PRICE DRIVEN OUT OF MISSOURI.

183

whole country west of Sedalia, in the direction of Kansas, far enough to foil the attempts of recruits to reach Price in any considerable numbers, and to compel him to withdraw, in search of safety and subsistence, toward the borders of Arkansas.

Among the captured on the Blackwater, were many wealthy and influen tial citizens of Missouri. This event dealt a stunning blow to secession in that State for the moment, and Pope's short campaign gave great satisfaction to all loyal people. Halleck complimented him on his "brilliant success," and feeling strengthened there by, he pressed forward with more vigorous measures for the complete suppression of the rebellion in his Department westward of the Mississippi River. On the 23d of December he declared martial law in St. Louis; and by proclamation on the 25th this system of rule was extended to all railroads and their vicinities.' At about the same time General Price, who had found himself relieved from immediate danger, and encouraged by a promise of re-enforcements from Arkansas, under General McIntosh, concentrated about twelve thousand men at Springfield, where he put his army in comfortable huts, with the intention of remaining all winter, and pushed his picket-guards fifteen or twenty miles northward. This demonstration caused Halleck to concentrate his troops at Lebanon, the capital of Laclede County, northeastward of Springfield, early in February, under the chief command of General (late Colonel) S. R. Curtis. These were composed of the troops of Generals Asboth, Sigel, Davis, and Prentiss. In the midst of storms and floods, over heavy roads and swollen streams, the combined forces moved on Springfield" in three columns, the right under General Davis, the center under General Sigel, and the left under Colonel (soon afterward General) Carr. On the same day they met some of Price's advance, and skirmishing ensued; and on the following day about three hundred Confederates attacked Curtis's picket-guards, but were repulsed. This feint of offering battle was made by Price to enable him to effect a retreat. On the night of the 12th and 13th' he fled from Springfield with his whole force. Not a man of them was to be seen when Curtis's vanguard, the Fourth Iowa, entered the town at dawn the next morning. There stood their huts, in capacity sufficient to accommodate ten thousand men. The camp attested a hasty departure, for remains of supper and half-dressed sheep and hogs, that had been slain the previous evening, were found.

a Feb. 11, 1862.

¿February.

Price retreated to Cassville, closely pursued by Curtis. Still southward he hastened, and was more closely followed, his rear and flanks continually harassed during four days, while making his way across the Arkansas border to Cross Hollows. Having been re-enforced by Ben McCulloch, near a range of hills called Boston Mountains, he made a stand at Sugar Creek, where, in a brief engagement, he was defeated, and was again compelled to fly. He halted at Cove Creek, where, on the 25th, he reported

⚫ Feb. 20.

1 The proclamation of the 25th was issued in consequence of the destruction or disability, on the 20th, of about one hundred miles of the Missouri railroad, by some men returned from Price's army, assisted by inhabitants along the line of the road, acting by pre-concert. On the 23d, Halleck issued an order, fixing the penalty of death for that crime, and requiring the towns and counties along the line of any railway thus destroyed, to repair the damages and pay the expenses.

* During the operations of this forward movement of the National troops, Brigadier-General Price, son of the chief, was captured at Warsaw, together with several officers of the elder Price's staff, and about 500 recruits.

184

HUNTER'S OPERATIONS IN KANSAS.

to his wandering chief, Jackson, saying, "Governor, we are confident of the future." General Halleck, quite as "confident of the future," was now able to report to his Government that Missouri was effectually cleared of the armed forces of insurgents who had so long infested it, and that the National flag was waving in triumph over the soil of Arkansas. In accomplishing this good work, no less than sixty battles and skirmishes, commencing with Booneville at the middle of June,' and ending at the middle of the suc ceeding February, had been fought on Missouri soil, resulting in an aggregate loss to both parties, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of about eleven thousand men.2

a 1862.

¿ Dec. 2, 1861.

a

While Halleck was thus purging Missouri, Hunter, with his head-quarters at Fort Leavenworth, was vigorously at work in Kansas, on the west of it.' The general plan of his treatinent of the rebellion, which was rife on the Missouri border, was set forth in a few words addressed to the Trustees of Platte City, concerning an outlaw named Gordon, who, with a guerrilla band, was committing depredations and outrages of every kind in that region. Hunter said, "Gentlemen, I give you notice, that unless you seize and deliver the said Gordon to me at these head-quarters within ten days from this date, or drive him out of the country, I shall send a force to your city with orders to reduce it to ashes, and to burn the house of every secessionist in your county, and to carry away every negro. Colonel Jennison's regiment will be intrusted with the execution of this order." Jennison, who was the commander of the First Kansas cavalry, was well known to the people as an ardent anti-slavery champion during the civil war in Kansas in 1855,* and a man ready to execute any orders of the kind. That letter, the power given to Jennison, and a proclamation issued by the latter a short time before,' made the secessionists very circumspect for a while, and "all quiet in Kansas" was a frequent report in the Spring of 1862.

Active and armed rebellion was at this time co-extensive with the slavelabor States. Colonel Canby found it ready to meet him even in the remote region of New Mexico, in the shape of invaders from Texas. Like Halleck and Hunter, he attacked the monster quickly and manfully.

1 See page 540, volume I.

2 Several of these skirmishes were so light, and so unimportant in their bearings upon the great issues, that the narrative of this general history has not been unduly extended by a record of them. Such record belongs to a strictly statistical and military history of the war. During the last fortnight of the month of December, 1861, the Nationals in Missouri captured 2,500 prisoners, including 70 commissioned officers; 1,200 horses and mules; 1,100 stand of arms; 2 tons of powder; 100 wagons, and a large amount of stores and camp equipage.

3 Preparations had been made for organizing an army in Kansas to go through the Indian Territory and s portion of Southwestern Arkansas and so on to New Orleans, to co-operate with the forces that were to sweep down the Mississippi and along its borders. James H. Lane, then a member of the United States Senate, was to command that ariny. Owing to some difficulties, arising from misapprehension, the expedition was abandoned, and Lane took his seat in the Senate at Washingtor.

4 See note 2, page 181.

.

Jennison had said to the inhabitants of Lafayette, Cass, Johnson, and Pettis Counties, in Missouri: "For four months our armies have marched through your country. Your professed friendship has been a fraud; your oaths of allegiance have been shams and perjuries. You feed the rebel army, you act as spies while claiming to be true to the Union. Neutrality is ended. If you are patriots, you must fight; if you are traitors, you must be punished." He told them that the rights and property of Union men would be everywhere respected, but "traitors," he said, "will everywhere be treated as outlaws-enemies of God and men, too base to hold any description of property, and having no rights which loyal men are bound to respect. The last dollar and the last slave of rebels will be taken and turned over to the General Government. Playing war is played out, and whenever Union troops are fired upon the answer will boom from cannon, and desolation will follow."

TREASON IN NEW MEXICO.

185

We have seen the loyal people of Texas bound hand and foot by a civil and military despotism after the treason of General Twiggs. The conspirators and their friends had attempted to play a similar game for attaching New Mexico to the intended Confederacy, and to aid Twiggs in giving over Texas to the rule of the Confederates. So early as 1860, Secretary Floyd sent Colonel W. H. Loring, of North Carolina (who appears to have been an instrument of the traitor), to command the Department of New Mexico, while Colonel George B. Crittenden, an unworthy son of the venerable Kentucky senator, who had been sent out for the same wicked purpose as Loring, was appointed by the latter, commander of an expedition against the Apaches, which was to start from Fort Staunton in the Spring of 1861. It was the business of these men to attempt the corruption of the patriotism of the officers under them, and to induce them to lead their men into Texas and give them to the service of the rebellion. One of these officers (Lieutenant-Colonel B. S. Roberts, of Vermont), who had joined Crittenden at Fort Staunton, perceiving the intentions of his commander, refused to obey any orders that savored of a treasonable purpose, and procuring a furlough, he hastened to Sante Fé, the head-quarters of the Department, and denounced Crittenden to Colonel Loring. He was astonished when, instead of thanks for his patriotic service, he received a reproof for meddling with other people's business, and discovered that Loring was also playing the game of treason. Roberts was ordered back to Fort Staunton, but found an opportunity to warn Captain Hatch, the commander at Albuquerque, and Captain Morris, who held Fort Craig (both on the Rio Grande), as well as other loyal officers, of the treachery of their superiors. The iniquity of Loring and Crittenden soon became known to the little army under them, and they found it necessary to leave suddenly and unattended. Of the twelve hundred regular troops in New Mexico, not one proved treacherous to his country.

Loring and Crittenden made their way to Fort Fillmore, not far from El Paso and the Texas border, then commanded by Major Isaac Lynde, of Vermont. They found a greater portion of the officers there ready to engage in the work of treason. Major Lynde professed to be loyal, but, if so, he was too inefficient to be intrusted with command. Late in July, while leading about five hundred of the seven hundred troops under his control toward the village of Mesilla, he fell in with a few Texas insurgents, and, after a slight skirmish, fled back to the fort. He was ordered to evacuate it, and march his command to Albuquerque. Strange to say, the soldiers were allowed to fill their canteens with whisky and drink when they pleased. A large portion of them were drunken before they had marched ten miles, and then, as if by previous arrangement, a Texas force appeared on their flank. The soldiers who were not prostrated by intoxication wished to fight, but, by order of a council of officers, with Lynde at their head, they were directed to lay down their arms as prisoners of war. Lynde's commissary, Captain A. H. Plummer, who held seventeen thousand dollars in Government drafts, which he might have saved, handed them over to Baylor, the commander of the insurgents. For this cowardice or treachery, Lynde was simply dismissed from the army, and Plummer was reprimanded

1 See chapter XI., volume I.

a July 27, 1861.

186

LOYALTY AND DISLOYALTY IN NEW MEXICO.

and suspended from duty for six months. Thus, at one sweep, nearly onehalf of the Government troops in New Mexico were lost to its service. The prisoners were paroled, and then permitted to go on to Albuquerque. Their sufferings from thirst on that march were terrible; some of them seeking to quench it by opening veins and drinking their own blood!

a Feb. 16, 1861.

It was now thought that New Mexico would be an easy prey to the Texas insurgents. Miguel A. Otero, its delegate in the National Congress, had endeavored, by a published address," to incite the inhabitants of New Mexico to rebellion, while Governor Abraham Rencher, of North Carolina, took measures to defend the Territory against the insurgents. His successor, Henry Connolly, was equally loyal. So also were the people; and when, at this juncture of affairs, Colonel Canby arrived as Commander of the Department, he was met with almost universal sympathy. He successfully appealed for a regiment of volunteers to the Governor of the neighboring Territory of Colorado, and these, with his few regular troops and New Mexico levies, made quite a respectable force in numbers, when Canby was informed that Colonel Henry H. Sibley, a major by brevet in the National army, and a Louisianian, who had abandoned his flag and put himself at the head of a band of insurgents known as Texas Rangers, some His force was for

HENRY H. SIBLEY.

of them of the worst sort, was invading the Territory. midable in numbers (twenty-three hundred) and in experience, many of them having been in successive expeditions against the Indians.

1862.

Sibley issued a proclamation to the people of New Mexico, in which he denounced the National Government and demanded from the inhabitants aid for and allegiance to his marauders. Confident of success, he moved slowly, by way of Fort Thorn, and found Canby at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande, prepared to meet him. A reconnoissance satisfied him that, with his light field-pieces, an assault on the fort would be foolish. He could not retreat or remain with safety, and his military knowledge warned him that it would be very hazardous to leave a wellgarrisoned fort behind him. So he forded the Rio Grande at a point below Fort Craig, and out of reach of its guns, for the purpose of drawing Canby out. In this he was successful. Canby at once threw a force across the river,' to occupy a position on an eminence commanding the fort, which it was thought Sibley might attempt to gain.

In the afternoon of the following day, some cavalry, under Captain Duncan, and a battery were sent across, and drew a heavy cannonade from the Texans. The infantry were nearly all thrown into confusion, excepting

1 These consisted of the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regular Infantry, under Captains Selden and Wingate, and the volunteer regiments of Colonels Carson and Pine.

BATTLE OF VALVERDE.

187

Colonel Kit Carson's regiment. The panic was so great that Canby ordered a return of all the forces to the fort. That night the exhausted mules of the Texans became unmanageable, on account of thirst, and scampered in every direction. The National scouts captured a large number of these, and also wagons, by which Sibley was greatly crippled in the matter of transportation.

a Feb. 21, 1862.

At eight o'clock the next morning," Canby sent LieutenantColonel Roberts, with cavalry, artillery, and infantry,' across the Rio Grande; and at Valverde, about seven miles north of the fort, they confronted the vanguard of the Texans under Major Pyron, who were making their way toward the river. The batteries opened upon Pyron, and he recoiled. Desultory fighting, mostly with artillery, was kept up until some time past noon, when Canby came upon the field, and took command in person. In the mean time, Sibley, who was quite ill, had turned over his command to Colonel Thomas Green, of the Fifth Texas regiment. Canby, considering victory certain for his troops, was preparing to make a general advance, when a thousand or more Texans, foot and horse, under Colonel Steele, who had gathered in concealment in a thick wood and behind sandhills, armed with carbines, revolvers, and bowie-knives, suddenly rushed forward and charged furiously upon the batteries of McRea and Hall. The Texas cavalry, under Major Raguet, charged upon Hall's battery, and were easily repulsed; but those on foot, who made for McRea's battery, could not be checked. His grape and canister shot made fearful lanes in their ranks, but they did not recoil. They captured the battery, but not without encountering the most desperate defenders of the guns in McRea and his artillerists, a large number of whom, with their commander, were killed. McRea actually sat upon his gun, fighting his foe with his pistol until he was shot. remainder of the Nationals, with the exception of Kit Carson's men and a few others, panic-stricken by the fierce charge of the Texans, fled like sheep before wolves, and refused to obey the commands of officers who tried to rally them. That flight was one of the most disgraceful scenes of the war, and Canby was compelled to see victory snatched from his hand when it seemed secure. The surviving Nationals took refuge in Fort Craig. Their loss was sixty-two killed and one hundred and forty-two wounded. The loss of the Texans was about the same.

The

Sibley well comprehended the situation. The fort could not be taken,

1 These were composed of a portion of Roberts's and Colonel Valdez's cavalry; Carson's volunteers; the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Regulars, and two batteries, commanded respectively by Captain McRea and Lieutenant Hall.

2 These Rangers who went into the rebellion were described as being, many of them, a desperate set of fellows, having no higher motive than plunder and adventure. They were half savage, and each was mounted on a mustang horse. Each man carried a rifle, a tomahawk, a bowie-knife, a pair of Colt's revolvers, and a lasso for catching and throwing the horses of a flying foe. The above picture is from a sketch by one of Colonel Canby's subalterns.