The Lincoln County War began when a posse of men, deputized by Sheriff William J. Brady, murdered young Englishman John Henry Tunstall on February 18, 1878. The posse had ostensibly been chasing Tunstall to attach, i.e., seize by legal authority, some stock Tunstall and his men were driving from Tunstall’s ranch on the Feliz River to Lincoln, but the posse’s real motivation was clear – eliminate John Tunstall as an economic threat to businessmen James Dolan and L.G. Murphy, who had Sheriff Brady in their control.