’An Exodus to Nowhere’?: Victorio’s Tres Castillos Campaign, September–October 1880

The 14-15 October 1880 battle of Tres Castillos in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, brought a dramatic end to the career of Victorio, one of the greatest military leaders of the Apache peoples of the American Southwest and northern Mexico. This article contends that Victorio’s defeat and death at the hands of Mexican troops at Tres Castillos did not come at the end of aimless wandering in the desert, as has been alleged. It marked, instead, the conclusion of a campaign that epitomized the distinctive strategies and tactics which characterized the Apache way of guerrilla warfare and that are worthy of continued study today.