First Battle of Terrenate
Part of the Spanish-Apache Wars
Date July 7, 1776 Location Terrenate, Sonora, New Spain Modern Day: Terrenate, Cochise County, Arizona Result Spanish phyrric victory
Belligerents
Spain	Apache
Commanders and leaders
Francisco Tovar
Strength
49 cavalry, unknown militia, Fort Terrenate	unknown warriors
Casualties and losses
29 killed, unknown wounded	unknown

The Battle of Terrenate in July, 1776 was a military confrontation during the Spanish period of Arizona. Those confronted were Spanish soldiers and Apache warriors, at the Presidio Santa Cruz de Terrenate near the present day Tombstone, Arizona.

The fortress of Santa Cruz de Terrenate site, near the San Pedro River, was chosen on August 22, 1775 by Hugo O'Conor, an Irish mercenary in charge of relocation Spanish fortifications on the Sonoran frontier. The spot was on a bluff overlooking the San Pedro River and an abandoned Hohokam village, which was provided with natural fortifications on several sides. The walls were built in the shape of a large square, with one triangular bastion at a corner to protect the presidio's two front walls and a main gate protected by a two-story guardhouse. Several jicales were also constructed to house the families of the garrison soldiers, along with a small barracks, an officer's quarters, a chapel and a plaza. The area had pasturage, wood and water. The garrison consisted of the commander, Francisco Tovar and fifty-six heavy cavalry men, though a bastion was completed, artillery pieces had not yet arrived to the isolated post which was still uncomplete at the time of battle. The fightingmen were armed with pistols, muskets, swords and lances. The Spanirds did not have long to wait before hostile Apaches began to harass the settlement, attacking anyone who ventured out for water tryed to plant crops in the nearby fields. The Apaches were attracted by the large number of horses kept at the settlement and ran off the herds whenever they were unguarded. As the number of their horses became fewer, the soldiers were less and less able to pursue the raiders to try to reclaim them. On July 7, 1776 a battle left the commander and twenty-nine of his men dead after a long fight at the uncompleted fort. Hundreds of Apaches, armed with few muskets, bows and arrows and axes, stormed the post but the Spaniards were able to hold their position. Dozens of Apaches were killed or wounded, exact numbers are unknown.

In August the fort finally received a shipment of weapons. Captain Francisco Ignacio de Trespalacios replaced the fallen commander and brought reinforcements to bring their number up to eighty-three men. In mid-November, 1776, Trespalacios led thirty of them to the mission of Magdalena on the San Ignacio River. When they arrived they found that forty Apaches had looted the settlement, murdered the inhabitants and burned the church. This became known as the Magdalena Massacre. Apache attacks on Fort Terraanate became so fierce that over eighty men perished while manning it, during only four years of it's use, two of the dead were commanders.

• Spanish period of Arizona
• Capture of Tucson (1846)
• Capture of Tucson (1862)
• Siege of Tubac
• American Indian Wars
• Apache Wars
• Navajo Wars

1. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1888, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530–1888. The History Company, San Francisco.
2. Cooper, Evelyn S., 1995, Tucson in Focus: The Buehman Studio. Arizona Historical Society, Tucson. (ISBN 0-910037-35-3).
3. Dobyns, Henry F., 1976, Spanish Colonial Tucson. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. (ISBN 0-8165-0546-2).
4. Drachman, Roy P., 1999, From Cowtown to Desert Metropolis: Ninety Years of Arizona Memories. Whitewing Press, San Francisco. (ISBN 1-888965-02-9.