In Roswell he found every thing esle but peace, and quiet and harmony.

Shooting contests, and practice with sixshooters and Winchesters were the chief diversions of both old and young for Roswell, and the country roundabout was seething with unrest and excitement over the recent killing of John Tunstall, a young Englishman who was killed February 18th, 1878 - just a month before the coming of Mr. Miller - by a posse, which was the climax of bitter feuds and fighting of rival cattlemen that formed the two factions of the Lincoln County War. The shooting of Morton and Baker a few weeks following the Tunstall murder was the cause of much excitement on the arrival of Mr. Miller.

Billy the Kid, a youthful desperado, had made his appearance at Old Seven Rivers during the spring of 1877 and had gone to Lincoln where he made his home and worked for John Tunstall for whose shooting he swore to have revenge. He was like a firebrand in blowing the hatred and lust for murdering, to extremes of almost frenzy, and to him more than any other persons, belongs the credit, or discredit, of bringing about the Lincoln War which was in full blast. No one dared venture out without a sixshooter or gun of some kind.