Mowry Massacres
| Mowry massacres | |||||
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| Part of Apache Wars, American Civil War | |||||
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 United States
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Apache | ||||
The Mowry massacres, also known as the Mowry murders, were a series of Apache attacks in and around the mining town of Mowry, Arizona between 1863 and 1865. At least sixteen American settlers were killed during the period.
The former United States Army lieutenant, Sylvester Mowry, purchased the Patagonia mine in 1860 from a party of Mexicans. Soon after, Mowry began operating the mine and attracted miners to the area for work. The Chiricahua and other Apache bands were also attracted though, and they considered the Santa Rita Mountains to be sacred ground and they defended it accordingly by raiding and ambushing settlers. As the American Civil War began, United States Army troops were withdrawn from the frontier of Arizona to fight the Confederates in the South. This left the settlers unprotected and vulnerable to attack, even after Union troops from California arrived.
Writer and explorer John Ross Browne visited the area in early 1864 and he described the situation in his book; Adventures in the Apache Country. According to Browne, early in the morning on December 29, of 1863, two young men named J.B. Mills and Edwin Stevens, were traveling on the trail to the Mowry Mine, both were employees of Sylvester Mowry. The pair were about four miles away from the settlement when they were attacked by the Apaches hiding in the bushes at the entrance of a canyon in which the trail runs through. Several shots were fired in rapid succession and Stevens was killed and fell off his horse. Mills was armed so he fought the Apache until bleeding to death from his wounds. There were witnesses to the massacre, two young Mexican boys were traveling nearby and discovered Apache tracks. Just after they saw Mills and Stevens riding to the entrance of the canyon.
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Wikipedia