USA > New Mexico > History of New Mexico : its resources and people, Volume I > Part 21
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"Burying their dead, the Confederates, on the second day after the en- gagement, began their march along the river toward Albuquerque and Santa Fé, leaving General Canby at Fort Craig with a largely superior force in their rear. From Val Verde to Santa Fé no serious opposition was encountered, though but few, very few real friends were found. Upon the approach of the Confederates, Santa Fé was abandoned by the Federals, who had also concentrated a large force at Fort Union. Thus, it will be seen that the en- trances to the Territory were held by them and so strongly as to be entirely secure against the Confederates, who occupied the ground intermediate be- tween these strongholds.
"Advancing from Santa Fé and moving toward Fort Union, a portion of the Confederate forces, under Colonel Scurry, met the enemy on March 28 at Glorieta. This was a close man-to-man contest. Both sides claimed the victory, but the Confederates were compelled to abandon the field and fall back to Santa Fé. In the meantime, General Canby was marching from Fort Craig upon Albuquerque, where the very few supplies that could be ob- tained had been deposited. Albuquerque is about seventy-five miles distant from Santa Fé. The Confederates hastened as rapidly as possible to its relief. Upon their arrival Canby withdrew his forces.
"Almost entirely without food of any kind, and with but a scant supply of ammunition, and learning that bodies of troops were marching from Cal- ifornia and Colorado to the assistance of General Canby, it was determined to abandon the territory. One of the regiments ( the Fourth) had already dis- mounted itself-its horses, through hard travel and want of forage, having become entirely unfit for service. From Albuquerque the retreat began, the Confederates following the road which led down the river and imme- diately by and within gun-shot distance of Fort Craig, still in possession of the Federals.
"Halting at Peralta the first night, they were surprised to find in front of them on the next morning General Canby with his entire army. Skirmish- ing began and was continued during the day. At night, after destroying whatever could not be carried with them, the Confederates crossed the river, and after burying all of their artillery except the six guns and caissons cap- tured at Val Verde, began their march through a wilderness and over mountains that had never before been trodden by civilized man. The artil- lery was often drawn by the men themselves, so poor were the horses and
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mules previously used for this purpose that they were unable to pull the gun carriages.
"This wild and hitherto untraveled route became necessary in order to avoid Fort Craig by again striking the river some forty miles below. The command, or rather such part of it as survived, finally reached El Paso and there remained a short time, preparatory to renewing its march to San Antonio across an almost desert country, with water to be found only in small quantities and at long distances ; supplies voluntarily contributed by their friends and relatives at home reaching the different detachments from time to time upon the route. The Val Verde battery, being in advance, ar- rived at San Antonio on the 4th day of July, the officers and men of the company requiring clothing to be sent them before making their entrance into the city.
"Thus disastrously ended one of the most ill advised expeditions of our Civil war. More than one-third of those who left San Antonio six months previously full of life, hope and ambition, had perished upon the field of battle, from wounds received in battle or from diseases contracted through exposure or from the want of sufficient clothing and of proper at- tention. The only trophy of the campaign was the six-gun battery cap- tured at Val Verde, and which afterwards did service in South and West Louisiana.
"Recruiting its exhausted ranks, the brigade, thereafter known as Green's, was ordered to Louisiana and actively participated in all of the cam- paigns in that section during the years 1863, 1864 and until the termination of the war. How well it bore its part during that eventful period the re- capture of Galveston, Camp Island, Berwick's Bay, the Lafourche, the For- doche, the Bourbeaux, Fort Butler, Carrion Crowe, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Blair's Landing, Yellow Bayou and many other fields of hard conflict, bear convincing testimony."
As stated, it was the arrival of the "California Column" which hastened the evacuation of New Mexico by the Confederate forces. This event was also significant as an emphatic proof of California's loyalty to the Union. It meant the collapse of the plans which had been entertained at the outset of the war to bring the southwest under the allegiance of the Confederate states.
The appearance of the Confederate troops in New Mexico and Arizona and the success they met with at the outset of their campaign caused the Federal authorities anxiety lest they might establish themselves securely in these territories and use them as bases of supplies and for the purpose of organizing a force for the invasion of California. It was therefore de- cided to reinforce the troops in New Mexico with a force from California ; hence the formation of the California Column. General Wright suggested to the war department the organization of such an expedition, and on General McClellan's approval of the project it was organized in the winter of 1861- 62.
It at first consisted of the First California Cavalry, five companies under Colonel Edward E. Eyre; the First California Infantry, under Colo- nel James H. Carleton ; and a light battery of four brass field pieces, under First Lieutenant John B. Shinn of the Third Artillery, U. S. A. The Fifth California Infantry, under Colonel George W. Bowie, was afterward sent to reinforce the "column."
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On April 28, 1862, soon after the expedition had started from Fort Yuma, Carleton was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general of volun- teers, and Joseph R. West succeeded him as colonel of the First Infantry. The progress of the little army was slow and fraught with almost incon- ceivable dangers and hardships, the "Yuma desert" being then, as now, well nigh impassable for any army of men proceeding afoot or on horseback. The season was the driest known for thirty years, which made the passage of the desert the more hazardous. In a communication to the War De- partment, dated at San Francisco, Cal., June 21, 1862, General George Wright reported: "Lieutenant Shinn, commanding the light artillery bat- tery, reached Fort Barrett on the thirty-first day of May, and was to march for Tucson on the first of June; his horses in good working order, but a little thin. Thus far the expedition has been successfully prosecuted. Arizona is securely occupied, notwithstanding the prediction of traitors that we should be compelled to abandon everything in the midst of the desert."
On June 8, 1862, General Carleton, from his headquarters at Tucson, issued his proclamation as military governor of the newly created territory of Arizona, which until the action of Congress erecting it as a separate territory, had been a part of the territory of New Mexico. In his procla- mation General Carleton described the new territory as "all the country eastward from the Colorado river, which is now occupied by the forces of the United States, known as the 'Column from California.' And as the flag of the United States shall be carried by this column still further east- ward, these limits will extend in that direction until they reach the furthest geographical boundary of the territory." Martial law was declared through- out the new territory, and three days later Acting Assistant Adjutant-Gen- eral Benjamin C. Cutler was appointed "secretary of state" of the new ter- ritory.
On June 15, 1862, General Carleton dispatched from Tucson John Jones, Sergeant Wheeling of Company F, First California Infantry, and a Mexican guide named Chaves, with communications for General Canby, notifying the latter of the approach of the California troops. On the 18th these men were attacked by a party of Apaches, and Wheeling and Chaves killed; but Jones, almost by a miracle, succeeded in getting through the Indians and reaching the Rio Grande at a point known as Picacho, six miles above La Mesilla. Here he was captured by the Confederates and taken before Colonel William Steele, who took his dispatches and threw him into jail. He managed, however, to get word to General Canby that he had arrived and that the long and eagerly anticipated California column was really well on its way to the Rio Grande, an achievement which had been considered as absolutely impracticable.
As soon as Steele became convinced that the California troops were actually approaching, though still several hundred miles distant, with a great desert intervening. hurried preparations to abandon the country were made by the Confederates. In the meantime General Canby had dispatched a large force to Fort Craig, with orders to move on La Me- silla as soon as adequate means of transportation could be provided.
June 21 a strong reconnoitering force under Lieutenant-Colonel Eyre left Tucson, arriving at the Rio Grande, near Fort Thorn, on July 4. On the following day this force occupied that work, it having been abandoned
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by the Confederates. Eyre was soon afterward reinforced by a squadron of the Third Cavalry, U. S. A., and, having constructed a raft and built a boat, started to cross the river to march on Forts Fillmore and Bliss (the latter in Texas). Some delay in his movements ensued as the re- sult of the receipt of conflicting orders from Colonel Chivington and Colo- nel Howe, acting assistant adjutant general, but he finally reached Las Cruces. There he learned that a portion of the Confederate force were at Franklin, Texas, where they had been collecting government property with the intention of selling it secretly to citizens of El Paso. Having in the meantime received positive orders from Colonel Howe not to leave Las Cruces, he was unable to move upon Franklin. Had Colonel Eyre not been hampered by commands from superior officers who were un- familiar with the local situation, he might have broken up the movement at Franklin, as well as captured the disheartened and disorganized force under Colonel Steele ..
The energy, enterprise and resources of Colonel Eyre, as exhibited in his rapid march from Tucson to the Rio Grande, his crossing of that river, and his unlooked-for presence directly upon the heels of the re- treating Confederates, cannot be too highly appreciated. He exhibited some of the finest qualities of a soldier, and had he not been fettered by orders from higher authority, he undoubtedly would have achieved ad- vantages over the enemy creditable to himself and to the army. But for his timely arrival upon the Rio Grande, Las Cruces and La Mesilla would both have been laid in ashes by the enemy. Hampered as he was by orders, he nevertheless managed to hoist the stars and stripes upon Fort Thorn, Fort Fillmore, and La Mesilla, in New Mexico, and Fort Bliss, in Texas.
On July 23 General Carleton left Tucson for the Rio Grande, the larger portion of his troops, under command of Colonel West, having preceded him a short time before. On account of the hostile attitude of the Chiricahui Indians he found it necessary to establish a post in Apache Pass, which he named Fort Bowie. This fort protected the water in that pass. Upon reaching Ojo de la Vaca, and receiving in- formation that a large number of men, women and children were in a destitute and starving condition at the Pinos Altos mines, over forty miles northeastward from the point, he sent to them some provisions as a gratuity.
Arriving at the Rio Grande, at a point three miles above Fort Thorn, on August 7. he immediately communicated with General Canby. Two days later he crossed the river eighteen miles below Fort Thorn, and the day following, August 10, the head of the column reached Las Cruces, where the advance guard of the army under Colonel Eyre, strengthened by four companies of regular infantry from Fort Craig, was stationed. Although advised by General Canby that the invasion of Texas from Las Cruces as a base was impracticable, General Carleton nevertheless re- ceived permission from Canby to use his own judgment in the matter, and accordingly started for Fort Bliss with three companies of cavalry on August 16. At Franklin he captured twenty-five sick and disabled Confederate soldiers and recovered the government stores which Colonel Eyre had desired to recapture. These he sent to the depot which he had established at La Mesilla. Hoping to restore confidence to the people, who
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had been taught by the Texans that the California troops were coming among them as marauders and robbers, he continued his march almost a hundred miles down the Rio Grande into Texas. In his report on this expedition General Carleton says: "When they found we treated them kindly, and paid them a fair price for all supplies we required, they re- joiced to find, as they came under the old flag once more, that they could now have protection and be treated justly."
September 2 General Carleton received orders directing him to leave General Canby in the command of the Department of New Mexico. Re- turning to Las Cruces he transferred the command of the district of Arizona to Colonel Joseph R. West, but retained command of the Cali- fornia column. On September 16 he arrived in Santa Fé and assumed command of the department.
On October II, 1862, General Carleton ordered an expedition con- sisting of Companies A and D, First California Cavalry, to Dog Canyon, against the Mescalero Apaches, to co-operate with an expedition under Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson, who had been ordered, with five com- panies of his regiment, the First New Mexico Cavalry, to re-occupy Fort Stanton. As a result of this expedition the Mescalero Apaches were completely subdued, and four hundred of them were taken prisoners.
On January 12, 1863, Company A left Las Cruces, arriving at Fort McLean January 19. The following day Captain McCleave, with twenty men, proceeded to Pinos Altos mines and attacked a party of Mangus Colorado's Apaches, killing eleven and wounding the chief's wife. Three days before Mangus Colorado (Bloody Hand), the chief, had been brought into Fort McLean a prisoner, and the day after his capture was killed by a guard while attempting to escape.
The First Battalion, California Veteran Volunteer Infantry, was or- ganized in November and December, 1864, by consolidating the Veterans of the First California Volunteer Infantry into two companies, which became Companies A and B, and consolidating the companies of the Fifth California Volunteer Infantry into five companies, which became Com- panies C, D, E, F and G of the battalion. Colonel Edwin A. Rigg of the First Infantry was made lieutenant-colonel and commander of the battalion, and Major Joseph Smith of the Fifth Infantry, was made its major. Company F was broken up in February, 1865, for the purpose of distributing the men among the other companies on account of the difficulty experienced in getting recruits. This battalion was engaged principally in efforts to subdne the Indians throughout New Mexico, and was stationed for the most of the period of its service at Franklin, Texas, Fort Craig, Los Pinos, Fort Union, Fort Selden, Fort McRae, Fort Wingate, Fort Garland. Fort Cummings and Las Cruces, usually divided into its component companies. It was mustered out at Los Pinos, N. M., September 15, 1866.
By an act of the legislature, approved January 31, 1867, the sum of fifteen hundred dollars was appropriated to enclose the graves and erect monuments over the federal soldiers killed at the battle of Apache Canyon and Glorieta, "that now lie near the house of Kuzlowski;" and to enclose the graves and erect monuments over the Federal soldiers "killed at Val Verde and now interred at Fort Craig." As nothing was done to carry out the provisions of this act, on account of its vagueness, at the following
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session another law was passed, increasing the appropriation to eighteen hundred dollars, and making definite provisions for the erection of the monuments.
The First New Mexico Cavalry, Kit Carson's regiment, was or- ganized in June, 1861, its members being drawn from the northern coun- ties, Taos, Rio Arriba, Santa Fé and Mora. The muster followed the first call for volunteers, and the enlistment was for three years. Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, who was first colonel of the regiment, resigned soon after the organization, and Kit Carson, next in command, became his suc- cessor and continued at the head of the regiment throughout the war. J. F. Chaves was major.
From Fort Union the regiment was sent to Fort Craig, and in the following February participated at the battle of Val Verde. Part of the regiment was sent up the Rio Grande and participated in the battle of Apache Canyon. Colonel Carson, with such of his command as was not detached for duty at different posts, was stationed at Fort Stanton to hold the Mescalero Apaches in check. It was while here that the mutiny occurred in which Dr. J. M. Whitlock was killed. Captain Craig, of one of the companies, endeavored to start a mutiny because of the presence of a negro in the regiment. Because of the negro Lieutenant Morris had declared a readiness to desert to the Confederates. In the alterca- tion which ensued, Dr. Whitlock, surgeon of the regiment, who was en- deavoring to preserve discipline, shot and killed Craig, whereupon the soldiers of the latter's company, incited, it is said, by Morris, set upon and butchered the surgeon most brutally. Carson ordered the arrest of Morris and his company were disarmed, but Morris afterward escaped from jail and disappeared.
From Fort Stanton Colonel Carson took part of his regiment to Fort Bascom in the summer of 1863, and was engaged in a campaign against the Comanches. In the latter part of the year he set out to Fort Win- gate to command an expedition against the Navajos. To keep this tribe in subjection required the presence of the troops and frequent fights for three years, some of the California volunteers assisting in the campaign until the surrender in the fall of 1865. Among the battles with the In- dians were those at Cañon de Chelly, Rita Quemado, Little Colorado, near San Francisco mountains, Pueblo, Colorado, near Oraibe, Mesa La Baca. In the fall of 1865 the Indians began to surrender at Fort Defiance (Fort Wingate). Carson agreed to protect them if they were willing to be removed to Fort Sumner. The Indians consented, but after the change, on account of climate, became dissatisfied and began to desert and return to their old home. An expedition to force them to return was sent out under command of Captain Edward Butler, of the Fifteenth California Volunteer Infantry, and Captain Donaciano Montoya, of Taos, of Com- pany F of the First Regiment. Of the renegades and deserters they killed about 60 and captured about 100, whom they sent back to Fort Sumner. The only important Indian who could not be found was Manuelito, the Navajo chieftain, who, with his followers, was apprehended and delivered to the authorities in October, 1866.
The First New Mexico Regiment was mustered out in 1865, but from those whose time had not expired Carson organized a battalion of four companies, to be ready for service in case any troubles might arise
.
Kit Carson, the Noted Scout
Photograph taken in Washington, D. C., in 1867. Copy from original in possession of Mrs. Aloys Scheurich, Taos, N. M.
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among the Indians. This battalion was stationed at Fort Garland, in Colorado. The Ute Indians had been threatening the towns of western Colorado and northern New Mexico. Advised of an imminent attack against Trinidad and Pueblo, Carson hurried his troops to that vicinity, and as a result of his shrewd method of dealing with the Indians caused them to desist from their plan and return quietly to their homes, the les- son of the Navajo campaign not being lost upon them. The battalion was mustered out at Santa Fe in October, 1867. The captains of its four companies were: E. H. Burgmann, H. Thompson, Albert Pfeiffer, Dona- ciano Montoya.
KIT CARSON.
During the early years of the fur traders in the southwest New Mexico was visited by many men who loved the independent and fascinat- ing life of the mountain frontier in its greatest purity. Among them were several who remained in the northern part of the province and ulti- mately became intimately identified with the development of trade rela- tions between the far western country and the commercial centres of the east. Among these were such men as Charles Beaubien, afterward pro- prietor of the Beaubien and Miranda Land Grant; Christopher (Kit) Carson, trapper, guide and scout; Moses Carson, his older brother ; Joseph Dutton ; Romulus M. Doane: Charles Bent and Colonel Ceran St. Vrain, traders; William Bent, brother of Charles Bent; Fitzpatrick and Bridger, trappers and guides; Hugh Stevenson, Charles Conkling and others. The most romantic interest attaches to the names of Beaubien and Carson ; the most tragic to the name of Bent. Moses Carson, Joseph Dutton and Romulus M. Doane came from Independence, Mo., in 1831. The former was fully as widely known as a trapper in the early days as his brother Christopher, for a long period plying his trade throughout the Rio Grande valley from Colorado to Texas. He died in 1871 at the home of Colonel Eugene Van Patten, in Las Cruces.
Christopher Carson-"Kit" Carson, as he was more commonly known among the Americans, and Cristobal Carson, as he was called by the native inhabitants-was born in Kentucky in 1808 or 1810. He came to New Mexico in either 1826 or 1827 on a fur hunting expedition. From that vear until about the time of American occupation he trapped from the Arkansas valley to the Pacific coast. No other man became so thor- oughly acquainted with the geography of the country, and none knew the various tribes of Indians, their character, their manner and customs, and their languages so well as he. And there seems to be little doubt that the Indians and Mexicans reposed more confidence in his word and had a higher regard for his friendship than in the case of any other white man who traversed their country. Those who knew him best say that he was never known to break his word.
While historians generally give to Fremont the credit of being the great "pathfinder," it was Carson who made Fremont's success possible. Carson blazed the original trail, located the streams and springs, estab- lished a friendly feeling among the Apaches, the Utes, the Navajos and other nomadic tribes, as well as among the pueblo Indians. And he per- formed this great service to the country without military escort or other aid. Lieutenant Emory, who headed the first military expedition through
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the southwest from Santa Fe, was the first to give official recognition to Carson's services in this respect. But the ringing notes of Fremont's bugles and strong political influences at Washington heralded the latter as "the Pathfinder ;" and Carson, modest, quiet, indifferent to praise, un- ambitious, not caring for political preferment, remained in his chosen abode in the fastnesses of the Rockies, while the man who had followed his lead and journeyed whither his finger had pointed rose to the acclama- tion of a bewildered populace.
At least two years before Fremont's first expedition started, Carson traveled as far north as the present site of Laramie, Wyoming, on a trapping expedition. From there he traveled in a southwesterly direction into California, returning to Taos and Santa Fé through Wyoming and Colorado. On most of his earlier excursions he was accompanied by Pablo Jaramillo, a Mexican scout and trapper. After he began making his tedious and dangerous trips to California, some of his friends, includ- ing Fremont, endeavored to induce Congress to give him a commission as lieutenant in the regular army; but this effort failed. Carson knew of the unsolicited movement in his behalf and the refusal of Congress to grant the request for his recognition, but he was never heard to complain.
He was constantly on the move. When the Pacific coast began to at- tract attention in the east, before the discovery of gold there, he acted as guide to a number of parties traveling overland; and during the war with Mexico he was commissioned by the government to carry the letter mails from Fort Leavenworth to San Francisco. While on one of his
trips to the Pacific coast, a member of his party fell from his horse while crossing the Sierra Nevada Mountains and broke his arm, crushing the bone badly. Seeing that amputation of the member was necessary to save the man's life, he sharpened his hunting knife, compelled the sufferer to drink freely of whisky, and amputated the arm, closing the bleeding arteries by searing them repeatedly with a red-hot iron.
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