keep their heads down. Inside the McSween house Susan helped the men blockade windows and doors with trunks, furniture, and mattresses. Whenever possible, she slipped into the kitchen at the rear of her hacienda-style home to get food. During a lull she may have played her piano to keep spirits high.1 Introduction 2 S I n t r o d u c t I o n On July 19, the fifth and final day of this prolonged shootout that came to be called the Five-Day Battle, eleven African American Buffalo Soldiers of the Ninth Cavalry and twenty-four white infantry men from Fort Stanton followed their commanding officer, Colonel Nathan A. M. Dudley, into town. Although he claimed he had come to protect the women and children of Lincoln, Dudley’s friendship with James J. Dolan and John Riley, leaders of the opposing faction, was well known. Within a few hours Colonel Dudley had ordered his soldiers to set up camp in the middle of town. Under his direction they aimed their rapid-fire Gatling gun and twelve-pound mountain howitzer squarely at the McSween house and at other Regulator positions around town. Although Dudley later denied that he had favored one faction over the other, a Dolan supporter admitted, “There was a more confident bunch inside the McSween house than was to be found outside it until after the soldiers arrived.”2 Because the McSween men could hardly leave their hiding places to confront the colonel, Susan took it upon herself to do the dirty work. She marched into the soldiers’ camp and demanded an explanation from Dudley. The two verbally sparred before Dudley finally ordered one of his soldiers to shoot her if she made a “false move.”3 Later that afternoon Dolan men used the presence of the military to sneak around the back of the McSween house, pour coal oil onto the floor of the kitchen, and set the place on fire. As the adobe building smoldered, it sent up a sickening and suffocating plume of black smoke. As the occupants suffered from smoke inhalation and moved from room to room, Alexander grew increasingly despondent and dazed or confused. Because Susan had already tried and failed to appeal to Dudley’s better nature, Billy decided it was time to come up with an escape plan.4 About five o’clock that afternoon, Billy persuaded Susan to join her sister and the children and follow Captain Thomas N. Blair to safety. At dusk— which in July came about eight o’clock—Billy fled what remained of the smoldering house. He led a handful of Regulators to safety. Unfortunately, Dolan men responded quickly to the maneuver. They gunned down Alexander McSween in the shadow of his home. These final moments of the Five-Day Battle were commonly called “the Big Killing.” Writers, artists, and filmmakers would re-create that desperate episode numerous times over the ensuing 135 years, and it is etched securely in Billy the Kid lore.5 With McSween’s death, Billy quickly became a leader of the Regulators. As Billy’s men hid out and planned their revenge, the newly widowed Susan McSween remained in Lincoln, where she discovered that her relationship with Alex placed her directly inside the crosshairs...