Page 130 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

had not displayed much ability to hang on to things. When the men at Pinos Altos refused to cooperate, the military demanded the return of the cannon. There was much blood already on the ground and many wrongs to avenge, but these acts would seem insignificant in comparison to what would transpire in the ensuing months.
Many of the atrocities would take place within the confines of Cooke’s Canyon or Apache Pass farther west or on the road between these two locations. The well-traveled route between the two short nar- row canyons was essentially a conduit in that, once someone had entered one end, the use of the other was necessary and therefore predictable. Apache lookouts could easily carry information of move- ment along the trail to provide more than adequate time to prepare ambushes at either or both strategic
bottlenecks. This will be well-evidenced by the at- tacks on the Overland Mails in early 1861 and the California Column in the scorching hot summer of 1862.
Unfortunately, the Indians were not the only ones generating problems for southwest New Mexico. The miners and settlers proceeded to complicate their predicament with fanatical support of the larger sectional issues that would soon split families and communities as well as the country. Mesilla and the Pinos Altos mining district were hotbeds of southern sympathizers and ardent secessionists. On December 27, 1860, a call was issued for a meeting to be held in Mesilla the first of January for the people of the Territory to consider the propriety of forming a state government and uniting themselves
with the southern Confederacy.189
The Military, the Indians, and Other Citizens
Figure 34. Pinos Altos, New Mexico. Photo courtesy of the Museum of New Mexico , #56910. 116