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Show Tee ne LEADING 3830 FACTS OF MEXICAN NEW NEW HISTORY ee ‘ ficers, however, had anticipated this movement and, on March, sent forward to Fort Union a train of one hun . twenty wagons, escorted by the entire Federal force at the i , ae The Confederate commander determined to concentrate us . oF force at Santa Fé and in due time proceed against Fort a he w ing to repeat the successes of his army at Valverde, but isappointment. aa a: Canby’s defeat. and the Confederate ea reached the territory of Colorado, of which as we have seen William Gilpin was at the time the governor. ee He had been active in the BATTLES OF APACHE CANYON of troops and when the news came 0 AND PIGEON’S RANCH Sibley ’s success he had already moved, as far as the Raton pass, an efficient body of loyal, frontier fighting men. The Colorado volunteers marched from Denver on is 22d, the day after the engagement at Valverde, through snow near : a foot deep, and reached the foot of the Raton mountains on Mare After crossing the mountains, marching sixty-seven miles 1m a 7th. single day, the force reached Fort Union on the 11th, where ne : were thoroughly armed and equipped by Major Paul, U. S. A. portion of the command setting out in advance for the purpose . recapturing Santa Fé from the small Confederate force which — : reported to be there, unexpectedly met Major Pyron with his ai troops at Apache canyon. A fierce engagement ensued later. Colorado volunteers had marched along the Santa Fé trail in the direction of Glorieta, when at midnight the presence of the Cont erate pickets was discovered. The following morning, March a these were surprised and captured, together with two Confederate heutenants.°°? Major J. M. Chivington was in command of the Colorado troops, consisting of two hundred and ten cavalry and one hun803 Letter from Colorado. The impression lantry from and fighting a Confederate which a Confederate the qualities soldier Soldier, war Confederates of who the under Colorado was relic room, in this Pyron troops State House, received is well engagement. of Denver, oak a stated in hod ‘‘If it Hae been for those devils from Pike’s Peak, this country would have been te a Instead of Mexicans and Regulars, they were regular demons, that ts st lead had no effect upon,-in the shape of Pike’s Peakers. Up the sie Wak went for four miles, when we met the enemy coming down at double o ae 4 the grape and shell soon stopped them. But before we could form 1 ae battle their infantry was upon the hills on both sides of us, Soe na than like sheep. . . . Thev had no sooner got within shooting distance 0 MEXICO DURING THE CIVIL WAR e PT ane a z edlacan saeL eum 381 dred and eighty infantry. The command moved forward to the head of the canyon when a battery of two guns, occupy ing the main road, opened upon them with grape and shell. Findin g himself under a destructive fire Chivington deployed two compan ies of sixty men as skirmishers on the mountain side to the left of the road and one company was also advanced to higher ground on the right. The mountain sides were covered with a growth of pine, pifion and dwarf cedar. For more than an hour the opposing infantry kept up a stubborn firing, when Captain Jacob Downin g,?” commanding the Union forces on the right, succeeded in partly flanking the enemy’s position. The Texans now showed signs of retreat, when the cavalry under Captain Cook charged them gallantly, running the Texans down up came a company of cavalry at full charge, with swords looking like so many flying devils. On they came, to whatand revolvers drawn, I Supposed certain destruction, but nothing like lead or iron seemed to stop them, for we poured both into them from every side had run the gauntlet for half like hail in a storm. In a moment these devils a mile and were fighting hand to hand The houses that I spoke of before were 700 or 800 with yards to the right of the road, with a wide ditch between it and them. our men in the road. Here we felt safe, but again were mistaken. No sooner did they see us than some of them jumped the ditch, and like demons, came charging on us. It looked as if their horses’ feet never touched the ground until they were among us.’’ $04 Journal of Major Downing. Major Downing gives the following account of the events leading up to the coming of the Colorado troops and the battle at Apache canyon or Glorieta: ‘‘We went into camp at Weld (Colorado) and the regiment was drilled there and spent the winter of 1861 in quarters. We then got news of Canby that the battle of Valverde had been fought; that he had been whipped and had applied for assistance. The question was about marching , but the Colonel did not show any disposition to move, so I wrote an article signed ‘Union,’ urging that the regiment be sent to the front to help anby. After the publication of this article I was placed under arrest. But after a time the regiment got so mutinou s about being detained here that Colone] Slough had it announc ed that he had received orders from General unter to go to the assistance of Canby. Then he gave the orders to march. was released and headed my company—D. We marched six miles that afternoon in Six inches of snow. The men were poorly clad, didn’t have enough to keep them warm. The guns were of mixed variety and not all of the same Caliber. The next morning we started and marched about forty miles, there being about three feet of snow on the Divide. We kept it up until we reached the point called Red River, and there the Colonel thought the men couldn’t Stand the continued forced march, but I made up my mind to march that night, and the companies fell in. The Colonel joined us about midnigh t; and we continue d to Maxwell ’s ranch, on the Cimarron. Next morning we started for Fort Union, and arrived about eight o’clock in the evening, and went into ‘amp outside the fort. We were armed, clothed and furnished with plenty of Commissary and quartermaster’s stores — arms and ammunition. Then we started to meet the Texans, approaching from Santa Fé, sending four companies as 4n advance, We met the enemy about eleven o’clock in Apache canyon, and had a battle with their advance, whipped them and drove them back, killing YOa ‘ome seke |