‘Horses Worn to Mere Shadows’: The Victorio Campaign 1880

This book covers the Victorio Campaign between the Apaches and the USA and Mexico from January to October 1880. This study commences with Victorio’s return to New Mexico in January 1880. The US army’s January to February campaign illustrates the operational decoy strategy employed by Victorio to protect his own logistic support whilst simultaneously undermining that of his opponents. The Hembrillo Canyon operation in April 1880 saw the largest battle of the Victorio Campaign. By the end of May 1880, Victorio’s warriors have rendered the Ninth Cavalry unfit for field service. AUTHOR: Dr Robert N. Watt is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) at the University of Birmingham, UK. His main area of research is into the Apache Wars of 1860-1886, with particular reference to the Victorio Campaign of 1879-1881. He has made numerous archive and field trips to the USA and has visited most of the areas where the Victorio Campaign took place - including Tres Castillos in Northern Mexico, where Victorio was killed in October 1880. He has published articles on Victorio, the Apaches and the US Army in Small Wars & Insurgencies, The New Mexico Historical Review, War in History, Southwestern Historical Quarterly and The Journal of Military History. This article was awarded a Moncado Prize in 2017 by the Society for Military History. He has also published two books with Osprey on the ‘Apache Warrior’ and ‘Apache Tactics’ and taught a module on American Indian Wars for the History Department, the University of Birmingham. He has also published an article on the Red Army in the Second World War and has lectured on Soviet Deep Battle/Operations for a module in the same department. 94 photographs, 12 maps