Page 154 - Cooke's Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui

During June and July he made trips between El Paso and Santa Fe forwarding not only military cor- respondence but his own strong opinions as well. In mid-July he carried letters to Colonel Canby that included communications from Doctor Michael Steck, the Indian Agent at abandoned Fort Thorn, and Doctor Charles Henry Alden, the Fort Fillmore post surgeon, who were attempting to alert the military hierarchy that some of the Union troops at Fort Bliss and Fort Fillmore could not be counted on. Unfortunately, there were leaks at Santa Fe and
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Fort Fillmore that made known Mills’ activities.
As a direct result, Steck soon fled to Santa Fe, Alden denied his intent, and Mills was in serious trouble. After returning from Santa Fe, Mills was threatened by several officers at Fort Fillmore and
was not safe even on the streets of Mesilla. Kelley accosted Mills, calling him a liar and a spy and threatened to strike him. Whereupon Mills pulled his pistol and stuck it in Kelley’s chest, thereby bring-
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ing the confrontation to an abrupt conclusion.
By this time Lieutenant Colonel Baylor and the advance elements of his Second Regiment Texas Mounted Rifles had arrived at El Paso and taken over Fort Bliss. Attrition along the way had reduced the men Baylor had recruited for “a bear hunt” to about 400. To augment his forces, he soon mustered several existing volunteer groups into the Con- federate service. These included Captain Bethel Coopwood’s San Elizario Spy [Scout] Company. In August he officially added Mastin’s Arizona Guards
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and Frazer’s Arizona Rangers.
Captain Coopwood was one of the citizens who left
California to join the Confederacy. He had moved
to California in 1854, following his participation in
the Mexican War, and was appointed Assistant Dis-
trict Attorney for San Bernardino County. With the
approaching secession, he and several fellow sym-
pathizers, including his brothers Ben and Davis,
disposed of their California property and left for 91
Texas.
Coopwood and six of his men comprised the group
that made the first overt move against the Federal forces in New Mexico by raiding the Fort Fillmore horse herd June 18. Coopwood later turned the horses over to Major Edwin Waller, Jr., for use at Fort Bliss by the Confederates. When Mills returned to Fort Fillmore, Captain William Bartlett Lane complained to him about the loss; Mills treated the incident lightly and joked that perhaps the Cap-
tain should turn over the saddles as well because he
no longer had a use for them, thereby making Lane 92
angry.
ThiswasnottheendofMills’trouble. Hecrossed
the border to El Paso del Norte to be on neutral ground until the situation cooled off a little but was “arrested” there and shanghaied back across the border by El Paso Sheriff Albert Kuhn and five coconspirators who, according to Mills, were paid $100 by Hart to perform the deed. On or about July 20, Mills was in the Fort Bliss guardhouse facing
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When Canby heard of Mills’ arrest and imprisonment, he arrested William Pelham, the United States Surveyor General of New Mexico, who had resigned his com- mission and was on his way to join the Confederacy.
Canby then sent a note to Baylor stipulating that if Mills were executed, the same fate would be in store
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for Pelham.
In the western portion of the Territory, Isiah
Moore, now a Captain of the First Dragoons and in command of Fort Breckenridge, had received or- ders on July 3 to evacuate the Territory. He was also ordered to remove as many military supplies as he could and destroy the remainder. Because he was unaware that the same fate had been ordered for Fort Buchanan, he moved 20 wagon-loads of sup- plies to Tucson, north and a little west of Fort Buchanan, using his and William Grant’s transpor- tation to accomplish the task, and stored the supplies in Grant’s warehouse. He then loaded everything he could on the combined transportation (12 wagons), and on July 10 Moore abandoned Fort Breckenridge after setting fire to it and the remaining stores.
En route to Fort Buchanan, Moore learned that Captain Gurden Chapin had been ordered to aban- don that fort also; therefore, Moore had to alter his plans. He proceeded to Fort Buchanan but ordered his second in command Richard Lord, by now promoted to First Lieutenant, to go to Tucson and retrieve the most valuable supplies from Grant’s
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warehouse and destroy the rest.
At Fort Buchanan the military and civilians had to
compete for the available transportation and destroy what could not be hauled away. Captain Chapin had tried unsuccessfully to sell the commissary and quartermaster’sstores. Mooretradedsomeofthe sugar and coffee to the Mexicans for a few horses and gave some garden implements to the Papago and Pima Indians. Grant was reluctant to haul the
Confederate Invasion and Withdrawal
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possible execution for his activities.