Santa Fe Gazette, Aug. 06,1906

Told By: Jacob Downing, Capt., USA
and John D. Howland, Private, USA

ON GORY FIELD GLORIETA HEIGHTS
Graphic Description By Eye Witnesses of Fight
Saved The Southwest
Union Forces Victorious- Confederates Evacuated Territory After Defeat:

(Bill Manley - Researcher)

The following graphic account of the battle of Glorieta, which was fought eighteen miles southwest of Santa Fe and was one of the most important battles of the Civil War in the Southwest as it saved the Southwest to the Union, was recently published in the Sunday Edition of the Rocky Mountain News: "If it had not been for those devils from Pike's Peak, this country would have been ours," wrote a Confederate soldier in describing the First Colorado Regiment of Volunteers, whose history has no superior for bravery in action, which withstood heat, cold and starvation to defend its faith in the Union.
In the war relic room of the State House hangs the ragged and faded old flag of this regiment of volunteers, made forty years ago by the women of Denver, and which was carried through one of the famous battles of the world, the battle of Apache Canon, Pigeon's Ranch, or Glorieta, as it is severally termed at the present time. It was a battle that saved the Western Country to the Union when its fate was hanging in the balance, and it is interesting that there still live in Denver men who went through these hardships. The Accounts given here have never been in print before, and are from well known men who took part in the battle of Pigeon's Ranch, which turned the tide that swept on to victory.
The impression of these Pike's Peakers is graphically told in another part of the same Confederate letter when descibing the preliminary skirmish on March 26,1862, which occured at thr mouth of Apache Canon between the First Colorado and Sibley's brigade of Texas. It Gave the men on both sides a deep respect for each other's bravery, for it was fought almost hand to hand while the men could look into each other's eyes when the smoke cleared for a moment between the combatants in that fearful struggle.
Like Flying Devils:
"Instead of Mexican and regulars, they were regular demons, that iron and lead had no effect upon, in the shape of Pike's Peakers. Up the canon we went for miles, when we met the enemy coming down at double quick, but the grape and shell soon stopped them. but before we could form in line of battle their infantry was upon the hills on both sides of us, shooting us down like sheep." Further on he continues: "They had no sooner got within shooting distance of us then up came a company of cavalry at full charge, with swords and revolvers drawn, looking like so many flying devils. On they came, to what I supposed certain destruction, but nothing like lead or iron seemed to stop them, for we poured both into them from every side like hail in a storm. In a moment these devils had run the gauntlet for a half mile, and were fighting hand to hand with our men in the road. The houses that I spoke of before were 700 or 800 yards to the right of the road, with a wide ditch between it and them. Here we felt safe, but again were mistaken. No sooner did they see us than some of them turned their horses, jumped the ditch, and, like demons, came charging on us.

It looked as if their horses feet never touched the ground until they were among us."
Organizing for the Repulse:
Major Jacob Downing gives this account of that memorable battle at Pigeon's Ranch, or Glorieta, with the events leading up to it:
"We went into camp at weld, and the regiment was drilled there and spent the winter of 1861 in quarters. We then got news of Canby that the battle of Valverde had been fought, that he had been whipped and had applied for assistance. The question was about Marching, but the colonel did not show any disposition to move, so I wrote an article signed Union, urging that the regiment be sent to the front to help Canby. After the publication of this article I was under arrest. But after a time the regiment got so mutinous about being detained here that Colonel Slough had it announced that he had received orders from General Hunter to go to the assistance of Canby. The he gave the orders to march. I was released and headed my Company D. We marched six miles that afternoon in six inches of snow.
"The men were poorly clad, didn't have enough to keep warm. The guns were of mixed variety and not all of the same caliber. The next morning we started and marched about forty miles, there being three feet of snow on the divide. We kept it up until we reached a point called Red River, and there the colonel thought the men couldn't stand the continued forced march, but I made up my mind to march that night, and the companies fell in. The colonel joined us about midnight, and we continued to Maxwell's Ranch on the Cimarron. Next morning we started for Fort Union, and arrived about 8 o'clock in the evening, and went into camp outside the fort. We were armed, clothed and furnished with plenty of commissary and quartermaster stores, arms and ammunition."
"Then we started to meet the Texans approaching from Santa Fe, sending four companies as an advance. We met the enemy about 11 o'clock in Apache Canon, and had a battle with their advance, whipped them and drove them back, killing quite a number and taking 150 prisoners.
Encountering the Enemy:
"Our bugler came in sounding the alarm and we marched to the point of rocks where we could see them. They had two batteries in position. Company D, of which I was captain, crossed the front of the batteries and got into the timber on the right. Companies A and E, Captains Scott Anthony and Wynkoop, went in on the left. When Company D got almost to the rear and on the flank it opened fire, and I gave the signal to Major Chivington that we were opening the fight and charged down upon the batteries. Company F was ordered then to charge, being mounted. Riding down the canon on a narrow road, a ravine on one side and a mountain on the other, it gallantly charged the enemy. The Texans made two further stands, but we drove them back, and that closed the battle for the first day, after gathering up the prisoners. The whole time covered was probably between four and five hours."
"Then we fell back to Pigeon's Ranch, because there was water there and we could not get it anywhere else in the canon, and waited for the approach of the main column."
"On the morning of March 28, they joined us, and went right into the canon, Colonel Chivington taking 444 men to the line, and Company I on the right, then the rear to burn their train. I went into the column formed for a general battle, in which I lost forty-two out of eighty men, and Company I, twenty-six men, and Lieutenant Baker killed."

"During the battle the enemy charged our batteries three times with six-shooters and made the most gallant charges I ever saw, and were only repulsed by supports going to the front and delivering six volleys and charging them with bayonets."
"There were many daring feats performed. One of our soldiers, who was leading a support, saw a Confederate officer with two ivory mounted pistols sticking out from their holders. He said he always longed for a pair of ivory mounted pistols, so he jumped out close to the officer, seized them and got back without being killed."
"Another man of Company I who had an ounce ball put into his temple was taken by one of the boys into the hospital and left there. A Texan who had been taken there was sitting in a chair. The fellow said to him: ‘You have been sitting there long enough. I want to sit down,' and he laid hold of him only to find him dead. This seemed to make him still angrier, and he took him by the neck and threw him out, exclaiming: ‘You've no to be occupying a chair: you're a dead man."
Disregard of Danger:
"A spirit of reckless disregard for danger seemed to possess the men. They were always joking and laughing. Afellow would get off a joke and the next moment he was dead. There were very few but were brave. I never saw an instance or cowardice among the men. They all seemed to be there for business."
"We were compelled to fall back because of numbers and we left a thirty-two pounder. In forming, I came up and saw the gun and called to Bill Smith(W.A. Smith). He called several men and they dragged it into the battery and the only man injured was one who refused to help drag it up."
"We had to keep falling back to keep the enemy in our front. They numbered about three to one, until finally, at the fast stand we made, we opened up on them. But they were gallant
men. Couldn't say anything against them."
"At the close of the battle I found myself in command and Captain Claflin of the Fifth Infantry, regular army, said: "What shall we do?"-- I said: "We will continue the fight," but in about five minutes the enemy sent in a flag of truce."
"We blindfolded the parties and sent them to the colonel commanding, Colonel Slough. They found him at Coslosky's Ranch on the Pecos, six miles from where we were, Colonel Slough made a truce of thirty-six hours to bury the dead. That same night, instead of burying the dead, thr Texans began their retreat."
"We then joined Canby. We went to Johnson's corral on the Antone Chico Road and joined Canby at Galisteo. From Galisteo, we marched to Peralta in one day, about fifty-seven miles through sand four to six inches deep."

Today-Aug. 7,1906
We wanted to make the attack upon the enemy at once, but Canby would not allow it, saying that he had not the commissary to take care of them if we took them prisoners, and I think now he was right. We followed them down the river until we passed Fort Craig, and then Canby ordered four companies to proceed down to Mesilla, and I took command of them. We went down there and the enemy was in Texas. They were retreating as fast as possible.
"General Carlton then came over from California with 2,000 men, but could only bring fifteen or twenty men at a time across the Colorado desert on account of the scarcity of

water holes. They had to be protected until there was a sufficient number to protect themselves. We were then ordered in the meantime we had made one of two Indian fights and protected the ranchers from the Navahos and Apaches."
Told By One of the Warriors:
John D. Howland, the artist, who was also a member of the First Colorado Volunteers, and was in the battle of Pigeon's Ranch, gives the following account of the event and others preceding it:
"In 1861, after the rebels had fired on Fort Sumter, General Sibley, in command of Fort Union in the department of New Mexico, seceded and took with him as many officers as were willing to join the Confederacy, and knowing the weakened condition of the department evolved the plan of going to Texas and raising what was afterward known as Sibley's Brigade. He had such men in command as Schwatske, Scurry and Lockridge. They came up the Rio Grande from 2,500 to 3,000 strong, capturing Forts Davis, Thorn, Selden and other posts, meeting with little or no opposition until they arrived at Fort Craig, where General Canby was in command."
"They passed up the east bank of the Rio Grande, where they were engaged by Colonel Roberts. The Union troops under Canby consisted of what few regulars were left in the country and Kit Carson's New Mexican Volunteers."
"Two Colorado Companies were in that battle, Captains Ford and Dodge. In making up their order of battle. Roberts placed the Colorado troops on the skirmish line. The New Mexican and other volunteers in line of battle, supporting McRea's batteries with the regulars until 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Sibley's troops were driven out of the timber back on the mesa. McRea had advanced his battery on an island in mid-river."
"At 2 o'clock, for some unaccountable reason, the order of battle was changed and Lockridge swung his Texans around the mesa by a trail, capturing McRea's battery. McRea died at his guns, but killed Lockridge. The late A.L. Fountain of New Mexico referred eloquently to this incident of the battle of Valverde, and spoke of this valiant and courageous officer as ‘the gallant McRea, who sought and found a soldier's death beside his captured guns, the time that Lockridge led his Texans to a canon's mouth, but did not live to call them his."
"Of course everything was panicky from that on. In a word, the battle was lost and Canby's troops beautifully defeated, elated by their success, the Texans left Canby in the rear at Fort Craig and moved up the Rio Grande by easy stages and got to Santa Fe, where they established headquarters."

Checking Sibley's Advance:
"After the battle of Valverde, Governor Gilpin, by his energy and foresight, saw the necessity of raising a regiment of troops to check the advance of Sibley. At that time it was generally understood that Sibley's object was to establish a line of communication between the Mormons in Utah and the Confederates under Generals Price and Thompson in Missouri and Arkansas, hoping to draw in California, which was still in the balance."
"Governor Gilpin raised the First Colorado infantry without authority and without government money at his command. Aided by the business men and citizens of that time, Charles Cook, J. Sears, Dave Moffat, Joe Chaffee and a host of other loyal men, who took vouchers from Gilpin, not knowing if they would ever get a cent back, furnished the

soldiers rations, etc, and dispatched this regiment to the front to meet Sibley's horde of Texans. The boys were badly equipped, but it was the best that could be done under the circumstances."
Ambushed Soldiers Who Were Unarmed:
"At this time there was a rebel element in Colorado led by such men as A.B. Miller, George Harrison of Central City and others of their like, who did pretty much as they pleased until Gilpin raised this regiment. Companies A and B were raised entirely in Central City and were ordered to Denver. They had no arms, but were told they would be furnished them there. While en route from Golden to Denver and marching along at route step and without anything to defend themselves, they were met and fired into from the daily
coach which ran between Denver and Central City, by as nice a band of villians as were ever hanged, and some of them were hanged afterwards---Jack Gallagher, for instance."

Today, Aug. 8,1906
"Fortunately no one was hit. Imagine their surprise at meeting such a reception on the broad prairie! They came on to Denver and went into quarters in a half completed building on Fifteenth street, almost where the old Bon Ton restaurant was in later days. The rebels used to hang around a place called the Criterion, a gambling hall, and the next to where the old News used to be. At the head of this gang was one Charles Harrison, the murderer of Hill and others. While the men were lying in their blankets in this unfurnished building, tired and worn out from the excitement and order of march, their guard, McCullough, was shot down at his post from inside the fence that surrounded the Criterion gambling hall."
"The men were aroused and proceeded in a body down Fifteenth street and took possession of a gunshop. They knocked in the door without ceremony, and, as it happened, the gunsmith was a Union man. He furnished them with arms and ammunition, the guns being everything from a Kentucky rifle to a Sharp's carbine. They went back and captured Harrison and others, and they were driven out of the country."
"Companies A and B, afrais of being murdered in the strrets of Denver, went out and established what was known as Camp Weld, where the Denver and Rio Grande shops are now located. That Damnable attempt at murder brought out the sentiment of loyalty, and Gilpin's appeal for troops met with a response from all the mining camps of that time."
Four Hundred Miles on Rotten Rations:
"When the regiment was completed it was hurried up to meet Sibley, who was coming up to Fort Union. Forced marches of forty and fifty miles a day in the poorest of rations---- wormy hardtack and rotten bacon were among the hardships. The fact that Sibley was lying drunk in Santa Fe for a week enabled us to make that march of 400 miles and reach there in time. Of course, we were joined there by the regulars under Colonel Paul."
"It was on March 26 that their first taste of Texans, who surprised then at the mouth of Apache Canon, and where there was a skirmish between the troops that proved fatal to many a brave soldier. Here Captain Downing, afterward Major Downing, was conspicuous for his coolness and bravery, charging the enemy in the face of a terrible fire."
"On the night before the battle of Apache Canon we moved up opposite the old Pecos Church. On the morning of the day of the engagemnet our command consisted of 1,444 men all total, Colonel J.P. Slough commanding. The 444 were ent under Colonel John Chivington around the top of the mountain to get in the rear of the Texans to attack their

train. The 1,000 men remaining took up the advance. The scouts coming in had brought reports that after the battle of two days before the Texans were entrenched at the other end of the canon, hence the reason of Colonel Slough dividing his command."
"The command moved up and halted at Pigeon's Ranch, filled their canteens and threw off extra clothing to prepare for battle. While like a lot of ducks down in the ditch they were fired upon by a masked battery, hidden from our view by a point of rocks or promontory. Companies I and D, suffered a frightful mortality. Company I got the worst of it because it was at the head of the column. The men sprang to their places. There was no time to take your own gun, but each grabbed the first that presented itself, and for nearly ten cosecutive hours, under the leadership of Slough, Tappan, Cook and Captains Ritter's and Claflin's Batteries, one of the most desperate battles of the war was fought. We engaged over 3,000, more than three to our one, and it was a game enemy we had to contend against. Charge, retreat, advance and fall back. Charge, retreat and charge again."
"Some time early in the afternoon we heard the report of bursting bombs and knew that Chivington and his command had gotten there. This gave us renewed energy, but it noted differently on the Texans. Finding themselves in a trap, and knowing that their train had been captured, or getting word from their men that the train of 100 wagons had been burned and all their ammunition, stores, etc, gone, and 1,500 miles from home, there was but one thing left for them to do, either whip us and take our train or die on the battlefield, which they did."
"They were foemen worthy of our steel and the men who says thet were not fighterswasn't there. We lost about 33 1/3 per cent of our entire command and the Texans three times that number. At the last charge just before sundown the living fighters could hardly get the bodies of the dead and dying."
One Battle Saved Colorado:
"That battle saved Colorado, for had we been defeated we had no place to go, for everybody would have left Denver for the east. We could have captured their entire command after, but we chose to let them go, as it was better to drive them back down the Rio Grande to Texas, to the place of organization, then to take them prisoners and divide the half rations we were getting."
"They began a retreat and arriving at Santa Fe many recruits and sympathizers deserted them. The command moved down the Rio Grande, foraging upon the poverty-stricken inhabitants. We did not follow by Santa Fe. We cut across the base of the triangle from Galisteo and joined Canby. In the memorable march of sixty-five miles, civered on foot over treeless and waterless desert of forty miles, men fell from exhaustion and sunstroke. By this time the Texans had reached Albuquerque, and knowing that we were intercepting them, determined to make one more stand, which they did at Peralta."
"The engagement was fought under General Canby, a staff fight, so stiff that it compelled them to bury their artillery. They took advantage of a sandstorm during the battle and crossed the Rio Grande. From there we marched on from opposite sides of the river until Socorro was reached in the night. In the morning the enemy had disbanded, to all appearances been swallowed up. Some went into the San Francisco Mountains, other to Arizona, California and Texas."
Changed From Infantry to Cavalry:
"After some months of inactivity we relieved Colonel Carleton of the California

column, then returned to Colorado and were transformed at old Colorado City, at the base of Pike's Peak, from the First Colorado regiment to the First Colorado cavalry."
"Then our hardships had just begun. During the absence of our regiment from Colorado and the enlistment of all the available men in Kansas, and at that time no white population outside of ranchers and emigrants along the Platte, Republican and Arkansas Rivers, the Indians took advantage of the war and banded together. It was estimated that there were 10,000 to 15,000 of them on the warpath, including Sioux, Cheyenes, Kiowas and Comanches, covering that vast expanse of country between the Arkansas and the Platte. They had been killing settlers and running off the stock, attacking emigrant trains, Government trains, until they devastated and terrorized the people of Colorado, as well as Kansas and eastern Nebraska. The Colorado troops were now kept in the saddle chasing these murderous marouders from point to point over the plains. We whipped them in every engagement in the Platte campaign and in memorable battle of Cedar Canon, fought by Major Downing and other fights too numerous to mention, we cleaned up the Indians as effectually as we had cleaned up the Texans."
"The best criticism," said Mr. Howland, "that I ever heard of the fight of Apache Canon was that of the old Frenchman, near whose ranch (Pigeon's) the fight took place."
"Pigeon was this much of a fight?"
"Vight? Sacre mon Dieu! They vight nine hour by my watch and my watch was slow."