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'Hero' of the Lincoln County War
Lt. Col. Nathan A. M. Dudley

Nathan Augustus Monroe Dudley on Aug. 20, 1825 in Lexington, Massachusetts. He enlisted in the U. S. Army at an early age was a first lieutenant of the Tenth Infantry by Mar. 1855.

This photo of a more youthful Dudley was taken approximately in 1861.

In the late 1850s, he fought the Sioux Indians in Minnesota and also fought in the "Mormon War." Stationed in Kansas in May of 1861, Dudley was promoted to the rank of captain, but was soon after court-martialed for "conduct unbecoming an officer." Stationed in the gulf states during the Civil War, he fought in the battles of Baton Rouge and Port Hudson in 1862 and '63, respectively. In Sept. 1864, he was promoted to the rank of major in command of the Fifteenth Infantry and was transferred to a fort in Texas. He was brevetted brigadier general of U. S. Volunteers in early 1865 for "gallant and meritorious service" during the Civil War. He later transferred to the Twenty-forth Infantry, then to the Third Cavalry.

In 1870, he was stationed at Camp McDowell in Arizona Territory and got into an argument with Capt. Anson Mills. Each officer filed charges against the other, with Mills claiming Dudley had on several occasions been too drunk to properly perform his duties. Once again, Dudley was court-martialed, and was suspended for sixty days. Dudley transferred to, and was given command of, Fort Union, New Mexico Territory in the winter of 1876. In July of the same year, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Ninth Cavalry. In Nov., though, Col. Edward Hatch, an old enemy of Dudley's who was in command of the military in New Mexico, brought several charges against Dudley, including drunkenness on duty, disrespect, disobedience, and false accusation of theft. For the third time, Dudley was court-martialed, with Santa Fe Ring head Thomas Catron and his partner William Thorton acting as Dudley's defense counsel. Catron and Thorton got Dudley off light when he was only suspended for three months.

This photo of Dudley was taken in 1881. It depicts him much as he would have appeared during the Lincoln County War. It perfectly captures the pompous superiority he felt over the adherents of the McSween cause.

After resuming his duties, he was given command of Fort Stanton on Apr. 5, 1878, by which time the Lincoln County War was already in full-swing. Stanton figured pominently as a place of refuge for civilians and fighters during the war, and Dudley himself was known to be friendly with L. G. Murphy and James Dolan, while looking at the men on the side of Alex McSween with utter contempt. On July 19, 1878, during the climactic Five-Day Battle, Dudley led a troop of soldiers into Lincoln for the purpose of "protecting women and children." However, it was made obvious that Dudley's true goal was to help the Dolan cause. Within an hour of his arrival, he managed to drive away more then two-thirds of the McSween fighters. Later, when Susan McSween pleaded with him to give her husband and his men protection, he refused, insulting her as he did so. When the Dolan men set fire to the McSween house, Dudley simply stood by.

Fort Sumner, N.-M., 1880

After the war, Mrs. McSween hired lawyer Huston Chapman for the purpose of prosecuting Dudley for the burning of her house and murder of her husband. However, Chapman himself was murdered by gunman William Campbell, who had some mysterious history with Dudley, in Feb. 1879. Nevertheless, Dudley was suspended of his command in March of the same year and faced a court of inquiry later that spring. The COI ruled in his favor and he was transferred to Fort Union, although he was indicted on a criminal charge of arson for the burning of the McSween house. When he went to trial in the fall of 1879, he was acquitted. Thereafter, he commanded Fort Cummings and led an expedition into Old Mexico. Upon his return to the States, he was made a full colonel of the First Cavalry at Fort Custer.

He eventually retired from the U. S. Army on Aug. 20, 1889, at the rank of brigadier general. He returned to the east and died of natural causes on Apr. 29, 1910. His body was buried with full military honors in the Arlington National Cemetery.

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Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.

We here at Blue Stars For A Safe Return are working hard to honor all of our military, past and present, and their families. Inlcuding the veterans, and POW/MIA's. I feel that not enough is done to recognize the past efforts of the veterans, and remember those who have never been found.

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The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul

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"Treason and High Crimes"
(To be sung to the Outlaws' "Green Grass and High Tides")

It's a place your children dream of, where great men once led the free...
Ol' Abe Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Washington each graced the seat...
FDR, Kennedy, and Jefferson once served the office with pride!
But now we've got Slick Willie bangin' young interns...
Left-Wing tells us, "Let it slide..."

Well, Clinton's been a damned disgrace, spy stories all ring true...
If you say, "It's all Okay!", what does that say 'bout you?!
Med'yuh refuses to ask tough questions, as though Slick were King.
But patriots cannot believe in Bill,
'Cuz Slick's sold his soul to Beijing!! Left declares...

"Treason and high crimes don't matter!"
Good DemocRATs fallin' from glory...
Still, Lib'rals say, "We adore you!"
Left's King's a freak...good folks abhor you-oouu!!

(Guitar Jammin')

Those who don't fight Evil find their souls have been sold cheap...
Numb poltroons can't see how Power has warped Ol' Slick Willie!
Crimes and Slime define Left's WHORE, they take up all his time.
We'll next CONVICT, then Slick will do his prison time...
Right'll force him there!!!

Treason and High Crimes will be proved...
Will DemonRATs follow Slick blindly?!
The Left-Wing says, "We adore you!"
Election's soon...voters will show you-oouu!
Yeah...the Right'll slaughter you-ou-ou-ouuu...!!!

(Mo' Guitar Jammin' to fade)

FReegards...MUD

After more than 120 years of media attention, interest in the Kid remains so high that
the current governor of New Mexico has been considering giving Billy a posthumous pardon.

The current governor is too busy running radio and television commercials touting "GRIP: Governor Richardson's Investment Program" in which the governor of New Mexico actually takes highway funds and spends them on highways.

Bankrolled by his rich Mexican mother, he became the first congressman in New Mexico's newly created Third District in 1982.

In fifteen years he made it number one in heroin overdose deaths nationwide.

Going to the UN in 1997, the special election brought in a "radical right-wing preacher" who voted for all four articles of impeachment, calling me December 1998 on the eve of Clinton's cruise missile Hail Mary to report the House would not delay another day.

Richardson went on to Energy, where the Albright agenda of helping China become a superpower was already in high gear thanks to Hazel O'Leary's putting classified documents in the hallways, giving U.S. News & World Report the two-page color graphic of the W-87, and removing the degrading color-coding of security badges to avoid reducing the ChiCom's self esteem.

Richardson returned after popular Republican Gary "Veto" Johnson was termlimited out to sweep into the Governor's Mansion my old boss described as a ramshackle attempt at territorial with byzantine plumbing.

Richardson never misses an opportunity to badmouth any move of the current administration, while airily papering over his own compadres' "successes", viz. the "agreed framework".

The New Mexico Legislature has followed the precedent set by the city councils of the capital city Santa Fe, and the largest city Albuquerque resolving to in no way cooperate with the INS/CIS.

Our friend who has had dealings with our illustrious governor reports there is a curious intertwining of Richardson's political rise and that of another governor of a third-world state, one who is in hospital hiding from Paula Jones, while the pants in the family clinks champagne with Kim Jong Il.

The Crisco Kid came in after the 1980 Penitentiary riot which killed 33 inmates, and during his term, Ricky Abeyta killed seven in the village of Chimayo.

Having in turn shot his wife, his wife's girlfriend and the girlfriend's boyfriend, that couple's six-month-old baby daughter, the girlfriend's brother, a Santa Fe County Sheriff's deputy, a New Mexico State policeman, Ricky Abeyta now gets three squares on the taxpayer's dime--

But the soup nazi Greer says no soup for Terri.

The Crisco Kid is headed for the POTUS Coral 2008, and his posse, including Bonnie Rodham, will backshoot anybody who gets in their way.

And they don't need no stinking pardon.