Battle of Placito

The Battle of Placito or Battle of the Placito was an engagement between ethnic Mexican settlers, Confederate soldiers and Apache warriors. It took place at the now abandoned village of Placito in Confederate Arizona. The action is a part of the Apache Wars of the mid to late nineteenth century.

Battle
Following the Gallinas Massacre, Lieutenant John Pulliam of the Confederate garrison at Fort Stanton, returned from his patrol in the Gallinas Mountains where he searched for the three dead soldiers, massacred a week earlier.

He arrived at Fort Stanton on September 8, 1861. That same evening a dispatch arrived from the Placito, a Spanish era settlement, occupied by Mexican settlers. The dispatch detailed a current Apache assault on the town, ten miles below the fort. Pulliam was ordered to proceed to the village with fifteen men to help protect its citizens.

After arriving, at night, Pulliam, his fifteen men and an unknown number of Mexican men, drove the Apaches out of town and then fought off the Apaches all night at a further range. Eventually the natives gave up and retreated back into the surrounding desert.

Casualties are unknown, except for the Apaches who suffered at least five men killed by Pulliam's squad. An unknown number of Apache wounded escaped the fighting. The Lieutenant and his men arrived back at Fort Stanton the following afternoon.