First Mora

The battles around Mora were a local response to the American invasion of New Mexico called the Taos Rebellion. Following the January 19 assassination of Governor Charles Bent in nearby Taos, Captain Israel R. Hendley of the Second Missouri Volunteers led a force of 250 men and captured the settlement of Las Vegas where the rebels were gathering. A few days later, Hendley and eighty men marched to Mora, while the remaining Americans remained at Las Vegas. In Mora, the Americans found a much-larger Mexican force “prepared to defend their town.” In the subsequent house-to-house fighting, Hendley was killed. Although the Mexicans suffered greater casualties, the Americans retreated to Las Vegas with a handful of prisoners and reported having slain up to twenty New Mexicans. A week later the Americans returned to Mora to avenge Hendley’s death.