Tully & Ochoa Wagon Attack – 1869

This is a reproduction of an oil painting by Edward Zinns, a Colorado miner and artist who was traveling with the wagon train for protection and witnessed the attack firsthand allowing for a rare, accurate depiction.

Tully & Ochoa was a Tucson-based freighting and mercantile company. On May 11, 1869, wagon master Santa Cruz Castaneda led 14 men, nine wagons, and 80 mules from Tucson to Camp Grant. Near Cañada del Oro (by today’s Biosphere 2), about eighty Apache warriors confronted the train. Despite a warning to abandon it, Castaneda refused and revealed a hidden “surprise” cannon (visible in the painting).

Tully and Ochoa Wagon Attack, May 1869

The battle lasted from morning until sundown. Three teamsters were killed and many wounded; Apache fighters also sustained injuries. Soldiers from Camp Grant joined the fight, but when ammunition ran out, Castaneda surrendered the wagons and escaped with military help. The Apache took the freight and mules and burned the wagons.

The original painting, likely commissioned by Tully or Ochoa, passed through several prominent Tucson owners: Sam Katzenstein, owner of the Cosmopolitan Hotel, and then to Sam Hughes founding member of the Arizona Pioneers’ Historical Society.  It is now part of the Arizona Historical Society’s collection.

Attack on Tully and Ochoa May 1869 Smoke Signal Publication

Other resources:

• American Society of Arms Collectors Bulletin 109:48-55 – When No One Had a Camera; Edward Zinn’s Painting of the Tully & Ochoa Wagon Train Fight, by Jay Van Orden
• The Tucson Corral of the Westerners – Founded 1953 – Publishers & Editors of The Smoke Signal
• More works by Henry Pickering “Pick” Walker (www.librarything.com)