Lincoln County War
E224334
The Lincoln County War was a violent 1878 frontier conflict in New Mexico involving rival economic factions and famous gunmen like Billy the Kid, emblematic of lawlessness in the American Wild West.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Lincoln County War canonical | 20 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1997465 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lincoln County War Context triple: [Wild West, notableEvent, Lincoln County War]
-
A.
Johnson County War
The Johnson County War was a violent late-19th-century conflict in Wyoming between large cattle barons and smaller settlers and rustlers, emblematic of the lawlessness and power struggles of the American Wild West.
-
B.
Winnebago War
The Winnebago War was a brief 1827 conflict between the United States and the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people in the Upper Mississippi region, sparked by tensions over land cessions and American expansion.
-
C.
Modoc War
The Modoc War was an 1872–1873 armed conflict in northern California and southern Oregon between the Modoc people and the United States Army, notable for its protracted guerrilla fighting in the Lava Beds and the execution of Modoc leader Captain Jack.
-
D.
Dodge City War
The Dodge City War was an 1883 bloodless conflict in Dodge City, Kansas, involving a standoff between rival lawmen and saloon interests that epitomized the power struggles and lawlessness of the American Wild West.
-
E.
Coushatta Massacre
The Coushatta Massacre was an 1874 Reconstruction-era attack in Louisiana in which members of the White League murdered Republican officeholders and freedmen to undermine Black political rights and restore white supremacist control.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Lincoln County War Target entity description: The Lincoln County War was a violent 1878 frontier conflict in New Mexico involving rival economic factions and famous gunmen like Billy the Kid, emblematic of lawlessness in the American Wild West.
-
A.
Johnson County War
The Johnson County War was a violent late-19th-century conflict in Wyoming between large cattle barons and smaller settlers and rustlers, emblematic of the lawlessness and power struggles of the American Wild West.
-
B.
Winnebago War
The Winnebago War was a brief 1827 conflict between the United States and the Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people in the Upper Mississippi region, sparked by tensions over land cessions and American expansion.
-
C.
Modoc War
The Modoc War was an 1872–1873 armed conflict in northern California and southern Oregon between the Modoc people and the United States Army, notable for its protracted guerrilla fighting in the Lava Beds and the execution of Modoc leader Captain Jack.
-
D.
Dodge City War
The Dodge City War was an 1883 bloodless conflict in Dodge City, Kansas, involving a standoff between rival lawmen and saloon interests that epitomized the power struggles and lawlessness of the American Wild West.
-
E.
Coushatta Massacre
The Coushatta Massacre was an 1874 Reconstruction-era attack in Louisiana in which members of the White League murdered Republican officeholders and freedmen to undermine Black political rights and restore white supremacist control.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (57)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Old West conflict
ⓘ
historical event ⓘ range war ⓘ |
| cause |
competition for economic dominance in Lincoln County
ⓘ
control of cattle and ranching interests ⓘ control of dry-goods trade ⓘ monopoly of the Murphy–Dolan faction ⓘ |
| characterizedBy |
corruption in local law enforcement
ⓘ
lawlessness ⓘ use of hired gunmen ⓘ vigilante justice ⓘ |
| conflictType |
economic rivalry
ⓘ
frontier violence ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| depictedIn |
Western films
ⓘ
historical novels about Billy the Kid ⓘ |
| documentedIn |
contemporary newspaper accounts
ⓘ
court records of New Mexico Territory ⓘ |
| endDate | 1878-07-19 ⓘ |
| hasCasualties |
Alexander McSween
ⓘ
John Tunstall ⓘ Sheriff William J. Brady ⓘ |
| involves |
Lincoln County Regulators
ⓘ
local ranchers and merchants ⓘ |
| jurisdiction |
New Mexico Territory
ⓘ
surface form:
New Mexico territorial government
|
| lawEnforcementRole |
posses and deputized gunmen
ⓘ
Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office ⓘ
surface form:
sheriff’s office of Lincoln County
|
| legacy |
central episode in the legend of Billy the Kid
ⓘ
symbol of violence and lawlessness in the American Wild West ⓘ |
| locatedIn |
Lincoln County, New Mexico
ⓘ
surface form:
Lincoln County, New Mexico Territory
New Mexico Territory ⓘ |
| mainBelligerent |
Murphy–Dolan faction
ⓘ
Tunstall–McSween faction ⓘ |
| notableEvent |
Battle of Lincoln
ⓘ
Five-Day Battle in Lincoln ⓘ McSween house burning ⓘ assassination of Sheriff William J. Brady ⓘ murder of John Tunstall ⓘ |
| notableParticipant |
Alexander McSween
ⓘ
Billy the Kid ⓘ Doc Scurlock ⓘ James Dolan ⓘ John Tunstall ⓘ Jose Chavez y Chavez ⓘ Lawrence Murphy ⓘ Pat Garrett ⓘ Richard Brewer ⓘ Sheriff William J. Brady ⓘ |
| opposingFaction |
House faction
ⓘ
Regulators faction ⓘ |
| partOf | history of the American Old West ⓘ |
| result |
collapse of the Murphy–Dolan monopoly
ⓘ
death of several combatants and civilians ⓘ increased federal attention to lawlessness in New Mexico Territory ⓘ |
| startDate | 1878-02-18 ⓘ |
| timePeriod |
1870s
ⓘ
Reconstruction era ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Lincoln County War Description of subject: The Lincoln County War was a violent 1878 frontier conflict in New Mexico involving rival economic factions and famous gunmen like Billy the Kid, emblematic of lawlessness in the American Wild West.
Referenced by (20)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Lincoln, New Mexico
subject surface form:
Lincoln, New Mexico
subject surface form:
Lincoln County, New Mexico
subject surface form:
Lincoln County, New Mexico