The Kid Meets Ben-Hur

Evening.  March 17, 1879.  A short and slim young man makes his way quietly through the outskirts of Lincoln, New Mexico and knocks softly on the door of the house of JB Wilson.  A voice answers "come in".  Slowly entering the room with his rifle in one hand and pistol in the other, the young man recognizes Wilson and sees a bearded man sitting at a table.  The man stands up and says, "I am Governor Wallace".

William Bonney (born Henry McCarty, aka "Kid", "Kid Antrim", and later "Billy the Kid") and Lew Wallace, Territorial Governor of New Mexico, noted Civil War General, and author of Ben-Hur, which he was writing at the time, begin their meeting.

The events leading to this remarkable encountered resulted from the Lincoln County War, a series of bloody clashes between rival factions in southeast New Mexico.  I won't go through all the complicated details.  Suffice it to say that whether you were nominally on the side of "the law" or not, you were a bad guy to some degree.  

Though his reputation as a man-killer has grown over the years, it is likely that Billy killed perhaps six men.  One of those was probably Lincoln County Sheriff William Brady (a criminal himself), killed in an ambush in Lincoln in April 1878 and the main reason Billy sought the meeting with Wallace.

Billy's road to the Wilson home began with his birth in New York City in 1859.  His immigrant Irish widowed mother moved the family, first to Indiana and then, in 1870, to Wichita, Kansas.  Three years later, after remarrying, the family headed west, eventually settling in Silver City, a mining town in the southwest mountains of the New Mexico Territory.  After scrapes with the local law, Billy fled Silver City, crossed the Rio Grande to the southeast part of the territory and ended up in the area around Lincoln.

By the end of 1877, Billy was working for a local rancher, John Tunstall, a young English-born gentleman.  Billy grew to idolize Tunstall who treated him well. Tunstall and his partner, Alexander McSween, were rivals of another business group led by Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan.  That rivalry devolved into the violence that seemed endemic across much of the territory.

In February 1878, a posse, acting on dubious legal grounds and led by Sheriff Brady, an ally of Murphy and Dolan, murdered Tunstall, triggering the Lincoln County War, with Billy becoming a member of the self-proclaimed Regulators, seeking revenge and justice for Tunstall's death.

A series of violent clashes ensued, reaching a climax in July when a large gang of Regulators took over much of Lincoln for several days only to be driven out by the Murphy-Dolan faction with support of troopers from the nearby Army post.

Following the Battle of Lincoln, Billy and three others were indicted (probably wrongly) for the killing of the bookkeeper at the Mescalero Indian Agency in August.

Lew Wallace's path to Lincoln was very different.  His father was governor of Indiana and later congressman, and young Lewis served in the Mexican War, going on to become a prominent lawyer in the state.  When the war broke out he was asked to raise a regiment and by early 1862 was a general commanding a brigade.  He performed outstandingly in the capture of Fort Donelson in February 1862, but at the Battle of Shiloh two months later his actions became controversial both during and after the war, and also led to US Grant becoming an enemy and sidetracking his further rise in the army.  However, in July 1864 at Monocacy, Maryland he led his outnumbered forces in turning back Confederate General Jubal Early's raid which threatened Washington DC.  Grant, who continued to be critical of Wallace's actions at Shiloh, was gracious in his memoirs about Monocacy, writing:

If Early had been but one day earlier, he might have entered the capital before the arrival of the reinforcements I had sent. ... General Wallace contributed on this occasion by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory.

In 1865 Wallace served as one of the eight military commissioners at the trial of the accused assassins of Abraham Lincoln and on the commission that sentenced Henry Wirz, commandant of the Andersonville POW camp, to death.

Going to Mexico he served as a military advisor to Benito Juarez in his successful campaign to oust the Emperor Maximillian.  Returning to the U.S. and resuming his law practice, Wallace was named by President Hayes, whom he had campaigned for, as territorial governor, taking office in late September of 1878.

This was not a particularly prestigious appointment, Wallace preferring an important diplomatic position, and he must have wondered what he had gotten himself into when he arrived in Santa Fe.  The entire territory was in turmoil, with the Lincoln County War and Apache raids being the worst of it.

Shortly after arriving, Wallace was informed by the U.S. Marshall that he held warrants for several men, including "William H. Antrim, alias Kid, alias Bonny" but was unable to execute them "owing to the disturbed condition of affairs in that county, resulting from the acts of a desperate class of men".

In November, the governor issued an amnesty proclamation for anyone involved in the war, excepting those under indictment or convicted, which meant the Kid was still an outlaw.   And, despite, the amnesty, violence continued.

On February 13, 1879, the Kid was back in Lincoln, where he witnessed the killing of Huston Chapman, an attorney hired by the widow of McSween (killed in the Battle of Lincoln), by one of gunmen of the Murphy-Dolan faction.  Billy managed to escape and went into hiding.

Governor Wallace was determined to finally get the county under control, arriving in Lincoln on March 5 with a detachment of soldiers.  On March 11 he ordered the army detachment to arrest 34 men from both sides, including the Kid, prompting the Kid to come up with his own plan.

On March 13 he wrote Wallace, offering to provide information on Chapman's killer in return for dropping the indictments against him.  The letter was headed:

To his Excellency the Governor

General Lew Wallace

Dear Sir, 

 And contained this:

I was present When Mr. Chapman was murdereded and know who did it and if it were not for those indicements I would have made it clear before now. if it is in your power to Annully those indictments I hope you will do so as to give me a chance to explain. . . . I have no wish to fight any more indeed I have not raised an arm since Your proclamation.

 

Waiting for an annser I remain Your Obedeint Servant

W.H. Bonney

 Desperately needing a witness against Chapman's murderers, Wallace responded on the 15th:

. . . I have authority to exempt you from prosecution, if you will testify to what you say you know.

 

. . . To do that the utmost secrecy is to be used.  So come alone.  Don't tell anybody - not a living soul - where you are coming or the object.

Two days later the Kid and Wallace met.  What must have been going through the governor's mind that night, a man who had been an Army general, knew the current and former presidents, an acquaintance of the president of Mexico, sitting down with a 19 year old outlaw?

 

Whatever Wallace was thinking, the two men quickly agreed on a plan.  Billy agreed to a staged arrest by Lincoln Sheriff George Kimbrell, who would keep him safe in custody for his own protection for the upcoming court session in April.  In return, Wallace pledged "I will let you go scot-free with a pardon in your pocket for all your misdeeds". 

Within days, the continued unrest unsettled Billy and he became worried he would not be safe even in custody.  On March 20 he wrote Wallace:

Sir, I will keep the appointment I made but be Sure and have men come that You can depend on.  I am not afraid to die like a man fighting but I would not like to be killed like a dog unarmed.

The planned arrest occured on March 23, and Billy was confined in an outbuilding in Lincoln.  That night, Wallace sat down with Billy, listening and writing down what the Kid told him.  According to Billy The Kid: El Bandido Simpatico by James Mills (from which this quote and most others in this post are taken), which contains much of Billy's statement, it was much more extensive than just Chapman's killings, "regarding a host of his long-time enemies and the relentless violence and theft throughout the region.  Billy would not, however, provide an ounce of information regarding any of his amigos or former fellow Regulators."

A few nights later, Wallace heard music with Spanish lyrics, went outside and saw a group of Hispanos gathered at Billy's window and playing for his enjoyment.  The governor didn't realize that Billy had close ties with the Hispano community, being one of the few Anglo cowboys who spoke fluent Spanish and enjoyed their company.  Indeed, the Kid was to spend most of the last two years of his life living in Hispano communities, where his friends would shelter him from the law.  His captor, Sheriff Kimbrell was brother in law of Billy's friend Martin Chavez, so it was a friendly confinement he was enduring.

As an indication of his continued concern,Wallace wrote President Hayes on March 31 requesting he place Lincoln County under martial law, a request Hayes denied.

Court convened in Lincoln on April 14.  Over the next two weeks over 200 indictments were issued against fifty men, mostly from the Dolan faction.  By that time, Wallace had departed, leaving on April 18 after meeting with new district attorney William Rynerson, who, as it turned out, faked his enthusiasm for Wallace's arrangements.  While the Kid testified against Dolan and two others regarding Chapman's murder, the widow McSween's new lawyer grew concerned about the D.A. writing Wallace on April 20,

I tell you Gov that the prosecuting officer of this Dist is no friend to the enforcement of the law.  He is bent on going for the Kid & notwithstanding he know how it is proposed to destroy his testimony & influence he's bent on pushing him to the wall.  He is a Dolan man and he's defending him by his conduct all he can.

Four days later the McSween lawyer was the object of an unsuccessful attempt to shoot him, as was Kimbrell's deputy.

Rynerson refused to consent to Billy's release for turning State's evidence, refused to drop the charges for the Brady killing, and successfully obtained a change of venue to neighboring Dona Ana County, where Dolan had firm control.  If that trial occurred, Billy would be convicted and hanged.

But Wallace, now back in Santa Fe, did not act, failing to issue the pardon even after Billy testified in another trial.  The reasons for this remain unclear.  Billy grew increasingly wary and, realizing there would be no pardon, and he faced certain death after a trial, took matters into his own hands.  On the evening of June 17 he announced he was leaving his confinement.  Sheriff Kimbrell made no attempt to stop him as the Kid saddled his horse and rode off into the night.

The smartest thing for Billy to do would have been to leave the territory, but he didn't, a decision that sealed his fate.  A wanted man, he was involved in further violent incidents, including one killing definitely by the Kid and another possible mortal shooting, eventually being captured on December 23, 1880, by a posse led by Pat Garrett.  The imprisoned Kid sent several letters to Wallace, seeking clemency, but they went unanswered.

 

In April 1881, Billy was convicted of the killing of Sheriff Brady and sentenced to hang on May 13.  In perhaps his most daring exploit, on April 28 the Kid escaped from the jail in Lincoln where he was under guard, killing two deputies in the process, one of whom, Bob Olinger, was a pretty bad man himself.

Garrett, who had treated Billy well while he was in his custody, resumed the manhunt, tracking the Kid to the Fort Sumner area, where, on the night of July 14, he shot and killed Billy.  He was 21. And the legend began.

As for Lew Wallace, he left New Mexico in 1881 to take on a new role as U.S. Minister to the Ottoman Empire, where he was a great success.  When he resigned in 1885, the Sultan tried to get him to accept a role as the Ottoman minister to England or France, but Wallace declined, returning to Indiana, living an active life and continuing his writing.

While in New Mexico, Wallace completed his novel, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, published in November 1880.  By 1900 it had passed Uncle Tom's Cabin as the best selling American novel of the 19th century and the book remains in print.

Wallace died in 1905 at the age of 77.