The Perils of Dihydrogen-Monoxide: Challenging Hembrillo Canyon 1880 Myths of the Apache Wars

In this January 18, 2024 presentation for Old Pueblo Archaeology Center's "Third Thursday Food for Thought" Zoom series, historian Robert N. Watt, PhD, challenges several myths concerning events surrounding the two engagements between the US Army Ninth Cavalry and Apaches led by Victorio in southern New Mexico’s Hembrillo Canyon and Basin between April 5 and 7, 1880.
The historic record gave a clear account of the drinking of tainted water and overnight siege of Captain Henry Carroll’s two companies of Ninth Cavalry on April 6-7, 1880, in the Hembrillo Basin. The historic record also revealed a detailed report left by Lieutenant John Conline of a skirmish between Company A, Ninth Cavalry, and Victorio’s warriors on April 5, 1880.
Archaeologist Karl Laumbach’s archaeological and archive research showed that these accounts are inaccurate. In following up these revelations, Dr. Watt’s archive research supports Laumbach’s conclusions. Moreover, his archive research further challenges two additional myths:
1) that the US Army knew the location of Victorio’s camp and
2) that the operation to trap Victorio was undermined by Captain Carroll attacking too early. In other words, the US Army’s letters and telegrams sent and received prior to this operation tell a very different story than that which was entered into the official record after the event.
Dr. Watt is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He completed his trilogy on the Victorio Campaign of 1877-1881 in 2019 after almost twenty years of research. He has published articles on this conflict in the book “Small Wars and Insurgencies” (2002) and in journals The New Mexico Historical Review (2011 and 2022), War in History (two articles in 2011), The Southwestern Historical Quarterly (2015), and The Journal of Military History (2016). The latter was awarded a Moncado Prize.
Dr. Watt also has published two books – “Apache Tactics, 1830-86” and “Apache Warrior 1860-86” for Osprey Publishing in 2012 and 2014, respectively. He has undertaken extensive archive work in Washington DC and the US Southwest, and has made at least 12 field trips to New Mexico, Arizona, and Chihuahua including a visit to Tres Castillos in 2005 and Tinaja de Las Palmas in 2018. You can details about his s research into the Hembrillo Canyon affair in his article "The Perils of Dihydrogen-Monoxide: A Re-interpretation of the Hembrillo Canyon Campaign, March-April 1880" in New Mexico Historical Review Vol. 97, No. 4, pp. 475-504 (2022): https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/nmh...
Old Pueblo Archaeology Center’s “Third Thursday Food for Thought” Zoom webinars, on the Third Thursday evening of each month, feature presentations on archaeological, historical, and cultural topics.