OCR Text |
Show PER 386 LEADING FACTS OF NEW MEXICAN HISTORY NEW under Colonel Kit Carson, on April 1st, had marched northward with eight hundred and sixty regulars and three hundred and fifty volunteers. In the retreat a portion of Sibley’s disorganized force had reached Alburquerque, and here, on the 8th of April, a portion of the ae forces made a demonstration; nothing effective was accomplished, however, and these troops proceeded to Tijeras canyon on the — where they joined the main body of Union troops under Colone Paul. The following day, Major Chivington having succeeded to the colonelcy of the Colorado regiment, the regulars and Naren proceeded to Peralta, where the Confederates were posted. Colone Chivington was extremely anxious to assault the Confederate position *** but Canby would give no orders to that effect. The Confederate forces belonged to the commands of Pyron, Steele, Seurry, and Greene. The Texans** took advantage of a stormy night, of the villainous treatment of Indians by white civilians. This oe Beds, California, ~o. A. was April 11, 1873. His rank at the time ae brigadier-g e ““Away in the West,’’ says Hayes, ‘‘these brave officers reader a orm ay heroes for their country (from what they saved her let the and conclusions), and these events were hardly surprising, tance, far nearer taken on February “eo ehMe what was their reward? Practically nothing ;_ ine Hast, is not known, and have not since been known in ng an in view of the fact that other matters of — oe ie home, were contemporaneous with them. For Doce 6th, Roanoke Island on February 8th, and Fort oS aon February 16th. The battle of Pea Ridge ended on March on 1 h occurred fought the Merrimac on March 9th, and the great engagement at S at that such on April 6th and 7th. Probably not one in ten thousand suspects a threatening movement was making in the rear of our ae have been equally surprising and terrible to have heard suddenly tha had been effected with the Mormons, and that mischief had rage a it woul a Ae b - done ives’ an which could be repaired, if at all, only at the cost of hundreds ° Sibley dismillions of money. Instead of this, the bright days of May saw nich he ha heartened and all ean res . demoralized, resting at the same Fort Bliss eee Grande marched with fell purpose four months before. The valley of the oles would know him no more, and he doubtless sought his accustomed con the flowing bowl.’’ : 698: ‘On the 811 Bancroft, H. H., History of Arizona and New Mezico, Pnaniired UF 15th a belated Texan train coming in sight from Alburquerque 4 weit gun, a thirty mounted Coloradoans, who lost one man and killed four, : Confederates dozen prisoners, seventy mules, and fifteen horses. — Esau a . Presently pate opntiaee opened fire with their artillery, which was the firing The Colorado to some extent all day, with but slight andanswered, unrecorded effect. @ tho We troops retired to the river, and planned an attack under cover ae to kill his but Canby forbade the movement. He is accused of an paar a old comrades, of jealousy toward the volunteers, and even of leg” ~ four days +1? Colonel Chivington says: ‘‘They ficiently far and nights whenever we attempted to cross;disputed our crossing and tried to get ie On the in advance to cross without being subjected to we their artillery ' MEXICO DURING THE er PT ” » , . ee ce CIVIL <4 WAR 387 forded the river and escaped. In order to escape an engagement with Canby, Sibley determined to take advantage of a great bend of the Rio Grande to the west, and havin g abandoned a part of his wagon train,*"* to cross the mountainou s country through the canyons, thereby cutting off many miles of heavy marching. Seven days’ rations were packed on mules, the wagons abandoned, and all fourth night they burned their transpo rtation, and abandoned everything except some light vehicles, packed their provisions, and took to the mountains. ’’ Hayes, A. A., Unwritten Episode of the War, p. 170, says, relative to the demonstration at Alburquerque, that << April 15th, the troops fell on Sibley ’s rear, capturing a large train and a number of prisoners, and killing many of the escort. The next day the town (Peralta) was bombarded, and during the following night Sibley escaped across the river under cover of the darkness, and in a sand-storm of long duration. His rear was again attacked, and more damage done. ’’ Hayes also Says of the ‘‘demonstrat ion’’ at Alburquerque, that Major Dunean, 3d cavalry, was seriously wounde d. Chivington says that ‘‘they fought all day at long range, and at night Canby took a side route and attempted to orm a junction with us, and Sibley escaped down the Rio Grande with his foree.’? $13 After a close pursuit of one hundred and fifty miles, says Colonel B. 8. Roberts, ‘‘he was obliged to break up his force into small parties, having left all along the line of his retreat public stores of his entire comman d.’’ Colonel Canby his ambulances, and the private officially reported him as having left behind and ‘‘in dead and wounded, and in sick and prisone rs, one half During the Confederate occupation of Alburqof his original force.’? ; uerque eight mountain howitze rs which had belonged to the government of the United States and had been captured by Sibley were buried in a field nearly opposite the present home of ajor H. R. Whiting. Many years afterward their location was describ ed to Major Whiting, who found them under about eightee the Confederate officer (Major Teel) informed him n inches of earth, though that they had been buried Several feet deep. Two of these guns (Napoleons) are now in the custody of the Grand Army of the Republic post at Alburq uerque. It is worthy of note that at the time of the breaking out of hostilities General Longstreet, distinguished im the Civil] War, was serving as major and paymaster at Alburquerque. Bancrof t, H. H., Ibid, pp. 698-699, writing of ‘On the 16th and 17th the armies advanced slowly the retreat by Sibley says: southward in sight of each other on Opposite sides of the river, the Texans burning some of their baggage on the way to La Joya; but on the 18th the confederates had disappeared, to be Seen no more, leaving, however, some of their sick and disabled, with a zo wagons which were found by Captain Grayde n on a trip to the western side. anby in his official] report quotes a prisoner as having told him ‘‘ that out of the 3,800 men and 327 wagons that were with us when we left Fort Fillmore, only 1,200 men and 13 wagons remained together when they were obliged to flee to the mountains. ’? One of the prisoners taken by Canby, at the time of the retreat, was ex-Surveyor Genera] William Pelham. : Horace Greeley, in his American Conflict , states that ‘‘Sibley, in his weakened Condition, evidently did not like this proximity. ‘In order,’ as he says in his “eport, ‘to avoid the contingency of another action in our then cripple cond dition,’ he set his forces silently in motion soon after nightfal l, not down the but over the trackless mountains, ‘ver, through a desolate, waterless waste, a Le |