The Civil War in the Southwest

The Rebel’s Crumbling Empire, The End of the War in the Southwest, & Confederate Jasmine

This is the eleventh and final episode in the series over the Civil War in the American Southwest.

It is with unfeigned pride and pleasure that I find myself congratulating the army of New Mexico upon the successes which have crowned their arms in the many encounters with the enemy during the short but brilliant campaign.

Brigadier General of the Confederate States of America Henry Hopkins Sibley to his men in Confederate Arizona

Once the retreating Rebels had reached the outskirts of Fort Thorn around April 27th, 1862, after their long march through the Magdalena and San Mateo Mountains, they feasted on what little food they could find, they read letters and news from home, and they chatted with the men who had been at Mesilla for the past two months around their campfires. Some of the news the Texan Confederates received was pretty upsetting. The Confederates had recently lost quite a few battles in Tennessee and Arkansas, and Union boats were about to lay siege to New Orleans. Some of the men began wondering what on earth they were doing out here when their very homeland was being threatened. This doubt in their mission would only grow.

Shortly after Sibley’s retreat down the Rio Grande, Col James Reily also arrived to Mesilla. He had just completed his excursion to Mexico and Tucson. Once amongst the troops, he was told to promote and then relieve the hero of Valverde, Dirty Shirt Scurry. Reily made him a Corporal and then sent Scurry on his way to Texas where he was to raise yet another regiment for the continued fight in New Mexico. The promotion and mission was welcome news for the weary Rebel leader. But he didn’t leave immediately. He first let his men finish writing letters home which he would carry with him. And then he bid his men goodbye. Peticolas would write in his journal of this, quote, Scurry ... made an effecting speech to the men ... in which he referred to our victories, our trials, and our privations, said that it was like taking leave of wife and children to take leave of us who had fought with him so bravely and been with him so long. He shed tears as he bade the men farewell. Thus we lost the best officer, most polished gentleman, most sociable gentleman, and most popular Colonel in the whole outfit. End quote. And with that, Scurry was off to Texas on a mission he would not complete.

After Sibley and Steele’s men had reunited, they learned that although it was nothing compared to their hardships up north, the men at Mesilla had had plenty to deal with. Mostly, Apache. Specifically, Mescalero Apache. Those are the Apache that reside to this day in the Sacramento Mountains around Sierra Blanca and Ruidoso.

The Mescalero had not had to contend too often with the Confederates thus far in the war. Their main bastion of Apache Mountain Strongholds is in the Sacramento Mountains which were on the other side of the Organ Mountains and the Tularosa Basin with its sea of white sands. The Rebels hadn’t crossed over that way since they took Fort Stanton after Lynde’s Surrender. They then realized they were cut off from Mesilla by vast and inconsiderate distances which left them open to frequent Mescalero attack. So they abandoned the Fort shortly after taking the empty shell.

To the north of Fort Stanton is the Salinas Pueblo region with its ruins and lack of water. Stanton and the Mescalero were a long ways off from Albuquerque and especially Santa Fe and there were the Manzanos and Sandias in between them.

Baylor and then Steele and the Rebels had certainly done battle with many Apache, but they were mostly the Mimbres and Chiricahua to their west. So the Mescalero to the Rebels east, had pretty much been able to raid with impunity.

Frazier’s Blood and Treasure is now my greatest source for the remainder of the series. Every other book, besides the journals of Davidson and Peticolas, but every other source gives the remaining retreat only a few paragraphs before they move on to the Union’s fight against the Indians. In two of my sources, this point of the story is the halfway point in their books. I will not be going over the Union’s fight against the Indians, though. For one, I covered it extensively in the Apache series but also, my focus in this series has been to tell the story of the Civil War in the Southwest from a perspective that no one hears or reads about: the Confederates.

I abandoned two of my sources pretty early on in the series when it became evident that their perspective was extremely biased. Father Stanley called Baylor’s Rebel Forces Baylor’s Babies. He consistently got dates, numbers of troops, and the names of commanders wrong. He also dutifully repeated now debunked war crimes of the Rebels while praising the squeaky clean New Mexican volunteers and Yankee forces. Colton’s Civil War in the Southwest was also guilty of incorrect facts and there was almost no mention of the Rebels at all except during battles.

So, at this point, Frazier tells the story of a certain 18 year old Felix Robert Collard from Texas who has quite the adventure in these last few weeks of the war in New Mexico. I will talk about him a few times in this final episode. But the end of his war in New Mexico consisted mostly of chasing those Mescalero Apaches. I’ll quote Frazier for a bit to tell his story. Quote:

While Texans fought at Glorieta and Peralta, eighteen-year-old Felix Robert Collard of Polk County had spent the spring chasing these Indians. On several occasions small parties of Apache raiders, camouflaged by oiling their bodies and rolling in the dirt, had stolen dozens of horses and mules from well-guarded enclosures. "This was generally done when the moon was on the wane," Collard wrote, "just before moon-rise. Then, quiet as a cat, [they] would step over the sleeping men, and be among the horses ... cutting all halters and ropes." Next, the raiders would stampede the herd through the camp, spreading havoc among the sentries. "The Indian on the inside would mount a horse, one hand under his neck and [with] a good hold of the mane, his foot over the horses loin, yelling and jabbing him with the knife," Collard remembered. "The other horses ... frightened, would run over anyone trying to stop them” End all quotes.

Occasionally, Collard and the Rebels would pursue the thieving Apaches but the results were often mixed. To help them out, the Rebels at Mesilla would quite often hire local scouts and quote unquote Indian Hunters. Collard writes, quote, We had trailers ... half-breed indians and half-breed mexicans, or some trapper who had spent his life in the wilds. End quote.

But the Apaches were veterans of this marauding and they knew exactly what they were doing, and even with the help from locals, the Confederates found it difficult to track and catch the Apache. Steele wouldn’t be chasing a group of them down like Baylor had done with the Chiricahuas. The Mescaleros would keep to the most difficult ground to track on like hardened areas of earth and they would only regroup at the water holes they knew were spread around the harsh land. And if caught, the Apaches would more often then not just abandon their animal loot and scatter into their Mountain Fortresses. Collard would write of this scattering, quote, Then where are you? A hundred and fifty miles from anywhere, with a lot of run down horses-those that the indians have stolen and those that have been following. End quote.

Also occasionally, the Rebels would successfully foil the attempted thefts during the Apache raids. Collard wrote of the Apaches attempting to sneak into camp but being caught by a Sargent, quote, He discovered a strange looking object near the line, He covered this object with his six-shooter and called `halt!' At the word . . . an arrow whizzed past his head. At the same instant he pulled the trigger…. End quote.

The object had been an Apache and at the report of his gun, the Apache and his comrade fled into the night. The sergeant, unbothered by the arrow, gathered a posse and the men carefully pursued the Apaches. Collard wrote, quote, Four or five men, six-shooters in hand, . . . found a dead indian and a little farther along a drag which they started to follow. . . . end quote.

Collard and his sergeant had clearly stumbled upon the Indians camp. Fearful of attacking at night, they bed down and waited for the sun to rise. Then, in the morning, they followed the Apache’s trail for about a mile before they discovered the other Indian. Collard wrote that when they found him he, quote, raised up to a sitting position and let fly an arrow. We had to back off and shoot him with a rifle. They neither give nor ask quarter. End quote.

We’ll return to Collard in a bit as the Rebels continue their retreat down the Rio Grande.

Apaches weren’t the only problem that Steele had encountered after taking over from Baylor. Steele had also been dealing with deteriorating discipline and morale in the Confederate Territory of Arizona. His very own second in command got so drunk one day that when he was confronted by a preacher, he went to pull his pistol except… he was too inebriated to even draw it. This man, Lt. Col. Arthur P. Bagby of the Seventh Texas Mounted Volunteers, would end up resigning and heading back to Texas. The morale of Sibley’s men who were trickling south wasn’t much improved either.

Canby knew the Rebels were finished, which is why he did not pursue an engagement once the Confederates had reached their short lived Confederate Arizona and the various cities and forts south of Craig. He knew not only the Californians were coming, but also reinforcements from Kansas were on their way. There was no word of reinforcements traipsing through Texas towards New Mexico for the Rebels, though. Col. Gabriel Paul was now assigned to Fort Craig, his spies told him what Canby suspected. Paul would write to Washington, quote, the enemy is in a disorganized state and is making his way out of the territory. According to the most reliable information, general Sibley has only 1,200 men of the army of 3,000 that appeared before Fort Craig on February 13th, and his retreat is the complete annihilation of his remaining forces. End quote.

Two weeks after arriving in Mesilla, Sibley addressed his men and told them that they should be proud of their courageous fighting at Valverde, Glorieta, Albuquerque, Peralta, and that they will be remembered for their march and quote, almost unprecedented evacuation through mountain passes and over a trackless waste of a hundred miles through a famishing country. End quote. He told them that the successful Coopwood’s Gamble would quote, be duly chronicled and form one of the brightest pages in the history of the Second American Revolution. End quote. At the end of the address though, he told the Rebels what the Unionists already knew, their offensive in Arizona and New Mexico was over. But he warned them that quote, at any moment you may be called into activity. End quote. Nobody really knew exactly what that entailed.

But for now, Steele and Sibley had to fortify southern New Mexico for the inevitable attack by the encroaching California Column to their west.

To facilitate this, Sibley kept Steele and his untested men at Fort Thorn to the north while the battle hardened and weary Fourth and Seventh Texas headed south to the various forts near the border of Texas. Green’s Fifth would stay at Mesilla and protect it from the Fedrals who were all regrouping as well.

But the men’s hearts were just no longer in the fight. And the news trickling over to them of the war in the east wasn’t helping. It seems, after all the fierce fighting and cold marching, that it was for not, and the Rebel’s appeared and felt, finished. Frazier would write of this low morale and say quote, Sibley and his troops were indeed beaten. Not just physically, but spiritually as well. The will to fight had been crushed, replaced by the overwhelming desire to go home. There were no longer any delusions of empire. Just memories of lost friends, futile marches, and missed opportunities. End quote. As Frazier puts it, the empire was crumbling.

And the men began to blame Sibley for the missed opportunity of enlarging the Confederacy. Peticolas wrote of this, quote, The feeling and expression of the whole brigade is never to come up here again unless mounted and under a different General. End quote. Another soldier, Frank Starr, would write that quote, Among the soldiers I hear ridicule and curses heaped upon the head of our genl, They call him a coward, which appears very plausible too, for he has never been in an engagement or where there was any appearance of there going to be one. End quote. Starr had hear the rumors of their drunken master and would write that Sibley and his men would quote, stay in comfortable quarters in towns soaking themselves with rum and whiskey while others are doing the work. End quote. The oft quoted Davidson pretty much wrote the same thing. Quote, This old brigade never saw the day that they would not have swapped Sibley for Canby. End quote.

And then, to make matters worse for himself, after reaching southern New Mexico the general reorganized his men and sent many officers, who no longer had many men or any cannons to command, he made these officers privates and sent them to be led by someone else. Starr wrote of this, quote, After those officers have gone through this entire campaign, they are plainly told that they can report themselves to their original captain for duty as privates- in fact a disgrace to them, although they themselves were innocent. I would not be surprised if [they] resigned and went home to seek service again under some leader more capable than the one we have here. End quote. Teel would later blame the entire campaign’s loss on Sibley. He wasn’t alone.

Sibley also created a new artillery unit named the Valverde Battery and he assigned men who had not even seen combat to lead it while the reorganized officers lost their commissions as I just mentioned. But his problems were only just beginning.

Steele, would eventually even press charges against the Whiskey Keg General. Per the request of his Captain Sturgis Thurmond, Steele forwarded to Richmond the accusation of drunkenness on duty, the inhumane treatment of his sick and wounded soldiers when he abandoned them during the retreat, of cowardice, and of misappropriation of confiscated goods… Sibley was not happy, but he also knew he would soon be mounting a defense of himself in Confederate Court.

On top of the Rebel’s low morale, the men were also getting sicker and sicker by the day. Private Howell would write, quote, all the men are more or less unwell… and it is distressing to notice how general is the debility in camp. End quote. Measles, smallpox, pneumonia, exposure, scurvy, and vitamin deficiency were all plaguing the men and putting them either in the hospital or the ground. And this had been a problem nearly the entire campaign during that cold and snowy and ill-prepared invasion.

But thankfully for the Rebels, who were still unsure of their fate, by mid May, the weather had turned and warmth brought healing and better spirits. The previously quoted Frank Starr would write, quote, I now for the first time, so far as concerns my body, feel [the most] comfortable and rested since this brigade left San Antonio last October. We are having beautiful weather.... Very opportune too, for the health of our broken down soldiers. End quote.

And then payroll came for the first time in months. This brought on entrepreneur soldiers who started bakeries, trading posts, bought fishing tackle… but it also brought a lot of gambling. And a lot of purchase of liquor. Clothing, blankets, and bandages too arrived from Texas. Peticolas took this small time time read an 1,800 page History of the French Revolution. And then slowly, Confederate prisoners, paroled by the Yankees, began to trickle down into Mesilla and Franklin. This too buoyed the spirits of the Rebels. Even still… none of this was enough to truly heal the battered Rebel soldiers, who, although enjoying the warmth of May, were now souring on any ideas of staying in theater.

Captain McCown of the Fifth would write that he and his men should head home instead of quote, throwing our lives away in... a country which is not worth the life of one good man, of the many who have breathed their last on its arid sands. End quote. Frank Starr sympathized and wrote, quote, it is the opinion of everyone that this country is not worth the loss of lives and money necessary for its conquest. I do not think it is worth the life of a single Texian. End quote. They weren’t the only ones.

A self appointed committee of officers of the Fifth, on May 12th, began talks in Las Cruces on what the future of the Rebels were in New Mexico. But first, they needed a sitrep of the Army of New Mexico. What were the rations and how much of it did they have left? What had the campaign even accomplished thus far? And then they decided they needed to send Col. Thomas Green east, to San Antonio with the many weak, sick, and wounded.

Three days later, they reconvened with their requested reports and… the situation did not bode well.

I will let Frazier sum up the various reports and quotes on the state of the Rebels in New Mexico.

By May 15, all of the reports from the regimental departments had arrived, painting a grim profile of the unit. Capt. J. H. Beck, the Fifth Texas Assistant Commissary, reported a large quantity of flour on hand, but little else. "Amount of breadstuffs on hand," he wrote, "ninety-three days rations for 600 men. This comprises the whole amount... in the Territory of Arizona." Little livestock remained to subsist the regiment. "The beef in possession is only about fifteen days' rations, is very poor, and almost unfit for use. Under ordinary circumstances it would be condemned as unwholesome food for troops. There is neither pork nor bacon ... and none can be procured at any price..." Lard and tallow were also un-available, and what few beans could be gathered would have to be taken from the locals. Also, there was no sugar, coffee, or rice. Soap and candles were available only in limited quantities. There was, however, an abundance of vinegar and salt, both of which fetched highly inflated prices on the local market.

Regimental quartermaster Capt. Thomas G. Wright could offer little encouragement. With some effort, he gathered fifteen wagons, drawn by 170 mules that were in "a bad condition." Feed for these animals was scarce, consisting of a small supply of corn supplemented by "hay of an inferior quality." For the troops, reduced to wearing tattered uniforms, new clothing could not be had.

The report of Assistant Surgeon John M. Bronaugh was even more discouraging. "I have no hesitation in stating that the rations now issued are of an unwholesome nature," he asserted. "You will readily understand from so unwholesome a diet, that indigestion, diarrhea, dysentery, & c., must necessarily prevail in the regiment." He also addressed the army's lack of clothing. "Many of the men are now almost in a state of nudity ... at no time has it been properly clad for even a summer campaign. Much of the mortality of the past winter was attributable to these causes. End all quotes.

To these self appointed officers, it was clear what the only path forward for the Rebels was… the men wrote up a detailed report of their plan and they sent it to Richmond, the Governor in Texas, and the Houston Tri-weekly Telegraph. It stated, quote, We have endeavored to discharge our duty as good soldiers, fighting for Southern independence and laboring together with our compatriots in arms, to establish a government that will receive the respect and admiration of the world. We respectfully ask that this report receive your favorable consideration, and that we be transferred to some other field of operation, where ... our efforts in the great struggle for independence may result more profitably to the cause…. End quote. They would end the report with a scathing condemnation of the Southwest and say, quote, In this remote region ... there is nothing to stimulate the heart of the patriot or to nerve the arm of the soldier. End quote. Sibley, would agree and write to his superiors, quote, The Territory of New Mexico, is not worth a quarter of the blood and treasure expended in its conquest. End quote.

Sibley would then go on to write that his men deserved praise and… to go home. Quote, I cannot speak encouragingly for the future, my troops having manifested a dogged, irreconcilable detestation of the country and the people. They have endured much, suffered much, and cheerfully; but the prevailing discontent, backed up by the distinguished valor displayed on every field, entitles them to marked consideration and indulgence. End quote.

But the war was not yet over in the Southwest. On May 18th, Steele would mount a raid against the resting and recuperating Yankees and along for the ride was the previously mentioned Apache hunter, Collard. Steele realized that Craig’s horses were cut off from the fort by the flooded Rio Grande. There were hundreds of horses lightly guarded at a town known as Paraje that were ripe for the taking. Steel had his men pick the 100 most rested and travel ready horses to make a one day journey without stopping for food or water. Thomas O Moody was to lead the small expedition of 100 men to quote, arrive ... just at daybreak while the horses were corralled ... run in on [the enemy] camp, and capture not only horses but also the men guarding them. End quote.

At 1pm on the 20th, the raiding party left Doña Ana, crossed the Rio Grande, and headed into what the Spanish called Dead man’s Journey or the waterless Jornada del Muerte. As a side note, the northern end of the Jornada del Muerte, is where the Trinity site is located. It’s where the first atomic bomb was detonated. This was going to be a rough journey.

They rode the 60 miles north through the sandy and dusty landscape until they crossed back over at Valverde, the very same battlefield, before they neared the town of Paraje. Obviously, by now, the men were exhausted and thirsty. But towards the end of their journey, the Rebels found a pond… but it was a pond not fit for drinking. A general rule is, if your horse won’t drink it, you shouldn’t either. The men though, including their leader Moody, ignored their horses warnings and drank liberally from the essentially poisoned water. And before long, they all to a man were puking, doubling over with stomach cramps or… well, worse. But, not all the Rebels drank from the alkaline water and the remaining soldiers decided to press onward. The raiders were now led by a Lt. Isaac Bowman.

After riding hard all night, the Rebels got to within a few hundred yards of the town but, contrary to Steele’s explicit orders of attacking at first light, Bowman sent two riders in with a note demanding them to surrender the town. Why he did this, is anyone’s guess… because within the town, the around 45 Fedrals were completely unprepared and sleeping. Except for one sentinel on a roof who saw the two riders coming towards the town, fired a shot, and then vamoosed. At the shot though, the sleeping Fedrals sprang to action, grabbed their rifles, and ran towards their cannons. A long range rifle battle ensued. At least… until Isaac Bowman decided this wasn’t worth it and called for a retreat! Collard, who had made it this far, refused the order and he and 15 others decided to continue the attack… the other 85 either hand’t made it or just fled the scene. Collard said of Bowman, quote, to know that  the Confederacy had such a commissioned officer makes me blush. End quote. And not blush in a good way.

Collard describes the brave attack, quote, We dismounted under cover of a hill, and crept around, shielded from view by a ledge of rocks. End quote. There were about a hundred yards from the town as these 15 raiders took up their positions. And then, the Fedrals opened up their cannons and Collard writes, quote, The first thing I knew a load of canister... struck in our midst with a crash, tearing up the rocks. This was the first time we had ever been under fire. End quote. Collard, up until now, had only fought Indians. The cannon fire came as a shock. A shock that turned their courage into dust. They too remounted their rides and hightailed it out of town.

Unfortunately for Collard though, his mount, not far along the trail, gave out on him! Quote, My horse all of the sudden stopped. I spurred him, he staggered, straddled out his legs, and reeled. End quote. Collard was now in Dead Man’s Land, with no water, no horse, within enemy territory, and under the impression that the Yankees were after him. His Rebel comrades offered to stay with him but he declined and asked them to instead, ride to the river, fill your canteens, and bring me some water. They accepted and rode off. Collard would later write of this time, quote, I felt kinder lonesome when the last man rode out of sight. My father owned slaves, and I was a soft 'feather-bed' kind of boy, unused to hardship. Now I was catching it in the neck. End quote.

The horse, not dead, but not wanting to continue the hot and dry journey, was prodded by Collard to continue on. He stripped the horse of all it had and attempted for the remainder of the day to get him along. But… it was to no avail. Eventually, he had to leave him. He wrote of the sad moment, quote, He would whinny after me. It was like going off and leaving a child. End quote. Collard would sleep alone in the devil’s desert that night.

On May 22nd, he awoke with no water and no signs of his comrades. Quote, I walked on, looking back for the enemy, looking forward, looking to the right, looking to the left expecting Indians. End quote. But as the day wore on, he continued walking. And then, he saw more dead or dying horses. His Rebel friends had to be near… but the day turned to night and after finding a place to hide himself, he slept alone again. He said that night he dreamt of quote, Blue Branch, near my father's home. I Dreamed of laying down in that limpid stream, in a blue pool, and drinking like a fish. End quote.

On the 23rd, he awoke still with no water. In his heart, he felt like he wouldn’t make it. Like he was knocking on death’s door. He wrote, quote, I chewed bullets, trying by these means to excite the salivary glands. The very air was dry, my lips and throat parched. End quote.

As he continued walking he saw even more dead horses. But these had been different than the last ones he came upon the day before. These had been stripped of everything on em. Their blankets, saddles, bags… and then he saw moccasin tracks in the dust and sand. Quote, Indians, like sleuth hounds, had followed the trail in the dark. My bloody scalp was not dangling from an Apache's belt, but the demons were on the trail ahead of me. End quote. He was quite lucky indeed that he had not been found in his sleepy hiding place. It was at this time he prayed to the Lord and made a promise. He said, quote, if he would bring me through that peril, that I would try and live a better boy. End quote. He was only 18 after all.

That night though, Collard’s harrowing ordeal was over when he wandered upon his comrades at the river. The men, having giving up their search for him after they saw signs of Indians, were elated. Quote, Twenty men were on their feet in an instant. End quote. Wisely, although the boy was dying of thirst, literally, his friends forced him to drink slowly, quote, I never got enough, but like the boy who attempted to eat a barrel of sugar, I reached a point where it didn't taste good. End quote.

They reached Doña Ana on May 24th and their ill-fated raid, along with a small skirmish near Fort Craig that had occurred the day before, this two engagements were the last between the Fedrals and the Rebels in the entire war in the Southwest.

Surprisingly, in May, Robert E Lee and Jefferson Davis would authorize two entire regiments of men to head west to reinforce Sibley. They would have arrived with mounts, weapons, ammo, cannons, and quite a few men. Most likely, enough to retake the territory. But… it was too late for Sibley and the Confederates who were rapidly deteriorating and whose numbers were dwindling into the desert wind.

Even though Davis and Lee had promised reinforcements, by now, Sibley didn’t even want them. He wrote to headquarters and said, quote, The mail of last week brought unofficial reports from various sources of the intention of the Government to reinforce this army with one or more regiments. And finally, ... that New Mexico and Arizona are to be held at all hazards. My purpose in addressing their communication to you is to inform you distinctly of the resources of this country and New Mexico. Any forces sent to operate in this quarter should not depend upon the productions of the country. End quote. The Confederates, like the Spanish conquistadors of old, had found out that the land does not offer its bounty to invaders. Sibley hoped with this letter, that the sending of troops from the east would be recalled. And shortly after he sent the letter, he began dismissing his army and sending them east. Frazier writes, quote, The dream of empire, at least with him, Sibley, was dead. End quote.

In late May, Pyron and his brave veterans of the Second Texas, would leave with the Valverde battery and head to San Antonio. Davidson wrote of the warrior, quote, no purer patriot, no braver soldier, no truer man, and no better officer ever wore the gray than C L Pyron. There never breathed braver soldiers, or purer patriots, than the little band of brothers who followed him. End quote.

A bunch of local New Mexican Confederates did the same. They packed up their belongings and their families and headed down into Chihuahua where they would book it east towards Texas. D’hamel, the Cuban was among them. He was allowed to go if he guarded the caravan of civilians from Fedral and Indian depredations. He gladly accepted the terms.

Frazier writes of this unraveling, quote, Because of the mood of his soldiers, his own poor health, and his chronic lack of supplies, Sibley's confidence collapsed. His heart was no longer in the mission, and he readily abandoned his dream of empire. The disheartened general ordered the bulk of his command to abandon Arizona. Meanwhile Col. William Steele and his four hundred troopers would hold the territory as long as possible until help arrived. This final, brutal act—in effect the collapse of Confederate Arizona—would be the crowning agony of Sibley's Brigade. End quote.

On June 6th, Peticolas, whom I have been quoting from liberally, he and the Fourth Texas Mounted Volunteers would also quit the territory. He would write, quote, All the sounds in camp intimate a fast recovering cheerfulness. Linn is laughing and joking his friends, Fenner congratulating himself on the cheerfulness of the camp; Roeder rousing himself from his usual profound apathy and indolence and summing up energy enough to cut his hay for his own horse, and broil a piece of beef. Powell is singing old-time baptist hymns, and the rich strains of some of the most celebrated German airs rise from the lower end of the company where the Germans are camped; tenor, soprano, bass, and all, complete. End quote.

Davidson and the Fifth would leave a week after Peticolas and the Fourth.

The march back to Texas for these soldiers was not an easy one as the heat of summer burned their weary feet. Not to mention, the water holes they had relied on the previous autumn had all been filled with dirt or rotting animal carcasses by the Apache. Davidson would write of the march, quote, Hot, hot, and no shade, vine or cloud to hide the sun or break its parching rays from us. Many ... threw themselves down... to die. Many kept on forward with their tongues so swollen that they could not articulate a word, more crazed than rational. End quote.

Pvt. Howell, Sibley, and his escort would leave on June 19th. Howell wrote, quote, prepare to go home… Glorious thought! End quote. On June 23rd, they had left Franklin and were heading east with New Mexico in their rear, quote, leave it for ever, I hope. End quote.

I will now quote Frazier as he discusses the end of this Confederate empire building in New Mexico, quote:

In the summer of 1862, the Confederacy's situation was much different from what it had been the previous year, when Sibley had first presented his ambitious plan. While the Texans had been in New Mexico, stirring events elsewhere in the South had overshadowed their desperate struggle.

Before Val Verde had been fought, the Tennessee strongholds of Forts Henry and Donelson had fallen. While Confederates shivered in the mountains east of Albuquerque, the battle of Pea Ridge was fought on March 7 and 8; a month later, Glorieta was over, and the crucial battle of Shiloh had been fought. George Wythe Baylor, the governor of Arizona's brother, had watched as his fallen chief, Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston, was buried. The largest city in the South, New Orleans, had fallen on April 29, an event that drastically altered the fate of Sibley's veterans and the nation. While the Texans rested in the Mesilla Valley in May and June, Thomas J. ”Stonewall" Jackson won fame in the Shenandoah Valley, and Joseph E. Johnston fell wounded at Seven Pines. As Sibley's army retreated from Franklin, Robert E. Lee fought to save Richmond during the Seven Days Battles. The news from those fronts depressed New Mexico veteran Frank Starr, who wanted his sufferings-which seemed in vain—to have meant something. "We all think that our operations out here will all be lost in history when such great struggles are going on nearer home.” End all quotes.

Mr. Starr, I hope this series helps to keep the memory of your story and your struggles, alive.

While the bulk of the Rebel forces had left New Mexico and Arizona, Steele, the young Collard, and around three hundred other brave men, with three cannons manned by Major Travonian Teel, stayed to defend the Territory from the growing Yankee army. Steele faced massive amounts of desertion and theft and sabotage. McCleave, the prisoner who had been captured at the flour mill in Arizona, he had been set free when his jailers retreated back to Texas. After being freed, McCleave, along with four former Confederates, including Jack Swilling, they were causing as much trouble as they could for the Texans by cutting ferry lines and disrupting communications.

The miners at Pinos Altos were begging Steele for men to guard them but he had none to give. Other smaller towns were asking that the Confederates purchase the Apache’s peace with food but Steele, with not enough food to feed his own soldiers, couldn’t very well feed the Apaches on top of it. But he couldn’t fight them either. The pests of Apacheria were going to continue their war against the White Eyes for as long as they were in their territory. If you want to know how the tyrant Carleton and his California Column, along with the traitorous Jack Swilling deal with the Apaches, listen to my in depth series over the storied warriors if you have not already.

By July, most of the engagements that Steele and his men encountered were against Mexicans and New Mexicans. Quite a few battles and skirmishes erupted in both Texas and New Mexico that saw men fall on both sides. The locals were becoming belligerent and emboldened by the Rebel’s retreat. But these locals were civilians and the fighting was often brutal. One engagement near Mesilla saw a Confederate kill three attackers with a bowie knife. Another engagement had Teel firing his cannons into a small town killing quite a few people. Most of these skirmishes happened when the Confederates were scavenging for food but sometimes it was while they were on patrol. The locals began sending letters north in the hopes of being relieved by the Fedrals. They called the Rebels locusts and they wanted them gone.

On July 8th, with news of the California Column approaching from the west and with news that Kansas soldiers had arrived to his north… Steele decided to abandon Confederate Arizona. He knew Sibley had turned back reinforcements and he knew Sibley would never return himself. He also knew despite Baylor sending letters saying he was gathering the necessary men and material, it would not be enough. There were over three thousand Fedrals surrounding Mesilla and Confederate Arizona. That fact, along with a growing hatred of the Rebels by the New Mexicans and even Mexicans who were emboldened to cross the border, Steele had no choice. Collard, Steele, and the remainder of the Confederates were heading east from Fort Bliss near El Paso, they were heading east out of theater, out of the once promising territory by July 12th, 1862.

The Confederate Empire in the West had crumbled… like the ruins of the many people who’d come before them.

Curiously, though, the dream of the southwest being a part of the Confederacy never died and that was on account of John R Baylor. In 1862 he was building another army to invade when the extermination of the apache order reached Davis’ desk. Outraged, Davis would promptly fire the man who in truth, couldn’t find enough Rebels to go west, anyways. Not when so much was occurring so close to home. But Baylor was persistent. He eventually became a confederate congressmen and grew close to Jeff Davis again. And 15 days before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Davis would issue one of the last orders of the entire Confederate States of America. That order reinstated Baylor as a Col. and gave him permission to reinvade Arizona and New Mexico. Baylor, would never get to carry out the dying Nation’s last orders.

Frazier has a great summation of the entire hopes and dreams, the entire campaign in the west and why it failed, and what could have happened if the Confederacy had kept the southwest. It is a short Epilogue and I thought long about just reading the entire thing, but… I have already outlined the Confederacy’s hopes in the intro episodes and guessing about what could have been, while fun, is not always fruitful. But I really did enjoy his epilogue. Instead of reading the entire thing, I’ll just quote the final paragraph. 

Sibley’s failed adventure might have provided one of the few prospects for Southern independence. The creation of a Confederate Empire would have secured western wealth and European recognition. The hopes for the campaign had indeed been high-much greater than what history has remembered—but the dream came to a tragic end. The empire, like the Confederacy, was not to be, despite the investment of so much blood and

treasure.

Thank y’all for listening, and I’ll see you again soon in the American Southwest.

I actually have a little epilogue of my own for this series.

A little background about me, Thomas Wayne Riley. I was born in the foothills of the Appalachians in Northern Georgia. My mother’s from Alabama but her family’s from Louisiana. My father’s family has been in the mountains of far western North Carolina for two hundred years. My grandmother’s in the country music hall of fame and her late long time boyfriend was in the country swing music hall of fame. I am quite proud of my Southern Heritage and culture, despite only living in Dixie until I was 16. Even still, I took that love and heritage with me to Oklahoma, Wisconsin, California, and now New Mexico. While I do not endorse a Confederate Empire of Slavery, I do sympathize with those in the south who wanted to rid themselves of a tyrannical Fedral government that had abandoned the constitution as they saw it and were taking advantage of while undermining the people and place of my ancestry. If I had been born in 1845 in northern Georgia or western North Carolina or in the swamps of Louisiana, I would have been a Confederate Rebel Soldier. I actually transcribed an ancestor’s journal. She wrote it while her brothers were fighting and while she was living through the war in North Carolina. It was a harrowing time to be a Southerner. There was a lot of hope… but there was a lot of loss. And the end of the journal is a reminder that war is hell and the fear the Southerners had of the invading, marauding, and fire happy Yankees is not something Americans learn about.

I hope y'all enjoyed a new perspective on the Civil War and I hope I gave y'all something to think about and ponder and remember. If anything, I hope the stories of these brave men have inspired you.

While researching, traveling to the battlefields, and reading a ton for this series, I ordered a recently published book from Passage Press titled Georgia Buddha. It’s a collection of short stories by author V N Ebert that are rich with Southern soul. I got in touch with the author and asked him if I could read one of the short stories from his great collection titled Confederate Jasmine. I asked him if I could read it at the end of my upcoming Civil War series as a sort of addendum. Ebert gave me permission and wished me luck. So I am going to read the short story in its entirety for y’all. I often read from books and poems for Subscribers and I wasn’t sure if it would work on the main feed but I really enjoyed this short story and I think it’s a good bookend to the series that began with me talking about Napoleon Bonaparte and Thomas Jefferson.

Without further adieu, Confederate Jasmine by V N Ebert from his collection of short stories titled, Georgia Buddha.