When the Civil War broke out in 1861, one foe the Confederacy did not anticipate was the Mescalero Apaches of western Texas and central New Mexico. Federal forces pulled out and headed east leaving the territory wide open. Lieutenant Colonel John Baylor of the Department of Texas of the Confederate Army was ordered to take seven companies of the Second Texas Mounted Rifles and garrison some of the abandoned forts in west Texas, which included Clark, Hudson, Lancaster, Stockton, Davis and Fort

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows