HISTORY OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO, 1680—1888CHAPTER XX.
THE GADSDEN PURCHASE.1853-1863.
On December 30, 1853, James Gadsden, United States minister to Mexico,
concluded a treaty by which the boundary line was moved southward so as to give the United States, for a money consideration
of $10,000,000, all of modern Arizona south of the Gila, an effort so to fix
the line as to include a port on the gulf being unsuccessful. The treaty was
first concluded on the 13th of December, but in consequence of new instructions
from Washington was modified on the 30th. Again it was
changed—notably by reducing the price from twenty to ten millions—by the United
States senate. In June 1854 it came back with Mexican approval to Washington;
on the 28th and 29th, after much debate in the house, a bill appropriating the
money was passed by congress; on the 30th the treaty was published by President
Pierce, and by President Santa Anna on the 20th of July. Of the preliminary
negotiations and the successive modifications of terms, not much is definitely known; but the latter may probably have included,
not only the reduction of price and the introduction of the Tehuantepec
concession, but also a reduction of territory—perhaps involving the cession of
a gulf port—and the omission of an article making the United States responsible
for filibustering expeditions across the line.
On the face of the matter this Gadsden treaty was a tolerably
satisfactory settlement of a boundary dispute, and a purchase by the United
States of a route for a southern railroad to California. Under the treaty of
1848, the commissioners, as we have seen, had agreed on latitude 32° 22' as the
southern boundary of New Mexico, but the United States surveyor had not agreed
to this line, had perhaps surveyed another in 31° 54', and the New Mexicans
claimed the Mesilla valley between the two lines as part of their territory.
The United States were, to some extent, bound by the act of their commissioner;
but Mexico, besides being wrong on the original proposition, was not in
condition to quarrel about so unimportant a matter. On the other hand, the northern
republic could afford to pay for a railroad route through a country said to be
rich in mines; and Mexico, though national pride was strongly opposed to a
sacrifice of territory, was badly in need of money, and sold a region that was
practically of no value to her. In both countries there was much bitter
criticism of the measure, and a disposition to impute hidden motives to the
respective administrations. I am not prepared to say that there were not such
motives; but I find little support for the common belief that the Gadsden
purchase was effected with a definite view to the
organization of a southern confederacy, though this theory was entertained in
the north at the time. It is a remarkable circumstance that in Mexico, both by
the supporters and foes of the measure, it was treated as a cession of the
Mesilla valley in settlement of the boundary dispute, though that valley was, in reality, but a very small and unimportant portion of
the territory ceded.
William H. Emory was appointed United States commissioner and surveyor
to establish the new boundary line, José Salazar Ilarregui being the Mexican commissioner, and Francisco Jiménez chief engineer. The
commissioners met at El Paso at the end of 1854, and the initial monument was
fixed on January 31, 1855. In June the survey had been carried westward to
Los Nogales, or longitude 111°. Meanwhile Lieutenant N. Michler arrived at Fort Yuma at the end of 1854, and was occupied until May 1855, with
Salazar, in fixing the initial monument on the Colorado and surveying the line
for a short distance eastward toward Sonoita; but they were obliged to suspend
operations for lack of water, and proceeded by the Gila and Tucson route to
Nogales, where they met Emory in June, and before the end of August completed
the survey westward. There were no controversies in connection with the
operations under Emory and Ilarregui, the Mexicans
and Americans working in perfect harmony for a speedy and economical
termination of the work, and all being in marked contrast to the disgraceful
and costly wranglings of the former commissions.
There was nothing in the personal experiences of the surveying parties that
calls for notice here. The published report contains an excellent description
of the country with various scientific appendices of great value.
Besides the boundary survey, there are but few official explorations to
be noted, though by prospectors and Indian fighters the whole country was pretty thoroughly explored in these years. In 1857 Edward F.
Beale opened a wagon road on the 35th parallel, following nearly the route of
Whipple and Sitgreaves. He left Zuñi in August, and reached the Colorado in January 1858. The
steamer General Jesup was waiting in the
Mojave region to carry this party across the river, but Beale with twenty men
returned to New Mexico, thus proving the practicability of his road for winter
travel. Another important exploration was that of Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives. In
November 1857, he arrived at the head of the gulf on a schooner from San
Francisco, which also brought an iron stern-wheel steamer fifty feet long,
built for the trip in Philadelphia, and named the Explorer. On this
craft, launched the 30th of December, Ives left Fort Yuma on January 11, 1858,
and on March 12th had passed through the Black Canyon of the Colorado and
reached the mouth of Virgin River. Returning from this point to the Mojave
villages, he sent the boat down to the fort, and with part of his scientific
corps, being joined also by Lieutenant Tipton with an escort of twenty men, he
started eastward by land. His route after a little was to the north of that
followed by earlier explorers, including the canons of the Colorado Chiquito and other streams, and also,
for the first time since the American occupation, the Moqui pueblos. Ives
reached Fort Defiance in May, and his report, illustrated by fine engravings of
new scenery, is perhaps the most fascinating in all the series of government
explorations. Besides the Beale road in the north,
another was opened in the south by Superintendent James B. Leach and Engineer
N. H. Hutton. This corresponded largely with the Cooke road of 1846, but led
down the San Pedro to the Arivaipa, and thence to the Gila, 21 miles east of
the Pima villages, thus saving 40 miles over the Tucson route, and by improvements
about five days for wagons. The work was done by Leach and Hutton from the Río
Grande to the Colorado, between October 25, 1857, and August 1, 1858. Over this
road ran in 1858-60 Arizona’s first stage, the Butterfield overland line from
Marshall, Texas, to San Diego, carrying the mails and passengers twice a week,
until the service was stopped by Indian depredations.
It was not until 1856 that the United States took military possession of
the Gadsden purchase by sending a detachment of four companies of the First
Dragoons, which force was stationed at Tucson and later at Calabazas. In 1857 a
permanent station was selected, and Fort Buchanan was established on the
Sonoita about 25 miles east of Tubac. The site was
afterward deemed to have no special advantages, and no buildings worthy the
name of fort were erected. There were various other temporary camps occupied in
the following years according to the demands of the Indian service, the force
being from 120 to 375 men, besides that of parties from abroad occasionally
engaging in campaigns. In some years only two companies are mentioned. Late in
1858 Port Mojave near Beale’s crossing of the Colorado was established with
three companies of infantry; and late in 1859 Fort
Breckenridge at the junction of the San Pedro and Arivaipa with part of the
garrison from Fort Buchanan. The soldiers did much good service and had many
hard fights with the Apache foe; but the force was of course utterly inadequate
for the protection of the country. On the outbreak of the war in 1860-1, all
the forts were destroyed and abandoned, and the troops removed.
The territory of the Gadsden purchase was believed to be rich in
precious metals. Americans had long been more or less conversant with Mexican traditions of immensely rich mines discovered in Jesuit
times and abandoned in consequence of Apache raids—traditions for the most part
false in their details, and so far as the Jesuits were represented as miners,
but well founded to the extent that prospectors had
actually found many rich deposits of silver. Reports of the various government
explorers, who had in all directions noted indications of mineral wealth,
corroborated the current traditions, and made Arizona a most attractive country
for adventurers, and all the more so because of the
recent successes of gold-seekers in California. The Ajo copper mines in the
Sonoita region, which had been discovered by Mexicans, was worked by a San
Francisco company from 1855. Charles D. Poston with Herman Ehrenberg, after a
preliminary tour in 1854-5 from the gulf coast, formed a company in the east,
and in 1856 began the development on a large scale of silver mines near Tubac. Half a dozen other companies in this and the
following years undertook similar operations in the same region, that is, in
the mountain ranges on both sides of the Santa Cruz valley in the southern part
of the territory. The garrison at Fort Buchanan afforded protection to a
certain extent, and the laborers employed were chiefly Sonorans from across the line. Fuel and water were scarce, apparatus and supplies of all
kinds were obtained only at an excessive cost by reason of the long and
difficult routes of transportation, and the Indians were troublesome; but many
of the mines were rich and even under such unfavorable circumstances yielded a
large amount of bullion. Developments extended over a wide region, including
mines of copper and gold as well as silver, especially in the east on the New
Mexican border; and prospecting operations, often with great success, were
extended to the upper and lower Gila and even into the unexplored regions
farther north. Tucson recovered something of its old-time prosperity; Tubac became a flourishing little town of some 500
inhabitants, where the first Arizona newspaper was published in 1858—60; a few
ranchos were established, including several in the Gila valley on the stage
route; and the American population increased to several thousands. Emigrants
continued, though in diminished numbers, to cross Arizona by the southern route,
and many of them remained here for a while before going on to California.
Fort Yuma, on the Colorado side of the Colorado, was occupied
continuously by United States troops, affording much better protection to this
part of Arizona than was enjoyed in the south-east. Steamers continued to ply
on the Colorado; the ferry did a prosperous business; the overland stage had a
station here; and much teaming was done in the transportation of supplies and
ores to and from the copper mines in Papaguería and
the silver mines by the Gila route. The settlement on the Arizona side known as
Colorado City and Arizona City is often mentioned as a thriving town, as under
the circumstances it should have been; but the more
definite of current items reduce it to a very few buildings, mostly destroyed
in the flood of 1861-2. In 1858 gold placers were discovered on the Gila some
twenty miles above the junction, but extending for
several miles along the river; and a new town of shanties sprang into
existence, under the name of Gila City. Five hundred miners or more were at one
time at work here, some of them very successfully; but there was great
difficulty in getting water, the richest diggings being several miles from the
river, and before 1862 the glory of these placers had departed, and the city
was destroyed by the flood. There was no settlement north of the Gila, though
prospecting was carried on in different directions, a few emigrants came over
the Beale wagon road, and Fort Mojave, as we have seen, was garrisoned from 1858.
For five or six years after the American occupation, the Indians caused
comparatively little trouble, though constant vigilance was required, and petty
depredations never ceased entirely. The Yumas, not a
numerous tribe, were kept in control by the garrison and rarely molested
Americans except as pilferers, though often in trouble with their neighbors. In
1857, with Mojave, Cocopa, and Tonto allies, they
attacked the Pimas and Pápagos up the river, and in a
great battle were almost annihilated. The Mojaves were more hostile and treacherous, committing many depredations on emigrants
and others in 1858; but during this year and the next were brought into
subjection by Colonel Hoffman’s efforts, and by the establishment of the fort.
The Pimas, numbering about 4,000, the Maricopas 500,
and the Pápagos 3,000, were uniformly friendly, and
of great assistance in keeping hostile tribes in check. From 1859 John Walker
was Indian agent for these Indians, residing at Tucson, being succeeded by
Abraham Lyons in 1862. By act of congress, February 28, 1859, a sum of $1,000
was appropriated for a survey of the Pima and Maricopa lands on the Gila, and
$10,000 for gifts in the form of implements and clothing. The survey was made
by Colonel A. B. Gray, and the presents were distributed by Lieutenant
Sylvester Mowry before the end of the year. As to the Apaches,
estimated at about 10,000 in number, under the care of M. Steck as agent, and after a campaign by Colonel Bonneville in 1857, they were for a
time, comparatively speaking, at peace, though continuing their raids across
the line, attacking Mexicans wherever they could be found, and often committing
petty depredations against small parties of Americans. Agents reported some
progress in inducing the Mescalero Apaches to till
the soil and refrain from hostilities; and it was urged by all familiar with
the subject that all the Apaches must be induced to
settle north of the Gila, there to be instructed, aided, and watched, while the
southern passes must be guarded by garrisons at several points. Nothing was
done, however, except the division of the military force, and the establishment
of Fort Breckenridge on the San Pedro. In 1860 hostilities became more frequent
and general, and were greatly aggravated by bad
management and injustice on the part of the officers, by which Cochise, a
prominent chieftain, was made the life-long foe of the Americans. Soon all were
on the war-path, murders and robberies were of daily
occurrence, and even the soldiers were hard pressed. Then in 1861, when for
other reasons the stage line was abandoned, and the troops recalled from
Arizona, the Indians naturally regarded this as their triumph, redoubled their
efforts, and for over a year were masters of the territory, having killed or
driven out all the white inhabitants except a few hundred who took refuge
within the walls of Tucson.
In 1856-7 Henry A. Crabb of California had attempted a filibustero conquest of Sonora under the guise of
colonization, counting on the support of one of the two contending factions.
With an advance party of 100 men he crossed Arizona
from Yuma to Sonoita and Caborca, but was defeated
and shot with all his companions. A party of thirty went from Tucson to his rescue, but were too late and barely escaped sharing his fate.
Crabb’s ill fortune prevented later attempts of a similar nature; but the
spirit of filibusterism was potent in Arizona, and the Sonoran authorities were
always fearful and suspicious. Sonoran laborers of a vicious class were
employed in the mines, and were accused of many robberies and murders, being
hardly less feared than the Apaches. Another
prominent and but little better element of the population was that of outlaws
and desperados from California and Texas, who looked with contempt after the
manner of their class on all of Mexican blood. There
were public meetings held to urge the expulsion of the hated ‘greasers’ from
the mines and from the country. A war of races at times seemed impending. Even
before the withdrawal of troops enabled the savages to take possession of the
country, broils, murders, robberies, duels, and outrages perpetrated in the
name of vigilantes were of constant occurrence, and created perhaps a more disgraceful and disastrous condition of affairs than is
elsewhere revealed in western annals. After the abandonment of the country,
Sonoran marauders are said to have crossed the line to steal or destroy any
petty remnant of property left by the Apaches.
Arizona, besides its Apaches and outlaws, had
during this period its politics and politicians, though not much government.
From 1851 to 1854 it was a part of the territory of New
Mexico, and was theoretically divided into five or six counties; that
is, the boundaries of the New Mexican counties extended west to California; but
as Arizona—north of the Gila, the only part belonging then to New Mexico or the
United States—had no settlements, there existed hardly the semblance of county
jurisdiction. By act of congress, August 4, 1854, the Gadsden purchase was
added to New Mexico; and by act of the legislature, January 18, 1855, it was
attached to Doña Ana county, a part of which it
remained till 1863. In records of the time, however, the only indication of
county rule is the occasional sending of a criminal to Mesilla for trial. There
were also justices of the peace at Tucson and perhaps elsewhere. From the
first, there was much complaint that the country was not and could not be
properly governed from Santa Fé, with corresponding petitions for a separate
territorial organization, the Mesilla district making common cause in this
matter with Arizona proper, being separated from the capital by the Jornada del Muerto.
A convention was held at Tucson on August 29, 1856, which resolved, not
only to send a memorial to congress urging the organization of a territory of
Arizona, but to send a delegate to Washington. The memorial was signed by some
260 names, and Nathan P. Cook was in September elected delegate. He was not
admitted to a seat, but his mission was brought before the house in January
1857. The committee on territories reported against a territorial organization,
because of the limited population, but recognized the unfortunate condition of
the people, and recommended a bill to organize a judicial district south of the
Gila, to appoint a surveyor-general, and to provide for representation at Santa
Fé as well as for the regulation of land claims and mining titles. Such a bill
was passed by the senate in February, but was not
acted upon by the house. The president, in his messages of 1857-8, recommended
a territorial government; Senator Gwin in December
1857 introduced a bill to organize such a government for the Gadsden purchase,
under the name of Arizona; the legislature of New Mexico in February 1858
passed resolutions in favor of the measure, though recommending a north and
south boundary line on the meridian of 109, and also the removal of all New
Mexican Indians to northern Arizona; several favorable petitions were received
from different parts of the union; and in an election held at Tucson in
September 1857, the people had prepared a new petition and chosen Sylvester
Mowry as a delegate to congress. The delegate was not admitted, and Gwin’s bill was not passed. In the following years Mowry
continued his efforts with much zeal and no success, being reelected as
delegate; other bills of similar nature were introduced but defeated; and the
people of Arizona held other meetings, and sent more memorials, to which little
attention was paid. As a rule, there was no debate on these bills, so that the
ground of opposition is not very clearly indicated; but it was doubtless
founded mainly on the old sectional quarrel growing out of the slavery
question, though the exact force of the slavery issue in Arizona is not very
apparent, nor the proper time to raise that issue would seem to have been in
1854, when the Gadsden purchase was attached to New Mexico. But the purchase
had been a southern measure, the country was in southern hands, and it was felt
that the territorial organization must be in some way a scheme for southern
aggrandizement. Moreover, the population—represented as from 8,000 to
10,000—and the country’s need of a government were thought to be exaggerated,
and it was feared the whole project was that of a few office-seeking speculators
in mines or lands; so that the measure could not command the full support even
of the democratic party, while of course the north was not strong enough to
organize the territory with any kind of Wilmot proviso.
In 1860, from the 2d to the 5th of April, there was held at Tucson a
constitutional convention composed of 31 delegates, which proceeded to “ordain
and establish” a provisional constitution to remain in force “until congress
shall organize a territorial government and no longer”. The new territory
included all of New Mexico south of latitude 33° 40', and was divided by north and south lines into four counties. A governor was elected
in the person of Dr L. S. Owings of Mesilla; three judicial districts were created,
the judges to be appointed by the governor, as were also an attorney-general,
lieutenant-governor, and other officials; a legislature of nine senators and
eighteen representatives was to be elected and convened at the governors order;
provision was made for organizing the militia; an election of county officers
was called for May; the general laws and codes of New Mexico were adopted; and
the records of the convention, schedule, constitution, and governors inaugural
address were printed at Tucson in what was, so far as I know, the first book
ever published in Arizona. If anything was done under this soi-disant
government beyond the election and appointment of officials, I have found no
record of the fact. In November, Edward McGowan, district judge under the new
régime, and somewhat notorious in California annals, was elected delegate to
congress to succeed Mowry. The New Mexican legislature this year passed new
resolutions in favor of a division; and also by act of
February 1st created a new county called Arizona, from the western portion of
Doña Ana county, with Tucson as county seat; but no attention was paid to this
act, and it was repealed two years later. In December a bill to organize the
territory came up again in congress, but without success, even though the
proposed name was changed to Arizuma to suit the whim
of some theorist. There was some debate, but all on the slavery question, and
without definite reference to Arizona, as was indeed natural enough at this
time of secession acts.
Finally, in March 1862, the Arizona bill was again introduced and
discussed in congress. The southern element being eliminated, the measure was
now a republican one, containing a proviso against slavery, though it met
opposition from members of both parties. Unlike former bills, this adopted a
north and south boundary on the meridian of 109°, and named Tucson as the capital. Watts, the New Mexican delegate, and Ashley, of
Ohio, were its chief advocates in the house, and Wheeler of New York the
opposition spokesman. On the one side it was argued that Arizona’s white
population of 6,500 and 4,000 civilized Indians were entitled to a protection
and a civil government as citizens of the United States, which they had not
received and could receive under the territorial rule of New Mexico, the vast
mineral wealth of the country amply justifying the necessary expenditure. On
the other side, it was claimed that the population had never been sufficient
for a territory, that the 6,500 of the census included
Mexicans and half-breeds unfit for citizens, that the American population had
now been driven out, and the territory was in possession of rebels and hostile
Indians. It was alleged that under such circumstances a civil government would
be no real protection, and would be indeed a mere farce; that in the midst of a
great war, with an overburdened treasury, congress had no right to appropriate
money for the benefit of territorial office-seekers; but that the money should
be spent, if at all, in efforts to protect the country by military methods from
its rebel and savage foes. There was also an idea that the measure was favored
by a certain element, not because of its propriety or necessity, but solely
because the territory could now be organized with an anti-slavery proviso. But
it passed the house by a small majority on the 8th of May. In the senate, after
a similar debate, the bill was postponed from June to December; but came up
finally in February 1863, when, under the championship of Senator Wade, the
clause fixing Tucson as the capital being removed, it was passed by a vote of
25 to 12 on the 20th, becoming a law on the 24th.
Having thus recorded the acquisition from Mexico in 1853-4 of southern
Arizona, or the Gadsden purchase, and the boundary and railroad surveys immediately
following; having noted the establishment of military posts, the influx of
seekers for precious metals, the rapid development of mining industry, the
opening of wagon roads, the establishment of the overland stage line, the
journeyings of immigrants to California, the Yuma ferry, and navigation of the
Colorado; having chronicled in a general way the depredations of hostile
Indians, filibuster outrages, troubles with vicious Sonoran laborers, the
lawless proceedings of adventurers from Texas and California, and their
oppression of the native or Mexican population; having given somewhat more
minute attention to the country’s politics, to the people’s well-founded
complaints of neglect by the government at Santa Fé and Washington, to the
successive efforts to secure a territorial organization from congress, and to
the final success of those efforts; and having mentioned incidentally in
connection with all these topics the disastrous happenings of 1861-2, which
involved the withdrawal of the troops, the suspension of the overland mail, the
ruin of mining and other industries, the triumph of the bloodthirsty Apaches, and the murder or flight of most of the white
inhabitants—it only remains, in order to complete the annals of Arizona as a
part of New Mexico, to notice more particularly the immediate cause of the
country’s misfortunes; that is, the war of the rebellion, or the confederates
in Arizona. Records on the subject I have found extremely meagre.
Confederate plans respecting the south-west belong in their general
scope to the history of California, which country was the chief prize in view;
and in details of actual operations to that of New Mexico, as recorded in a
later chapter of this volume. Here it suffices to say that those plans, in
which the Texans were especially enthusiastic and active, included the
occupation of all the southern frontier regions to the Pacific. It was hoped
that California, or at least southern California, might decide to unite its
destinies to the confederacy; otherwise, the western movement was not
prospectively of much permanent importance. Arizona in itself
had no special value to the south except by reason of its geographic
position. There were, however, some military stores worth capturing; an open
line of communication would encourage prompt action on the part of Californian
secessionists; the occupation of so broad a territory could be made to appear
at Richmond and in Europe a great achievement; and it presented no difficulties
whatever.
Public sentiment in Arizona was almost unanimously southern and
disunion, and no secret was made of the feeling in this respect, the few union
men having little or nothing to say. In 1861 a convention at Tucson seems to
have formally declared the territory a part of the confederacy, and in August
of that year Granville H. Oury was elected delegate
to the southern congress. It was openly asserted that the country’s misfortunes
were due to neglect of the government, and that this neglect arose from
Arizona’s well-known and patriotic devotion to the southern cause. Most
officers serving at the south-western posts were southerners who made haste to
join the confederate army, though the privates are said to have remained
faithful to their government almost without exception. Captain Ewell,
commanding in Arizona, became prominent as a confederate general.
In July 1861 Lieutenant-colonel John R. Baylor, with a Texan force,
entered the Mesilla valley, and took possession for the confederacy. In a
proclamation of August 1st, he declared the territory of Arizona to comprise
all that part of New Mexico south of latitude 34º; that all offices under the
laws of the late United States or of the territory were vacant; continued in
force all laws not inconsistent with those of the confederate states; made
Mesilla the capital; and organized a military government with himself as
governor. The next day he appointed territorial officials, including James A.
Lucas as secretary, M. H. McWille attorney-general,
and E. Angerstein treasurer. On Baylor’s approach the
officers in command at forts Buchanan and Breckenridge were ordered to abandon
those posts, destroying the buildings with all military stores that could not
be removed, and march eastward to the Río Grande. This order was obeyed, and,
all military protection being withdrawn, the Apaches,
as already related, took possession of the country, killing all who could not
either escape from the country or take refuge at Tucson. Sonoran adventurers
are said to have crossed the line to supplement the work of plunder and
devastation. Early in 1862 a force of two or three hundred Texans, under
Captain Hunter, marched westward from Mesilla, and in February took possession
of Tucson for the confederacy. There was of course no opposition, union men, if
there were any left, fleeing across the line into Sonora. Not much is really
known of Hunter’s operations in Arizona so far as details are concerned, even
the date of his arrival being doubtful. Besides holding Tucson, driving out men
suspected of union sympathies, confiscating a few mines belonging to
northerners, and fighting the Apaches to some extent,
he sent a detachment to the Pima villages, and possibly contemplated an attack
on Fort Yuma. But—to say nothing of the recent floods, which had greatly
increased the difficulties of the route, destroying Gila and Colorado
cities—the news from California was not reassuring, and Hunter deemed it best
to retire.
This news was to the effect that California troops were on the march
eastward. These troops, about 1,800 strong, consisted of several volunteer
regiments or parts of regiments organized at the beginning of the war, and
which, on receipt of intelligence that Arizona had been invaded, were ordered
to Yuma and Tucson, constituting what was known as the California column, under
the command of Colonel James H. Carleton. The main body of this army in
detachments, whose exact movements now and later I do not attempt to follow in
detail, left Los Angeles and was concentrated at Yuma in April, and in May
followed the Gila route to Tucson. But previously Lieutenant-colonel West,
commanding the advance, had sent out some parties from Yuma, and these were the
only troops that came in contact with the
confederates. Jones, in February, was sent with despatches to Tucson and fell into the hands of Hunter, who released and sent him back by
another route, bearing the first definite news that Tucson had been occupied.
Captain William McCleave of company A, first cavalry,
being sent out to look for Jones, was captured with three men at the Pima
villages on the 6th of April, and was carried to Mesilla, where he was soon
exchanged. Captain William P. Calloway was next sent up the Gila with a
stronger force to rescue McCleave. At the Pima
villages he heard of a confederate detachment of 16 men under Lieutenant Jack Swilling, and sent Lieutenant James Barrett with 12 men to
cut them off. Pursuing the enemy into a chaparral Barrett was killed with two
of his men, one or two of the foe being also killed
and three taken prisoners. This was the only skirmish of the campaign with
confederates, and it occurred on the 15th of April at a spot known as El
Picacho.
It seems to have been on May 20th that Lieutenant-colonel West with the
advance of the California column raised the stars and stripes again over
Tucson. Captain Hunter had retreated to the Rio Grande, losing several men and
much property on the way in a fight with the Apaches.
The Californians left a garrison at the Pima villages, naming the post Fort
Barrett in honor of the only officer killed by confederate bullets in Arizona.
Forts Buchanan and Breckenridge were reoccupied, the latter being renamed Fort
Stanford, but both positions were presently abandoned, as the sites were undesirable and the buildings had been destroyed. A post was
also established at what was later called Camp Lowell seven miles from Tucson.
There was a hard fight with the Indians at Apache Pass in the east, and there Fort Bowie was established. Early in June Colonel
Carleton arrived at Tucson, where in an order of the 8th he proclaimed the news
of a territorial organization by congress, and declared the territory under martial law. Good order was easily preserved, the
most violent rebel partisans having departed with Hunter, all being required to
take the oath of allegiance, turbulent and undesirable characters being easily
driven away by threats of arrest for disunion sentiments, and a few union men
finding their way back from Sonora. Some 20 political prisoners were arrested
and sent to California, one of the number being no
less a personage than Sylvester Mowry, captured at his Patagonia mine, which
was confiscated. He was accused of having given aid and encouragement to the
rebels; but probably certain personal jealousies and the spirit of the time,
requiring reprisals for some of Hunter’s acts, were the real causes of his
arrest; at any rate, after a long imprisonment he was acquitted on trial, and
his property seems to have been at least nominally restored to him.
Carleton was made brigadier-general, and a little later put in command
of the department. From June to August a large part of the California
troops were transferred to New Mexico, where they did good service in the
following years in garrison and Indian service. A part of the force was left to
garrison the Arizona posts under Major David Fergusson, who was made commandant
of the western district, Major Theodore Coult also
serving for a time in that capacity. During this and the following years the
soldiers fought the Apaches and prospected the
country for precious metals, but there was nothing in their adventures
requiring special notice here.
CHAPTER XXI.
POLITICAL ANNALS OF ARIZONA.1864-1887
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