Apache Battleground

In this immediate vicinity, Captain Henry W. Stanton of the U.S. Army, for whom Fort Stanton was named, lost his life in 1855 in a skirmish with the Mescalero Apaches. For several weeks, soldiers commanded by Stanton and Capt. Richard S. Ewell, were in pursuit of Indians who had stolen livestock from the Pecos River area south of Anton Chico. In the final confrontation lives were lost on both sides.