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FORT UNION
Historic Resource Study |
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CHAPTER TWO:
ENDNOTES
1. In Jan. 1851 troops were sent from the Post at Rayado on the Bent's Fort Route (later Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail) to protect a wagon train from a possible attack by Utes, who were reportedly heading in that direction. The Utes did not bother the wagon train because they were going to fight the Arapahos. Richard S. Ewell to Lafayette McLaws, Feb. 1, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA. Indians believed to be Jicarilla Apaches drove off the oxen at Barclay's Fort in April 1851. J. B. Doyle to E. B. Alexander, April 20, 1851, & Ewell to McLaws, May 1, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
2. Samuel Ellison, who came to the Southwest from Kentucky, left vivid profiles of several public officials in New Mexico. Of this department commander, he recalled: "Munroe was an artillery officer, a Scotchman, & stood very high. Was the best mathematician in the army, as well as the ugliest looking man. A whig in politics. A very determined man in all his acts and doings. He would brew his pitcher of toddy at night, & take the first drink of it at noon next day, after which hour he would not attend to any official business. He said he wouldn't live in a country [where it snowed] in Nov. & May. (He arrived in Nov. when it snowed, & also the next May) & so he got himself transferred." J. Manuel Espinosa, "Memoir of a Kentuckian in New Mexico," NMHR, XIII (Jan. 1938): 7.
3. Annual Report of the Secretary of War, November 29, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 106. It was not easy to determine the extent of Indian raids in New Mexico, according to Colonel Munroe, because many reports of Indians stealing sheep and other livestock appeared to have been fabricated so the owners of the animals might receive compensation from the federal government for their losses. John Munroe to AG Roger Jones, March 30, 1850, ibid., 126-127. The false reporting of Indian raids was also found by other officers. John Adams to Alexander, Mar. 8, 1851, Orren Chapman to Alexander, Mar. 26, 1851, & Adams to McLaws, July 6, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA. Lt. Col. (Brevet Col.) Sumner, First Dragoons, a native of Boston, had been in the service since 1819. He served in the Black Hawk War and was on General S. W. Kearny's staff during the occupation of New Mexico in 1846. He commanded the Ninth Military Department at his brevet rank of colonel, upon assuming command of the department on July 19, 1851, by which rank he is identified in this study after that date without use of the term "brevet." See p. 45.
4. General Orders No. 41, HQ DMO, Mar. 12, 1851, USAC, RG 393, NA.
5. General Orders No. 17, HQ USA, Mar. 29, 1851, AGO, RG 94, NA.
6. Jones to E. V. Sumner, Mar. 29, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA.
7. Ibid. For details about the establishment of farms, see below.
8. Conrad to Sumner, April 1, 1851, Annual Report of the Secretary of War, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 125.
9. Sumner to AG USA, April 24, 1851, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA.
11. Special Orders No. 14, HQ 9MD, Mar. 14, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA.
12. McLaws to John Parke, March 12, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Munroe's instructions to his surveyors continued: "While at the Rayado you will make a particular examination of that country & report your opinion as to the best position for a military post, having in view, the convenience of wood and water and the capacity of the country for grazing animals for cultivation &c in connection with the first and most material point, its military position, which should be so placed as to enable the troops there posted to operate to the most advantage over the greatest area of country & on the essential points in the most prompt & effective manner." On April 1, Munroe reported that Lieutenant Parke was "absent tracing a road from the 'Rayado' to the point of rocks on the Cimarron route." Ibid.; and Munroe to Jones, April 1, 1851, ibid.
13. Parke to McLaws, April 14, 1851, & Easton to McLaws, April 21, 1851, CCF 9MD, RG 92, NA; and Munroe to Jones, April 30, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
14. George A. McCall, New Mexico in 1850, ed. Robert W. Frazer (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968), 143-144.
15. Ibid. For additional information on Barclay's Fort, see above, pp. 21-22,34.
16. "Historical Sketch of Governor William Carr Lane Together with Diary of His Journey from St. Louis, Mo., to Santa Fe, N.M., July 31st to September 9th, 1852, with Annotations by Ralph E. Twitchell," Historical Society of New Mexico, No. 20 (Nov. 1, 1917): 47 (hereafter "Lane Diary"). A decade later these ponds were, as James H. Carleton observed, "gradually disappearing. When I was stationed at Fort Union in 1852, there was one pond in front of the fort which was more than ten feet in depth; was filled with fish; and, by artificial means, I drew water from it to irrigate a post garden."
"That pond is filled up by drifted sand and people walk across it dry shod. This may be the result of the three dry years which have last passed." Carleton to QMG Montgomery C. Meigs, Nov. 20, 1862, LS, 9MD, v. 13, pp. 183-184, USAC, RG 393, NA. In time Los Pozos were all filled, leading to confusion as to where they had been located. The overwhelming evidence, including an 1866 map (reproduced below, p. 57) showing the "chain of ponds," is that they were located just east of the site of the first Fort Union along Wolf Creek.
17. Conrad to Sumner, April 1, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 125. Conrad reported that a comparison of expenditures by the war department before the Mexican War with expenditures during fiscal 1850-1851 showed "that the increased expenditures in the army, resulting from our newly-acquired territory, . . . amounted to $4,556,709.75." That increase accounted for fully one-half of the army's budget in 1850-1851. Much of the increase was for transportation of troops and supplies to isolated posts. Annual Report of the Sec. of War, Nov. 29, 1851, ibid., 110-111.
18. Conrad to Sumner, April 1, 1851, ibid., 125.
20. General Orders No. 1, HQ USA, Jan. 8, 1851, AGO, RG 94, NA. Upon receipt of that order directing that military posts should cultivate gardens in an effort to supply vegetables for the use of troops and establish farms to provide both food and forage for public animals, New Mexico's Department Commander John Munroe declared: "In this Department there are difficulties attendant on a proper compliance with the order, which will have to be removed before it can be fully carried into effect."
"The Troops almost universally occupy hired quarters. Irrigation with its attendant preparation and labour is necessary for cultivation, and a considerable portion of the Seeds must be procured from the United States."
"To attain any successful result and incidentally improve the health of the Troops it is important that proper localities be selected, sufficient ground secured for cultivation and Barracks erected."
"The rent already paid for quarters since our troops have occupied the Territory would nearly have accomplished this end." Monroe to Jones, Mar. 30, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
21. Conrad to Sumner, April 1, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 125-126. Conrad reported that "an order was issued last spring, that at all the permanent posts on the frontier, where it was practicable, farms should be established, to be cultivated by the troops. Sufficient time has not yet elapsed to ascertain the result of the experiment. If it should prove successful, it will not only effect a considerable reduction of expenses in the quartermaster's and commissary's departments, but will greatly promote the health and comfort of the troops." Annual Report of the Sec. of War, Nov. 29, 1851, ibid., 111.
22. Journal of John Pope of the March of Troops under Command of E. V. Sumner from Fort Leavenworth to New Mexico, May 26 to July 18, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA (hereafter Pope Journal, 1851); Swords to Jesup, Oct. 25, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 235.
23. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Sumner declared that the combination of cholera and drought "impeded my march very much." Sumner to Lt. Col. W. W. S. Bliss, August 3, 1851, ibid.
24. Charlotte Sibley to George Riley, Aug. 31, 1851, letter in private collection of Wade Shipley, Lovington, NM.
25. Sumner to AG USA, June 8, 1851, LR, AGO, NA. Dr. Kennedy died during the night (about 1:00 am. June 3) at the crossing of Wakarusa Creek south of the Kansas River. His death occurred during a severe thunderstorm. Lt. Pope was placed in command of a detachment to deliver Kennedy's body, his wife, and two children to Kansas City. There was not sufficient lumber to build a coffin and Kennedy's bedstead was broken up to make a "rough box in which to place the body. The material being insufficient the box was fully open at the top." It was a harrowing trip during which streams were swollen by heavy rains, the party became lost until an Indian guide led them to the road to Kansas City, and Kennedy's son also died. They reached Kansas City late at night June 6.
Lt. Pope helped bury the remains of Kennedy and his son and made arrangements for the transportation of Mrs. Kennedy and her daughter to St. Louis. Pope, fearing that Sumner's column might be without a physician, secured the services of Dr. G. W. Hereford of Westport, who accompanied him on a fast trip to overtake Sumner on the trail. They left Westport on June 10 without three of the soldiers sent with Pope, who had deserted the night before. Pope was "quite sick" and remained so for at least ten days. At Council Grove Pope learned from a message left by Sumner that Dr. Edmund I. Barry had been employed as surgeon for the column, and Dr. Hereford therefore returned to Westport. Pope rejoined Sumner's command at Cow Creek on June 14, having traveled 240 miles through rain and mud in five days. Pope reported that no new cases of cholera occurred after he returned. He, however, was still sick and became worse. The night of June 15 he was "very violently ill & passed a night of extreme suffering." Unable to ride a horse, he traveled in a carriage until the column reached Fort Atkinson. Pope Journal, 1851.
26. Reminiscences of H. H. Green, Las Vegas Optic, July 17, 1891. Green was a member of Sumner's command in 1851, and his memories were published 40 years later over the pseudonym of Old Fogy. He recalled that the "demon cholera decimated our ranks at the rate of five men a day."
28. Ibid. The presence of Judge Baker on this trip, during which the army officers had an opportunity to become well acquainted with him, may explain why Captain Carleton later wanted cases involving land title and suppression of the whiskey trade at Fort Union to be heard before Baker's bench.
29. Ibid.; Surgeon General to Sumner, October 31, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Reminiscences of H. H. Green, Las Vegas Optic, July 17, 1891.
30. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; Thomas Fitzpatrick to CIA, Nov. 24, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 613), 333-335; and Pope Journal, 1851. A few years later, in 1857, Sumner would lead the first military attack on a Cheyenne village. See William Y Chalfant, Cheyennes and Horse Soldiers: The 1857 Expedition and the Battle of Solomon's Fork (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989).
31. The column had been plagued by rain and mud during the early stages of the march, but Pope observed that "no rain had fallen in the valley of the Arkansas for 7 or 8 months and the whole country was parched up. It was with difficulty we could find grass enough for our animals and that of a very inferior quality."
Later, in New Mexico, they also found that "the season appears to be an unprecedently severe one in respect to drought. There has been little or no rain for many months. The streams are nearly dry and all the crops ruined. A serious famine is apprehended throughout the Territory." Pope Journal, 1851.
32. Ibid. It is difficult to understand how an adobe structure could have been "burned . . . to the ground." Green recalled passing "the abandoned walls of Bent's old fort." Las Vegas Optic, July 17, 1891. Others stated that the adobe walls had been knocked down.
34. Barry, Beginning of the West, 1008; and Milo M. Quaife, ed., Kit Carson's Autobiography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966), 142-143. Carson observed that "an Indian very seldom lets an injury go unavenged, and it is immaterial who his victim may be, so long as he belongs to the same nation as the offender. Unfortunately, I happened to be the first American to pass them since the insult was given, and on me they proposed to retaliate." Ibid., 142.
35. Reminiscences of H. H. Green, Las Vegas Optic, July 17, 1891.
37. C. Sibley to Riley, Aug. 31, 1851, Shipley private collection.
39. Carleton to Buell, July 11, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA; Barry, Beginning of the West, 1008; and Carson's Autobiography, 143-146. Carson recalled how he escaped the Cheyennes: "I informed them that I had sent an express to Rayado the night before to bring the troops who were stationed there; that I had many friends among them, and they would surely come to my relief. If I were killed, they would know by whom it was done, and my death would be avenged." After the Indians had checked the road to see that a messenger had indeed been sent, Carson said, "fearing the arrival of the troops, they concluded to leave me. I am confident my party would have been killed by the Cheyennes . . . if I had not sent ahead for assistance." Although Carson welcomed the arrival of the troops, he explained, "the services of the troops were not required, for the Indians knew they would come, and before their arrival they had removed beyond striking distance. Ibid., 143-144, 146. This may have been the first time that Carson and Carleton met, but they later worked together many times. Each served time as commanding officer at Fort Union. During the Civil War, when Carleton commanded the Dept. of New Mexico, he directed Carson in campaigns against the Mescalero Apaches, Navajos, and Kiowas and Comanches. Carleton eventually recommended Carson's promotion to brevet brigadier general of volunteers. The relationship of these two men deserves further study.
41. Swords to Jesup, Oct. 25, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 235.
42. Ewell to Buell, July 17, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA.
43. Sumner to Deputy QMG Henry Stanton, July 31, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
45. Sumner to Bliss, Aug. 3, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
47. Robert W. Fraser, ed., Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 1853-54 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963), 15.
49. Ibid.; and Orders No. 17, HQ 9MD, July 19, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA.
50. Lease Agreement, County of Santa Fe, Territory of New Mexico, July 1850, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA. It is not clear from the copy of this lease if it was actually executed or just proposed, and some of the names appear to be in error. "William" Barclay may have been Alexander Barclay, and "James" B. Watrous may have been Samuel B. Watrous. Alexander Barclay purchased rights to land near the junction of the Mora and Sapello rivers from two of the Scolly Grant claimants in March 1848 and built Barclay's Fort. Samuel B. Watrous settled just north of the junction of the Mora and Sapello in March 1849, but he had sent men there to work in September 1848. See Hammond, Adventures of Alexander Barclay, 161, 166. Although eight claimants were listed in the 1851 lease agreement, only four signatures appear at the end of the contract: Brent, Vigil, Giddings, and Estes. The "original" grantees in 1846 were John Scolly, William Smith, Gregorio Trujillo, Augustin Duran, James Giddings, and Francisco Romero. Years later, after Fort Union was abandoned, it was determined that the Mora Grant predated the Scolly Grant to the area of Fort Union. See Robert W. Frazer, "The Battle for Fort Union: Barclay and Doyle vs. the Army," La Gaceta, 8(1984): 1-17.
51. Scolly Grant Papers, NMSRCA.
52. Orders No. 17, HQ 9MD, July 19, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA. For some reason most military records refer to the Mora River as the "Moro." Although the new military post was located on Wolf Creek six miles from the Mora River, it was commonly referred to as the post on the "Moro." When Sumner arrived in Santa Fe, he discovered that the army was paying over $750 per month for the rental of quarters, offices, and storerooms. Report of Capt. Easton, July 23, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 242.
53. Robert M. Utley, Fort Union and the Santa Fe Trail (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1989), 8.
54. House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 243; and E. S. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 2, p. 73. Gov. James S. Calhoun later expressed fear that the resulting large number of unemployed men in Santa Fe would constitute a danger to civil order there. Calhoun to Sumner, Aug. 4, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 396-397.
55. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong, 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 2, p. 73.
56. Sumner to Stanton, July 31, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, pp. 219-220, USAC, RG 393, NA.
57. Sibley to Jesup, Dec. 3, 1851, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA; and Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 2, p. 74.
58. House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 241; and Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 418. The anticipated savings were lost when the mules were caught in a blizzard at Cottonwood Creek in present Kansas and about 300 mules perished, as did three of the frostbitten soldiers. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Jan. 1, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
59. Sumner to Carleton, Aug. 1, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, pp. 223-224, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Orders No. 17, HQ 9MD, July 19, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC RG 393, NA.
60. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. There was much opposition in Santa Fe to the withdrawal of the troops. Sumner wrote, "I understand that many applications have been made to the government, by the people of Santa Fe, to have the troops ordered back there. I have no hesitation in saying, that I believe most of these applications proceed directly or indirectly from those who have hitherto managed to live, in some way, from the extravagant expenditures of the Government, I trust their petitions will not be heeded." Ibid.
61. Sen. Doc. 85, 33 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 702).
62. Special Orders No. 52, HQ 9MD, July 19, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 27, p. 1, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 2, p. 73.
63. Orders No. 18, HQ 9MD, July 22, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Shoemaker to Craig, Nov. 3, 1851, LR, ORD, RG 156, NA.
64. Swords to Jesup, Oct. 25, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 238.
65. Jonathan Letterman, "Sanitary Report—Fort Union," October 1856, Richard H. Coolidge, comp., Statistical Report on the Sickness and Mortality in the Army of the United States, 1855-1860 (Washington: George W. Bowman, 1860), 221.
66. General Orders No. 19, HQ 9MD, July 25, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA.
67. Ewell to Buell, July 27, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 3, USAC, RG 393, NA. This reference to adobes implies that Sumner was considering the possibility of constructing the structures at Fort Union in the same manner as most buildings were erected in New Mexico at the time. He apparently assumed that hired laborers would be required to make and lay adobes but that the soldiers could readily build with logs. He wanted the soldiers to do the work in order to save expenses, so the first Fort Union was built of logs. The third Fort Union, begun during the Civil War, was built of adobes.
68. Buell to Ewell, July 26, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Ewell to Buell, July 31, 1851, LR, ibid.
69. Sumner to Bliss, Aug. 3, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 382.
70. General Orders No. 39, HQ 9MD, Oct. 31, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA.
71. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; McFerran to Gordon, Nov. 9, 1851, ibid.; General Orders No. 44, HQ 9MD, Dec. 2, 1851, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Francis Paul Prucha, A Guide to the Military Posts of the United States, 1789-1895 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1964), 63, 67, 71, 74, 91, 111, 113, 116.
72. Jesup to Conrad, Nov. 22, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 223.
73. Orders No. 21, HQ 9MD, Aug. 2, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221.
74. Sumner to Stanton, July 31, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, pp. 219-220, USAC, RG 393, NA. Other people, however, declared that there was an abundance of water at Fort Union, and an irrigation system that took water from Los Pozos was developed the following year. It could not be determined from available records if wells were actually bored at the new post.
75. Shoemaker to Col. H. K. Craig, Nov. 3, 1851, LR, ORD, RG 156, NA.
76. Barclay to Sumner, Oct. 27, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
77. Sumner to PMG W. W. Hall, Aug. 1, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, p. 224, USAC, RG 393, NA. Folger was appointed on September 26, 1851, and served as Fort Union postmaster until his death on April 21, 1856. It is not clear exactly when the post office at Fort Union began service. Katie Bowen, in an undated letter probably written in the early spring of 1852, reported that "a post office has been established here and we got our letters last month without their going to Santa Fe." Bowen Letters, AC.
78. Special Orders No. 58, HQ 9MD, Aug. 6, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 27, p. 4; and Pope to Sumner, Aug. 7, & Pope to Buell, Aug. 23, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
79. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 417-418; and Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of the Western Forts, 14.
80. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 417-418.
81. Pope to Buell, Aug. 23, 1851, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
82. Fraser, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 14.
83. Orders No. 21, HQ 9MD, Aug. 2, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, USAC, RG 393, NA.
84. Sumner to Carleton, Aug. 1, 1851, LS, 9MD, v. 7, pp. 223-224, USAC, RG 393, NA.
85. Sumner to Jones, Oct. 24, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 417.
86. Orders No. 29, HQ 9MD, Sept. 18, 1851, 9MD Orders, v. 36, p. 44, USAC, RG 393, NA; Calhoun to Lea, Aug. 31, 1851, Annual Report of the Sec. of the Interior, House Ex. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 613), 462-463; and Calhoun to Conrad, Aug. 31, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 413.
87. Calhoun to Lea, Oct. 1, 1851, House Ex. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 613), 466-467.
88. Records of Brigadier General Manuel Herrera, Apache Campaign, 1851-1852, Microfilm, New Mexico Territorial Archives, roll 87, NMSRCA.
89. Sumner to Shoemaker, Nov. 10, 1851, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Preston Beck had received a Mexican land grant of over 300,000 acres on the east side of the Pecos River in 1823 and settled there sometime later. His grant bordered the Anton Chico grant. Jerry L. Williams, ed., New Mexico in Maps, 2d ed. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1986), 105-106.
90. Sumner to Calhoun, Nov. 10, 1851, Abel, Official Correspondence, 449-450.
91. Preston Beck, Jas. E. Sabine, Elias Brevourt, & D. V. Whiting to Calhoun, Nov. 11, 1851, ibid., 453-454.
93. Sumner to Jones, Jan. 1, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
94. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Jan. 2, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
95. Orders No. 6, HQ 9MD, Jan. 9, 1852, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA.
97. Sumner to Jones, January 27, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
98. Easton to Jesup, Aug. 2, 1854, CCF DNM, QMG, RG 92, NA.
99. Sumner later wrote that the forts he established in New Mexico "were built entirely by the troops, and cost but little, and labor was beneficial to the command." Sumner to Conrad, May 27, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 1, p. 26.
100. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, Sen. Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 2, p. 77.
101. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Nov. 30, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC. Catherine Cary (Mrs. Isaac) Bowen signed her letters as "Katie" when she wrote to her family, but she signed as "Kate C. Bowen" in more formal letters to others. She was remarkably perceptive and descriptive of life at early Fort Union in letters to her parents.
102. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221.
103. Sibley to Sumner, Aug. 20, 1851, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
104. Sibley to Buell, Aug. 20, 1851, ibid.
105. Katie Bowen to Mother, Aug. 24, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC.
106. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 2, 1851, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA.
107. Carleton to Sumner, May 24, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
108. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221.
109. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Nov. 2, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC.
110. Sibley to Jesup, Oct. 3, 1851, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA.
111. Shoemaker to Craig, Nov. 3, 1851, LR, ORD, RG 156, NA.
112 Sibley to Jesup, Dec. 3, 1851, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA.
113. Sibley to Jesup, April 1, 1852, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA.
114. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 674), pt. 2, p. 75.
115. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221. In 1854 Lt. Col. Philip St. George Cooke, in his annual inspection report to the quartermaster general, provided an informative description of the condition of the buildings: "Most of the buildings at Fort Union, were erected in the fall of 1851, in great haste, owing to the lateness of the season, and the desire to get the troops in Quarters before winter set in."
"They are built of rough pine logs with the bark on. Many of them with flat roofs, covered with dirt, others with sharp [pitched] board roofs."
"The logs of which the Quarters are built are now considerably effected with dry rot. In consequence of which the roofs are frequently falling in, and the buildings settling so as to make constant repairs necessary, which have been, and can be made, by the troops, and out of the ordinary appropriations for the Quarter Masters Department."
"The planks for these repairs being sawed by a small mill which is at the post."
"During the last year there has been made to one set of Quarters, a small addition, and one addition and considerable repairs to the store rooms, in many of which floors and new doors, have been put."
"There has been built a stable for Dragoon horses, one hundred and ninety feet long, and thirty feet wide, made of upright logs, set in the ground with a sharp board roof. Also a large Corral, made with upright logs and plank gates, for the preservation of hay."
"Within the last few months, a Company of Artillery which was formerly stationed here, has been replaced by a Company of Dragoons. This change will make it necessary to build an additional stable. It is contemplated to make it of the same dimensions of the one lately built with a flat earth roof, instead of a sharp plank one. This can be done by extra duty men, out of the ordinary appropriations for the Quarter Masters Department."
"In conclusion it may be proper to state that up to within a few months past, this place has been the principal Quarter Masters and Commissary Depots, for the Department."
"These Depots have been lately transferred to Albuquerque, and in consequence there are now some vacant store rooms at the post. This, however, is still a Sub-depot for the supply of the northern posts of the department." Cooke to Jesup, July 15, 1854, LR, QMG, RG 92, NA.
Dept. QM Easton reported many of the same things in 1854, including the following statement on the condition of Fort Union: "It is decaying very rapidly and will require constant repairs to keep it in order." Easton to Jesup, Aug. 2, 1854, CCF DNM, QMG, RG 92, NA.
116. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 674), pt. 2, p. 75.
117. Katie Bowen to Father and Mother, Nov. 2, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC.
118. Katie Bowen to Father, May 1, 1852, ibid.
119. Katie Bowen to Mother, May 28, 1852, ibid.
120. Katie Bowen to Mother, Aug. 1, 1852, ibid.
121. Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 33.
122. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221.
123. McFerran to Easton, Feb. 4, 1856, CCFFU, QMG, RG 92, NA.
124. Enos to QMG USA, July 8, 1861, ibid.
125. Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 33.
126. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 221.
127. Shoemaker to Craig, Feb. 23 and June 15, 1852; Feb. 26, Mar. 1, & Sept. 1, 1855; and Aug. 13, 1859, LR, ORD, RG 156, NA.
128. The ice house was filled during the winter of 1851-1852 and was opened for use on July 1, 1852, much to the delight of Katie Bowen and others. She was delighted that she could keep butter and cream cool and make ice cream in the summer time. Katie Bowen to Mother, July 2, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
129. Sibley to Jesup, Sept. 1, 1852, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 674), pt. 2, p. 75.
130. Marion Sloan was seven years old when she arrived at Fort Union in 1852 with her mother and brother. In her memoirs she described the post, but because she had lived at the third Fort Union as an adult and set down her recollections over 70 years after the first childhood view of the first fort, her description was a confusion of the first and third posts. Russell, Land of Enchantment, 27-28.
131. Sibley to Sumner, August 20, 1851, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
133 Swords to Jesup, October 25, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 238.
135. General Orders No. 1, HQ WD, Jan. 8, 1851, House Exec. Doc. No. 2, 32 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 634), 164-165.
136. See E. A. Ogden to Jesup, Oct. 4, 1851, ibid., 292.
137. Sumner to Miles, Mar. 30, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
138. Orders No. 6, HQ 9MD, Jan. 9, 1852, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA. For an analysis of the project, see Robert W. Frazer, "Army Agriculture in New Mexico, 1852-1853," NMHR, 50 (Oct. 1975): 313-334. Frazer declared that "the agricultural program, although its objectives were laudable, was ill-conceived in Washington and carried out in ignorance in New Mexico." Ibid., 317.
139. Manuel Alvarez received the Ocate Grant, comprising 69,440 acres, from New Mexico Governor Manuel Armijo in 1837. This grant had not been approved by the United States at the time Alvarez died in 1856. The surveyor general of the U.S. recommended against approval in 1885 because the terms of the grant remained unfulfilled, and the Ocate Grant was rejected. The lease for the Fort Union farm expired in 1854, but the army paid an annual fee to cut hay from the Ocate Grant until 1856. Fraser, Forts and Supplies, 70, 210n.
140. Fraser, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 14.
141. Reminiscences of H. H. Green, Las Vegas Daily Optic, July 17, 1891; Thomas E. Chavez, Manuel Alvarez 1794-1856: A Southwestern Biography (Niwot: University of Colorado Press, 1990), 176-177; and Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 70-71. As an example of the rotation of troops assigned to the farm, Carleton informed the superintendent of the farm in December 1852, "Ten men are detailed to leave here this morning for work on the Public Farm under your direction. You will send the nine men you have there to this post the moment these men arrive." Carleton to Robbins Sumner, Dec. 15, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
142. Las Vegas Daily Optic, July 17, 1891.
143 Samuel Cooper to Winfield Scott, Aug. 18, 1852, CCF, QMG, RG 92, NA. Cooper noted that funds had been expended for the hiring of citizen laborers, contradicting the order which had been designed to have the farms operated by soldiers. He stated that the extra-duty payment to soldiers also was not authorized by the order setting up the farms. He was of the opinion that the farms in New Mexico were not going to be profitable and suggested that some of the debt "could be repaid by a sale of the stock and implements." Cooper recommended that only post gardens be continued in New Mexico. The Fort Union farm was given additional opportunities to fail before that was done.
144. Alexander to E. V. Sumner, April 15, 1852, & Isaac Bowen to Sumner, May 20, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
145. Alexander to E. V. Sumner, April 15, 1852, LR, 9MD, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
146. E. V. Sumner to Carleton, May 10, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
147. Carleton to E. V. Sumner, May 24, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
148. Carleton to E. V. Sumner, Nov. 9, & Nov. 23, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. In October 1852 an escort was provided from the garrison at Fort Union to accompany Maj. Cunningham, paymaster, and Maj. and Mrs. Philip R. Thompson as far as Fort Atkinson. Post Returns, Fort Union, October 1852, AGO, RG 94, NA; and Carleton to Sumner, Oct. 22, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
149. Carleton to Robbins Sumner, Dec. 15, 1852, & Carleton to Sturgis, Dec. 16, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
150. Carleton to Sturgis, Dec. 2, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
151. Ibid.; and E. V. Sumner to AG USA, Sept. 24, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC RG 393, NA.
152. George Sykes to Robbins Sumner, June 22, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
153 N. C. Macrae to Nichols, Sept. 30, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
154. Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 34-35, 62-64.
155. Macrae to Adams, Sept. 14, 1853, Macrae to Nichols, Sept. 17, Sept. 18, & Oct. 1, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
156. Cooke to M. R. Sumner, Nov. 10, 16 &29, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA. Cooke apparently obtained Macrae's statement verbally and then asked him to sign the above statement, which he did on November 18, 1853, ibid.
157. Cooke to Nichols, Jan. 20, 1854, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
158 Garland to Lorenzo Thomas, Oct. 29, 1853, & Garland to Cooper, Nov. 27, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, pp. 75, 88, USAC, RG 393, NA.
159. Cooper to Davis, Jan. 26, 1854, & Davis endorsement, Feb. 7, 1854, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA; and General Orders No. 3, HQ USA, Feb. 9, 1854, ibid.
160. Report of the General in Chief, Nov. 22, 1852, House Exec. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 674), II, 35.
161. Las Vegas Daily Optic, July 17, 1891.
162. Frazer, "Army Agriculture in New Mexico," 317-318.
163. Carleton to E. V. Sumner, April 15 & April 27, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC RG 393, NA; "Lane Diary," 47; and Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 34.
164. Katie Bowen to Father, May 1, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
165. Carleton to E. V. Sumner, April 27, May 17, & May 24, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
166. Katie Bowen to Mother, May 28, 1852, ibid.
167. Katie Bowen to Mother, Aug. 1, 1852, ibid.
168. "Lane Diary," 47-49. Because of the difficulty of getting garden plants started in the spring, due to frost resulting from elevation and climate, the post council of administration at Fort Union requested funds to construct hotbeds. Gouverneur Morris to Cooper, Jan. 31, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA. This was soon done, according to Katie Bowen to Father and Mother, March 3, 1853, Bowen Letters, AC: "We have had a lovely winter here and have radishes and salad almost large enough for the table in the new hothouse. It is a beautiful building, 50 feet long by twenty feet deep and the whole southern front of glass. A gardeners house attached and fires kept night and day." She was less exuberant about the structure a few weeks later. "The hot house was not erected on scientific principles, consequently does not yield much except for transplanting but the out of door garden will be as good if not better than it was last year." Katie Bowen to Mother, April 28, 1853.
169. Garland to Cooper, Nov. 27, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, p. 88, USAC, RG 393, NA.
170. Letterman, "Sanitary Report," 222.
171. Richard H. Coolidge, comp., Statistical Report of the Sickness and Mortality of the Army of the United States (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1856), 429.
172. Orders No. 24, HQ 9MD, Mar. 30, 1852, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA.
173. Blake to E. V. Sumner, Nov. 9, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
174. Prucha, Guide to the Military Posts, 91.
175. Sumner to Calhoun, Mar. 21, 1852; Sumner to Brooks, Mar. 21, 1852; Sumner to Jones, Mar. 22, 1852; Brooks to Calhoun, March 27, 1852; Calhoun to Brooks, Mar. 27, 1852; Calhoun to Brooks, Mar. 28, 1852; Calhoun to Sumner, Mar. 28, 1852; Sumner to Calhoun, Mar. 30, 1852; Sumner to Brooks, April 3, 1852; LS & LR, 9MD, NA, all printed in Abel, Official Correspondence, 492-493, 507-510.
176. Katie Bowen stated that "he got the scurvy and the yellow jaundice took hold of him." Katie Bowen to Mother, May 28, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
177. Calhoun to Lea, Mar. 31 & April 6, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 513-515.
178. John Greiner, "Private Letters," Journal of American History, III (Oct. 1909): 546.
181. Calhoun to Lea, April 6, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 514-515.
182. In fact an unprecedented break in Indian hostilities occurred. John Greiner, acting superintendent of Indian affairs in New Mexico, declared at the end of June 1852, "Not a single depredation has been committed by any of the Indians in New Mexico for three months. The 'oldest inhabitant' cannot recollect the time when this could have been said with truth before." Greiner to Lea, June 30, 1852, Ibid., 540.
183. Sumner to AG, September 24, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 1, p. 26.
184. Calhoun to Sumner, April 7, 1852, Sumner to Calhoun, April 8, 1852, and Sumner to Jones, April 9, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 518, 521-522.
185. Calhoun to Senator W. C. Dawson, April 12, 1852, ibid., 523.
186. Calhoun to Sumner, April 18, 1852, ibid., 527.
187. Calhoun to Sumner, April 12, 1852, ibid., 524-525.
188. Sumner to Jones, April 22, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
189. Katie Bowen to Father, May 2, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC.
190. Proclamation by Calhoun and Sumner, April 21, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 528. Sec. Allen had left New Mexico Territory in April to go to the States, and, according to Sumner, he "carried away all the public money in his possession, amounting to about $9000." This was the reason the treasury was empty and the civil government could not even feed the prisoners. Sumner to Lea, May 26, 1852, ibid., 549. Sumner used military funds to pay for some of the necessary expenditures of civil government. Sumner to Sec. of State Daniel Webster, May 8, 1852, ibid., 535. Territorial Secretary Allen apparently did not return to New Mexico, and it was reported that he resigned the office. Edward H. Wingfield to Luke Lea, May 22, 1852, ibid., 538. Sumner later declared that "no civil government, emanating from the government of the United States, can be maintained here without the aid of a military force; in fact, without its being virtually a military government." Sumner to Conrad, May 27, 1852, House Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 673), 23. That prediction was basically true until after the Civil War.
191. Calhoun to Sumner, April 12, 1852 and Greiner to Lea, April 30, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 525, 529.
192. Sumner to Calhoun, May 2, 1852, ibid., 546.
193. Special Orders No. 31, HQ 9MD, May 3, 1852, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA.
194. Sumner to Carleton and Sumner to Calhoun, May 20, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA, printed in Abel, Official Correspondence, 537.
195. Carleton to Sumner, May 1, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. On April 30 Carleton went to Mora, accompanied by Capt. Shoemaker of the ordnance depot and another man, to see what he could learn. He reported that the "Mexicans" they saw gave no signs of "unfriendly feeling toward any one," nor any "intent upon any insurrectionary or hostile act whatever." Barclay and Bransford, however, declared "their own Mexican women (mistresses) had told them that the Mexicans were determined to rise and murder every American in the country." Carleton considered the rumors "groundless." Ibid.
196. Sumner to Carleton, May 3, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
197. Carleton to Sumner, May 13, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
198. Carleton to Sumner, May 24, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Nov. 30, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC; and Sumner to Lane, Sept. 27, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
199. Sumner to Carleton, May 10, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
200. Carleton to Sumner, May 13, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
201. Carleton to Sumner, May 24, 1852, ibid.
202. Katie Bowen to her mother, May 28, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC; and Greiner to Lea, May 31, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 538-539. Carleton sent the mountain howitzer with the dragoons, stating that it "adds the strength of fifty men to this party." Carleton to Sumner, May 24, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Carleton later reported that seven of the men who formed the escort for Calhoun deserted during the summer, taking seven of the best horses as well as their arms and equipment. Carleton to Sumner, August 30, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
203. Greiner to Lea, April 30, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 531; and Post Returns, Fort Union, May 1852, AGO, RG 94, NA. Surgeon Byrne was initially scheduled to travel to the States with Calhoun but requested permission to remain in New Mexico and have Surgeon McParlin make the trip. Sumner to Calhoun, May 20, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 548.
204. See Katie Bowen to Mother, May 28, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC; and Greiner to Lea, May 31, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 538-539.
205. Mary Jean Cook, "Governor James S. Calhoun Remembered," Compadres, I (July-Sept. 1992): 4-7.
206. Sumner reported from Santa Fe on May 8, "I have removed my Head Quarters to this place and have assumed the direction of the civil government." Sumner to Jones, May 8, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 535. John Greiner found himself in conflict with Colonel Sumner over control of Indian affairs in New Mexico, and at the end of July 1852 declared: "I discovered that Col. Sumner claimed to be the Acting Governor of New Mexico and by virtue of that office Sup't of Indian Affairs. I objected to his pretensions but was given to understand he had the power to assume the responsibility and would assume it." Greiner to Lea, July 31, 1852, ibid., 542. William Carr Lane arrived in Santa Fe on Sept. 9, and Colonel Sumner "relinquished all charge of civil affairs and returned to" Albuquerque. Sumner to AG, Sept. 24, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 1, p. 26.
207. Espinosa, "Memoir of a Kentuckian in New Mexico," 8.
208. Carleton to Sumner, April 22, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
209. Affidavit by Capt. Isaac Bowen, Aug. 18, 1852, & List of Articles Stolen from Medical Dept., Fort Union, from Sept. 1851 to July 1852, compiled by Asst. Surgeon John Byrne, both documents filed with C-M, HH-292, Bvt. Capt. George Sykes, JAG, RG 153, NA. Dr. Byrne was the witness to Bowen's affidavit, which was sworn before Notary Public George W. Martin. Additional information about the losses suffered at Fort Union may be found with the treatment of Sykes's court-martial in chapter 10.
211. Carleton to Sumner, April 27, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Fort Union had been losing supplies to the thieves at an alarming rate, and Carleton was convinced they had "confederates in the garrison itself." Ibid. Carleton had been told by Col. Alexander that the territorial marshal would destroy the "dram-selling establishments" because they were in Indian country and, thereby, in violation of the Intercourse Act of 1834, as amended in 1847, which prohibited the selling of liquors in "Indian Country" in order to preserve peace on the frontier. Because such action had not been taken, Carleton offered his services to assist with the "confiscation" of the illegal whiskey. Carleton to Calhoun, April 26, 1852, copy for Sumner, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
212. Warrant issued to Stephens by Calhoun, May 1, 1852, Abel, Official Correspondence, 544; Carleton to Sumner, May 13, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Lane to Lea (and enclosure), Feb. 28, 1853, Abel, Official Correspondence, 545. Carleton reported that six houses were burned, and U.S. Marshal John Jones later reported five houses burned.
213. Katie Bowen undated letter, Bowen Letters, AC.
214. Orders No. 30, HQ 9MD, May 11, 1852, 9MD Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA. The enlarged reservation did not prevent whiskey traders from setting up business near the garrison, but it made it easier for the commanding officer to remove them. In October 1852 Carleton informed Sumner: "Last week a whisky trader built a house in the canon above the fort and within four miles. His house has been pulled down." Carleton to Sumner, Oct. 22, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
215. Isaac Bowen to Sumner, May 20, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, M-1102, roll 4, USAC, RG 393, NA.
216. Barclay to Sumner, May 27, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
217. Carleton to McFerran, May 28, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
218. Carleton to Sumner, Oct. 22, 1852, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Carleton to Sturgis, Dec. 7, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
220. Carleton to Lane, Oct. 22, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS. Carleton was apparently referring to Judge Grafton Baker, with whom he had become well acquainted on the trip to New Mexico the previous year.
221. Lane to Sumner, Oct. 27, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
222. Carleton to Sumner, Nov. 23, 1852, & Carleton to Sturgis, Dec. 7, 1852, ibid.
223. Carleton to Lane, Nov. 9, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS; and Carleton to Sturgis, Dec. 7, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA.
224. Morris to Sumner, Mar. 18, 1853, ibid., NA; and U.S. District Court Record, Taos County, 1851-1857, 96-97, NMSRCA.
227. Lease, Barclay and Doyle with the United States, Fort Union, Mar. 22, 1854, CCF QMG, RG 92, NA. The fee was paid to Barclay until his death in 1855. William Kronig purchased the Barclay and Doyle property in 1856 and collected the rent "for a number of years." He later stated that he had reduced the annual fee to $1.00 per year but did not specify when that occurred. Testimony of William Kronig, June 30, 1880, Elkins et al. vs Arce et al., Partition No. 632, First Judicial District, County of Mora, Territory of New Mexico, 66-70, NMSRCA. It was not until after Fort Union was abandoned that it was finally determined on which land grant the post had been located.
The Mora Grant, a block of land extending 32 miles north and south and 40 miles east and west comprising 827,621 acres between the Sapello River and Ocate Creek, was made Sept. 28, 1835, to 76 individuals, each of whom received a small piece of land in severalty for cultivation, with the remainder of the grant held in common. The grant was made to encourage settlement of the Mora Valley and to help block Indians from coming into the Rio Grande Valley. "The records show that several of the original grantees and many of their descendants were killed by the Indians or captured and never heard from. They stood as a wall against the Indians of the east." The grant was approved for confirmation in 1860 and Congress issued a patent for the grant in 1876. The Mora Land Grant of New Mexico (Denver: The Clark Quick Printing Co., n.d.), 17, 20; and Patten to QMG, June 3, 1892, JAG Reservation Files, Fort Union, RG 153, NA.
Although the claimants to the Scolly Grant believed they held five leagues square (25 square leagues or 108,450 acres) which overlapped the Mora Grant, the U.S. Congress determined that the grant was for five square leagues (21,690 acres). Over a year after Fort Union was abandoned, in October 1892 the Scolly Grant was finally surveyed, and a patent was issued in February 1893. Then it was discovered that no part of the Fort Union reservation had been on the Scolly Grant. Lease payments had been made to the wrong parties all those years, and Fort Union and all its reserves were entirely on the Mora Grant. House Report No. 321, 36 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 1068), 169-182; Sen. Report No. 228, 36 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 1040), 1; Sen. Misc. Doc. No. 81, 45 Cong., 3 sess, pt. 3, pp. 952-964; and Frazer, "Battle for Fort Union," 13-14.
228. Statement by Gov. Lane, June 30, 1853, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
229. Captain N. C. Macrae, commanding Fort Union in Oct. 1853, reported: "There are several persons not far from this post engaged in selling liquor to soldiers of this command. I am informed they purchase Soldiers clothing, harbor deserters, purchase property stolen from individuals & the U. States." He requested instructions from the department commander as to how to deal with them. Macrae to W. A. Nichols, Oct. 6, 1853, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
230. Ibid., August 1852; Carleton to Sumner, August 30, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Lane Diary, 38-45.
231. Lane to Messrs Waldo, Hall & Co., Mail Stage Contractor, Independence, Sept. 3, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS. Lane recorded in his diary that this letter was written at the request of Carleton. "Lane Diary," 47.
232. Lane to Waldo, Hall & Co., Sept. 3, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
233. Ibid. Despite Allison's behavior on this trip, he enjoyed a long career as a mail coach conductor and later operated a trading ranch at the Santa Fe Trail crossing of Walnut Creek near present Great Bend, Kansas.
234. William & Jno McCoy, Independence, to Gov. Wm Carr Lane, Oct. 1, 1852, ibid.
235. Carleton to Lane, October 22, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
236. Deed of Trust, November 18, 1852, Santa Fe County, NM, Book A—Deeds, 195, copy in William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
239. Katie Bowen, Sophia Carleton, and other officers' wives at Fort Union were much taken with Gov. Lane and kept in touch with him while he served in the territory. Upon his arrival, Mrs. Bowen wrote that Lane "is a hale old man of sixty, I should think, and leaves an extensive practice of medicine, a family and wealth to be governor of this undesirable republic and republicans. The honors accruing from the position have yet to be made public. No person has discovered them." Katie Bowen to Father and Mother, Sept. 1, 1852, Bowen Letters, AC. After the election of 1852, Katie expressed sadness about one thing. "I am sorry of one thing that will happen under the new administration. Our good governor will be recalled and better cannot be found. He is very popular among the people and is doing good." Katie Bowen to Mother, Nov. 28, 1852, ibid.
240. Sumner to AAG, Sept. 24, 1852, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 1, 32 Cong., 2 sess. (Serial 659), pt. 1, pp. 26-27.
241. Lane to Sarah Glasgow, St. Louis, Nov. 17, 1852, William Carr Lane Collection, MHS.
242. When Lane relieved Sumner at Santa Fe, Sumner took the American flag which flew at the Palace of the Governors. When Lane requested it, Sumner replied, "I regret that I cannot furnish you with military supplies, not provided for by law, without an order from the war department." Sumner to Lane, Sept. 27, 1852, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. It was an ominous beginning of a bad relationship that lasted until Lane left office. Sumner had difficulty working with civil officials in New Mexico, and the officials had complained to Washington. In September 1852 Sec. of War Conrad wrote to Sumner: "Complaints have been made to the President that you were in the practice of usurping the functions of civil officers, such as Governor, Indian Agent &c, and that you and the officers under your command, instead of giving the civil authorities your countenance and support, endeavored, by every possible means to thwart their measures, and to sow disaffection against them among the inhabitants." Conrad to Sumner, Sept. 9, 1852, LR, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA. Such complaints must have figured in the decision to replace Sumner as department commander the following year.
243. Calvin Horn, New Mexico's Troubled Years (Albuquerque: Horn & Wallace, 1963), 42, 48.
244. Orders No. 20, June 1, 1853; Orders No. 22, June 3, 1853; Orders No. 23, June 6, 1853; & Orders No. 27, HQ 9MD, July 1, 1853, 9MD Orders, v. 36, pp. 171-175, 186, USAC, RG 393, NA.
245. Katie Bowen to Father & Mother, Nov. 30, 1851, Bowen Letters, AC.
246. Garland was a colonel in the Eighth Infantry and brevet brigadier general. He commanded in New Mexico at his brevet rank. A native of Virginia, Garland had entered the army during the War of 1812 and had distinguished himself during the war with Mexico. Garland commanded the department for five years and, according to Robert Frazer, brought "a degree of stability that the department had lacked previously. Garland differed from Sumner in temperament. He was less impressed by his own position, less concerned with minutiae, and more inclined to delegate authority to subordinates. In his relations with representatives of the civil government he was generally cooperative, and in his dealings with civilians he was more often conciliatory than peremptory. As a result, his period of command was less fraught with the minor crises that had marked Sumner's tenure." Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 87-88.
247. Morris Diary, July 11, 1853.
248. Meriwether, from Kentucky, was the first territorial governor to serve a four-year term and, like Garland, helped bring stability to New Mexico. He, at age 19, and a black youth named Alfred had traveled from Council Bluffs on the Missouri River to New Mexico in 1820 with a party of 17 Pawnee Indians. They were attacked by New Mexicans, 14 of the Pawnees were killed, and Meriwether and Alfred were imprisoned at Santa Fe. They were released and returned to Council Bluffs by early March 1821. Meriwether joined Garland's caravan at Council Grove in 1853 on the way to New Mexico. He was inaugurated at Santa Fe on August 8, and on at day the roof of the cell where he had been incarcerated in 1820 collapsed. Meriwether and Garland apparently were able to work together in dealing with Indian problems in the territory. He served in New Mexico until 1857 and returned to Kentucky where he was active in politics. Meriwether died at age 93 in 1893, two years after Fort Union was abandoned. Barry, Beginning of the West, 91-92, 1164; Horn, New Mexico's Troubled Years, 53, 61, 68-69. See David Meriwether, My Life in the Mountains and on the Plains, ed. by R. A. Griffen (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965).
249. Raphael P. Thian, comp., Adjutant General's Department Notes Illustrating the Military Geography of the United States, 1813-1880 (1881, reprint; Austin: University of Texas Press, 1979), 78; Barry, Beginning of the West, 1164-1165; and Frazer, Mansfield on the Condition of the Western Forts, 31-32.
250. Garland to Lorenzo Thomas, Oct. 29, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, p. 75, USAC, RG 393, NA.
251. Fraser, Mansfield on the Condition of Western Forts, 14-15.
252. Nichols to Macrae, Sept. 10, 1853, LS, 9MD, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Orders No. 36, HQ 9MD, Sept. 15, 1853, 9MD Orders, v. 36, pp. 193-195, USAC, RG 393, NA.
253. Garland later recalled: "Shortly after my arrival in this Department, I found it necessary to make a communication to the Head Quarters of the Army with respect to Fort Union. . . . It became necessary in consequence of the decision of the Court, to make a lease of the grounds, at an extravagant rate, or submit to the process of ejectment, carrying with it an immense loss of Public Property. No time was lost in preparing suitable storehouses at Albuquerque for the reception and safe keeping of the property. Besides being a more central and accessible position, taking the year round, it is a place of greater security than Fort Union, at which place the storehouses are insufficient, and in a state of decay." Garland to Cooper, April 29, 1856, LS, DNM, v. 9, pp. 476-477, USAC, RG 393, NA.
254. Garland to Thomas, April 30, 1856, LS, DNM, v. 9, pp. 479-480, USAC, RG 393, NA.
255. Nichols to Easton, Sept. 8, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, p. 41, USAC, RG 393, NA.
256. Garland to Thomas, Oct. 29, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, p. 74, USAC, RG 393, NA.; and Orders No. 24, HQ DNM, July 28, 1854, DNM Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA.
257. Garland to Cooper, Oct. 28, 1853, LS, 9MD, v. 9, p. 74, USAC, RG 393, NA.
258. Garland to Thomas, Oct. 29, 1853, ibid.
259. Thian, Military Geography, 79. After the Civil War, in 1865, the Department of New Mexico became the District of New Mexico under the Department of the Missouri. Ibid., 147.
260. Garland to Thomas, Jan. 28, 1854, LS, DNM, v. 9, p. 124, USAC, RG 393, NA.
261. Garland to Thomas, Nov. 27, 1853, LS, DNM, v. 9, p. 87, USAC, RG 393, NA.
262. Cooke to Thomas, Feb. 11, 1854, Cooke to Nichols, June 1, 1854, & Fauntleroy to Cooper, Oct. 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Post Returns, Fort Union, Oct. 1854, AGO, RG 94, NA.
263. Cooke to Nichols, Feb. 10, 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
264. Orders No. 15, HQ DNM, Nov. 3, 1856, DNM Orders, v. 36, pp. 374-377, USAC, RG 393, NA.
265. Macrae to Nichols, April 4 and 15, 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; Nichols to Macrae, April 7, 1854, LS, DNM, ibid.; Post Returns, Fort Union, Mar.-May 1854, AGO, RG 94, NA; and Orders No. 24, HQ DNM, July 28, 1854, DNM Orders, USAC, RG 393, NA.
266. Garland to Cooper, July 30, 1854, LS, DNM, v. 9, p. 207, USAC, RG 393, NA.
267. Special Orders No. 155, HQ WD, Sept. 14, 1854, AGO, RG 94, NA; and Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 89.
268. Fauntleroy to Cooper, Sept. 18, 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; Post Returns, Fort Union, Sept. 1854, AGO, RG 94, NA; Fauntleroy to George Gibson, Sept. 18, 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; Magruder to Rucker, Oct. 2, 1854, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
269. Garland to Cooper, April 29, 1856, LS, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Special Orders No. 27, HQ DNM, April 1, 1856, DNM Orders, v. 27, p. 255, USAC, RG 393, NA.
270. Orders No. 13, HQ DNM, October 11, 1856, DNM Orders, v. 36, p. 373, USAC, RG 393, NA; Bonneville to Thomas, October 31, 1856, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 33-34, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Thian, Military Geography, 79.
271. Horn, New Mexico's Troubled Years, 68, 75; Nichols to Loring, Oct. 11, 1857, & Garland to Thomas, Nov. 14, 1857, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 152, 159, USAC, RG 393, NA; and McNally to Edson, Oct. 16, 1857, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
272. Special Orders No. 80 & 81, HQ DNM, Sept. 14, 1858, DNM Orders, v. 39, pp. 162-164, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Thian, Military Geography, 79.
273. General Orders No. 158, HQ USA, September 5, 1859, AGO, RG 94, NA; Thian, Military Geography, 79; and Special Orders No. 55, HQ DNM, April 11, 1859, DNM Orders, v. 38B, USAC, RG 393, NA.
274. Loring to Wilkins, April 16, 1859, LR, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA.
276. Bonneville to Thomas, April 23, 1859, LS, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Henry L. Scott to Johnston, May 25, 1859, LR, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA.
277. Johnston to AAG, July 11, 1859, LR, AGO, RG 94, NA.
278. Thomas endorsement, Aug. 16, 1859, on Bonneville to Thomas, July 15, 1859, LR, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA.
279. Fauntleroy to Cooper, Oct. 25, 1859, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 382-383, USAC, RG 393, NA; General Orders No. 4, HQ DNM, Oct. 25, 1859, DNM Orders, v. 38B, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Post Returns, Fort Union, Oct. 1859, AGO, RG 94, NA.
280. Morris to Wilkins, Aug. 23 & 30, 1859, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; Wilkins to Morris, Aug. 25, 1859, LS, DNM, v. 10, p. 365, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Post Returns, Fort Union, Dec. 1859, AGO, RG 94, NA.
281. Annual Report of Capt. J. N. Macomb, Top. Engineers, for year ending June 30, 1859, July 6, 1859, Sen. Ex. Doc. No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 sess. (Serial 1025), pt. 2, pp. 871-874; and Simonson to Cooper & Simonson to Wilkins, June 2, 1859, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
282. Simonson to Cooper, July 7, 1860, LS, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Fauntleroy to Cooper, July 21, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, p. 439, USAC, RG 393, NA.
283. Fauntleroy to Thomas, Nov. 8, 1859, & Fauntleroy to Cooper, Dec. 6, 1859, LS, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA. Fauntleroy's plan included much more than the replacement of Fort Union, including a sizable increase in the number of troops (which could be transferred from Utah since the "Mormon War" had ended) and of supplies freighted from Fort Leavenworth, and would have been costly to initiate. If the entire design had been implemented, however, it most likely would have improved the economy and efficiency of the army in New Mexico in the long run. Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 147-154.
284. General Orders No. 6, HQ USA, Mar. 12, 1860, AGO, RG 94, NA.
285. Special Orders No. 42, HQ DNM, April 10, 1860, DNM Orders, v. 39, pp. 343-344, USAC, RG 393, NA.
286. Fauntleroy to Cooper, April 29, 1860, Records Relating to Indian Affairs, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 170-171. At least Fauntleroy was not so wedded to the idea at the time that he lost all sense of judgment. "The total absence of building material at Red [Canadian] river," he wrote, "and the great distance that everything necessary therefore would be required to be transported, would make the erection of a post & Depot there from its cost perfectly frightful; and the lateness now of the season forbids the idea that the work could be accomplished in time to save the government stores from most serious loss." Later, however, another officer selected a site on the Canadian for the proposed post.
287. Fauntleroy to Register & Receiver of the Land Office, New Mexico, May 1, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, p. 418, USAC, RG 393, NA.
288. Fauntleroy to Cooper, April 29, 1860, Records Relating to Indian Affairs, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 225fn.
289. Fauntleroy to Cooper, April 29, 1860, Records Relating to Indian Affairs, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA.
290. Fauntleroy to Thomas, June 10 & Aug. 12, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 429-430, 450, USAC, RG 393, NA. The effects of what Fauntleroy described on Dec. 1, 1860, as "a most unusual and distressing drought" which began in 1859 and continued through 1860 were devastating. "Grass is now, nowhere to be found; hay could not be procured at any price at some of the posts, and corn has risen to a frightful price everywhere. I shall find great difficulty in sustaining the Cavalry horses which I have, although much reduced in number." Fauntleroy to Thomas, Dec. 1, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 513-514, USAC, RG 393, NA.
291. Moore to Major, Aug. 5, 1860, LR, FU, USAC, RG 393, NA.
292. Frazer, Forts and Supplies, 171. See also Robert W Frazer, "Fort Butler: The Fort that Almost Was," NMHR, 53 (Oct. 1968): 253-270.
293. Fauntleroy to Cooper, Nov. 12, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 498-499, USAC, RG 393, NA.
294. Dabney H. Maury to Roberts, Nov. 11 & 25, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 496,505, USAC, RG 393, NA.
295. Roberts to Maury, Dec. 8, 1860, LR, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Maury to Crittenden, Dec. 12, 1860, Maury to Roberts, Dec. 13, 1860, & Fauntleroy to Cooper, Dec. 16, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 517-519, USAC, RG 393, NA.
296. Fauntleroy to Cooper, April 29, 1860, Records Relating to Indian Affairs, DNM, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Fauntleroy to Cooper, Dec. 16, 1860, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 518-519, USAC, RG 393, NA.
297. Maury to Crittenden, Jan. 12, 1861, Wilcox to Roberts, Jan. 20, 1861, Fauntleroy to Thomas, Jan. 31, 1861, Maury to Roberts, Feb. 7, 1861, & Maury to Canby, Feb. 10, 1861, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 534, 537, 544-546, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Crittenden to AAG DNM, Feb. 4, 1861, LS, FU, USAC RG 393, NA.
298. General Orders No. 9, HQ DNM, Mar. 22, 1861, DNM Orders, v. 38C, USAC, RG 393, NA; Thian, Military Geography, 79; and Heitman, Historical Register, I, 415, 642. Coincidentally Fauntleroy and Loring, both of whom had commanded Fort Union and the Department of New Mexico, resigned their commissions in the Union army on the same date, May 13, 1861.
299. Maury to CO Hatch's Ranch, Mar. 23, 1861, & Loring to Thomas, April 7, 1861, LS, DNM, v. 10, pp. 567, 578-579, USAC, RG 393, NA; and Orders No. 14, HQ FU, April 12, 1861, FU Orders, v. 46A, USAC, RG 393, NA.
300. General Orders No. 22, HQ DNM, July 20, 1861, DNM Orders, v. 36, p. 520, USAC, RG 393, NA.
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