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Show 870 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY NEW that post, and the command ordered to proceed to Alburquerque.*”® ti as the 7 : the regular troops from here at thisis time [August, 1 861], » as nae. completly Sanya New — ae foe? = nitairs eee there has been time to make any representation to . Se ee ton. I know that you are well acquainted with the ¢ ate e i oe “ele i and need only to inform you that the volunteers recently L “antigay heros, or even of the better class of Mexicans, »0 yon neal “elit oe see how entirely defenseless the Territory will be if the J. §. Army is withdrawn.’’ : . in a cvorbie narra to Colonel Canby, concurred in and signed Be Céran St. Vrain, 1st regular New Mexico volunteers, and by his, ee Christopher Carson, of the ee ee ae et a co “ roperty belonging to the Unite ates i rge co... oe 30th, amounted to $271,147.55 Rehar en - ra elusive of the post store houses, outworks, etc., and embraces a : ~ Oe a new arsenal for the Territory of an expensive character;’’ tha ; a ee of twelve years among the people enables me to know and it is ee gl ante every well informed, candid person resident among them, that Ms os oe port and protection of the Regular Army of the United States i ae a ee unable to protect the public property in the Territory, or the ec of officers, civil and military, as may be left among them after the " eee the regular forces now under your command, no matter how roel a aA or how well armed the New Mexican volunteers are. A view 0 3 ee seh invasion by the Texan troops on the south, the threatened LRT ie from Arkansas and Upper Texas, and the almost certain capture oI a he ahi and public property in the Territory, if left unguarded by the reg Ny under your command, induces me to make this representation, ve Asie: « that you will at least delay the movement now contemplated un + a present state of affairs in New Mexico is made known to the — Washington and they shall have been heard from on the subject. 8 ae 293 War of the Rebellion, ser. I, vol. iv, p. 22, Report of Lieute . S. Roberts. : a he. Colonel Roberts had ordered the abandonment and Ree tee Stanton, the post was occupied by Captain Walker’s Sones FNGER 5 Baylor’s command. In his report to General Van Dorn, Colone ; » ths nee that ‘‘by express from Fort Stanton I learn that upon the a eae ae that Major Lynde had surrendered, Colonel Roberts, in comman 2 ee fled in haste, leaving the post on fire, which was extinguished by a : eee Most of the commissary and quartermaster ’s supplies were saved an aS he a x ee ” x Colonel Baylor also reported the capture of Captain Hubbell an Palas a in a skirmish near Fort Craig. These were New Mexican vole eee time, August, 1861, Fort Craig was garrisoned by 350 regular and roops. as : Th the month of August, 1861, a detachment of Baylor’s cont number of fights with Indians in the neighborhood of Fort Stan ae Te Bliss, in which a number of his soldiers were slain. These fights wl on induced him to urge upon General Van Dorn the sending of ene Be United for the reason that he found it impossible to hold the troops of % i States in check and at the same time be continually ape atiig, 2aaM p. 26. Indians. Report of Colonel Baylor, War of the Rebellion, ser. i, vo e . panies On June 20, 1861, Canby called upon Governor Rencher for _— ede of volunteers ‘‘to aid in the protection of the eastern frontier of ‘ eee and guarding the trains on the routes from the Arkansas to this = be orgalThese companies were to form a part of one of the regiments later wed in 932 ized under Order No. 15, May 4, 1861. These companies were ral MEXICO DURING THE CIVITt, WAR 371 The post was shortly occupied by the Confederates but a timely rain quenched the fire and most of the commissary and quartermaster’s supplies were saved to the invaders. In a skirmish at Cafiada Alamosa, September 25, 1861, south of Fort Craig, Captain John H. Mink, of the New Mexico mounted volunteers, surrendered to Captain Coopwood, command ing a force of about 115 men. The enlisted men who were captured 7°* were released on parole but Captain Minks and Lieutena nt Medina were held as prisoners. Later the victorious Texans were defeated by a detachment of regular troops from Fort Craig. Miguel county and were armed and equipped at Fort Union. He also, two days later, called upon the governor for four companie s of foot volunteers, to rendezvous at Alburquerque and one company of foot and one of mounted volunteers to rendezvous at Fort Craig and a like number at Fort Stanton. Colonel Canby took prompt action in the matter of strengthening all of the Southern posts. Robert H. Stapleton, who lived near Fort Craig, was authorized by the governor to raise the mounted company. Colonel M. E. Pino, who had been appointed by President Lincoln to the command of the 2d regiment of New Mexican volunteers, was also active and designate d the companies that assembled at Alburquerque. : The military authorities at Washington were kept well advised tion of affairs in New Mexico and the necessity for the organizat of the condiion of mounted troops. In a communication to Hon. Simon Cameron, secretary of war, July 3, 1861, Judge Perry E. Brocchus, then at the nation’s capital, said: ‘‘The President informed me last evening that you had completed your report, and advised me to eal] upon you in reference to the troops about to be raised in New Mexico. Advices from Governor Stanton and Judge Watts portance of having three regiments, two of them to be mounted, urge the imand, in view of threatened aggressions in the northern as well as the southern portion of the Territory by the domestic foe, immediate action in the premises is deemed abSolutely necessary. . . . If you would most effectually strengthen the government of the United States, physically and morally, in that recently conquered and imperfectly loyalized region of our country; if you would plant most deeply In the soil of New Mexico and in the hearts of her people the staff from which floats the ‘flag of the free,’ you must show the good faith of giving them ample Protection, alike against the marauding savage and the rebellious domestic foe. “* War of the Rebellion, ser. i., vol. iv, p. 31, Report of Captain Bethel Coopwood. The known intention of the Confederates to invade New Tom the south, together with a suspected invasion from the north andMexico east, Were not the least of the troubles confronting Colonel Canby. In letter to the headquarters of the army at St. Louis, he gives in detail the a great em- barrassment under which he was laboring on account of depredations by the Indians, The Navajés were constant in their daring raids. The Mescalero Apaches were committing depredations, and s had been made by the Kiowas and Comanches, ostensibly in pursuit incursion of the Utes, but their depredans were not Canby declared, confined were to greatly them. The aggravated troubles with the Navajés, Colonel by the illegal acts of a portion of the Mexican people, who made war upon the Indians for booty and captives. These raids upon the Navajés were upheld by the moral sense of the community as the Mexican raiders could find a ready Bale for andtheirhe believed plunder that and sotheirlongcaptives, it was impossible to prevent realiation by the Indians. |