History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 79

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954

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McKee and two score of his followers arrested and imprisoned. This ended the purchase of guns by the rebel sympathizers.

There were yet many of the butternut caste in Colorado and a detachment of them succeeded in establishing a meeting place at the head of Cherry Creek in the autumn of 1861. In the meantime, the First Colorado Volunteer Regiment had been organized and a number of these soldiers were despatched to the enemies' stronghold. Some of the latter were captured and others escaped. The rebels fled southward, taking possession of a wagon train in the southeastern part of the present state, but many of them were speedily caught by the pursuing soldiers and returned to Denver with their former comrades. After a few weeks of im- prisonment they were discharged by the authorities and threatened with summary punishment if they resumed their disloyal activities. In this way the last organized attempt to oppose the North was quelled in the territory. Those of southern ideas and who wished to take up arms against the North surreptitiously departed from Colorado, individually or in small groups, and made their way to the nearest Con- federate army or community.

FIRST RECRUITING

In July, 1861, Governor Gilpin, with the cooperation of several prominent citizens, had taken steps to perfect some sort of military organization. A request was made of the Washington authorities for permission to organize a few com- panies of infantry or cavalry, the same to be used in the service of the North. For some reason, this request was ignored.

In the same month of July, recruiting was begun near Idaho and vicinity by Samuel H. Cook, for service in a Kansas Regiment. This must be considered as the first actual recruiting in the territory for service in the cause of the Union. When Cook had nearly completed his recruiting Governor Gilpin persuaded him to keep the men in Colorado, to form a unit of the First Regiment of Volunteers. This regiment was conceived in the mind of the governor, as he had decided to assume the initiative and organize a regiment despite the silence of Washington. As governor of the territory he was vested with authority to raise a military force for the defense of the citizens.

John P. Slough, a Denver attorney, by this time had received a commission from Washington to enlist two companies of infantry for the regular service. The original plan was for this command to relieve the United States Regulars at Fort Garland, thus releasing the latter for work at the front. In July and August, Governor Gilpin appointed company officers and ordered the enlistment of nine . companies which, with Cook's two, were to comprise the new regiment. In the latter part of August he made additional arrangements for two more companies, which were to perform the service intended for the two units to be raised by Slough, and afterward to form the basis of the Second Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, then contemplated.

Recruiting offices having been located at the more important places in the ter- ritory, by the end of September the quota of the First Regiment was practically filled. John P. Slough was appointed colonel of the regiment ; Samuel F. Tappan was made lieutenant-colonel; John M. Chivington, later of Sand Creek fame, was commissioned major. Chivington, in view of his former vocation as a

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preacher, was tendered the position of chaplain at first, but his bellicose spirit was too strong for such an office and he chose the majorship. The companies and their officers, also places where recruited, were :

Company A, Capt. Edward W. Wynkoop, was recruited at Denver by Colonel Slough.

Company B, Capt. Samuel M. Logan, was recruited at Central City by Lieu- tenant-Colonel Tappan.

Company C, Capt. Richard Sopris, was recruited partly in Denver and partly in the Buckskin Joe district in the South Park.

Company D, Captain Downing, was formed mostly in Denver.

Company E, Capt. Scott J. Anthony, was recruited in the California Gulch and Buckskin Joe districts.

Company F, Capt. Samuel H. Cook, was formed of men from the vicinity twenty-five miles west of Denver, which is now Clear Creek County.

Company G, Capt. Josiah W. Hambleton, was recruited in the Clear Creek district.

Company H, Capt. George L. Sanborn, raised mostly at Central City.

Company I, Capt. Charles Mailie, a German company recruited at Denver, Central City and in other Clear Creek mining towns.

Company K, Capt. Charles P. Marion, recruited mostly in Denver and Central City.

Captains Hambleton and Marion were both cashiered for insubordination in November and were succeeded by Captains William F. Wilder and Samuel H. Robbins respectively.

Comfortable barracks, costing about $40,000, were constructed on the east side of the South Platte River, two and a half miles above the mouth of Cherry Creek, and here the regiment was taken in October. The encampment was given the name of Camp Weld, in honor of the first secretary of the territory-Lewis Ledyard Weld.

By the end of November two more companies were raised at Canon City, and were known as "Captain 'Jim' Ford's Independent Company" and "Captain Theo- dore Dodd's Independent Company."

These Colorado soldiers might be described by the word nondescript. Regula- tion government supplies and equipment failed to arrive for some time, and each man carried a different kind of weapon. When the regulation guns did arrive, they were few in number and of inferior quality. Currency was another obstacle in the governor's path. Congress had not included in its appropriations for the Colorado territorial government any funds for military purposes. Governor Gilpin found it necessary to resort to some means to meet expenses, so issued . negotiable drafts directly upon the national treasury, which were accepted here as legal tender. He was outside of his authority in doing this, but was not aware of it at the time. When the drafts began to reach Washington the merry music began, and the paper was all repudiated by the Government. This led to a finan- cial depression in the territory, as there had been about $375,000 worth of these drafts issued, and the feeling against Gilpin became extremely bitter. He visited Washington in the attempt to straighten matters out, but was unsuccessful, and the question was finally submitted to the cabinet. Early in 1862 this body of men voted to remove Gilpin from office. In May, 1862, John Evans succeeded to the office of governor of Colorado Territory.

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PROCLAMATION

In order to show the temper of the people in regard to the conflict being waged, the Territorial Legislature adopted the following resolutions the first of October :

"Be it Resolved by the Council and House of Representatives of Colorado Territory, as follows, to-wit:

"Resolved, That the deplorable Civil war in which the United States Govern- ment is now engaged, was brought about by the unjustifiable and traitorous acts of the disunionists at the South, and therefore the sole responsibility for all its legitimate consequences rests with them alone.

"Resolved, That all the resources of the Country both in men and means to their utter exhaustion should be at once called out, if needed to defend the Na- tional Government, and to preserve the integrity of the Union.

"Resolved, That the pretended right of secession, as claimed by some of the states of the Union, has no warrant in the Constitution and is wholly repugnant to the principles on which our government was founded.

"Resolved, That after this rebellion shall have been crushed out, the supremacy of the Federal Constitution shall have been fully conceded, and the rights of the Union shall have been amply guaranteed, then there should be invoked the same spirit of concession and compromise to perpetuate our institutions, in which they were first conceived and framed.

"Resolved, That the people of Colorado Territory, utterly ignoring all former political classifications, heartily sympathize with the Federal Government in its present contest, approve of its leading acts, which have been necessarily under- taken for its own self-existence and self-defense, and pledge themselves to co- operate to the full extent of their power, in all constitutional measures which may hereafter be adopted toward the prompt and decisive conclusion of the war thus waged on its part only for the maintenance of the Constitution and the enforce- ment of the laws."

Another resolution was approved on October 29th which placed confidence in Governor Gilpin and accorded him the support of the Legislature.

In addition to the volunteer companies already formed and which were enlisted for the term of three years, two home guard companies, designated as Nos. I and 2, were formed in the City of Denver. Joseph Ziegelmuller was the captain of the first one and James W. Iddings of the second. The duty of these troops kept them in Denver as guards, but they were regularly mustered into the United States service and mustered out in the spring of 1862. In November, three com- panies of the First were taken to Fort Wise from Camp Weld and there remained during the winter months, under command of the post officer, Lieut. James M. Warner .. The companies which had been raised at Canon City, recruited by Ford and Dodd, remained there until the close of the year for equipment and muster.

MENACE FROM THE SOUTH

Shortly after Texas seceded from the Government in March, 1861, the Con- federate authorities in that state began to prepare to take possession of the Federal forts which stood upon Texas soil, also to take over the Territory of New

Vol. I-45

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Mexico, which then included all of the present State of Arizona. In a short time all the Union troops which had been stationed in Texas were withdrawn, leaving many supplies in the hands of the Confederates.

Adequate provisions had been made for the expected war by John B. Floyd, secretary of war under President Buchanan, who was a southern sympathizer. Anticipating the secession of the rebel states, he abundantly stocked all the forts in Texas and New Mexico with provisions and munitions of war, also stationed a greater number of army officers than necessary at the New Mexico posts, believ- ing that when the South withdrew from the Union these officers would give their services to the cause and persuade a greater part of the soldiers to do likewise. Although many of the officers did desert the blue for the gray, the whole force in this territory was not seriously crippled thereby.

Col. William W. Loring, a North Carolinian, was unwisely placed in charge of the Union army in New Mexico, with headquarters at Santa Fé. Colonel Loring bore an excellent reputation as an officer, but favored the southern cause. He remained in office at Santa Fé for about three months, doing all in his power to aid the Confederates in their plan of invading New Mexico, then formally resigned and joined the Confederate army. Col. Edward R. S. Canby, an officer of unquestioned loyalty, succeeded Loring and established his headquarters at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, one hundred and fifty miles above El Paso. Con- ditions in New Mexico and Arizona were then in turmoil. New Mexico was considered to be largely for the North, but in the country now constituting Arizona, where there were few people, rabid southerners were in the majority. In a con- vention held at Tucson in the late spring of '61 the western half of New Mexico was definitely listed among the Confederate states and a delegate to the Con- federate Congress elected.

BAYLOR'S CAMPAIGN

In July, 1861, Lieut .- Col. John R. Baylor, C. S. A., with several companies of Texas mounted infantry and artillery, invested Fort Bliss, on the Rio Grande below El Paso. Here he left a detachment and began to march up the Rio Grande with the remainder of the force, carrying with him a small field battery. First he approached Fort Fillmore, thirty-six miles above El Paso, and commanded by Maj. Isaac Lynde. The latter made a feeble effort to resist the southern troops, was defeated, and abandoned the fort. With some five hundred Union troops he sought refuge at San Augustin Springs, twenty-five miles northeast of Fort Fill- more, but Baylor continued the pursuit and compelled the Union commander to lay down his arms, despite the wishes of Lynde's under officers to make some sort of fight. This exhibition of weakness compelled the evacuation of Fort Thorne, forty miles up the river from Fort Fillmore. The garrison was removed to Fort Craig. The Confederates, evidently believing they could capture Fort Craig, moved on up the valley of the Rio Grande, but were met by a detachment from the fort and compelled to retire. Colonel Baylor lost no time in proclaiming to the inhabitants that he had assumed control of the southern half of New Mexico in the name of the C. S. A. and that the town of Mesilla would be the seat of government.

Colonel Canby realized the distinct menace of Baylor's success along the Rio

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Grande and immediately began to assemble all available Federal troops at Fort Craig. The post was strengthened and enlarged and every preparation made to receive the enemy.

CONFEDERATE PURPOSES

The vast designs of the Confederates in occupying New Mexico were put into motion when Gen. Henry H. Sibley was directed to invade and hold all of New Mexico Territory. Sibley was a native of Louisiana and a West Point man; he won an enviable reputation in the Mexican war, and near the outbreak of war in 1861 was stationed in New Mexico. He resigned from the Federal service in May, 1861, and was given the office of brigadier-general in the Confederate army, with orders to form a whole brigade in Texas and two batteries of light artillery. This completed, he was to take possession of all New Mexico, capture the Federal supplies and forts, and drive all Union troops out. This done, it was believed many enlistments would be secured from this territory and also Colorado.

The complicated purpose of this move is well described by J. C. Smiley in the preface to Whitford's Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War; the New Mexico Campaign in 1862, which was published by the Colorado State Historical and Natural History Society (1906). This follows :

"The men in whom were the military ability and the very bone and sinew of the Union cause in that campaign, and who bore the burden of hardship and sacrifice in winning the victory which abruptly checked and turned the rising tide of Confederate successes in the southwest, were citizen-soldiers of the Territory of Colorado.

"On the part of the Confederates that campaign meant far more than appears when it is considered merely as a military enterprise-as an ambitious inroad into a section of the national domain outside the boundaries of the Southern Confed- eracy. Back of it was a political project of vast magnitude, upon which enthusi- astic southern leaders had set their hearts.

"In 1860, 1861, and well into 1862, the militant spirit of disunion was not confined to the slave-holding states of our country. Disruption of the old Union was boldly advocated among and favored by a large and influential element of the population of California-an element that predominated in number and influ- ence in the southern half of that state. Far-northwest Oregon had many earnest and active supporters of secession, who thought their interests demanded an inde- pendent government on the Pacific Slope. In the Territory of Utah, which then (until the spring of 1861) included the area of the present State of Nevada, those of its people of the Mormon persuasion had been embittered against the United States Government by reason of their long-continued embroilments with it, and were ready for any change in which immunity from interference in their church- and-domestic affairs was conceded to them. The inhabitants of New Mexico' were divided in sentiment, but while probably more than one-half of them were for the Union, those of the western part of the territory (the present Arizona) were almost unanimously against it; and these, as well as the other sympathizers of the breaking-up policy, were led by men of high standing among them and of extreme determination. When the Territory of Colorado was organized in 1861, a large majority of its population was in the Town of Denver, and in the Clear

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Creek, the Boulder and the South Park mining districts. Perhaps rather more than two-thirds of the people were loyal to the Union, but among their friends and associates and neighbors were many who were ardent and outspoken for the Southern Cause. The first discovery of gold here that was followed by practical results had been made by Georgians in 1858, and a host of southern men had come into the territory in 1859 and '60. These Colorado pioneers from the South were, as a rule, men of sterling character and of much personal popularity.

"In this backward glance at the political conditions existing in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and on the Pacific Coast, we may see the reasons for the exuberant hopes that were sanguinely cherished by some southern leaders in 1861-62. Be- cause of these conditions they confidently expected to split off from the Union, in addition to the states which had already seceded and formed the 'Confederate States of America,' these three territories and the larger part, if not all, of the Pacific Coast proper. Their anticipations and plans embraced even more than this, for it was their intention to acquire, also, either with money or by force of arms, a large part of northern Mexico, which was to be annexed to the Southern Con- federacy. Maj. Trevanion T. Teel, one of General Sibley's very efficient officers, in a brief account of the objects of the Confederate campaign in New Mexico in 1862 and of the causes of its failure, written and published about twenty years ago, said that if it had been successful, 'negotiations to secure Chihuahua, Sonora and Lower California, either by purchase or conquest, would be opened ; the state of affairs in Mexico made it an easy thing to take those states, and the Mexican President would be glad to get rid of them and at the same time improve his exchequer. In addition to all this, General Sibley intimated that there was a secret understanding between the Mexican and Confederate authorities, and that, as soon as our occupation of the said states was assured, a transfer of those states would be made to the Confederacy. Juarez, the president of the Republic (so called), was then in the City of Mexico with a small army under his command, hardly sufficient to keep him in his position. That date (1862) was the darkest hour in the annals of our sister republic, but it was the brightest of the Confed- eracy, and General Sibley thought that he would have little difficulty in con- summating the ends so devoutly wished by the Confederate Government.'

"But we have not yet reached the limit of southern purposes in that memo- rable campaign. Confederate control of the gold-producing regions of the West then known-Colorado and California-was another great result expected from its successful issue, and which figured largely in the calculations. President Lincoln held these sources of gold supply as being of vital importance to the Union Cause, as forming 'the life-blood of our financial credit.' Jefferson Davis, President of the Southern Confederacy, also comprehended their value in that time of stress, and hoped to make them an acceptable basis of foreign loans to his government.

"It is usually unprofitable to speculate about what 'might have happened'; yet there can be no reasonable doubt that if the Confederate army which entered New Mexico at the beginning of 1862 had not been stopped and defeated at La Glorieta, or somewhere else in that vicinity about the same time, our histories of the War for the Union would read differently. In their dreams of the near future some southern leaders saw their Confederacy extended to the Pacific Coast and embracing more than one-half of the territory of the United States, while in

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those of others it formed a junction and an alliance with another division of the old Union-with a 'Western Confederacy' having dominion over all that part of our country lying west of the Continental Divide, save in the South an outlet to the Pacific for the southern people. Had General Sibley succeeded in taking Fort Union, with its large stores of arms, artillery and general military supplies, his further progress before he could have been confronted by an adequate force perhaps would have been over an easy road toward fulfillment of the plans of his government. We are further informed by Major Teel that 'Sibley was to utilize the results of Baylor's successes,' and that 'with the enlistment of men from New Mexico, California, Arizona and Colorado, form an army which would effect the ultimate aim of the campaign, for there were scattered over all the western states and territories southern men who were anxiously awaiting an opportunity to join the Confederate army.' *

"With the Pacific Coast in their possession by conquest, or with a free way to it by alliance with a 'Western Confederacy,' the world would have been opened to the Confederates, since it would have been impossible for the Federal navy effectively to blockade the coast. Furthermore, the oceans could have been made to swarm with Confederate cruisers and privateers preying upon the commerce of the Union. An approach to success in this great scheme, with a prospect of the domain of the United States becoming broken into three minor nationalities, prob- ably would have secured recognition of the Southern Confederacy from the English and French governments at once, and perhaps from others in Europe. What, then, might the consequences have been?

"It was such considerations as those outlined in the foregoing that induced Confederate leaders in 1861-62 to attempt to establish provisionally a military government in western New Mexico, and to send General Sibley forth to carry the war into the Rocky Mountains. Regarded solely from a military standpoint, the mere conquest and occupation of New Mexico, and even of Colorado in addi- tion, could have worked no advantage of importance to the Southern Confeder- acy; but possession of both would have strongly fortified subsequent efforts to consummate the greater purposes. Bearing in mind these comprehensive designs, we shall be better prepared to appreciate the services rendered the Nation by Colorado volunteers in the New Mexico campaign in 1862."

PREPARATIONS TO RESIST SIBLEY

General Canby, as stated before, hastened to assemble all available troops at Fort Craig, in order to meet Sibley's Confederates. One of his acts during this time was to request Governor Gilpin to send him troops from Colorado Territory. The two companies recruited by Ford and Dodd were accordingly sent.

Dodd's unit departed from Canon City December 7th and Ford's December 12th. The troops marched to Fort Garland, by way of the Sangre de Cristo Pass, and there the two companies were mustered into the United States service, as Companies A and B respectively, of the Second Colorado Volunteer Infantry. In the latter part of December Company A marched to Santa Fé, then down the Rio Grande Valley to Fort Craig, reaching the latter place in February Company B stayed at Fort Garland until February 4, 1862, then went to Santa Fé, thence to Fort Union, arriving March 11th.

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Volunteers were also raised in northeastern New Mexico, when it became evident that the Confederates intended to take possession of the territory. An attempt was made to raise five regiments there. About the middle of February, one of these regiments, of which the redoubtable Kit Carson was the colonel, to- gether with portions of the other four and a number of unattached units, came to Fort Craig to join Canby.

CONFEDERATE PREPARATIONS

By the first of the year 1862 Colonel Sibley had his force encamped near Mesilla and Fort Fillmore, while Baylor was quartered at Mesilla, acting as gov- ernor of the Confederate Territory of Arizona. All of New Mexico below the thirty-fourth parallel had been annexed to the C. S. A. on January 2Ist by the Confederate Congress and had been named the Territory of Arizona. President Davis appointed Baylor as military governor and also the commander-in-chief of all troops therein stationed.

Sibley, acting under instructions, made an attempt to enlist Mexican volun- teers from the Rio Grande Valley, but in this was not successful. Delegates, or envoys, were sent to the Mexican states, such as Chihuahua and Sonora, to gain the good will of the people there toward the Confederacy, and a detachment of soldiers was marched to Tucson, in order to maintain obedience in that section of Arizona Territory. Having failed to obtain any appreciable number of volun- teers from among the Mexicans, Sibley then placed all of his hopes in getting them from the Americans in New Mexico. As it later transpired, however, he was disappointed again.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 79

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 954

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954