USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 22
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McDowell was one of the most important of the early posts, in that it com- manded a number of the more important trails that served as thoroughfares between the Apache tribes of central Arizona. It was commanded for a number of years by Capt. Adna R. Chaffee of the Sixth Cavalry. One of Chaffee's lieu- tenants was E. E. Dravo, who only lately was retired from the army with the rank of colonel in the Commissary Corps. Chaffee had served in the Sixth much Vol. 1 - 11
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of the time since 1863, when he enlisted in it as a private soldier. He was promoted out of it when he was sent to the Ninth as Major in 1880. There- after his rise was rapid and he was General in the Cuban campaign. He re- tired from the army with the rank of Lieutenant-General and died in Los Angeles early in 1915.
While Chaffee was in command of the post he started trouble that needed attention from him intermittently till the time of his death. On the northern edge of the reservation, according to his survey marks, in 1878 was established the residence of Patrick White, a discharged soldier of the Eighth Infantry. In the summer of 1880 Captain Chaffee notified White to leave the reservation. Thereafter, in the absence of the owner, a detachment of soldiers set White's belongings beyond the reservation line and burned the dwelling. For years thereafter Paddy White's wife and widow became known in Washington as the "Woman of the Black Bag," prosecuting her claim against the Government for reparation in a large sum. She finally proved that the survey line accepted by Chaffee was wrong and that her home really was north of the reservation. The claim has been made smaller by time and in a late Congress there was shown disposition to settle on the basis of the actual loss incurred at the time.
After abandonment by the War Department McDowell reservation was transferred to the Interior Department for school purposes. The school had to be moved to Phonix on account of poor transportation facilities and then on the reserve was permitted the settlement of a large number of Mojave-Apache . Indians, whom the Government, without much success, is trying to transform into farmers.
BOWIE, GUARDIAN OF APACHE PASS
Camp Bowie, named after Col. Geo. W. Bowie of the California volunteers, was established in August, 1862, in Apache Pass, a few miles from the site of the present railway station of the same name. Its location was in the very heart of the Apache country, on one of the great trails that had been used by the Indians for their forays into Sonora. It naturally became the bloodiest point on the overland road that had been broken by the gold hunters of 1849, follow- ing in the footprints of the Mormon Battalion. Its first military occupation would appear to have been in 1861, when Lieut. G. W. Bascom there had his unfortunate encounter with Chief Cochise. The post was established soon after the passage of the California Column, when the importance of the location had been demonstrated by a fight with the largest body of Indians ever gathered together in the Southwest. According to T. T. Hunter who passed late in 1867, Fort Bowie was a dreary, lonesome place, even then full of gruesome memories, despite its brief periods of occupation. Hunter told that a few days before his arrival the commanding officer, mounting his horse and driving out for a parley with a number of Apaches, by them was lassoed and dragged from his horse to death, and that on the day of Hunter's arrival "one of the Indians rode up on the Captain's horse and charged around, yelling and hooting and defying the soldiers." The post in later years was the center of much activity in operations against bands of Apaches escaping from the San Carlos reservation and was headquarters for Miles' campaign against the Apaches in 1885. Its importance vanished when the leaders of the San Carlos hostiles were transported out of
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the Southwest and the post finally was abandoned about 1896. The Fort Bowie reservation was sold at public auction in June, 1911, and the whole tract of 2,400 acres was bought from the Government by fifty-nine applicants, mainly farmers and stockmen of the locality.
WHIPPLE, CENTER OF MILITARY CONTROL
Whipple Barracks, at first known as Camp or Fort Whipple, was named after the noted military explorer of northern Arizona. Its original establish- ment was in Little Chino Valley, near Postal's ranch, about twenty miles north of the site of Prescott, December 21, 1863, by two companies of California vol- unteers, commanded by Major Edw. B. Willis, First Infantry, and Captains Hargrave and Benson. There was some scouting of the country for a location for a permanent post. Especial consideration was given a point on the upper Agua Fria, not far from Bowers ranch, but the present location finally was agreed upon and was occupied May 18, 1864, guarding the new capital city of Prescott, distant less than a mile. The old Chino valley location for a while was maintained as a sub-post, named Fort Clark, in honor of the first Surveyor General of the New Mexico and Arizona district, who had looked over the land the previous summer, escorted by Capt. Nat Pishon's cavalry troop.
When Gen. J. F. Rusling inspected Whipple in 1867, it was a rude stockade, inclosing log quarters and barracks. The district headquarters building, on a high point above Granite creek, was reported to have cost $100,000, though only a story and a half frame house, while the flagstaff was said to have cost $10,000 ( ?). Hay at the post cost $60 a ton, grain $12 a bushel, lumber up to $75 a thousand and freight from San Francisco was at the rate of $250 a ton. The post was commanded by Col. John I. Gregg, Eighth Cavalry, who had given over his headquarters building for use as a hospital. According to Captain Bourke, Whipple Barracks in 1871 "was a remarkable, tumbledown palisade of unbarked pine logs hewn from the adjacent slopes ; it was supposed to 'command' something, exactly what, I do not remember, as it was so dilapidated that every time the wind rose we were afraid that the palisade was doomed. The quarters for both officers and men were also log houses, with the exception of one single- room shanty on the apex of the hill nearest to town, which served as General Crook's 'headquarters,' and, at night, as the place wherein he stretched his limbs in slumber. . . " A sentry post was established on the roof of one of the buildings, overlooking the valley of Granite Creek.
For years Whipple was a social, as well as military center, for it generally was headquarters for a regiment, with its band. It also was headquarters of the Military Department of Arizona, established April 15, 1870, which com- prised Arizona and all of California south of a line drawn eastward from Point Concepcion. Attached for a while was the Military District of New Mexico. About 1887 the headquarters of the Department of Arizona were moved to Los Angeles and still later the Territory was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Military Department of the Colorado, with headquarters in Denver.
Whipple Barracks was rebuilt in 1904 by the addition of a couple of new double barracks and other buildings. But these improvements did not suffice in holding a garrison at the post. Citizens of Prescott, led by F. M. Murphy, made many trips to Washington and did their best, but the policy of the War De-
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partment was against the maintenance of small and relatively expensive posts. Early in 1912 the War Department seemed finally to have made up its mind to abandon Whipple Barracks, despite the fact that half a million dollars had been spent upon the post and despite its advantages of location and climate. Soon thereafter the post was vacated by a battalion of troops, sent to the border and has never been regarrisoned.
FORTS APACHE AND HUACHUCA
Fort Apache, one of the two remaining posts in Arizona, lying eighty-five miles south of the Santa Fe railroad station of Holbrook, was located in the summer of 1869, though not occupied till the following year. The site was fixed by the post's first commander, Major John Green, First Cavalry, who had been sent northward from Camp Goodwin with a squadron and some Indian guides, on an expedition against the Apaches. It is told that Green could hardly be restrained from a general massacre of the tribesmen, who seemed unwontedly quiet at the time and with whom were found Charlie Banta and C. E. Cooley, both noted scouts. This post is delightfully situated and has always been popular with army men, despite its remoteness. In days of Indian warfare it occupied a commanding position, betwixt the Apaches and Navajos and had an additional importance after the consolidation of many mountain tribes within the San Carlos reservation. It first was known as Camp Ord, honoring the departmental commander, but later successively was named Mogollon, Thomas and Apache.
Camp Wallen, established in 1874, twenty miles from Crittenden, on Baba- comari Creek, was succeeded a couple of years later by a camp on the northern slopes of the Huachuca Mountains. After there had passed any necessity for guarding the settlers from Indian attacks, Fort Huachuca assumed a degree of international importance on the outbreak of long-continued Mexican wars. For a number of years past it has had the dignity of headquarters for a regiment of cavalry and there are plans for making it one of the larger posts of the Nation, with a garrison of at least a brigade. The post is particularly favored by the fact that available is an unlimited expanse of maneuvering ground, as well as transportation over two railroad systems.
CAMPS AND SUB-POSTS OF INDIAN TIMES
Arizona is dotted with the ruins of many military posts, some of them only known in army chronicles and in the memories of a few pioneers. An important post in the early days was Camp Thomas, established about 1875, on the Gila River, its ruins near the present railroad station of Geronimo. It lay at the southeastern extremity of the Apache reservation at San Carlos, not far from old Camp Goodwin, a post of Civil War days, and maintained a sub-post at San Carlos itself. It proved valuable in blocking a number of raids that were started by the Apaches over their old trail toward the Chiricahua Mountains and Mexico.
Camp Rigg was on the San Carlos River and for a while there was a Camp Pinal, early in the '70s, on the headwaters of Mineral Creek, 115 miles from Tucson. It is noted as abandoned in 1871. It was in the same locality as Gen-
FORT APACHE
FORT HUACHUCA Largest post in the southwest
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eral Stoneman's Picket Post, near Picket Post Butte, where the town of Pinal later was established, around the mill of the Silver King mine.
Near Calabazas, in the Santa Cruz Valley, just north of the Mexican line, was Fort Mason, which had a garrison of California volunteers during the Civil War, with a sub-post at Tnbac.
At one time there was a Camp Lewis on Fossil Creek, on the trail that led from the Verde Valley over towards San Carlos. Camp Hualpais, established in 1869 as Camp Tollgate, was on Walnut Creek on the Fort Mojave road, forty miles northwest of Prescott, Camp Rawlins was a sub-post, about the western edge of Williamson Valley, with Camp Willow Grove and Camp Beal Springs on the same road. Hualpais at one time was a very important post, from which operations were continued against western Indians.
Fort Verde was established under the name of Camp Lincoln early in 1864 by Arizona volunteers sent from Whipple Barracks, following serious Apache depredations within the Verde Valley. The post was manned by regular troops in 1866, and, five years later, was moved to a better site near the mouth of Beaver Creek. The Fort Verde reservation was sold by the Government to settlers in 1900.
Following several temporary camps of California volunteers, in 1866 was es- tablished Camp McPherson on Date Creek, where the hybrid Mojave-Apaches had been murdering travelers on the roads to Prescott. This later was known as Camp Date Creek and was the concentration point for rationed Indian bands. One of the early camps was near Skull Valley.
Col. Kit Carson is said to have established a Camp Supply on the Little Colorado River, about a mile from the present town of Holbrook, during his Navajo campaigns, though probably only under canvas, and there was a Camp Sunset in the same locality.
In the early eighties one of the most important military stations was Camp Rucker, in the canon of that name, in the southeastern Chiricahuas, not far from the Mexican line. It was named after Lieutenant Rucker, drowned in mountain stream, while unsuccessfully trying to rescue Lieutenant Henely, who had been caught in a cloudburst.
CHAPTER XII ARIZONA IN THE CIVIL WAR
Confederate Invasion of the Southwest-Hunter's Capture of Tucson-Picacho Pass Fight-Carleton's California Column-Mowry's Arrest-Apache Pass-New Mexican Military Administration.
It is probable that the greatest force in the early development of Arizona was the accession to her population due to the operations of the Civil War. About 1860 there were few Americans within the present limits of Arizona, though it should be understood that Arizona at that time was considered as including rather the southern part of the present State area, extended easterly to the Rio Grande. The Americans of the period were gathered in a few mining camps, most of them along the Colorado River and south of Tucson, further settle- ment blocked in a general way by the deviltry of the Indians. There were troops at Camps Defiance, Buchanan, Breckenridge and Mojave, as well as at Fort Yuma, which in this publication must be considered as an Arizona factor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, these troops were withdrawn and most of the remaining American civilians had to go with them and abandon all property. Almost at once there was a gathering of Federal troops in New Mexico under Gen. E. R. S. Canby, to offer opposition to the western march of the Confed- erates. For this same purpose, as well as for the protection of California, there was also a mustering of volunteers on the western coast, where before the end of the war the State of California furnished the Union armies two regiments of cavalry and eight full regiments of infantry, beside several battalions of more or less irregular sort. All regular troops on the coast, save four batteries of artillery and seven companies of the Ninth Infantry, on orders from the War Department, were dispatched east via Panama by Gen. E. V. Sumner, who then commanded the Pacific Department. Their places were taken by the volunteers. About the same time a military movement was started toward the southeast.
Strong efforts were being made to throw California into the Confederacy and in the south, where the sentiment was especially strong, a welcome was being pre- pared for the invasion from Texas.
General Sumner was badly handicapped through the fact that Washington was in communication with him. One fool order received, in August, 1861, was to lead an expedition into Texas by way of Mazatlan (on the central west coast of Mexico), his force to be two batteries and practically four regiments of volun- teers. Probably horror-stricken over such an absolutely idiotic scheme, that would involve taking soldiery and cannon through a trackless wilderness for 1,500 miles, the General succeeded in having the orders changed that the land- ing point might be Guaymas, Sonora. He was also advised that the necessary
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permission for the movement had been given by the Mexican authorities, who were having troubles of their own in the way of foreign invasion about that time and who, incidentally, were promptly informed by the Confederate agent at Mexico, Pickett, that if Federal troops were permitted within Mexico, the Confederacy would at once seize the Mexican states along the Texas border. Even after General Sumner was taken to more distinguished service in the east, his successor, Geo. G. Wright, on the evidence of American citizens resident in Sonora, rather urged the occupation of Sonora for the protection of its inhab- itants against outside aggression and, incidentally, in order to better meet the march of Col. John R. Baylor's regiment, the western vanguard of Gen. H. H. Sibley's army. There seemed a general understanding that Baylor was to march to Fort Buchanan, there to refit with stores that there had been gathered for the purpose, by order of President Buchanan's Secretary of War, and then on to Calabazas to establish headquarters. The taking of Tucson would be only an incidental matter. Then was expected the seizure of the rich agricultural val- leys and mines of Sonora. But in this case, as is not unusual in war, the shadow proved to have been very much larger than the substance that followed.
The southern district of California was under the command of Col. Jas. H. Carleton, First California Cavalry, who had been transferred from Captain of the First Dragoons in the regular service. Major Rigg of his command was ordered to Fort Yuma and on the way arrested Showalter, described as "a notori- ous secessionist" and a party of seventeen. This party was taken to Fort Yuma and held. General Wright ordered that no persons should be permitted to cross the Colorado without his special permit and that all persons approaching the frontier of the State should be arrested and held in confinement, unless satis- factory evidence be produced of their fidelity to the Union. In the same order he said : "I will not permit our Government and institutions to be assailed by word or deed without promptly suppressing it by the strong arm of power." Colone! Carleton from Camp Latham, near Los Angeles, ordered seven companies to go up the Colorado to reoccupy Fort Navajo (Mojave?) and re-establish the ferry and to clear away hostile Indians, especially Navajos, on the route between Albuquerque and Los Angeles.
The expedition gathered at Yuma to march eastward and recapture Arizona and southern New Mexico early became known as the California Column. The regulars of the post had been ordered to New San Diego on their way to the east- ern battlefields. At first Colonel Carleton had in his command his own regi- ment and the First California Cavalry squadron of five troops, as well as one company of the Fifth California Volunteers, which was sent with subsistence and other stores around by water to Yuma in January, 1862. Orders at that time were given to fortify the post.
CONFEDERATE SUCCESSES LYNDE'S DISGRACE
Forts Buchanan and Breckenridge each had garrisons of two companies, which, after the destruction and abandonment of the posts, in the summer of '61, combined to march eastward along the main road. Exaggerated reports were received of the strength of the advancing Confederate column, for on the way to Fort Fillmore the highway was left and the command struck over the moun- tains, finally arriving in safety at Fort Craig. This "safety first" movement,
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possibly under orders, necessitated resort to pack mule transportation, the wagons and heavy stores being left behind, wrecked or burned.
The capture of Fort Fillmore, July 27, was a disgraceful one, involving the surrender of about 500 well-equipped regular troops to 250 almost undisciplined .and poorly armed Texans, commanded by Baylor. Major Isaac Lynde of the Fed- eral force in disgrace was dropped from the army rolls, but was restored in 1866, for retirement, on a showing that he had been a victim to a disloyal plot hatched by some of his officers. A number of the ranking officers of the military department already had deserted their posts. It is told that whiskey had been issued without stint to the Federal soldiery at Fillmore. Despite all efforts, only individual officers joined the Confederacy and it is told there was defection of only one enlisted man. The deserters were led by the ranking officers of the department, Colonels W. W. Loring and Geo. B. Crittenden.
The Confederates, in July, 1861, had reached Mesilla, where Colonel Baylor, August 1, issued a proclamation organizing the Territory of Arizona, making the boundary line between that Territory and New Mexico the 34th parallel of north latitude, with Mesilla as the seat of government, and creating himself Governor, his power to be enforced by his own regiment of Texas Mounted Rifles. Soon thereafter Gen. H. H. Sibley reached Mesilla and issued a proclamation in which he welcomed the people of the two Territories into the Confederate Union. He marched up the Rio Grande and was successful in his first engagement with the Union forces, which were commanded by General Canby, who had gathered at Fort Craig all the troops from the southern Arizona posts and had enlisted sev- eral organizations of volunteers. There was an all-day battle on February 21, 1862, terminating in the disgraceful retreat of the Union forces, which, under cover of darkness, drew back into the shelter of the earthworks of Fort Craig. with an admitted loss of 3 officers and 65 men killed, 157 wounded and 35 pris- oners. The Confederates, who were inferior in number, lost 40 killed and 200 wounded. Sibley then moved on past Fort Craig, capturing Albuquerque and Santa Fé.
NEW MEXICO CLEARED OF SOUTHERN FORCES
A month later a force of 1,342 under Col. J. P. Slough, commanding the First Colorado Volunteers, moved from Fort Union to join Canby, to whose 900 regu- lars had been added two regiments of New Mexican volunteers, commanded by Colonels Ceran De Vrain and J. Francisco Chaves. In the former's command the famous Kit Carson was Lieutenant-Colonel. The sentiment of the people, who seemed to fear the Texans, generally was loyal, though no official support was secured by the military authorities till Buchanan's territorial officials had been displaced by President Lincoln.
March 20, Canby's advance of mixed cavalry and infantry under Major Chiv- ington met the enemy in Apache Cañon, fifteen miles east of Santa Fé, and had to fall back, though Chivington's loss of 5 killed and 14 wounded was only about 20 per cent of that of his opponents. The next day Colonel Slough united his force and offered battle to a reinforced Confederate command of about the same strength. A bit of strategy was shown in sending Major Chivington around the flank of the enemy unobserved, to destroy the Confederate camp and the enemy's train of eighty wagons, besides scattering the camp guard of 200 men. In the evening the Confederates retreated toward Santa Fé, defeated and demoralized,
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with a loss of 36 killed and 60 wounded, though leaving only 17 prisoners. The Union loss was 29 killed, 42 wounded and 15 prisoners. This engagement was known variously as the "Battle of Apache Canon," and the "Battle of Glorieta." General Sibley, having lost his baggage and, hearing of the advance of the Cali- fornia Column, being menaced from two directions, started a retreat from Santa Fé, April 8, across country into Texas, which was reached with only about 1,500 men of the 3,700 who composed his original command.
On the whole, General Canby had rather unhappy experience with the New Mexican militia, which he sought only to use for partisan warfare. February 22, 1862, he wrote that he had "disembarrassed" himself of the militia by sending it away. On the same day Socorro was surrendered by Col. Nicolas Pino of the militia, after that officer had found himself deserted by a large part of his com- mand. Many of the militiamen turned to a bandit life in the hills.
All was not harmony within the Confederate forces. General Sibley and Colonel Baylor were at outs, the latter calling his superior officer "an infamous coward and a disgrace to the Confederate army," accusing him of having "doubled himself up in an ambulance during the battle of Val Verde and hoisting a hospital flag upon it for his protection." This charge followed action of Sibley in forwarding to Richmond with his protest an order issued by Baylor and unique in southwestern military annals. Without reference to the bloodthirsty spirit of treachery indicated, the order is notable as recognizing such an organization as the " Arizona Guards," with headquarters at Mesilla. Organization of this com- mand was by specific authority from the Confederate War Department, April 14, 1862, the recruits to be mustered for three years or the war. It was assumed in the order that a brigade of troops thus would be formed. Colonel Chivington, commanding in the lower Rio Grande valley, in a report to General Canby, June 11, 1862, made reference to the Arizona Guards, an organization he stated had been raised by the Confederates for the protection of the settlements against the Indians and to have been more than half Union and Northern men, pressed into the Confederate service.
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