|
FORT UNION
Historic Resource Study |
|
CHAPTER ONE:
ENDNOTES
1. The term "Southwest" is not precise, but it refers to the region of the United States from present Texas to California over which Spain, and later Mexico, once ruled (the territory ceded to the U.S. by Mexico in 1848, plus the Gadsden Purchase of 1853). Hispanic settlement and control had been limited to portions of present California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. See David J. Weber, Myth and the History of the Hispanic Southwest (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988), 89. New Mexico Territory, as established by the United States in 1850, embraced a good portion of the Southwest and constituted its heartland. As used in this study, "Southwest" refers to the region included in that territory (of which the present state of New Mexico is only a part) and the western portion of Texas.
2. For a good overview of the complex history of New Mexico, see Marc Simmons, New Mexico: An Interpretive History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1988). A detailed compilation is found in Ralph E. Twitchell, The Leading Facts of New Mexican History, 5 vols. (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1911-1917).
3. See Robert W. Frazer, Forts and Supplies: The Role of the Army in the Economy of the Southwest, 1846-1861 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983) and Darlis A. Miller, Soldiers and Settlers: Military Supply in the Southwest, 1861-1885 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989).
4. Marian Sloan Russell, Land of Enchantment (1954; reprint, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1981), 27. In this publication Marion's name was spelled "Marian" and it is by this spelling that she is widely known. Except in connection with this book, the correct spelling of her name is used in this study.
5. Simmons, New Mexico, 9. William deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985), 121, observed that the "villages of northern New Mexico, belonged to a very small world. It was a world whose insularity, as well as its deep historical roots, accounted for the remarkable durability of Hispano culture. Unconsciously, indeed unavoidably, the Hispanic villagers of northern New Mexico resisted acculturation into the Anglo world much as the Pueblos had resisted the encroachments of Hispanos. Their extreme poverty shielded them from the larger effects of the Anglo economy, for they had little money with which to buy the new things sold by Anglo traders. They had no schools and only scant interest in schooling, so the English language was slow to penetrate their mountain valleys. And they had no hunger for Anglo customs or ideas, for however poor they were in material things, they had a rich sense of their own authenticity. They were rooted in time, in tradition, and in place."
6. See deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation.
7. Warren A. Beck, New Mexico: A History of Four Centuries (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962), 5-8.
8. Ibid.; and The Mora Grant of New Mexico (Denver: The Clark Quick Printing Co., n.d.), 6.
9. William Woods Averell, Ten Years in the Saddle, ed. by Edward K. Eckert and Nicholas J. Amato (San Rafael: Presidio Press, 1978), 108.
10. deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation, 42, 44.
11. See Paul Horgan, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History, 2 vols. (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1954).
12. It appears that two small tributaries of Wolf Creek were known as Coyote and Dog creeks, but sometimes one or the other name was used to designate the main stream too. To avoid confusion in this study, the stream on which Fort Union was located will be called by its most accurate historical name, Wolf Creek.
13. deBuys, Land of Enchantment, 16-17.
14. Beck, New Mexico, 18-19; and The Mora Grant of New Mexico, 4.
15. Sandra L. Myres, ed., Cavalry Wife: The Diary of Eveline M. Alexander, 1866-1867 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1977), 77
16. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Nov. 2, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC.
19. Lydia Spencer Lane, I Married a Soldier (1893; reprint, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1987), 151.
20. Eddie Matthews to the Loved Ones at Home, June 1, 1870, Matthews Letters, MS, FUNMA. The extensive collection of Eddie Matthews's letters, written during his term of enlistment from 1869 to 1874 (during much of which time he was assigned to the garrison at Fort Union), came to light and transcribed copies were placed in the Fort Union National Monument Archives in 1993. His informative writings, including letters written almost once per week (except for a gap of just over one year for which his letters have not been located), comprises what may well be the most comprehensive collection of correspondence by an enlisted man during the post-Civil War era in the American West. Because Matthews was observant and literate, his comments on virtually all aspects of military life provide a rare revelation of the enlisted man's perception of the frontier army. If the original letters can be obtained and permission of Matthews's descendants gained, the entire collection deserves publication.
21. Ibid., June 15, 1870. Information about the use of goggles at Fort Union was found in no other source, indicating the importance of Matthews's diligent observations and the significance of the gift of the transcriptions of his letters to FUNMA.
22. Ibid., Mar. 15, 1874. A month later Matthews expounded further on Fort Union winds: "Out doors it is blowing a perfect hurricane, and sand flying so thick that one cannot see two yards ahead. Everything in the Office was covered with sand, dare not open my desk, so have adjourned to my room to commune with you loved ones for an hour or two. You folks ought to be caught in one of these little wind storms to appreciate them. If there is a religious wash woman in this Territory your correspondent knoweth not, but religious or not, when they shuffle off their mortal souls, wring out the last Government shirt, fold their wash tubs and say 'adios' (good bye) to things earthly, they should be permitted to enter that land above where Wash tubs and sick things are below par, for surely they have had enough punishment here below. It is enough to make one weep to have a line strung over with nice white linen, and without a moments warning have one of these gentle zephers come up." Ibid., April 13, 1874.
23. Mrs. Orsemus B. Boyd, Cavalry Life in Tent and Field, ed. by Darlis A. Miller (1894; reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982), 199-201.
24. Ovando J. Hollister, Colorado Volunteers in New Mexico, 1862 (1863; reprint, Chicago: R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co., 1962), 220.
25. Lane, I Married a Soldier, 93, 147.
26. Judd to T. S. Jesup, Dec. 10, 1848, Jesup Papers, Library of Congress.
27. Matthews Letters, May 18, 1874, FUNMA.
28. Charles L. Kenner, A History of New Mexican-Plains Indian Relations (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1969), 18.
29. J. Charles Kelley, "Factors Involved in the Abandonment of Certain Peripheral Southwestern Settlements," American Anthropologist, NS, 54 (July 1952): 384-385.
30. See Edward P. Dozier, The Pueblo Indians of North America (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970) and Alfonso Ortiz, ed., New Perspectives on the Pueblos (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972).
31. Wilson Rockwell, The Utes: A Forgotten People (Denver: Sage Books, 1956); and Weber, Myth and the History of the Hispanic Southwest, 126.
32. See Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A History, 1846-1970 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983).
33. See Frank C. Lockwood, The Apache Indians (New York: Macmillan Co., 1938); Donald E. Worcester, The Apaches: Eagles of the Southwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1979); and Ruth M. Underhill, The Navajos (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956).
34. Tribal histories include Donald J. Berthrong, The Southern Cheyenne (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963); Virginia C. Trenholm, The Arapahos, Our People (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970); Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel, The Comanches: Lords of the South Plains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952); and Mildred P. Mayhall, The Kiowas (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1962).
35. Kenner, History of New Mexico-Plains Indian Relations, 12-17.
36. Ibid., 23, 30, 34-35, 41, 45, 48-49, 50-53.
37. Ibid., 63, 65-66, 74-75; and Fray Angelico Chavez, "Early Settlements in the Mora Valley," El Palacio, 17 (November 1955): 319.
38. Kenner, History of New Mexico-Plains Indian Relations, 78, 84-86, 93-94,98; and Philip St. George Cooke to David Meriwether, Dec. 4, 1853, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
39. Kenner, History of New Mexico-Plains Indian Relations, 117, 120.
40. deBuys, Enchantment and Exploitation, 49-50, 52.
42. Simmons, New Mexico, 9. The life of the remarkable Manuel Chavez including his connections with Fort Union and his role in the Civil War engagement at Glorieta Pass, is found in Marc Simmons, The Little Lion of the Southwest (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1973).
44. See Lynn I. Perrigo, "The Spanish Heritage of New Mexico," Historia, 2 (Oct. 1852): 196-218.
45. Louise Barry, comp., The Beginning of the West: Annals of the Kansas Gateway to the American West, 1540-1854 (Topeka: Kansas State Historical Society, 1972), 68-69.
46. David J. Weber, The Mexican Frontier, 1821-1846: The American Southwest Under Mexico (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1982), 97.
47. On the Santa Fe Trail, see Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies (1844, reprint; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990); Max L. Moorhead, New Mexico's Royal Road: Trade and Travel on the Chihuahua Trail (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958); and Robert M. Utley, Fort Union and the Santa Fe Trail (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1989). Because the history of Fort Union was closely connected with the Santa Fe Trail, additional information about the history of the route appears throughout this study.
48. A general history of the war is John Edward Weems, To Conquer a Peace: The War Between the United States and Mexico (1974, reprint; College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 1987).
49. Kearny to Roger Jones, August 24, 1846, House Exec. Doc. No. 19, 29 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 499), 19-20.
50. Proclamation to the Inhabitants of New Mexico by Brig. Gen. S. W. Kearny, August 22, 1846, ibid., 20-21.
51. Kearny to Jones, Sept. 16, 1846, ibid., 25. Most of the troops and supplies would be moved from Fort Marcy to Fort Union in 1851.
52. Bent to Buchanan, Oct. 15, 1846, LR, 9MD, v. 5, pp. 13-17, USAC, RG 393, NA; Bent to Col. Alexander W. Doniphan, Oct. 20, 1846, ibid., 21; and Bent to Commissioner of Indian Affairs William Medill, November 10, 1846, ibid., pp. 25-33 (printed in Annie Heloise Abel, ed., The Official Correspondence of James S. Calhoun (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1915), 6-9 (hereafter cited as Abel, Official Correspondence).
53. Ibid., 8. Four years later Inspector General George A. McCall estimated the population of those tribes as follows: Jicarilla Apaches, 400; other Apaches, 5,600; Southern Utes, 1,000; Navajos, 10,000; Hopis, 2,500; Comanches, 12,000; Kiowas, 2,000; Cheyennes, 2,000; and Arapahos, 1,500. Col. George Archibald McCall, New Mexico in 1850: A Military View, ed. by Robert W. Frazer (Norman: University of New Mexico Press, 1962), 4.
54. Bent to Senator Thomas Hart Benton, November 3, 1846, LR, 9MD, v. 5, pp. 34-41, USAC, RG 393, NA.
55. Bent to Buchanan, December 26, 1846, ibid., 42-44.
56. Capt. I. R. Hendley to Col. Sterling Price, January 23, 1847, quoted in E. Bennett Burton, "The Taos Rebellion," Old Santa Fe, I (October 1913):119.
57. Howard Roberts Lamar, The Far Southwest, 1846-1912: A Territorial History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966), 68-70.
58. Lawrence R. Murphy, "Rayado: Pioneer Settlement in Northeastern New Mexico, 1848-1857," NMHR, 46 (Jan. 1971): 37-56.
59. Whittlesey to Grier, June 17, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA.
60. Construction with adobe bricks, introduced to the Southwest by Hispanic settlers, was the most common method of building in New Mexico. Adobes were sun-dried bricks made from clay and, usually, included a binding ingredient such as grass, straw, or other material. The third Fort Union, begun during the Civil War, was built of adobes. Eveline Alexander arrived at the post in 1866, while construction was underway, and described the process: "Adobes are bricks made of mud and dried in the sun. I saw a large number of men engaged in making them. They were busy at a place where the mud had previously been dug up. They had wooden moulds just like a box with the top and bottom out. These they would lay on the ground, scoop up two or three double handfuls of the mud, and throw it in the mould, smooth it over with their hands, then pull up the mould and put it in a new place, leaving the brick standing. The sun dries these adobes in a few days, and then they are ready for use. All the houses in this country are built of them, and when they have a roof that does not leak they will last for years and years." Myres, Cavalry Wife, 77.
61. George P. Hammond, The Adventures of Alexander Barclay, Mountain Man (Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1976), 91-99.
62. Ibid., 99-101, 113-114, 117-125.
63. Benjamin M. Read, Illustrated History of New Mexico (Santa Fe: New Mexico Printing Co., 1912), 298-300.
64. Chapman to Dickerson, May 31, 1849, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
65. Bally to Lt. John Adams, May 22, 1849, ibid.
66. Judd to Dickerson, June 1, 1849, ibid.
67. Judd to Dickerson, Aug. 16, 1849, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
69. Santa Fe Weekly Gazette, Nov. 27, 1852.
70. Judd to Dickerson, Sept. 10, 1849, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
72. Judd to Dickerson, Sept. 28, 1849, ibid.
73. Judd to Dickerson, Sept. 29, 1849, ibid.
74. Calhoun to CIA, Oct. 1, 1849, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 31 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 570), pt. 2, p. 998.
75. Barry, Beginning of the West, 884-885.
76. Ibid., 885; and Hammond, Adventures of Alexander Barclay, 221-222.
77. Grier to Adams, November 30, 1849, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA; and Tiller, The Jicarilla Apache Tribe, 35. The search for the Whites' daughter continued for years. In 1858 Brigadier General John Garland reported that "no occasion has been lost since my arrival in New Mexico, in 1853, to gain accurate information in relation to this painful occurrence." He concluded from reports received that the child had been killed. William Bransford, a merchant at Mora, had offered two horses and one-half the trade goods in his store for the recovery of the girl, but New Mexicans who traded with the Indians and some of the Indians declared that she was dead. Garland to Cooper, April 29, 1858, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 223-224, USAC, RG 393, NA.
78. Judd to McLaws, Dec. 1, 1849, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
79. Cyrus Choice to Calhoun, Jan. 29, 1850, C429/1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA.
80. Abel, Official Correspondence, 104.
81. Calhoun to Brown, Feb. 12, 1850, C431/ 1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA.
82. Petition to President of United States, Feb. 27, 1850, enc. with Calhoun to President, Feb. 27, 1850, C448/1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA.
83. House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 31 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 595), pt. 1, pp. 142-143.
84. Brown to Calhoun, April 24, 1850, LS, OIA, RG 94, NA; and Jones to Deas, June 5, 1850, LR, TE, RG 77, NA.
85. Brown to Ewing, June 24, 1850, LR, Sec. of Interior, RG 48, NA.
86. Abel, Official Correspondence, 155.
87. Holbrook to McLaws, April 7, 1850, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Munroe to Jones, April 15, 1850, M269/1850, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA.
88. Calhoun to Brown, April 20, 1850, C466/1850, & May 10, 1850, C471/1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA; and Alexander to McLaws, April 23, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
89. See Marc Simmons, "The Wagon Mound Massacre," The Mexican Road: Trade, Travel, and Confrontation on the Santa Fe Trail, ed. Mark L. Gardner (Manhattan, KS: Sunflower Press, 1989), 45-52; and Munroe to Irvin McDowell, May 23, 1850, LS, 9MD, M-1072, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
90. Alexander to McLaws, May 20, 1850, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. The escort was immediately ordered by the department commander. McLaws to Alexander, May 22, 1850, LS, 9MD, M-1072, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
91. McLaws to Grier, May 24, 1850, ibid.
92. Burnside to Lt. J. N. Ward, post adjt., May 23, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA.
93. Ibid.; and Philadelphia Public Ledger, July 2, 1850, quoted in David J. Weber, Richard H. Kern, Expeditionary Artist in the Far Southwest, 1848-1853 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1985), 127.
94. Simmons, "Wagon Mound Massacre," 50-51.
95. Burnside to Plympton, June 12, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Weber, Richard H. Kern, 127.
96. McLaws to Alexander, June 6, 1850, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Calhoun to Brown, June 19, 1850, C493/1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA; and Apache-Comanche Proposal for Peace, June 10, 1850, MS, Ritch Collection, Huntington Library.
97. McLaws to Alexander, June 6, 1850, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA, v. 6, pp. 90-91.
98. Grier to McLaws, June 6, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA.
99. Grier to McLaws, June 26, 1850, Grier to Alexander, June 26, 1850, & Alexander to Adams, June 28, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA; Calhoun to Brown, July 15, 1850, C495/1850, SF, OIA, RG 75, NA; Abel, Official Correspondence, 215-217; and Adams to McLaws, July 29, 1850, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA. Those killed during the raid at Rayado were a farmer, William New, a New Mexican herder, and Bugler Rengel of the post "who had gone a mile from Camp without arms." Grier to McLaws, June 26, 1850, ibid.; and Post Returns, Rayado, June 1850, AGO, RG 94, NA.
100. Grier to McLaws, July 31, 1850, enc. with Munroe to McDowell, Aug. 22, 1850, M543/1850, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA, published in House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 31 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 595), 74-75; and Adams to McLaws, July 29, 1850, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
101. Alexander to McLaws, August 14, 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 2, USAC, RG 393, NA.
102. Lane to Manuel Alvarez, December 20, 1853, Read Collection, NMSR CA.
103. Medill to Calhoun, April 7, 1849, in Abel, Official Correspondence, 3.
104. See McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 7-16.
105. House Exec. Doc. 1, 30 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 537), 184d; Sen. Exec. Doc. 1, 31 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 549), 188d; and Sen. Exec. Doc. 1, 31 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 587), pt. 2, p. 116d.
106. Vigil to Hugh N. Smith, May 1, 1848, Vigil Papers, NMSRCA.
107. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 39-40.
111. House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 295. QMG Thomas S. Jesup calculated that transportation costs for his department had increased 1,500% since the beginning of the Mexican War, and he explained that many other expenses had increased at the same time. "In the present condition of the newly-acquired territories, with the posts established for their defence necessarily so far from the sources of supply, and so large a portion of their garrisons mounted, more than ten thousand horses, oxen, and mules are constantly required for transportation, and for mounting guides, spies, escorts, and troops; forage is therefore a heavy item of expense. The supply of fuel is limited throughout those territories, and is obtained with difficulty at many of the present posts: it is a heavy item. So is the hire of mechanics, laborers, and other operatives; also the rent, erection and repair of quarters, barracks, storehouses, and other structures required for the service. The expense of neither can be much reduced, even with the most faithful and rigid administration, unless the circumstances of the whole country in relation to its cultivation, communications, and means of defence, be changed."
112. Indian Agent James S. Calhoun reported in 1849 that prices at Santa Fe were unusually high when compared with prices in the East. Calhoun to Orlando Brown, Nov. 17, 1849, Abel, Official Correspondence, 82-83.
113. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 89.
115. Twitchell, Leading Facts, II, 283n.
116. Seventh Census of the United States: 1850 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1853), 1007.
117. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 100. During the previous year New Mexico Indian Agent Calhoun had argued that the "wandering tribes . . . have never cultivated the soil, and have supported themselves by depredations alone." Short of annihilation, which he opposed, Calhoun argued that the government could not "prevent robberies and murders" until those people were supplied with sufficient food to live without resorting to stealing. Calhoun did not explain, however, why the Navajos (who raised crops and livestock, thus providing much of their own food supply) were the major perpetrators of violence on the settlements of New Mexico. Abel, Official Correspondence, 19-20. Following the military expedition against the Navajos, which Calhoun accompanied, he reported that "the Navajos commit their wrongs from a pure love of rapine and plunder." He concluded that military force was the only solution to the problem. Ibid., 32. Calhoun later became territorial governor, as well as Indian agent, and he continually requested more troops for New Mexico to deal with what he considered the most serious problem facing the settlements, Indian raids. He constantly urged military defeat of the hostile Indians and, to prevent future outbreaks, the location of the conquered tribes on reservations where they might be fed properly and controlled.
118. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 103.
125. Calhoun to Lea, February 2, 1851, Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 448.
126. Abel, Official Correspondence, 299; and Maj. M. S. Howe to Lt. L. McLaws, March 18, 1851, H6/1851, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
127. Abel, Official Correspondence, 314-316.
128. Grolman to Alexander, April 21, 1851, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
129. Abel, Official Correspondence, 341, 350-351.
130. Alexander to McLaws, May 2, 1851, A11/1851, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.; Lt. Orren Chapman to Alexander, May 4, 1851, enc. with above.
131. Calhoun to Lea, March 31, 1851, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, (Serial 613), pt. 3, p. 455.
132. Abel, Official Correspondence, 350-351.
133. McLaws to Alexander, May 8, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, pp. 122-123, USAC, RG 393, NA.
134. Don Russell in introduction to Percival G. Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon ('49 to '54) and Other Adventures on the Great Plains (1906, reprint; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965), xvi.
135. Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1967), 16. A. B. Bender declared that the army's failure to deal effectively with Indians in New Mexico resulted from "the niggardliness of congress." "Frontier Defense in the Territory of New Mexico, 1846-1853," NMHR, 9 (July 1934): 254.
136. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 41; see also Edward M. Coffman, The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784-1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 193-195.
137. Orders No. 6, Mar. 21, 1851, HQ 9MD, 9MD orders, v. 35, USAC, RG 393, NA.
139. Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United Sates Army, 2 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1903), II, 594-595.
140. Ibid., II, 594-595, 626; Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon, xii-xvi; Coffman, Old Army, 58; and Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 20-23.
141. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 184. Dragoons were the forerunners of the cavalry, and were trained to fight on foot or on horseback. The reduced strength of companies stationed in New Mexico was stated by John Munroe to William W. Mackall, Mar. 1, 1850, LS, 9MD, M-1072, roll 1, USAC, RG 393, NA, as follows: "The four companies of the 2nd Dragoons forming the entire prospective force of that arm in the Department will be if fully effective entirely inadequate to the Service which will be required of them, but they are not so. The Returns show that they are reduced in number & are nearly without company officers. Col May, the only officer with one Squadron & now the only officer with his company has been afflicted with rheumatism all winter so as to unfit him for Duty & is now from that cause unequal to the Exposure of field service. The Horses belonging to Companies D & E 2nd Dragoons brought across the plains last summer are not yet fit for Service."
142. Coffman, Old Army, 54, 82-84. A number of officers serving in New Mexico complained about the absence of officers from their regiments. John Van Deusen DuBois wrote in 1859, "15 officers of my regiment are now absent from it." That was "nearly half" of the regimental officers. In his opinion, they were "doing nothing but sit on army hoards in Washington & decide upon what we shall eat & fight with out here." DuBois to Mother, May 3, 1859, filed with 2nd Lt. John Van Deusen DuBois Journal, MS, Coe Manuscript No. 148, Western Americana Collection, Yale University (hereafter DuBois Journal).
143. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 19.
144. Coffman, Old Army, 141. According to Coffman, "Men and boys enlisted for many reasons. The army offered a chance to escape from a disagreeable situation, to disappear, and start life anew. It was a haven for those who found it difficult to make a living as civilians. An enlistment also afforded immigrants a period to learn American ways and, if necessary, the language, as well as a respite from competition in the civilian economy. For some, of course, there were the eternal appeals of adventure and military pomp. Many lied about their age. Some who were particularly anxious to cut civilian ties gave assumed names. Others took the oath because, despite regulations, they were too drunk to know what they were doing. Ibid., 144-145.
145. In 1854 Congress increased base pay by $4.00 per month and provided an incentive for reenlistment of $2.00 additional per month during the second five-year enlistment and $1.00 additional per month for each subsequent term. U.S. Statutes at Large, X, 575-576. Thus a sergeant, after 25 years of service, would receive $23.00 a month.
146. The sutler was a merchant or trader licensed by the military to sell commodities to soldiers at prices fixed by a council of officers.
147. Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 3.
148 Ibid.; and Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 36.
150. Sec. of War John B. Floyd, 1858, quoted in Coffman, Old Army, 156.
152. Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon, vii.
153 William B. Lane, "Frontier Service in the Fifties," The United Service, NS X (Dec. 1893): 522.
154. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 121, 133, 155, 160, 168.
155. Quoted in Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 25.
156. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 120, 126, 139, 160.
157. Robert W. Frazer, ed., Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 1853-1854 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 168. The musketoon was not manufactured after 1856 and was replaced with a variety of carbines (U.S. Model 1854 .58 caliber rifled carbine, Merrill, Latrobe and Thomas .54 caliber percussion carbine, Sharp's Model 1852 carbine, and Model 1855 .58 caliber Springfield pistol-carbine). Within a few years the Sharp's carbine became the standard weapon for the dragoons. For complete information on the equipment of the dragoons, see Randy Steffen, The Horse Soldier, 1776-1943, vol. 2 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978).
158. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 117, 120.
159. Harold L. Peterson, Notes on Ordnance of the American Civil War, 1861-1865 (Washington: American Ordnance Association, 1959), n.p.
160. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 28.
161. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 148, 168; and Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 26. When Capt. R. S. Ewell, First Dragoons, commanding two companies of his regiment and the Post at Rayado, was informed that musketoons were available for his troops, he requisitioned musketoons for Company I and requested permission to retain the Hall's carbine for Company G. He understood that Company F was still armed with the carbine. Ewell to McLaws, April 20, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA.
162. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 139, 148, 160.
163. Swords to Jesup, Oct. 25, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 241, 253.
164. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 28.
165. Over 75% of the officers in the department in 1850 were graduates of the Military Academy. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 190-197.
166. Coffman, Old Army, 43, 49-50, 66. Robert Utley explained that "the officer corps was anything but a tight little band of like-minded professionals bound by common traditions and loyalties. Harmony never settled on the quarreling factions—infantry against cavalry, staff against line, North against South." Most of them were "jealous of prerogatives, quick to prefer charges for the most trivial offenses real or imagined, eternally quarreling over precedence. . . ." Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 35.
167. Coffman, Old Army, 67, 100. George Crook considered most post commanders to be "petty tyrants" and declared "they lost no opportunity to snub those under them. . . . Most of them had been in command of small posts so long that their habits and minds had narrowed down to their surroundings." General George Crook, His Autobiography, ed. by Martin F Schmitt (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946), 10.
168. Joseph H. Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana University Press, 1954), 37, quoted in Coffman, Old Army, 62.
169. Quoted in Coffman, Old Army, 421n.
170. The best analysis of brevet rank was provided by Don Russell, introduction to Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon, xvi-xxii. Examples of brevet rank were a lieutenant who held the rank of brevet captain, a captain who held the rank of brevet colonel, a colonel who held the rank of brevet brigadier general, etc.
171. Quoted in Coffman, Old Army, 67.
172. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 33.
173. The same was true in other wars and especially the Civil War. After the Civil War, until 1890, battles with Indians on the frontier were not classified as "in time of war" and brevets were not conferred for such engagements. After 1890 brevet ranks were awarded to officers who had served in the Indian wars prior to 1890 and were considered deserving. At that late date a brevet was not of much importance to most of those who received it. Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon, xxi.
174. Inspector General McCall mentioned 92 officers in his reports in 1850 (most of whom were on duty in the Ninth Military Department), including surgeons, assistant surgeons, paymasters, topographical engineers, a chaplain, and a military storekeeper. Of the 62 regimental officers in the department appointed prior to 1847, 39 held a brevet rank. Several of the 23 officers without a brevet were in the quartermaster department. In addition there were three brevet second lieutenants in the department who were appointed after 1847. Thus nearly two-thirds of the regimental officers in the department held a brevet rank in 1850. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, 190-197.
175. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue, 33. The confusion engendered by brevets increased during time of war when many of the troops and their officers were volunteer units raised in the states and territories, and brevet ranks were awarded in the volunteers as well as the regular army. Thus an individual might be colonel by commission in the regular army and a brevet brigadier general of volunteers. Another individual might be a captain by commission in the volunteers and a brevet brigadier general of volunteers. If the latter's appointment to brevet rank predated the former, the captain of volunteers could, in some circumstances, hold command authority over the colonel of the regular army. Obviously, the possibilities for confusion and enmity were endless.
177. Ibid.; and Coffman, Old Army, 67.
178. Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon, xxi.
179. When Lt. Col. Edwin Vose Sumner was appointed to command the Ninth Military Department in 1851, he was told by Adjt. Gen. Roger Jones, "you will consider yourself on duty according to your brevet rank." Jones to Sumner, Mar. 29, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA. This meant that Sumner commanded at the rank of colonel and received the pay and benefits due a colonel during his tenure in New Mexico.
180. Quoted in Robert M. Utley, ed., Life in Custer's Cavalry: Diaries and Letters of Albert and Jennie Barnitz, 1867-1868 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), xiii-xiv.
181. Bender, "Frontier Defense in New Mexico," 271-272, wrote that the years following "the Mexican War were characterized by constant Indian warfare on the New Mexican frontier. . . . The federal government's policy of frontier defense had proved inadequate. Its Indian agents, treaties, military posts, and occasional punitive expeditions secured neither awe and respect for the white man's government nor peace for the inhabitants of the territory."
| <<< Previous | <<< Contents>>> | Next >>> |
foun/hrs/chap1n.htm
Last Updated: 09-Jul-2005