CHAPTER FIVE

MEN WHO HAVE BRAVED THE WILDERNESS

ONCE CANBY LEARNED OF LYNDE’S DEBACLE AND THE LOSS OF ONE THIRD OF ALL the Union forces in New Mexico, he was furious—and worried. Even before he had all the facts, he informed Washington:

Major Lynde’s abandonment of his position and trusts exposes the command from Arizona and the posts of Forts Stanton and Craig to great danger, if attacked by a superior force. . . . At my [insistence], the governor of the [New Mexico] Territory will call out the militia of the Territory and will furnish an additional force of mounted volunteers. I hope soon to be able to restore the Territory to its normal condition. This news has roused the people of New Mexico from their apathetic condition, and I have now no doubt that the organization of an efficient home guard and the completion of the volunteer troops that have been called for will be speedily effected.1

Although he expressed “no doubt” that volunteers would flock to the defense of the territory, Canby still harbored grave concerns that such volunteers would be of much value under fire.

With Fort Fillmore burned, his southern flank wide open, and the soldiers under his command demoralized and fearing the worst, Canby tried to put himself in the enemy’s mind. How would Baylor plan an invasion? What were Canby’s own weaknesses and how he could make his position stronger? He identified two routes that the Confederates could use to attack. One was the route up the Rio Grande from Franklin, as Baylor was already doing, and the other stretched westward from the Texas panhandle via the Canadian and Pecos Rivers. Canby knew that, in order to keep open the vital Santa Fé Trail supply route from Fort Leavenworth, he must bolster Fort Union. Fort Craig must also be improved if he hoped to block the rebels’ passage up the Rio Grande. But he had no extra men, matériel, or money with which to do it.2

While Canby planned how to turn back Baylor’s forces, Major Henry Hopkins Sibley continued his long journey to the capital of the Confederacy. On or about July 5, 1861, Sibley arrived in Richmond, Virginia, and immediately secured a personal meeting with Jefferson Davis. Notes and transcripts of their meeting are lacking, but one can make certain assumptions based on Sibley’s past and the subsequent outcome of the meeting.

Sibley and Davis were distantly acquainted. Davis had been President Franklin Pierce’s Secretary of War and had corresponded with Sibley on several occasions while the latter attempted to have his tent design adopted by the army. Both had attended West Point and had served in the war against Mexico (Davis had been wounded at the battle of Buena Vista.) Whether Davis was personally aware of Sibley’s long history of insubordination and alcoholism is unknown. What seems clear, however, is that Davis was impressed by Sibley’s audacious scheme and his self-proclaimed in-depth knowledge of the Southwest, the Union forts located there, and the area’s human and material resources, including the wealth of gold and silver that would greatly enhance the South’s ability to finance the war. It is also likely that Sibley pointed out that with the Union navy blockading most of the South’s East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, continuing the campaign westward across Arizona to California to gain ports on the Pacific was essential. With the entire Southwest subsequently under Richmond’s control—a Confederate Manifest Destiny—a railroad could then be built from California to Texas that would allow foreign supplies to be brought in to sustain the war effort. And, should any of the northern states of Mexico be of interest to the South, Sibley was certain they could be wrested away from that weak nation and added to the Confederacy.

We can assume that Sibley explained that such a campaign would be self-sustaining. Sibley would be able to pick up men and supplies in his westward trek across Texas and thought he could recruit enough men to fill the ranks of a 3,000-man brigade with ease. With the assistance of friendly Texans, and by capturing Federal forts and stores along the way, his brigade would not suffer from want in the arid region.

Sibley also most likely expressed his confidence that the Spanish population of Arizona and New Mexico had no love for Northerners. In his estimation, most of the Spanish-speaking civilians were neutral or pro-South and would see him and his brigade as liberators. Sibley probably also pointed out that the many pro-South miners and frontiersmen in Colorado and New Mexico, the anti-Federal Mormons in Utah, and the Southern-born soldiers still wearing Union blue in the Southwest would welcome the opportunity to join his fighting force. He might even be able to persuade the Indians of the region to intensify their attacks against the Yankees.

Finally, he no doubt reminded Davis that, based on knowledge gained during the U.S.-Mexican War of 1846–1848, the indigenous people of the Southwest did not make good soldiers. If Canby or anyone else thought that an ill-trained native militia could stop the rebel advance, he would roll over them—just as he and Scott’s army had rolled over Santa Anna’s troops on the march from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. The regular Union soldiers and shaky militiamen, Sibley was convinced, would flee at the first sight of the rebel flag.

Davis was excited by Sibley’s vision for, if such a plan were successful, the campaign would double the size of the Confederate nation. Great diplomatic gains could also result. A massive, stunning victory in the Southwest might convince England and France, which had thus far expressed only cautious support for the Confederacy, to throw their full weight behind the South’s war of independence.

As a seasoned warrior, Davis knew the value of a major triumph in this conflict. The small-scale victories at Fort Sumter and Bethel Church, Virginia, and the one even now underway at Carthage, Missouri, were not nearly enough. The president was well aware that the South, with its industrial and manpower disadvantages, could not hope to win a protracted conflict that might develop into a war of attrition. Swift and overwhelming success was imperative if the South hoped to throw off the North’s yoke and force Lincoln to enter into peace negotiations. What could be more stunning than a Confederate drive straight across the Southwest all the way to the Pacific? Sibley’s biographer noted, “Thus, several months before Albert Sidney Johnston’s thrust into the Tennessee-Kentucky middle border and Robert E. Lee’s invasion of Maryland, the Sibley Expedition was formed and was to be the South’s initial step toward achieving independence through what Sibley and Davis both called the Second American Revolution.”3

The Sibley Expedition quickly received Davis’s blessing, and he promoted the major to brigadier general. On July 8, Sibley received his written orders: “Sir: In view of your recent service in New Mexico and knowledge of that country and the people, the President has intrusted you with the important duty of driving the Federal troops from the department, at the same time securing all the arms, supplies, and materials of war.”

Sibley was further instructed to work in cooperation with Van Dorn to raise two regiments of cavalry, a battery of artillery, and any additional troops he felt necessary. He also was to take into his ranks any disaffected Union officers and enlisted men who wished to serve with the Confederacy, and establish a military government to control the conquered territory.4

Brigadier General Sibley, the once obscure and mediocre captain in the U.S. Army, had pulled off the greatest coup of his life and had been personally awarded by Jefferson Davis one of the most important assignments of any Confederate commander to date, an assignment that was not only regarded as essential to the survival of his beloved South, but which could, if successful, result in an ultimate Confederate victory and independence. He would proceed to Texas, where he would recruit his brigade and begin his march toward destiny and glory.

Back in Colorado, Gilpin had not forgotten Canby’s request of July 6 to send a contingent of Colorado troops to Fort Garland but, with only a handful of ill-trained, under-equipped volunteers, he could not comply. Putting the onus back on Canby, Gilpin wrote:

In the event of any future call upon this Territory, it will be absolutely necessary that an authorized mustering officer be present here at Denver, and that arms and ammunition be supplied here for their complete equipment. Without specifying reasons, these arrangements are an absolute necessity. The election just concluded exhibits an overwhelming popular majority in favor of the [Lincoln] administration. It also reveals a strong malignant element essential to be controlled.

. . . Have the kindness to send me for use within your military department 5,000 arms, equipments, and ammunition for infantry, and ordnance and equipments and guns for two batteries of artillery.⁵

Canby was dismayed by Gilpin’s response and the request for arms and equipment he could not spare. Doubting that newly appointed New Mexico governor Henry Connelly⁶ could raise the two additional regiments he had requested, Canby later informed Gilpin:

[I]t may be necessary to ask your excellency to organize four or six companies in Colorado Territory. . . . If the necessity should arise, your suggestion will be met by sending a mustering officer and the necessary arms to the place of rendezvous. . . . There are at present no more arms in the department than are necessary to arm the troops . . . within the department. . . . Your excellency may rest assured that I will not hesitate to furnish you this assistance as far as the means under my control will permit.7

As yet unaware of Lynde’s defeat at Mesilla on the previous day, Governor Gilpin on July 26 at last authorized the recruitment and formation of the first companies of infantry. He then appointed John P. Slough, the rotund orator who had so impressed him at the welcoming gala, and Samuel Forster Tappan, the Massachusetts-born editor of the Denver Herald, as captains and commanders of Companies A and B, respectively. Slough drew his recruits from Denver City, and Tappan signed up men in the mining towns of Central City, Black Hawk, and Gregory Point.⁸

On July 29, the shocking news of the Union defeat at Bull Run on July 21 reached Denver City, adding new urgency to the recruiting efforts. The quick victory over the upstart rebels that so many had predicted already seemed to be an evaporating dream, and training of the recruits who had already joined went into high gear.

During the Civil War, the practice was to form companies and regiments locally, with recruiting an ongoing responsibility of the units’ commanding officers. To attract volunteers, the commanding officers printed handbills and ran newspaper advertisements. Slough’s ad read:

SOLDIERS WANTED. The undersigned, having been authorized by the Governor to raise two Companies of Infantry to serve during the war, has opened a Recruiting Rendezvous on McGaa Street, west of Cherry Creek, in the City of Denver. Only able-bodied men, between the ages of 18 and 45, who answer the requirements of the regulations of the War Department, will be accepted.⁹

Tappan’s company, fifty-five men strong, encamped at a place the troops called Camp Gilpin located at Quartz Valley, about a mile from Central City. A newspaper account of the day read:

This rendezvous presents quite a lively scene—squads of men are being drilled, whilst others are cooking or carousing in the shade, meditating on “grim visaged war”—the battles to be fought and won—or, perhaps of the girls they will leave behind them.¹⁰

Many of those who signed their enlistment papers did so under the mistaken belief that they were joining the regular army. To disabuse the citizens of this notion, the Rocky Mountain News noted: “The impression seems to have gotten out that the enlistments under Slough are for the regular army—such is not the case. They are only for the volunteer forces, and under volunteer regulations.”¹¹

Colonel John Potts Slough, commander of the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers. (Colorado Historical Society)

As the force grew and the need for additional companies became obvious, Gilpin knew he would need a strong figure to command the regiment. On August 26, 1861, he elevated Slough from captain and company commander to colonel and regimental commander and promoted Tappan to lieutenant colonel and second in command.12 Tappan’s promotion posed no problems, but Gilpin’s choice of Slough seems curious. Although Slough had been quite outspoken and belligerent in his native Ohio before coming West, he had led a remarkably quiet and private life since arriving in Denver City in 1860.¹³ He was not involved in local politics, wrote no letters to the editor, and, contrary to the popular practice of the day, did not even advertise his law firm in the local papers. Thus, the speculation remains that at their first meeting, Slough was either erroneously introduced to Gilpin as a former candidate for, or holder of, high office in Ohio, or he purposely misrepresented himself. A less popular choice for commander is hard to imagine, for Slough’s abrasive manner and hypercritical martinet’s personality soon antagonized almost every officer and enlisted man under his command and would nearly lead to his assassination.¹⁴

Third in command and without a doubt the most charismatic of the regimental officers was Major John Milton Chivington, a giant bear of a man, six foot seven and 250 pounds, with a stentorian voice to match. Born in Warren County, Ohio, on January 27, 1821, to the son of a veteran of the War of 1812, Chivington had earlier been a missionary to the Wyandotte Indians in Nebraska before coming to Denver City in May 1860 to assume the duties of presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Rocky Mountain District, as well as the Grand Master of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Colorado. But, despite having no military training, when Governor Gilpin initially offered him the post of regimental chaplain, Chivington turned it down, saying, “Governor, for years I have been praying for these disunionists without avail; they are now in armed rebellion against my government and the flag. Sir, the time for action has come. I will accept a commission from you, but it must be a fighting commission.”15 He got his wish. He was given the rank of major, making him the third highest-ranking officer in the unit. The Reverend John H. Kehler was named to the post of chaplain. Upon Chivington’s appointment, a newspaper editorialized: “We expect he will make as good a soldier in the field as in the pulpit, and hard to beat. Roll up, all ye soldiers of the cross, and join the army under Major Chivington, to defend the Union.”¹⁶

Chivington did his best to defend the Union. According to William C. Whitford, author of Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War,

Chivington developed extraordinary military ability, although he had no military training before he abandoned the pulpit for the battlefield. In action he became the incarnation of war. The bravest of the brave, a giant in stature, and a whirlwind in strife, he had, also, the rather unusual qualities that go to make soldiers personally love such a leader and eager to follow him into the jaws of death. The admiration and devotion of his men became unbounded. He was their ideal of a dashing, fearless, fighting commander.¹⁷

Chivington knew that he had not been chosen because of military experience, as he explained Gilpin’s choosing him for the regiment’s third highest office: “I was made major because I suppose I was better acquainted in the territory than any man in it at that time. I had been all over it, organized churches, held religious services, appointed ministers and superintended the arrangement of Methodist Church affairs.”¹⁸

Men with and without military experience—many of them prominent Denver City citizens willing to risk their lives and fortunes to save their territory and the Union—applied to the governor for commissions in the regiment, and Gilpin granted them. Despite the lack of funding for his unit, Gilpin pressed on, appointing ten company commanders and ordering them to begin filling their muster rolls.

The commanders were a stalwart lot. The colorful, six-foot-three-inch-tall Edward Wanshear (“Ned”) Wynkoop, who had a penchant for wearing buckskins and carrying a large Bowie knife on his belt, was given a captaincy and command of Slough’s Company A. Born in Philadelphia and the grandson of a member of the Continental Congress, Wynkoop had been the sheriff of Arapahoe County, an amateur actor, a first lieutenant in Denver City’s Jefferson Rangers militia company, and a former dragoon during the Kansas rebellion. Ohio-born, thirty-eight-year-old blacksmith Samuel McKey Logan, a U.S.-Mexican War veteran, was named commander of Tappan’s Company B. To lead Company C, Gilpin selected forty-eight-year-old Richard Sopris, a former prospector from Pennsylvania and the current president of the city council, and authorized him to gather recruits from Buckskin Joe in Park County.

Major John Milton Chivington. (Colorado Historical Society)

From Albany, New York, came thirty-one-year-old Jacob Downing, a feisty, well-known attorney and judge. He was appointed commander of Company D and authorized to recruit in Denver City. To command Company E, which recruited men from the mining towns of Oro City and Laurette, Gilpin selected former Leavenworth (Kansas) county clerk Scott J. Anthony, a cousin of famed suffragette Susan B. Anthony. Charles P. Marion, a surveyor and civil engineer in civilian life (who had made the first maps of Colorado for Gilpin) was put in charge of Company K (Denver City and Central City).19

Others given commissions and put in command of companies were Captain Samuel H. Cook, Company F (Denver City); Captain Josiah W. Hambleton,²⁰ Company G (Nevada City and Empire City); Captain George L. Sanborn, an employee of the Rocky Mountain News, Company H (Central City); Captain Charles Mailie, Company I (Central City); and Captain Charles Marion, Company K (Denver City and Central City).

For their services, Slough was to be paid $95.00 per month, Tappan $80.00, and Chivington $70.00. Captains would make $60.00 per month, first lieutenants $50.00, and second lieutenants $45.00. Sergeants would receive $17.00 a month and privates $11.00. In reality, however, the men would go many months before being paid.²¹

Meanwhile, newspaper advertising continued to attract recruits for the regiment, and the company commanders were creative in composing their messages. One notice read:

Company commanders of the First Regiment of Volunteers: Company A, Edward Wynkoop; Company B, Samuel Logan; Company C, Richard Sopris; Company D, Jacob Downing; Company E, Scott Anthony; Company F, Samuel Cook; Company H, George Sanborn. Photographs of Charles Marion (Company K), Josiah Hambleton (Company G), and Charles Mailie (Company I) have not been located. (Colorado Historical Society)

Capt. Marion wants a lot of choice men, who can hit a mark every time, to enlist in the service of their country. He is an old hand in the business, and young men who desire good training will do well to call at his office.22

Besides calling for soldiers, Scott Anthony’s ad in October noted the need for “a good drummer and fifer.”²³

In Central City, one of the fastest-growing mining towns in the Gregory Gulch mining district, Captain George Sanborn used the appeal of an outlandishly colorful uniform to raise a company of Zouaves.²⁴ Captain Charles Mailie, who recognized the toughness of the European-born miners, headlined his recruiting ad, “Attention Germans! Volunteers Wanted.” (A newspaper later editorialized, “We are glad to see our German friends on the move. We know they are taught soldiering from their youth up, and when called upon always make a loyal response. In the war east, they have shown their bravery, and we doubt not but the Rocky Mountain company of Germans will be on hand when called to action for the sustaining of the stars and stripes.”)²⁵

Typical of those who joined was Robert B. Wallace, a young Vermonter who had come to the mountains in April 1861, hoping to strike it rich, but quickly became disillusioned. He and his brother came down from the hills, intending to return to the “States,” when they learned of the recruiting effort. “When we got to Denver,” Wallace recalled, “I found they were raising the First Colorado Volunteer Regiment. I enlisted in Company K. . . . We drilled twice a day and were about perfect in company or battalion drill.”²⁶

Another of those who answered the call was William R. Beatty, a merchant from Black Hawk, a mining camp adjacent to Central City:

When I got down to Denver, I found the town buzzing with excitement. There were street corner arguments and street corner fights every few minutes. The Southerners were trying to arouse sympathy and it looked as if they might succeed ’til, one night, Captain [Samuel M.] Logan, a big blacksmith, got busy and cleaned up a bunch of them with his fists. After that, feeling for the South began to die, and Colorado was for the Union stronger than any other state.²⁷

Logan, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, was a tough and fearless character. The equally tough Charlie Harrison (known for his fast draw and hair-trigger temper) owned the notorious Criterion Saloon—a popular hangout and arms cache for Southern ruffians, and “one of the vilest dens that ever cursed any Western city,” as one newspaper put it. In late August, Logan and his Company B were ordered to clean out the Criterion and evict the secessionists. Storming the saloon with bayonets fixed, they confiscated the rebels’ weapons and ammunition and sent the Southerners fleeing. Harrison joined William Quantrill’s rebel band of raiders.28

Citizens of Empire, Colorado, observe as the men of Josiah Hambleton’s Company G conduct drill on the main street, 1861. (Colorado Historical Society)

After the initial rush of volunteers, recruiting became more difficult. The war still seemed far away, and most of the able-bodied men were gainfully employed, making three dollars a day by working potentially lucrative mining claims. Besides, with an ounce of gold bringing eighteen dollars, why would a miner give up that potential windfall for a mere eleven dollars a month and the possibility of dying on some remote battlefield?29 Yet, in spite of the danger, the recruits—perhaps those who had had little luck as prospectors or who were seeking an even more exciting and adventuresome life—continued to dribble into the “recruiting rendezvouses.” And as winter approached and many of the outdoor digs began shutting down for the season, men found themselves without work or money so the idea of soldiering suddenly became more appealing.

For many of the recruits, however, something deeper than money inspired enlistment: a sense of duty. Their country was in peril, and it was their duty to help save the republic and their adopted Colorado Territory. The risk of discomfort, separation, inconvenience, or even death did not deter these loyal citizens. They were, as one Denver City newspaper editor commented, “men who have braved the wilderness and conquered nature, suffered the privations incident to so unorganized and undeveloped mountain life, and not men to whom the hardships and privations of a camp have any terrors, or who are afraid to meet danger from men.”30

Robert B. Wallace, a private in Company K of the Colorado Volunteers. (Colorado Historical Society)

NOTES

1. Official Record, 4:2.

2. Max L. Heyman, Prudent Soldier: A Biography of Major General Edward R.S. Canby (Glendale, CA: Arthur H. Clark, 1959), 144–147.

3. Martin H. Hall, Sibley’s New Mexico Campaign (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1960), 30–32; Jerry D. Thompson, Henry Hopkins Sibley: Confederate General of the West. Natchitoches: Northwestern Louisiana State University Press, 1987), 216–219.

4. Martin H. Hall, The Confederate Army of New Mexico (Austin: Presidial Press, 1978), 14; Official Record, 4:91, 93.

5. Official Record, 4:68.

6. A wealthy merchant from Peralta, New Mexico, Connelly had recently been named governor by Lincoln, replacing Rencher. Although a Kentuckian by birth and a slave owner, too, Connelly had been persuaded by his wife that slavery was evil and had thus freed his slaves and became devoted to Lincoln and loyal to the Union cause. Frank McNitt, Navajo Wars: Military Campaigns, Slave Raids, and Reprisals (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1972), 174, 366.

7. Official Record, 4:69.

8. John H. Nankivell, “Fort Garland, Colorado,” Colorado Magazine 16:1 (January 1939): 5; Frank Hall, History of the State of Colorado, 4 vols. (Chicago: Blakely, 1889–1895), 1:270.

9. Colorado Republican and Rocky Mountain Herald, August 2, 1861.

10. Rocky Mountain News, August 7, 1861.

11. Rocky Mountain News, July 31, 1861.

12. At that time, a company comprised 3 officers and roughly 100 enlisted men; a regiment of ten companies, therefore, contained approximately 1,000 men.

13. Arthur A. Wright, “Col. John P. Slough,” Colorado Magazine (April 1962).

14. Ovando J. Hollister, Boldly They Rode (Lakewood, CO: Golden Press, 1949 [first published in 1863 as History of the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers]), 189; and Jerome C. Smiley, History of Denver (Denver: Times-Sun Publishing, 1901), 378.

15. Irving W. Stanton, 12–13.

16. Colorado Republican, August 29, 1861.

17. William C. Whitford, Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War: The New Mexico Campaign in 1862 (Glorieta, NM: Rio Grande Press, 1971), 52.

18. John M. Chivington, “The First Colorado Regiment” (Bancroft papers, Mss XA, 419, CHS), 2.

19. Denver Post, December 31, 1903, and March 6, 1921.

20. Hambleton would be cashiered from the service in November 1861 and replaced by Captain William F. Wilder. Whitford, Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War, 189.

21. Hall, History of the State of Colorado, 4:410, 568–569, 583; Rocky Mountain News, August 31, 1862.

22. Colorado Republican, August 29, 1861.

23. Ibid., October 16, 1861.

24. Rocky Mountain News, August 29, 1861.

25. Mailie’s ad was in the Rocky Mountain News, August 1, 1861; quotation from the Rocky Mountain News, August 29, 1861; Colorado Republican, August 29, 1861.

26. R. B. Wallace, “My Experiences in the First Colorado Regiment,” Colorado Magazine 1:7 (November 1924): 308.

27. Denver Post, July 2, 1916.

28. Quotation from Rocky Mountain News, date unknown, but probably 1880 (Dawson Scrapbook, #29, p. 107); Duane A. Smith, The Birth of Colorado: A Civil War Perspective (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989), 20–21.

29. Blanche Adams, “Colorado in the Civil War” (Masters thesis, 1930, Colorado Historical Society), 48.

30. The Commonwealth & Republican, November 20, 1862.