Legends of the Old West - KIT CARSON Ep. 4 | “Civil War”

Episode Date: June 7, 2023

By 1862, the Civil War has stretched across the continent to the farthest territories of the West. Kit Carson joins the effort in New Mexico and leads a unit of volunteers at the Battle of Valverde. In the next engagement, the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Union forces stop the Confederate threat in New Mexico and effectively end the fighting in the territory. With the war subsiding in New Mexico, army officers turn their attention to the Navajo and the Apache, and the beginning of the reservation system. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Noiser+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kit Carson was, for the most part, a settled family man by 1854. He was running his ranch, and his days of going on long expeditions to the West were firmly in the past. He herded animals for sale across long distances with his old friend Lucian Maxwell, but those were isolated and specific trips. And when he returned from the most recent trip in 1854, he learned he had been appointed Indian agent for all inhabitants in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Government money was scarce, but ambitions were high, and Carson had no choice but to

run his office from his home in Taos. There was no money available for a stand-alone facility, much less schools or the reservations which the government had yet to implement. Kit didn't mind because the circumstances let him spend more time with his family, which now consisted of four children and his wife Josepha. He was a prominent citizen in Taos, attended the Catholic Church, and became a Freemason. He occasionally took jobs scouting for the army and others when the need for his services arose.

But if this time in his life was considered tranquil compared to the non-stop adventures of the previous decade, it was more like the calm before the storm. Trouble was brewing with the tribes, and, on a larger scale, the country. Kit Carson had been around Native American tribes his entire life. He knew their customs and languages. He pursued accommodation and negotiation when possible, but he was always aware that aggression could happen at any moment. Sometimes more forceful means proved necessary, and Carson was no stranger to those as well. In the course of carrying out his duties, Carson found himself in disagreement with territorial governor David Merriweather. Merriweather was a former congressman and senator from Kentucky

who had been appointed territorial governor by President Franklin Pierce. Merriweather disliked Native Americans and had an unforgiving attitude toward their reported transgressions. Kit Carson often took the side of the tribes, prompting Merriweather to write condemnations of Carson's actions, though none of them were strong enough to remove Carson from his post. And the situation in northern New Mexico was a little more complex than in other areas. The bands of Native Americans were smaller and had fewer resources. They weren't farmers like

some of the Navajo to the west and some of the tribes to the east. They didn't collect horses that could be traded, and they weren't expert horsemen like the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche. Their traditional hunting grounds had been overrun by other hostile tribes, white settlers, and government restrictions. So their attacks on ranches, wagon trains, and farms were sometimes their only recourse to avoid starvation. But that wasn't to say all the attacks were purely for survival. Some were. Kitt implored the government to send more money and food, but he was often disappointed. He made trips to the farthest reaches of his domain as Indian agent to deliver presents and food because he knew how badly they needed it. The system of reservations

for Native American tribes, or agencies as they were often called at the time, was beginning all over the West. It was happening with the Nez Perce up in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, an area that Kit knew well from his years as a mountain man. It was happening in New Mexico, and it would quickly spread to all the states and territories in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions. The stage was being set for future disaster, and Kit Carson knew it, but he had little power to change the system or educate people whose prejudices were already locked in. And even as he tried, the nation around him was on the doorstep of its greatest calamity. Civil war was about to dominate all aspects of life, even in New Mexico, for a few years.

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer, and this season we're telling the story of one of the original legends of the American West, famed frontiersman and explorer, Kit Carson. This is Episode 4, Civil War. For Kit Carson and New Mexico Territory, the Civil War interrupted a process that would evolve over the course of more than 15 years. In the second half of the 1850s, while the people of the East were focused on the escalating violence in Kansas and Missouri, events that would be called Bleeding Kansas, Kit Carson was focused on the situation with the Jicarilla Apache. Carson was focused on the situation with the Jicarilla Apache. Strictly speaking, the band was not in Carson's purview as Indian agent,

but he was about to get drawn into the conflict. The band had become particularly hostile and bold in its attacks. It prompted the intervention of the United States Army under Colonel George Crook. The Army feared the Jicarilla would ally with the Comanche in neighboring Texas. Their homelands were essentially right next to each other, and that was trouble no one needed. Crook dispatched Major James Carlton with two companies of cavalry and Kit Carson as their guide. Carson and Carlton had met years ago. Carlton had ridden to the rescue when Kit and his daughter Adeline were menaced by the Cheyenne, and neither man forgot the encounter. Now they set off together

in pursuit of the Jicarilla. They tracked the band into the daunting territory of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, near the border of Colorado and New Mexico. They came across fresh sign, and Kit told Major Carlton it was definitely the Jicarilla. Kitt said the Army column would find them by two o'clock that afternoon. Carlton was reasonably skeptical that anyone could predict the exact time, so he offered a prize. He told Kitt if they encountered the Jikaria by the appointed hour, he'd buy Kit a beaver hat. They continued on, and at about ten minutes after two o'clock that afternoon, they found the Jikaria. The band was camped in a large meadow nearly hidden by rock

walls. The soldiers attacked, but most of the warriors escaped, though the army did recover 40 stolen horses and a stockpile of stolen goods. A couple months later, Kit received a package from a New York hat maker. It was a beautiful beaver hat, and on the inside of the lining was a message. At two o'clock, from Major Carlton to Kit Carson. Kit continued his work with the tribes, constantly foraging for more supplies, food, and money. His dispatches to Washington were often ignored in the face of other needs, and he began to feel strongly that separating the Native Americans from the new settlers and the longtime Hispanic landowners was the only solution. The tribes would have to learn to farm their food,

and the government would have to supply meat since the hunting grounds had been nearly hunted out. That land was harsh and unforgiving, and Kitt's job as an Indian agent was frustrating, and it was all about to be put on hold. The experiment that was just beginning in New Mexico was interrupted by the Civil War. The opening salvo was fired at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Two untested armies clashed along Bull Run Creek near the village of Manassas in Virginia, and it would take just ten months for the war to stretch from the East Coast all the way to New Mexico territory. When the news reached New Mexico, it created the opportunity for a moment

that added to the legend of Kit Carson. The full truth of it can't be verified, but there are historians who believe it's possible. According to the legend, when Kit heard about the war, he saddled a horse, galloped into the plaza in the center of Taos and planted an American flag in the ground. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch, and organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor outfits, Shopify helps you sell everywhere.

They have an all-in-one e-commerce platform and in-person POS system. So wherever and whatever you're selling, Shopify's got you covered. With the internet's best converting checkout, 36% better on average compared to other leading commerce platforms, Shopify helps you turn browsers into buyers. Shopify has allowed us to share something tangible with the podcast community we've built here, selling our beanies, sweatshirts, and mugs to fans of our shows without taking up too much time from all the other work we do to bring you even more great content. And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries.

Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash Realm. The people of New Mexico were divided in their loyalties, just like the people of Missouri where Kit grew up. But Kit Carson's loyalty was not divided.

Regardless of whether or not the story of planting the flag is true, Kitt was an ardent supporter of the Union, and so was one of his oldest friends in the region. Saron St. Vrain, one of the partners who founded the trading post of Bent's Fort in southern Colorado, became the commander of the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry Regiment. But after a few months, St. Vrain resigned, and Kit Carson, now a colonel, took over. Kit wasn't a typical army officer and could never go along with the strict procedures that were the backbone of the regular army units. He was well-liked and respected by his men, some of which was probably because he was a likable person and he was already a living legend, and some of it was almost certainly because of his more casual methods of discipline.

And out here in the West, a volunteer unit would not fall under any definition of typical, so it stood to good reason that its commander shouldn't be typical. Kitt added Mexican volunteers and members of the Ute tribe to his regiment. And there weren't many units in the east that boasted a mix of Native American, Mexican, and white fighters in their ranks. Carson and his volunteers were stationed at Fort Craig next to the Rio Grande River, in a desolate part of southern New Mexico, when word came that it was time to fight. Colonel Edward Camby, who was the commander of the Department of New Mexico,

received intelligence that a Confederate force of three regiments from Texas were marching toward them under the command of General Henry Sibley. Like lots of other officers in the war, Camby and Sibley had been classmates at West Point, and now they were fighting against each other. In February 1862, Sibley and his Texans marched on Fort Craig. A few shots were fired, but Canby knew better than to leave the safety of his fort, and the Confederates eventually retreated to their camp a few miles away on the Rio Grande. In the Confederate camp, a colonel proposed a plan to General Sibley. The army would cross the Rio Grande, march up behind the fort, and capture the

river crossing at the abandoned town of Valverde that was critical to the Union supply lines. If Camby wanted to maintain his supply lines, he would have to come out and fight. But Colonel Camby was no fool, and he suspected the Confederates would try something like this. He dispatched Kit Carson and some companies of the New Mexico Volunteers to occupy positions on the mesas around Fort Craig to watch for the enemy. It didn't take long for Carson to spot the Confederates' movements. He sent signals to the fort, and Canby hatched a counter-strike. An Irishman, James Graydon, ran a recon unit that he called Graydon's Independent Spy

Company, and he and his company were stationed at the fort. Graydon was clever and adept at disguise, and he had run successful missions for the army in the past. Now, he proposed setting dynamite charges with long fuses on two unfortunate mules and running them into the Confederate lines. The explosions would set off a stampede. Canby greenlit the plan and they put it in motion, and then it nearly backfired in a very literal way. The two mules were trotting toward their target when one of them turned around and headed back toward Graydon. The fuses were lit and the explosions were imminent, and Graydon ran for his life. He made it safely out of the way

before the dynamite exploded. And the thunderous boom did stampede the Texans' horses, which allowed the New Mexico troops to capture more than 140 animals. But it wasn't enough to send the Confederates running back to Texas. The exploding mule strategy had delayed General Sibley's advance, but not stopped it. He was still determined to take the river crossing at Valverde, even though he would not personally oversee the battle to come. On the morning of February 21st, Sibley sent more units up to the abandoned town to secure the ford, while he spent most of the day suffering from an excess of alcohol consumption. Union Colonel Canby sent units to hold the Ford, and the two sides clashed along the banks of the Rio Grande. Kit Carson's troops attacked from the right. Canby was unsure about

Carson's troops, who were poorly armed and untrained, but Carson wasn't. He encouraged his men, and they believed in him. The fight on Carson's side of the battle was going fairly well, but when Canby repositioned some troops to help the right flank, he weakened the center and left side of his lines. The Confederates charged the weakened positions, and Canby decided to retreat back to Fort Craig. The Battle of Valverde was technically a Confederate victory, but it was costly and it doomed Sibley's force in the long run. The column suffered heavy losses in terms of both men and supplies, but now the road was open to march north to Albuquerque

and Santa Fe, and that's what the Confederate column did. Meanwhile, Colonel Canby sent word to California and Colorado, asking for help to smash the Confederate column. Canby could afford to wait. Small groups of Union troops were safe in different outposts in the territory, and the Confederates were out there on the edge of the war with very little support. Sibley's column occupied Santa Fe and wanted to continue north toward the next major Union fort,

and it turned out to be a campaign too far. The Colorado Volunteers, more than a thousand men, were marching south to answer Canby's call. They made an incredible journey in a remarkably short period of time. They traveled more than 400 miles from Denver through snow-clogged mountain passes and blinding blizzards, to arrive at that major Union fort called, creatively, Fort Union. The fort was only 50 miles from Santa Fe, as the crow flies, and Canby wanted the volunteers to hold there. He wanted to organize a two-pronged attack that would crush Sibley's column. But the Colorado contingent didn't want to wait. They continued their march towards Santa Fe and met the Texans in a mountain passage called

Glorietta Pass, less than 20 miles from Santa Fe. Apache Canyon anchored one end of the pass, and Union Major John Chivington's advance force of 400 men defeated 300 Confederates who were camped in the canyon. At that point, both sides readied themselves for a full battle. Confederate units hurried out of Santa Fe and into Glorieta Pass. The rest of the Colorado column caught up to Chivington's men, and now there were more than a thousand soldiers on each side. On March 28, 1862, the Battle of Glorieta Pass launched into action. The main bodies collided in a vicious fight, but the commander of the Colorado Column sent Major Chivington and 500 men around the flank

before the battle began. Chivington captured the Confederate supply line that consisted of 80 wagons and 700 horses and was guarded by just a few soldiers who had been wounded in previous engagements. Chivington initially ordered his men to kill the wounded soldiers, who were now prisoners, but then he backed off that order. Instead, he ordered his men to burn the wagons and shoot all the horses. Instead, he ordered his men to burn the wagons and shoot all the horses. Some of Chivington's men reluctantly complied, and the slaughter horrified everyone who was there. The Confederates won the action on the battlefield, but with the loss of their supply train, they retreated back to Santa Fe.

At the same time, Colonel Canby and Colonel Kit Carson led their men up to Albuquerque. The Confederate column was trapped with virtually no hope of reinforcement or resupply, and Canby allowed them to drift back to Texas unmolested. Afterward, some accused Canby of cowardice for not attacking and capturing the column or destroying it. But Canby probably did the compassionate thing. He had no facilities to hold them as prisoners, and he had no food to feed them, even if he could find them shelter. The Confederate threat in northern New Mexico was gone. Some Confederate units lingered in the southern part of the territory,

but they would be chased out when there was a change in leadership in the Union ranks. but they would be chased out when there was a change in leadership in the Union ranks. The Battle of Glorieta Pass was not the last the world would hear of Major John Chivington. Some loved him for his take-no-prisoners, burn-it-to-the-ground attitude, especially when the Civil War evolved into the war against the tribes of the Plains. But few retained their support after the event in November 1864. Two and a half years after the Battle of Glorieta passed, Chivington directed the slaughter of Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children at Sand Creek in southeastern Colorado.

The survivors of the massacre fled north and united with the northern Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota. They told their story, and it helped the tribes of the northern plains coalesce around a war chief named Red Cloud when the army started building forts in Wyoming a year after the Civil War. Down in New Mexico, Kit Carson detested Chivington and roundly condemned him whenever Chivington's name surfaced. With fighting essentially done in New Mexico, the leaders of the territory picked up where they left off before the war. There were unanswered questions about how white settlers, whose numbers grew by the day, could coexist with Native American societies. grew by the day, could coexist with Native American societies. The tribes of the territory had watched carefully as the white men fought each other.

The U.S. Army, which had been starting to move against the tribes, was largely called away to the east. As a consequence, raids and attacks in the southwest escalated. According to author Hampton Sides, a man named William Arney, a former Indian agent and current territorial secretary, estimated Navajo raids were responsible for the loss of $250,000 worth of property and more than 30,000 sheep, and the lives of more than 300 people. The Navajo were the largest and most powerful tribe, and now Colonel Canby turned his attention to a plan for stopping the raids and attacks. He proposed a campaign into Navajo territory. He wanted to establish a reservation in northeastern Arizona, along the Little Colorado River, the Navajo's sacred land. Canby felt that unless the

Navajo could be relocated and restricted, there was no other way they could coexist with the non-Indian citizens. Kit Carson agreed, as he had in the past, considering it the lesser of all evils. Carson had talked about the idea when he was an Indian agent, and not just for the Navajo, but all the tribes. He felt strongly that the influences of towns, with their bad habits and available liquor, were disastrous for Native Americans. While it wasn't their fault, they had to be removed from temptation. Reservations seemed to be the only solution. And while that sounded harsh, the other eventuality was most likely complete extermination. There were people who wanted that outcome,

but Carson and Canby were not two of them. But in the fall of 1862, six months after Glorietta Pass and before Colonel Canby could implement his new plan, he was replaced by another officer who was quite familiar with the territory. James Carlton, now a brigadier general, took command. Carlton and Kit Carson were longtime acquaintances, and Carson respected Carlton. Many others didn't. Carlton had a reputation as a pretentious elitist, a man with big ideas and dreams who did not like to be crossed.

Nevertheless, he had had a distinguished career and was a man of many talents. While he was stationed in California before the war, he was tapped by Washington to investigate the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre in southern Utah, which will definitely be the subject of a future series. Now, General Carlton was appointed Commander of the 9th Military Department, and he marched from California to New Mexico with 1,500 soldiers. He instituted martial law, chased out the lingering Confederate units, and, for all intents and purposes, brought the Civil War in New Mexico to a close. General Carlton considered the citizens of New Mexico to be backward, uncultured, and lazy. His opinion of the Navajo was even lower. Carlton felt there was no hope for a better life in the

territory unless what he termed the great evil of the Navajo could be eliminated, one way or another. When Carlton was in California at Fort Tejon, he saw a test of the reservation system, Tejon Farm. The reservation was near the fort, with good land for farming and living quarters. It was a costly experiment, but it seemed like some of the California tribes adapted well to it. Eventually, it was shut down, but Carlton thought the model could be successful. Some years earlier, he had ridden through the Pecos River country in eastern New Mexico and discovered a lush green area that he named Bosque Redondo. Now he thought of it again and decided that Bosque Redondo was the perfect place for a reservation. He ordered the construction of an outpost

called Fort Sumner along the Pecos River that would supervise his proposed reservation. He knew it would take a long time to round up the Navajo, so he decided to start by pushing a smaller group, the Mescalero Apache, into the space. Carlton needed a field commander, someone who knew the territory well, and had a good reputation and a long history of relationships with the tribes. The obvious person who fit that description was Kit Carson. Carlton sent Kit with five companies of New Mexico volunteers to capture the Mescaleros and herd them onto the reservation to become the first residents of Bosque Redondo. But even that description was putting it mildly.

Carson's actual order said this, All Indian men of that tribe are to be killed wherever you find them. The women and children will not be harmed, but taken prisoner. Kit Carson was appalled and refused to follow the order as written. In fact, his first prisoners were 100 Mescalero warriors who sought refuge with him so they wouldn't be killed. Their leaders were sent to Santa Fe to negotiate with Carlton, who said the only choice was to surrender. Soon, the entire band of Apache did so, and they were promptly sent to Bosque Redondo to learn agriculture. Unlike the Navajo, who already did some farming, the Mescaleros' lifestyle was built on raiding. Now they were

being ordered to live within a confined space and learn how to plow the earth to grow their food. The same would be ordered of their cousins in Arizona, on land that was truly barren, but the army would spend years trying to corral Apache leaders Vittorio, Cochise, and Geronimo. Kit Carson had done his work well, and now General Carlton wanted to start on the Navajo project. But Kit was reluctant. His experience in the Army had been a mixed bag.

He had basically been forced into the Army in California during his third expedition with John C. Fremont, and in the Civil War, he had signed up to fight the Confederates, not to implement this reservation system, even if he agreed with the core concept. He was getting older. He was now 54 and had spent more years doing more hard traveling than nearly any man alive. He wasn't feeling well, and many mornings he had aches and pains that slowed him down. He wanted to go home to his wife and children and rest. In February 1863, he gave his letter of resignation to General Carlton and went home. And if only that was the end. Kip might have spent his golden years sitting in a rocking chair on the porch after playing with his children. But there were two more chapters of his legend

left to be written, and one would be the most controversial of all. The Navajo know it as the Long Walk. Next time on Legends of the Old West, despite Kitt's resignation, he follows through on an order to forcibly march the Navajo from their homeland to the Bosque Redondo Reservation. The journey will be compared to the infamous Trail of Tears that was endured by tribes of the East 30 years earlier. The Navajo call it the Fearing Time, and it's next week on Legends of the Old West. of the Old West. Members of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait week to week

to receive new episodes. They receive the entire season to binge all at once with no commercials. And they also receive exclusive bonus episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes

or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships begin at just $5 per month. This series was researched and written by Kathleen Morris. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening. Check out our website, blackbarrelmedia.com, for more details, and join us on social media. We're at Old West Podcast on

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And all of our episodes are on YouTube. Just search for Legends of the Old West Podcast. Thanks for listening.