Mosaic of New Mexico's Scenery, Rocks, and History

by Unknown

HISTORY

Pre-Civil War Period.

The period 1846 to 1861 was characterized by constant Indian warfare. Treaties were made, then broken. Forts were established, then abandoned, and new forts built as the military tried in vain to cope with the problem. Punitive expeditions proved ineffective as the Indians separated into small and predatory bands which overran the country.

Forts Union, Marcy, Fauntleroy, Craig, and Stanton were established during this period. Additional forts, whose sites have returned to the desert, are Fort Conrad (1851), on the Rio Grande about twenty-five miles south of Socorro; Fort Thorn (1853), on the Rio Grande about five miles north of Hatch; Fort Fillmore (1851), on the Rio Grande about seven miles south of Las Cruces; Fort Webster (1852), on the Mimbres River about one and one-half miles northwest of San Lorenzo; Fort McLane (1860), at Apache Tejo about four miles south of Hurley; and Fort Floyd (1857), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.

Civil War Period.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 created a new problem on the frontier in New Mexico. Confederate military leaders moved quickly to seize control of the Southwest and California to cut off the supply of gold to the North and divert it to the Confederacy. Confederate troops under Col. J. B. Baylor occupied abandoned Fort Bliss at Franklin (El Paso), Texas on July 1, 1861. Baylor began his move northward along the Rio Grande on July 23 and quickly occupied Mesilla. Nearby Fort Fillmore was abandoned and the Union forces retreated toward Fort Stanton, but they were soon captured by Baylor’s troops. Upon the fall of Fort Fillmore, Fort Stanton was hastily abandoned on August 2 and was taken over by the Confederates shortly thereafter.

Gen. H. H. Sibley arrived at Fort Bliss in December 1861 to assume command of the Confederate forces. Sibley’s troops moved northward along the Rio Grande and were engaged in battle by Union troops from Fort Craig, under Gen. E. R. S. Canby, as they attempted to bypass the well-garrisoned post. The Battle of Val Verde took place four miles north of Fort Craig on February 21, 1862. After a day of bloody fighting, Sibley emerged the victor. He occupied Albuquerque on March 2, 1862, and Santa Fe on March 23. The Confederate forces then moved toward Fort Union in an attempt to gain complete control of the territory. On March 27 and 28, they were met by Union forces sent out from Fort Union and were defeated in battle near present-day Glorieta. Sibley then retreated to Fort Bliss.

The Confederate campaign in New Mexico, 1861-1862

While Sibley was thus engaged, another part of his army moved across what is now southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona and occupied Tucson (Arizona). Gen. J. H. Carleton and his California Column left Los Angeles on April 13 and cleared this area of Confederate troops, reaching the Rio Grande on August 7. Carleton reoccupied Fort Bliss, which had been abandoned by the Confederate troops in their retreat.

Post-Civil War Period.

While the Union troops were preoccupied with the Confederates, the Indians stepped up their raids and depredations. With the passing of the Confederate threat, attention was once more focused on the Indian problem. A new plan was formulated which called for the capturing of the Indians and confining them to reservations. A reservation (Bosque Redondo) was established late in 1862 near present-day Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to which were eventually confined several thousand Navajos and Mescalero Apaches. This resettlement was not a success since the Apaches ran off and the Navajos suffered greatly from sickness and disease. A treaty was signed with the Navajos in 1868, and they were allowed to return to their homes, no longer a threat to the frontier. The Mescalero Apaches were finally settled on a reservation in their own country south of Fort Stanton, and the Jicarillas on a reservation west of Tierra Amarilla.

The Mimbreno, Mogollon, and Warm Springs Apaches of southwestern New Mexico were more of a problem. In 1871, a reservation and Fort Tularosa were established near present-day Aragon in western New Mexico. After a futile attempt to keep the Indians there, they were moved in 1874 to a new reservation and military post at Ojo Caliente, about forty miles northwest of present-day Truth or Consequences. This, too, proved a failure and the Apaches were moved to the San Carlos Reservation in what is now Arizona. During these attempts to locate the Apaches on reservations, various rebellious bands of Apaches led by Victorio, Nana, and Geronimo continued on the warpath. Geronimo and his band surrendered in 1886 and were imprisoned in Florida. After Geronimo’s surrender, relative peace descended upon the frontier in New Mexico.

Established in the post-Civil War period were Forts Wingate (old and new), Selden, Cummings, and Bayard, as well as Fort Lowell (1868), near Tierra Amarilla; Fort Bascom (1863), on the Canadian River about eight miles north of Tucumcari; Fort Sumner (1862), on the Pecos River about five miles southeast of present-day Fort Sumner; Fort McRae (1863), on the Rio Grande about ten miles northeast of Truth or Consequences; and Fort West (1863), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.

With the arrival of the railroad and cessation of hostilities with the Indians, a new era was begun. One by one, the old forts were abandoned: their need had passed. The colorful frontier forts of New Mexico are just a memory now.