R.M. "Bob" Barron
Lieutenant Col. N.A.M. Dudley
Court of Inquiry, Fort Stanton, New Mexico,
1879
Lincoln County War Series
Vol. 1 & 2
Editing
and Typescript by R. M. Barron, El Paso, Texas
Around noon on
July 19, 1878, Lt. Col. Nathan
Augustus Monroe Dudley rode into the besieged town of Lincoln, New Mexico
accompanied by four of his officers and 35 soldiers made up of cavalry and
infantry, 2000 rounds of ammunition, a Gattling gun and a 12-pound brass
howitzer. More than just a show of
force, they brought enough
provisions for a three day stay and Dudley brought with him enough attitude to
overflow the Rio Bonito. On the premise
of “protecting the women and
children" and professing “not to
know the houses that the McSween party occupy,” Col. Dudley sets up camp east of town and orders the
howitzer pointed directly at the door of the Montano Store across the road which
just happens to be crawling with McSween men.
These mid-day events are soon followed by one violation after another of
the Posse Comitatus Act that
prohibited the use of soldiers in any civil action unless personally sanctioned
by the President of the United States.
But Col. Dudley
was guilty of so much more.
On May 9, 1879 a
court of inquiry was convened at Fort Stanton, New Mexico to examine seven
charges against Lt. Col. Dudley and determine whether he should face a court
martial.
Among those charges are “giving aid to an armed band of outlaws”…."Threatening
a Justice of the Peace into issuing warrants of arrest”.…
“ plundering the
Tunstall store”....”procuring base and wicked men to make false and slanderous
statements against the virtue of Susan McSween”……”made false and malicious
accusations in an open letter to a newspaper in order to subvert the ends of
justice and prevent the Governor from restoring
peace”….
The proceedings lasted eight weeks and over 100 witnesses
testified. Among those was Governor
Lew Wallace, Sheriff George
Peppin, Mrs. Susan McSween, Col. Edward Hatch, and of course the
Lincoln County War’s most infamous participant, Wm. H. Bonney, “Billy the Kid.”
When Billy was asked ...
Q: The court asks, were the soldiers, which
you say fired at you as
you escaped from the
McSween house, white or colored troops?
A: White.
Q: Was it light enough for
you to see distinctly the soldiers when they fired?
A: Yes, sir by the light of
the fire---the house was burning.
That made it as light as day
for a short distance
all around.
The most potentially damaging testimony
against Dudley’s actions on July 19, 1878 came from Pvt. James Bush when he
revealed that Col. Dudley, fearing that McSween men would attempt an escape from
the McSween home during the heavy gunfire, twice ordered his soldiers to fall
into line and prevent the escape of the inmates from the burning
house.
But despite the
efforts of the prosecution led by Capt. H.H. Humphreys, Recorder, and assisted
by Las Vegas, New Mexico attorney Ira E. Leonard, Col. Dudley and his attorney, Henry Waldo,
were successful in convincing a jury of Dudley’s innocence. In fact, the jury took only two minutes
to reach a verdict.
After reading the
documents contained in the Dudley Court
of Inquiry, the reader may well reach a different conclusion, as
it seems the inquiry was held more for the vindication of the army than in
finding fault with Dudley or his troops.
Robert M.
Barron’s Lieutenant Col. N.A.M. Dudley Court of Inquiry
is an hour-by-hour
dramatization of the events during the five days of war in Lincoln. Mr. Barron spent five years deciphering and
transcribing over 1,800 pages of
handwritten testimony from several different court reporters. Also included in this two-volume set are
documents and military communications never before published that were
deliberately omitted from the files of the inquiry. To no one’s surprise, they strongly suggest a
white-wash of Col. Dudley’s actions.
But it is in the testimony of the individual witnesses that brings
another aspect to this book. It offers a rare opportunity to observe the
colorful life and times of the late 1800’s in a place still experiencing the “Wild West” and
struggling to stay civilized. The
comments against individual citizens alone is stuff of which no courtroom today
would allow an attorney to express, calling a Justice of the Peace “ a
stupid, ignorant old man,” or accusing an adversary of “looming up above the waste water of the Dead Sea of
selfishness,” and
calling one of McSween’s servants
“a dull heavy beast…” There was no love lost between Susan
McSween and Col. Dudley as is evidenced by the many affidavits, procured by Col.
Dudley against Mrs. McSween’s reputation and virtue, which are contained in this
document.
Bob Barron
originally self-published this document as a large four-volume set. I have spent the last two years
investigating continued interest in the subject as well as redesigning, without
omitting any material, the entire document and updating historical photos. The result is a smaller two-volume set
that is now available for limited distribution through http://www.bookhousefulfillment.com/ No Lincoln County War and Billy the Kid
aficionado wants to be without this two-volume book. As his daughter and the
editor of this 2nd edition, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to
individuals and groups such as the Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang, historians Fred
Nolan and Leon Metz, and many others for their help and support in making this
re-distribution a reality.
There are so many of us out there who are always craving ever more
nuggets about this exciting event in history and I hope this book helps satisfy
your appetite.
Donna Tatting
November
2003
More about this book
...
LIEUTENANT COLONEL N.A.M.
DUDLEY, COURT OF
INQUIRY,
FORT
STANTON, NEW
MEXICO
1879
Introduction by Leon
Metz, Editing and Transcript by
R. M.
Barron
Lieutenant Colonel N.A.M. Dudley Court of Inquiry,Fort
Stanton, New Mexico 1878 was
originally released in January 1996. The creator of this document, Robert M.
Barron of El Paso, Texas, labored for five years to transcribe, from microfilm,
the entire proceedings of the Dudley Court of Inquiry. He then painstakingly indexed those
volumes, creating a work that all Lincoln County War enthusiasts, western
history buffs, and Billy the Kid aficionados alike would do well to have in
their collections. The following is
a review of the book that appeared in the January 1996 issue of True West
Magazine ...
“ All western buffs have some
knowledge of Lincoln’s Five Day Battle of 1878 in
which lawyer
Alexander McSween and several of his followers were killed and Billy the Kid
made a daring escape from the burning McSween home. Colonel N.A.M. Dudley was there with troops and could
have made a difference in the battle’s outcome. By avoiding direct action, he allowed
the forces of Sheriff Peppin to
win.
Dudley’s controversial actions during the
Lincoln County War included using United States troops in violation of the posse
comitatus act. Governor Lew Wallace
called for Dudley’s recall, and a court of inquiry followed to determine
if enough
evidence of wrongdoing existed to convene a court martial.
From May 2 through July 2,
1878, the court of inquiry heard testimony on seven specific charges
against Dudley, including giving aid to an armed band of outlaws, plundering the store of John Tunstall, and
making slanderous charges against the virtue of Mrs. McSween. The testimony was tediously recorded in
longhand and preserved.
Although recorded in microfilm and available at the National Archives, the
transcript proved difficult to use because it lacked an index. Researchers had to go to Washington, DC,
and painstakingly peruse the entire file to take advantage of its content. Now Bob Barron has transcribed the
entire testimony exactly as it was recorded during the court of inquiry. The result is available in four combined
volumes totaling 984 pages and completely
indexed."
Mr. Barron
self-published and distributed this work, and only a few copies were sold before
his death in March of 1997. Bob
Barron was my father and I have taken on the task of making this work once again
available for purchase. However,
some changes have been made from the original form in which the book was
distributed. Originally the
document was 8 ½ x11, spiral bound and printed on only one side of the sheet
which resulted in a very large four-volume set. It also included some illustrations of
notables such as Col. Dudley, Billy the Kid, Alexander McSween, and several
others. These pictures were of
somewhat poor quality. The new
2nd printing will bring the set to two volumes, in a 6 x 9 size, will
include more photos, and be perfect-bound.
The entire original has been digitally scanned
for pure quality and completes at just under 1,000 pages.
The mail
order price is $90.00 plus S&H and is available through an on-line book ware-house
distributor. The new format of the
book was created by BeaverPond
Press of Edina, Minnesota (http://www.beaverpondpress.com/) and is available now through the book
distributor at http://www.bookhousefulfillment.com/. Reseller’s prices are reduced 40%. You can also obtain books directly from
me at d.tatting@worldnet.att.net Please feel free to call me with any questions
at 651-464-0175.
Included
in the book is an Introduction by author Leon Metz of El Paso, Texas. He does an excellent job of
summarizing the Lincoln County War and the events that led to the court of
inquiry. He mentions there
that “The testimony of Billy the
Kid is probably the best known and most widely quoted of the entire file"
and “It is a Who’s Who of the
Lincoln County War.” The back cover also includes a
recommendation from historian Fred Nolan.
Thank you
for your time and please don’t hesitate to contact me or BeaverPond Press with
any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Donna
Tatting
BILLY THE KID OUTLAW
GANG
The opinions of the current members of the Billy the Kid Outlaw
Gang about the proposed exhumation are divided. Most of the Gang, many of
whom are serious historians who've spent years of their lives studying the
various documented histories of Bonney's life, and its board of directors,
believe in "the traditional" version of Billy's death in Ft. Sumner in 1881. But
about the exhumation of Billy and his mama, they are divided into three groups.
One welcomes the exhumation for further investigation of the truth about
Billy. Another portion of the gang is very opposed to the exhumation,
believing New Mexico has common sense and history on its side. The third group
is ambivalent with no preset opinion about the exhumation, one way or the
other.
The Billy The Kid Outlaw Gang advocates and
practices an open forum. It is open to all opinions, provided those are
inoffensively stated -- whether those be verbal or in writing -- in a polite,
well-mannered fashion. The modern-day BTKOG members are ladies and gentlemen
who, despite their personal opinions about the exhumation controversy and other
issues, encourage differences of opinion about Bonney, Garrett and other
historical characters of that time if they are properly and politely
expressed.
BTKOG
Pictured are some Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang
officers for 2003-2004 who gathered with other members in July at their annual
BTKOG campout in the Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso. Pictured (left to
right above) are: Ronald Hadley, Gene Litka, Bob Logue, Wes "Doc" Owen, Bob
"Doc" and Peg Sproull, Paul Blevins, Carol and Joe Hesseling.
A Billy the Kid Outlaw Gang Kid, son of Paul
Blevins
The origins and
genealogy of Billy "The Kid" Bonney and his early life remain a mystery. So too
is the mystery of why he, in the latter portion of his short life, adopted the
name Bonney. Most published historians think that: a.) He began life in New York
as Henry McCarty; b.) He changed his name to William Henry Antrim to match his
stepfather’s after his mother’s marriage in Santa Fe in 1873; and c.) He adopted
the name William H. or Billy Bonney in the last years of his life. Historians
don’t know from where he acquired or why he adopted the Bonney name. Serious
historians admit that they are uncertain of his origins, but think he might have
been born in a New York City Irish slum in 1859. Both the place and the date of
his birth could be incorrect.
Billy's entire life is shrouded in mystery and controversy.
Even his demise has been questioned and an official investigation is now
underway.
We continue to explore the possibilities together in this and future
issues.
