Earp Posse Pursues Outlaw Cowboys
After killing Stilwell in Tucson and verifying that the train was on its way to California with Virgil, the Earp party was afoot. They walked back along the tracks out of Tucson to the Papago freight stop where they flagged down the night-freight train back to the terminal in Benson. In Benson they hired a wagon back to Contention where they picked up their stabled horses. They rode into Tombstone around midday on Tuesday, March 21. Once in Tombstone they learned of Marietta Duarte's testimony during the coroner's inquest into Morgan's death and the names of the accused Cowboys.
They were now wanted men because Stilwell's killing had been connected to the Earp party on the train. Tucson Justice of the Peace Charles Meyer issued arrest warrants for five of the Earps' party. He sent a telegram to Tombstone saying that Wyatt and Warren Earp, Holliday, Johnson and McMasters were wanted in Tucson for killing Stilwell and that Cochise County Sheriff Behan should arrest them. The telegraph office manager was a friend to the Earps and showed the message to Wyatt, delaying its delivery to Behan long enough to allow the Earps and their associates to make ready to leave town Tuesday evening.
Behan got the telegram informing him that warrants for the arrest of the five men had been issued in Tucson in the early evening. He found the men in the lobby of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, heavily armed, getting ready to leave town. He told Wyatt he wanted to see him. Deputy U.S. Marshal Wyatt replied "Johnny, if you're not careful you'll see me once too often." One of Behan's deputies, Billy Breakenridge, claimed Wyatt and his men resisted arrest and even pulled their guns on Behan and Dave Neagle, one of Wyatt's friends, to prevent their arrest.
Wyatt and Warren Earp, Doc Holliday, Johnson and McMasters were now joined by "Texas Jack" Vermillion, Dan Tipton, Charlie Smith, Fred Dodge, Johnny Green, and Lou Cooley to form a federal posse under Wyatt's authority as the deputy federal marshal. Continuing to ignore Behan, the Earp posse rode out of town the same evening of Tuesday, March 21. They headed for the woodcutting camp of Pete Spence in the South Pass in the Dragoon Mountains. It would be the last time the Earps or Holliday would ever see Tombstone.
Sheriff Behan now formed his own posse. Although Tucson was outside Behan's jurisdiction as Sheriff of Cochise Country, his stated purpose was to capture the five men for which warrants had been issued for the Tucson Stilwell murder. Behan deputized a number of Cowboys, friends of Frank Stilwell and Ike Clanton, including Johnny Ringo, Phineas Clanton, Johnny Barnes and about 18 more men to ride after the federal posse and the five men wanted for Stilwell's murder.
Read more about this topic: Earp Vendetta Ride
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