The Victorious One
Victorio was a Fierce Fellow
The Mexicans had good cause for naming him the Victorious One.
Colonel Ethan Pendleton
In this special edition of Y’allogy I provide a mini biography of the antagonist in my literary western: Blood Touching Blood. Other special editions of the newsletter announcing the novel included the cover reveal and other previews of chapters. An offer for autograph copies for paid subscribers will follow publication.
Blood Touching Blood is available for Kindle pre-orders. Both the hardback and the ebook will release on December 1, 2024.
Victorio was an Apache chief who, along with a number of his fellow Chihenne or Warm Spring warriors, declared war against the United States in the early fall of 1879. Raiding mining camps, white settlements, and ranches in Arizona and New Mexico, he splashed across the Rio Grande into the mountainous desert of far West Texas on July 30, 1880. Blood Touching Blood tells the story of the Fort Davis Buffalo Soldiers in their effort to capture or kill Victorio and his Apache warriors. Though the characters of Colonel Ethan Pendleton and Lieutenant Caleb Dancy are fictional, Victorio was real. Though the conversations between Pendleton and Dancy about Victorio are fictitious, details contained in these conversations are factual.
Dancy
I’ve heard rumors about a chief named Victorio.
Pendleton
He’s dangerous and slippery customer. He’s the leader of the Warm Spring band, sometimes called the Chihennes—the red-paint people. Don’t underestimate his skills as a warrior and tactician. He might not follow the rules you learned at West Point, but he’s a crafty and decisive general. Some call him the Apache Napoleon, if that gives you any idea of his talent.
[. . .]
War has been bred into the Apache for centuries. They’re a most intractable adversary. In other native languages Apache means enemy. That ought to tell you something of their ferocity, Lieutenant. In my career fighting Indians, whether on the northern plains or here in the desert of West Texas, Victorio has proven to be a most elusive and fierce foe. The Mexicans had good cause for naming him the Victorious One. He pursues a Fabian policy of killing, without putting his warriors in situations where they’re killed. He’s the most courageous man I’ve ever encountered. He’s considered a Dew Tamper—one who rides in front and shakes the dew off vegetation so those who follow pass through dry. He’s relentless in battle and clever in retreat. In the chase he specializes in wearing horses down to shadows—ours, not his.
Dancy
And the reports of his whereabouts?
Pendleton
Since the beginning of summer, this side of the river, which is our only concern, Victorio’s band has attacked coaches and freighters and cow camps. He’s cut telegraph lines, carted off at least a dozen horses and mules, killed or stolen more than one hundred head of cattle, and murdered three cowboys. We have recent news he murdered a stage driver and two passengers, mutilated their bodies and stuffed torn letters from the mail sacks into their wounds. . . .
[. . .]
Dancy
What else should I know about him? What does he look like?
Pendleton
He’s probably my age, or there about.* No one really knows. He’s not a young man, but neither would I consider him old. He has a broad face and high cheek bones, but that’s not uncommon among Apache men. Some time back a white man shot him through the cheek. About seven or eight years later one of his own warriors shot him through the other cheek, removing his front teeth.
[. . .]
Later, Dancy relates the mysterious death of Victorio to Pendleton. What follows are the actual accounts of the Apache chief’s death at the battle of Tres Castillos in northern Mexico.
Pendleton
Did you and the boys cross into Mexico in pursuit of Victorio? We get little news out here, unless I go into town. I saw a newspaper and read that he was dead. Glory Hallelujah! Victorio Killed! War Ended! Peace! That’s what the headline read.
Dancy
Yessir. But we didn’t take part in the final stages of the campaign. General Pope ordered us to ride the Rio and keep Victorio from crossing back into Texas. Captain MacKenzie and Bernardo† were assigned to the cavalry unit out of New Mexico to scout. They took part in the battle at Tres Castillos. . . .
Pendleton
How was Victorio killed?
Dancy
It’s hard to tell from the reports we received. According to captured Apaches—those who survived the butchery of Colonel Terrazas—Victorio and three other warriors were separated from the main body. They fought until the last bullet and then Victorio plunged a knife into his chest, puncturing his heart. The others did the same.
[. . .]
Unfortunately, no one has been able to confirm the Apaches’ version. Others say the leader of an Indian band aligned with the Mexican forces engaged Victorio and severely wounded him, but Victorio escaped. When he was discovered, he was alive but dying, surrounded by grieving women. This Indian supposedly walked up and put a bullet through him.
[. . .]
Who knows if it’s true. The man was awarded the bounty placed on Victorio’s head and given a nickel rifle as a reward. At least that’s what we’ve been told. But then again, we’ve heard other rumors. We know Terrazas executed captives. Some say in an effort to locate the whereabouts of Victorio he stood up thirty-seven men before a firing squad. The thirty-eighth, after seeing the dishonorable death of his friends, told Terrazas where to find the great war chief. I heard Terrazas didn’t have the courage to do the deed himself so he ordered a junior officer to kill Victorio, who had been wounded in the fight.
[. . .]
Pendleton
Have you spoken with MacKenzie?
Dancy
Yes, he thinks Victorio was killed by an unnamed Mexican sergeant sometime during the battle. The day following, the sergeant’s body was found mutilated. The Apaches had hacked him to pieces. Whether he fell into their hands before dying or not is impossible to say, but he had been riding Victorio’s saddle and on his body were trinkets known to be in Victorio’s possession. . . .
Derrick G. Jeter, Blood Touching Blood (McKinney: Y’allogyPress, 2024), 36–37, 39, 315, 316.
* Victorio was born sometime between 1820 and 1825. When he crossed into Texas, when my story takes place, he was somewhere between fifty-five and sixty-years-old.
† Captain MacKenzie and Bernardo are a fictional characters in the story.
Texan spoken here, y’all.
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Thank you for sharing this. 💟 As a Texan, I'm always interested in keeping our history in perspective.