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| The ruins of Fort Bowie, Arizona, not far from the site of the Bascom Affair. |
It may come as surprise to most Arizona residents that the lower portion of the state, including Tucson, was once a part of the Confederacy during the Civil War. That brief period in the state's history involved a strange set of dynamics including the influence of the Apache wars, political moves by the Union military leaders, a lone wolf decision by an ambitious Confederate general, and a grudge held by residents of Mexican descent who'd become Americans by virtue of the 1854 Gadsden Purchase. For those who aren't avid history buffs, I'm going to offer a concise and condensed narration gleaned from detail-laden documents, books, and newspaper accounts of the time. It's all fascinating reading, but so is a brief synopsis. For ardent history buffs, forgive me the necessity of leaving out the thousands of pertinent details for the purpose of brevity. I acknowledge this is a gross oversimplification of events.
Since 1858, the Butterfield Overland Mail had run mail and passenger services between St. Louis and San Francisco on their stage route (known as the "Oxbow Route") across southern Arizona Territory. The station keepers for some time interacted and traded with the Apache, with occasional conflicts. In February, 1861, a momentous and notorious event known as the Bascom Affair occurred in the Apache Pass area of the Chiricahuas (in what is now Cochise County). It became the match that ignited a tinderbox of festering hostility. In the fallout, Butterfield employees, members of Cochise's Apache band, and US Cavalry soldiers all suffered casualties. The Apache wars continued with renewed tension. Nearly all of the Butterfield employees along the Arizona route were killed.
For other business reasons of their own as well as being plagued by attacks by Apache on their stations and carriers, the Butterfield Overland Mail opted to shift their route north and shut down the route that extended through southern Arizona. In the opinion of those who wrote for Arizona papers in the latter 1860s, the Apache were emboldened by the move and, seeing the route abruptly altered, credited themselves for the route's discontinuation.
As the hostilities again flared up, the US military also had to contend with the early stages of secession and civil war in the nation's southeast. Later in 1861, the US military leaders, headed by Secretary of War Simon Cameron, pulled the vast majority of troops deployed in Arizona Territory (AT). The troops had been charged with quelling Apache depradations on settlers, stage station keepers, postal carriers, and those who traveled the region. When some 3,400 regular troops were suddenly removed from the lower part of the state, bitter settlers were left to fend for themselves without advance warning. The military, destroying their own supplies and equipment as they withdrew, further left the settlers at risk of starvation.
The Apache, seeing the troops suddenly vanished after years of skirmishes and battles, could be forgiven for reasoning they'd won the wars and had driven the military from the land. Attacks on whites in the territory mushroomed. With the increased hostilities, the Confederate leaders in the Arizona / New Mexico territory rightly viewed Arizona as a lawless land. They quickly sought to fill and exploit the void.
As the Apache had been emboldened by the withdrawal of the troops, so had the Confederacy been emboldened by the actions of Union General David E. Twiggs, who surrendered all the troops in Texas. Not only did the CSA gain confidence, but they gained the spoils of Twiggs' treason: the ample supplies and military equipment left behind. Enter Henry Sibley, an experienced veteran of the Indian campaigns in New Mexico Territory, and now a commanding officer in the CSA. Sibley's grand plans (made on his own, without the direction or approval of the Confederate powers-that-be) included taking NM and Arizona before conquering Colorado and Utah. From there, he expected to take California.
On August, 1, 1861, Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor, the Confederate commander assigned to the territory, wrote:
"The social and political condition of Arizona being little short of general anarchy, and the people being literally destitute of law, order, and protection, the said Territory from the date hereof, is hereby declared temporarily organized as a military government, until such time as Congress may otherwise provide. I, John R. Baylor, Lieut. Col. commanding the Confederate Army in the Territory of Arizona, hereby take possession of the said Territory in the name and behalf of the Confederate States of America. For all the purposes herein specified, and until otherwise decreed or provided, the Territory of Arizona shall comprise all that portion of the recent Territory of New Mexico lying south of the 34th parallel of north latitude."In early February, 1862, Confederate President Jefferson Davis announced the newly-minted Confederate entity would be known as the Confederate Territory of Arizona.
Devoid of the usual contingent of regulars, it fell upon a group of volunteer troops to rise to the defense of the southwest. The California Column, headed by experienced old-school campaigner General James H. Carleton, moved toward the Confederate line. A skirmish at Picacho Peak, that iconic landmark midway between Phoenix and Tucson, in March of 1862 encouraged Union leaders to reinforce Carleton's force. With 2,350 troops, he moved upon Tucson, where the city was easily and bloodlessly retaken. From there, after a month of recovery in Tucson, he was to advance toward the Rio Grande to fight the Confederacy's strong grip on Texas.
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| Ruins of Fort Lowell, Tucson. |
By June of 1862, the Union government had established the federal Territory of Arizona. Carleton declared himself the new military governor of Arizona and took it upon himself to provide citizens with protection from lawbreakers both domestic and foreign.
Carleton's mission against the Confederates, despite being challenged in several bloody engagements with the Apache, was made easier by the underwhelming support residents of the territories gave to the Confederate cause. The majority of citizens, former Mexican nationals, had a grudge against Texans for the events of twenty years prior. In Tucson itself, not even 100 residents voted to join secession. However, the Apache depredations soon sidetracked Carleton's California Column from their intended mission of fighting the Confederacy. They were redirected to return peace to the Apache lands in southeastern Arizona.
Carleton did, though, dedicate troops under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Eyre to retake Fort Thorn on the banks of the Rio Grande in New Mexico Territory. On July 4th, 1862, Eyre was successfully able to reach the river just three miles near the fort. There, honoring the republic's birthday, he held a flag-raising ceremony. It served as the official announcement the Confederate presence in Arizona and nearly all of New Mexico had fallen. Arizona was thereby restored to the union, well in advance of the April 8, 1865, surrender at Appomattox which ended the larger conflict.
For further reading, you may enjoy the excellent volume on Fort Bowie's history by Douglas C. McChristian, Fort Bowie, Arizona: Combat Post of the Southwest, 1858 - 1894. You can get it here: Fort Bowie, Arizona Please note this is an affiliate link, and I may receive a commission for items purchased through this link. (Also, thank you!)
Copyright (c) 2024 by Marcy J. Miller * All rights reserved * No part of this content, including photographs, may be reproduced without the expression written permission of the author * Thank you for linking, forwarding, sharing, and otherwise helping grow my readership * Most of all, thanks for stopping by!
