The Civil War in Tubac, Arizona

Intersection with the Apache Wars

It was in the sweltering monsoon days of early August 1861 that a horseback rider at full gallop and heartbeat launched at full speed out of a besieged earthen adobe community alongside the Santa Cruz River.

Henry F. Farny - Apache Indians in the Mountains - Museum of Fine Arts.

The dispatch rider was the fledging American mining town of Tubac’s last hope. The town had been besieged by Apache warriors for three days and the situation turned dire with dwindling supplies of ammunition and food. There was no hope of calling in the U.S. Calvary in as they had departed the region for back east. It was all hands on deck in the eastern Civil War battlefields for federal soldiers.

Following the river north on the most important ride of his life, the destination was well-fortified Tucson. Perhaps some armed residents could be assembled for a relief expedition to lift the siege.

Arriving in Tucson, the rider encountered the unanticipated. The city was under a new flag with gray-jacketed soldiers with unmistakable Texan accents loitering around town. In any case, a couple of dozen armed riders under the Confederate flag and under the command of Captain Granville Henderson Oury were assembled and headed out for Tubac.

Captain G. H. Oury

The force arrives in Tubac to save the populace from total annihilation, however, the Apaches were limiting the relief party’s movements outside of the town. It was then decided to collectively flee the destroyed town for the protection of Tucson, rendering Tubac depopulated.

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Take the fast track to understand Tubac, Arizona in person on Borderlandia’s Tubac’s Heritage Tour.

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