On the second day of a siege, the gunfire matters less than the waiting.
Day Two of the Battle of Lincoln (July 16, 1878) does not erupt—it calcifies.
The town seals itself shut. Civilians barricade behind adobe walls. Gunmen hold positions they cannot abandon. And law enforcement, unable to compel surrender, begins looking upward for force it cannot legally command.
In this episode of Gallows & Gunfights, we examine Day Two of the Lincoln siege not as a shootout, but as a stress test applied to authority itself.
Inside the McSween house, Billy the Kid and the Regulators hold their ground under sustained but calculated fire. Outside, Sheriff George Peppin and the Murphy–Dolan faction confront an uncomfortable reality: numbers and badges are no longer enough.
This episode covers:
The full tactical stalemate of Day Two
Civilian confinement and the transformation of homes into firing positions
Billy the Kid’s role as a fixed defensive force
The request for federal artillery—and its legal denial
The firing upon a U.S. Army courier
How accusation, not evidence, reshaped the narrative
Why restraint—not bloodshed—became the hinge point of the siege
By nightfall, no ground has changed hands.
But the conflict no longer belongs solely to Lincoln.
This is not myth.
This is record.
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