Alexander McSween (died 19 July 1878) was a New Mexico lawyer who sided with the Lincoln County Regulators during the 1878 Lincoln County War.
Biography[]
Alexander McSween was born in Canada, and he went to law school in St. Louis, Missouri before moving to Kansas and then to the New Mexico Territory. He settled in Lincoln County, where he became business partners with John Tunstall in 1876. In February 1878, Tunstall was murdered on the orders of rival businessman Lawrence Murphy, leading to the Lincoln County War. McSween was one of the leaders of the Regulators during the war, and, in July 1878, the Regulators rushed to Lincoln to warn McSween that he was going to be murdered. McSween refused to leave his home, and the house was besieged by Murphy's deputized posse, John Kinney's bounty hunters, and the US Army. In the ensuing Battle of Lincoln, the Regulators mostly succeeded in escaping, and McSween cheered them on before being mowed down with Gatling Gun fire.
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