In the spring of 1883 Apache raiders massacred Judge McComas and 
his wife and kidnapped their six-year-old son, Charley, as the family 
traveled on a desolate road in southwestern New Mexico Territory, all 
victims of revenge sought by the Apaches for Gen. George Crook's 
campaign.

    At the time, the entire circumstances concerning this tragic 
incident had not been fully understood—or perhaps cared about. In 
Massacre on the Lordsburg Road, historian Marc Simmons brings to 
light one of the last massacres of the Indian wars, presenting exactly 
why and how the McComases met their end on that desolate road, 
the events that led up to it, and the public reactions that followed.

    The puzzlement of why a reputably wise and able man would lead 
his family into such a fatal predicament, the pursuit of the Apaches 
into Mexico by General Crook, and the ironic circumstance of Charley 
McComas's death at the hands of Crook's troops in a raid on the 
Apache camp, illustrates that past events were as complex and as 
human as those today.

_________________________________________________________

MARC SIMMONS is a professional historian and author of the 
Southwest, focusing on the Indian and Hispanic heritages of New 
Mexico. He lives in Cerrillos, New Mexico.


Number Fifteen: Elma Dill Russell Spencer Series in the West and 
Southwest


What people are saying about this book

"Simmons, the ultimate southwest historian, gives readers an accurate 
picture of the aftermath of the massacre and how it affected the Indians 
and the remaining members of the McComas family, complete with 
photographs, a bibliography and index."—Enchantment, November 2005

"Simmons does an excellent job of presenting the evidence. . . . gives 
a good history of the reasons behind raids and counter-raiding and 
terror along the borderlands. . . . While academic and thorough in his 
exploration and research, Simmons is also a wonderful writer."—True West

"Marc Simmons, a renowned chronicler of southwestern history, has 
performed masterful detective work in locating even the most obscure 
printed sources, military and civil court records, and oral history accounts 
from both Apache and white participants in the events."—Military History 
of the West