An 1863 photo of Judge Joseph Allyn and First Arizona Territorial officials. Judge Joseph Allyn, Governor John Goodwin, and Secretary Richard McCormick are front row, seated. Henry Fleury, U.S. Marshall Milton Duffield, and Attorney General Almon Gage are back row, standing. Courtesy of Sharlot Hall Museum Library.

Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 44, no. 1 (Spring 2021): 66–78.

66 Kansas History “A Long and Trying Journey”: The Arizona Territorial Governor’s Party on the Santa Fe Trail, 1863

by Juti A. Winchester

n the middle of the nineteenth century, claiming and holding territory took more than putting words on paper. It meant putting people on the ground and giving them the means to hang on to it. The region that became in 1863—sparsely populated by Indigenous people, Hispanos,I and a few white Americans—is one such example. Because of its location and resources, Arizona assumed strategic importance during the Civil War, calling for political action on a national level. In response, Congress passed an organic act creating the territory and setting events in motion to establish a government there, but first the government had to send officials there to establish control over the region. Amidst political wrangling between Republicans and Democrats, both vying for control over western territories, the new territorial governor and his party joined a mile-long wagon train and spent five months in the saddle on their way to Arizona. The trip that took them over the Santa Fe Trail played a part in the successful completion of the Union’s mission to establish a territorial government, to deny the Confederacy a connection to the Pacific Ocean, and to maintain Union control over New Mexico. The passage through Kansas, only weeks after Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, brought home to them the astronomically high stakes of the venture they had undertaken. Through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) and the Gadsden Purchase (1853), the United States had acquired a vast swath of land from Mexico, including present-day New Mexico and Arizona along with the rest of what we now call the American Southwest. At that time, comprised present-day New Mexico and Arizona plus parts of Colorado and . To settle the post-treaty slavery question, Congress passed a series of bills known as the Compromise of 1850, including one that formally organized New Mexico Territory and allowed popular sovereignty to decide the slavery issue.1 By the middle of the nineteenth century, congressional members from both North and South had long known about the mineral wealth hidden in the desert mountains of the Southwest. Inspired by the Gadsden Purchase and encouraged by the notion of popular sovereignty, southern leaders dreamed of finding a way to control a strip of territory between California and the existing southern states, linking their region

Juti A. Winchester teaches American history at Fort Hays State University. She holds a PhD in history from Northern Arizona University, and her research interests include the West, territorial Arizona, and the life of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody.

1. The Oxford Companion to United States History, s.v. “Compromise of 1850” (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 149-50.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 67 with Pacific and Asian markets via an east-west rail equipment, providing a potential stockpile for line.2 future use by whoever could control it. Confederate ight after the completion of the leaders hoped that once the war started, southern- Gadsden Purchase, residents in the born officers and soldiers serving in those western area made repeated attempts to create forts would support their plan. They assumed that a separateR territory for Arizona in the form of these men would turn on the Union and take the 4 numerous memorials to Congress and at least ten West for the Confederacy. unsuccessful bills. In April 1860, tired of being The Confederate invasion of New Mexico and ignored and desirous of establishing that east- Jefferson Davis’s signature on the bill creating west rail line, New Mexicans held a convention at the Confederate Territory of Arizona in February Tucson to create a provisional Arizona government 1862 brought the region sharply to congressional without formal U.S. approval. Their plan proposed attention. In their bill, the Confederates had adopted the proposed boundary that split New splitting the territory horizontally, east-west along Mexico Territory horizontally roughly along the the thirty-fourth parallel, to purposely include thirty-fourth parallel and claimed the southern half. both Tucson and Mesilla, the largest already- Not quite a month later, in Washington, D.C., the established settlements. With many New Mexicans chair of the U.S. House Committee on Territories harboring prosouthern sentiments, there was also introduced a bill to organize an Arizona Territory, the possibility that should war break out, the this one splitting New Mexico along a north-south territory would not remain in the United States. line at about the 109th meridian (the modern state Sympathetic members of Congress took up the boundary). While Union and Confederate troops issue, but it became mired in the sectional conflicts fought scattered battles for supremacy all over the of the time and was dropped when Abraham region, Congress continued its deliberations on 3 Lincoln was elected president later that year. Arizona while examining mining specimens and Once the Civil War began in 1861 and the hearing horror stories about Indigenous attacks. Confederate states seceded from the Union, many Finally, President signed Arizona Confederate leaders believed that despite New Territory into being on February 24, 1863, more than Mexico Territory’s distance from their seat of power, a year after the Confederacy had staked its claim.5 the combination of mineral wealth and access to Almost immediately, Lincoln began appointing the Pacific could make a difference for them in the territorial officials. Years later, Charles D. Poston coming conflict. Early in the war, the Confederates deprecatingly described the men tasked with changed their agenda regarding the Southwest. organizing Arizona as a “party of lame ducks” They needed a route to reach Pacific resources because two of them had recently lost bids for and markets, and they needed a way to lessen election; in reality, most of the selected officials the impact of Union blockades. Many territorial were current office holders or well-connected leaders had Confederate sympathies. In addition, Republicans. At least half of them were attorneys, New Mexico Territory contained military forts and several were ministers as well. One of the established earlier to deal with Indigenous nations most eloquent arguments for establishing Arizona in the region, including the Apache, Comanche, Territory was made on the House floor by the and Dine’ (Navajo). These forts had soldiers and

2. Ray C. Colton, The Civil War in the Western Territories: Arizona, 4. Colton, The Civil War in the Western Territories, 4–12. This hope did Colorado, New Mexico and Utah (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, not bear fruit; most of the troops serving in the region remained loyal 1959), 3–12. to the Union. See also Megan Kate Nelson, The Three-Cornered War: The 3. B. (Benjamin) Sacks, “The Creation of the Territory of Arizona Union, The Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (New (Part I),” Arizona and the West 5, no. 1 (Spring 1963): 36–62. At one point, York: Scribner, 2020), xiii–xx. the discussions within New Mexico Territory included fighting a duel, 5. B. Sacks, “The Creation of the Territory of Arizona (Part II),” described by Sacks on pages 53–54. Arizona and the West 5, no. 2 (Summer 1963): 118–34.

68 Kansas History Republican representative from Ohio, John A. up support for Arizona among well-connected Gurley. Alongside Poston and a few others, Gurley friends and politicians. While at home, he designed also took an active role in promoting the Senate the first territorial seal and decided on Arizona’s bill. Originally from Connecticut, he had been a motto: Ditat deus, or “God enriches.”8 A group of journalist, publisher, and minister before being officials planned to meet at the nation’s capital in elected to represent Ohio’s Second District in 1859. late August and travel together to Cincinnati to Now, Lincoln awarded Gurley the plum post of pick up Gurley at his home. The party intended to territorial governor, and the Senate confirmed it.6 travel by steamer down the Ohio River to St. Louis, Over the succeeding weeks, the president where they would take another steamer upriver made additional appointments, some as patronage to Hannibal, Missouri. From there, they would and others based on merit, but all of the appointees speed across northern Missouri on the Hannibal were staunch Republicans. A true “lame duck,” and St. Joseph Railroad and embark on yet another John Noble Goodwin of had just lost his steamer that would deposit them at Leavenworth, seat in the House but was named chief justice of Kansas. At that point, they would gather more the territory. In all, Lincoln made about twenty of their colleagues and continue their “long and appointments for Arizona, ranging from state trying journey” to Arizona via the Santa Fe Trail. Supreme Court justices to the Indian agent, and In early July, Lincoln approved a military escort for most were eagerly accepted and confirmed. These Gurley and his companions.9 positions would have been seen as stepping-stones No one knows exactly when Treasury to other political offices or as an opportunity to Department officials decided to exploit the gain a foothold in the new territory by acquiring Arizona governor’s party to secretly convey a land or staking a mining claim. No matter what large shipment of cash to New Mexico Territory. the reason, life in Arizona seemed to offer a way In his plea to the Senate for compensation in 1879, to make one’s fortune—if one could survive long Treasury clerk Hiram W. Read included a letter enough. Every one of the appointees knew that wherein he described his participation in the trip. establishing Arizona Territory would not be easy— Read’s timeline suggests that at some point between they would have heard the stories of lawlessness, Gurley’s appointment on March 7 and before his southern sympathies, Native depredations, and return to Cincinnati, U.S. Treasurer Gen. Francis E. the harshness of the landscape. These stories did Spinner had approached the governor appointee not stop them, and in a few cases, the appointments with a request to take the money to the territory were the making of them.7 and possibly proposed his clerk as the agent.10 The new territorial officeholders began to prepare to head for Arizona. Some of them returned 8. Eugene E. Williams, “The Territorial Governors of Arizona: Richard Cunningham McCormick,” Arizona Historical Review 6 (1935): 50. home to set their affairs in order, expecting to be 9. This itinerary becomes apparent on comparing accounts of the gone for months, if not years. The new secretary journey. See David K. Strate, ed., West by Southwest: Letters of Joseph of the territory, Richard McCormick, spent his time Pratt Allyn, A Traveller along the Santa Fe Trail, 1863 (Dodge City: Kansas Heritage Center, 1984), 26–39; Thomas Edwin Farish, History of Arizona in New York and Washington, D.C., drumming (Phoenix: Direction of the Second Legislature of the State of Arizona, 1916), 3:47–71, accessed July 21, 2020, https://azmemory.azlibrary. 6. Ibid.; and President Abraham Lincoln’s nomination of John gov/digital/collection/asabooks/id/135; and Gen. Edward Canby to A. Gurley to be the first governor of the Territory of Arizona, Maj. Gen. John Schofield, July 10, 1863, The Gilder Lehrman Collection, March 7, 1863, Records of the U.S. Senate, RG 46, National The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, New York, https:// Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/ www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/glc07158. The characterization of legislative/features/nm-az-statehood/gurley-nomination.html?_ the trip as a “long and trying journey” comes from a statement made ga=2.164689079.941803951.1604520354-1373472325.1604076959. by Richard McCormick during his speech on December 29, 1863, when 7. Sacks, “The Creation of the Territory of Arizona (Part II)”; and the party stopped at Navajo Springs to officially take possession of the Deren Earl Kellogg, “‘Slavery Must Die’: Radical Republicans and territory. Farish, History of Arizona, 3:69. the Creation of Arizona Territory,” Journal of Arizona History 41, no. 3 10. Senate Committee on Claims, S. Rep. 604, 45th Cong., 3rd Sess. (Autumn 2000): 282–84. (1879), 5.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 69 Affairs, but he remained reluctant until Secretary Chase and General Spinner came right out and told him what they needed him to do: take $200,000 in cash and postal currency to Santa Fe. “Here was an important service to render to the government and the country,” Read noted.12 As part of the plan, he resigned his Treasury clerkship at the end of August 1863 and became a special agent of the Post Office.13 How much the Treasury Department’s monetary mission At several points, the Arizona territorial governor’s party engaged different modes of trans- influenced Gurley and the others portation, including steamers, to carry them further along toward their destination. This regarding their route cannot be photo shows the Willie Cade steamer ferry, circa 1865 to 1870, which traveled the Missouri absolutely determined, but there River between Leavenworth, Kansas, and East Leavenworth, Missouri. were less taxing ways to reach Arizona in 1863 than the Santa Fe The Reverend Hiram Read was an unlikely Trail, which took the mission through the volatile choice for territorial office. He had spent eight years region of Civil War Kansas. For example, Poston, as a Baptist missionary in predominantly Catholic who had been appointed Indian agent, took Santa Fe and Albuquerque before returning to the various stagecoaches from Atchison, Kansas, to San East. He next served as a pastor in Virginia while Francisco and from there embarked on a steamship holding a position as clerk in the comptroller’s to San Pedro, where he obtained a military escort to office of the U.S. Treasury. Once the Civil War Fort Yuma and then Tucson. The territory’s newly commenced, Read tried to join the military but was appointed marshal, Milton B. Duffield, traveled considered too old for combat. He was working in a by steamer from New York to Aspinwall, where hospital when he was captured and incarcerated in he crossed the Isthmus of Panama. On the Pacific Libby Prison for approximately two months. Once side, Duffield caught a steamer to San Francisco free, Read returned to preaching and to his desk at and from there another steamer to San Pedro and the Treasury Department until Arizona’s territorial a wagon train to Yuma and Tucson. Duffield’s trip governor approached him.11 took about fifty-nine days, not counting his stops In his letter to Claims Committee chair Senator in cities, and about half of that time was spent on Francis Cockrell, Read stated that at first, Gurley horseback or in a wagon. Poston’s trip took about had asked him to accompany the party to Arizona fifty-two days, with only a few of them spent in the because of his familiarity with the region and his comparative luxury of a steamer cabin.14 fluency in Spanish, but he had hesitated onthe The rest of the governor’s party was set to grounds that he had no real job to perform there and travel the hard way, overland via the Santa Fe Trail. saw no evidence of financial support for himself or They believed they had a hard deadline to meet: his family. Some of the other territorial appointees tried to get him a chaplaincy or a paid post in Indian 12. Senate Committee, S. Rep. 604, 5. 13. Ibid. 11. Lillian Gabbard Theobald, Hiram Walker Read: Pioneer Pastor and 14. B. Sacks, “Arizona’s Angry Man: United States Marshal Milton B. Postmaster (Phoenix: Arizona Historical Foundation, 1986), 2–13. Duffield,” Journal of Arizona History 8, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 16–21.

70 Kansas History according to the Organic Act that created Arizona and delivering it to John Greiner, the depositary in Territory, the officials had to be physically within Santa Fe. According to Read, the money was packed the boundaries of the territory as set by Congress by into “two large boxes, requiring four men each to January 1, 1864, in order to be paid for the journey handle.”16 Other than Read’s sparse and somewhat or collect a salary. The travelers could expect to take exaggerated account of the adventure to the Senate months to get to their destination in Arizona; the committee in 1874 and a handful of receipts, there Santa Fe Trail alone could take between eight and is no other record of this specific aspect of the trip. ten weeks. At least one-third of their trip would be How they managed to get an immense sum of cash spent traveling through Kansas, which could be in such a conspicuous package to New Mexico in incredibly dangerous due to guerrilla warfare near relative secrecy will likely remain a mystery.17 the Missouri border and heightened conflict with Two of the officials left records of the party’s Indigenous nations on the Plains. The appointees adventure that are useful for understanding their were making their final preparations in Washington experiences on the Santa Fe Trail in Kansas. An in late August when word reached them that the appointee who gained his chance due to his handsome young governor-elect Gurley had died family’s influence, Joseph Allyn was serving as unexpectedly on August 19, just days before he a clerk in the House of Representatives when he planned to leave. Suggestions for a replacement was recommended to Lincoln for associate justice. immediately flew into the president’s office, and Before he left “the states,” Allyn agreed to write several men selflessly offered themselves for this an account of the journey in the form of a series dangerous assignment, but by the end of the day, of letters sent to Charles Dudley Warner, editor of Lincoln had promoted John Noble Goodwin from the Hartford Evening Press, and published under the chief justice to governor and nominated William pseudonym “Putnam.” Written in a lighthearted F. Turner to take his place in the judiciary. Hardly style intended for a general audience, they were missing a beat, Goodwin caught the train for not a meticulously accurate record but instead were Cincinnati via New York only a few days later with full of Allyn’s wry observations and impressions of the intention of seeing what preparations Gurley westerners busy making homes and fortunes in a had made before his death. He was soon followed new land. The second account appeared in a series by a number of other officials, all planning to meet of personal letters sent by Jonathan Richmond to in Cincinnati.15 his parents. A late addition to the group, Richmond Read left Washington a few days after the main was invited to assist as clerk by the other associate party, accompanied by William F. M. Arny. A fellow justice and fellow Michigander William T. Howell. minister and the secretary of New Mexico Territory, Despite his youth, he had already served for two Arny had been in Washington on other business years in the Union Navy during the Civil War. when Spinner requested that he accompany Read Along with the newly appointed Chief Justice on his secret mission. With transfer orders in hand, William Turner, Richmond traveled separately to the two men were charged with collecting the actual Leavenworth and followed the main party via a money from Treasury officials in St. Louis, Missouri, second wagon train, catching up to them at Fort Larned. His letters assumed an entrepreneurial tone, and in them he frankly assessed the land and 15. Organic Act, Territory of Arizona, U.S. Statutes at Large 12 (1863): 664–65, https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/37th- its commercial potential even while he describes congress/session-3/c37s3ch56.pdf; Al Bates, “Governor’s Party Reaches his adventures and companions. Two members Arizona Territory in Nick of Time,” Daily Courier (Prescott), December of the escort kept records as well. Sgt. William 29, 2013, https://www.dcourier.com/news/2013/dec/29/days-past- Heagerty of the Eleventh Missouri Volunteer governors-party-reaches-arizona-territo/; B. Sacks, “The Creation of the Territory of Arizona (Part II)”: 140–41nn298–99; Theobald, Hiram Walter Read, 16; and Eugene E. Williams, “The Territorial Governors of Arizona: 16. Senate Committee, S. Rep. 604, 1–2. John Noble Goodwin,” Arizona Historical Review 6 (1935): 59. 17. Ibid.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 71 This sketch depicts Fort Larned, located in Pawnee County, Kansas, where the Arizona territorial officials met up on their 1863 journey. It was drawn by A. Hunnius in 1867.

Cavalry kept a near-daily diary of the trip from a seemed to make light of the trip, but other travelers’ soldier’s perspective, mainly noting weather, miles accounts of the same journey during the Civil marched, sick calls, and a few of the more dramatic War discuss steamers being fired on, particularly events. Heagerty’s commanding officer Lt. Peter if there were troops aboard; the party must have F. Clark wrote a series of personal letters to his been aware of this.20 Allyn assessed the troops he wife and daughter. The two men had known each met on the ship, but expressed some well-founded other before the war, when they lived in Lawrence apprehension concerning conditions in Kansas; County, Missouri.18 he and the others would certainly have read the Allyn’s letters began by describing the journey news of Quantrill’s raid even before they had left from St. Louis to their departure from Fort New York. The governor’s party disembarked at Leavenworth on September 7. He wrote the first Hannibal to catch the westbound train. In his letter, letter from the “Steamer Dio Vernon” en route from Allyn commented on the rising military presence St. Louis to Hannibal, lightly recapping the early on the Missouri border, the light of a prairie fire part of the journey from Washington in the context at night, and the ubiquity of traveling mothers of the people he encountered on the boat. 19 Allyn and babies from his seat on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Partisans in the border war had 18. Strate, West by Southwest; Farish, History of Arizona, 3:47–70. A been interfering with trains on this route by tearing transcript of Heagerty’s diary and a selection of Clark’s letters were up rails or putting lumber and other objects on the published in the Santa Fe Trail Association journal. See Leo Oliva, ed., track, but again, the trip was without incident for “Escort Duty on the Santa Fe Trail, 1863: Diary of William Heagerty and 21 Memoirs and Letters of Peter F. Clark, Company A, 11th Missouri Cavalry,” the Arizonans. Just past St. Joseph, in Iatan, the Wagon Tracks 8, no. 4 (August 1994): 10–17, https://digitalrepository. party embarked on another packet steamer that unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1112&context=wagon_tracks. took them across the Missouri River to Leavenworth, 19. Strate, West by Southwest, 21–34. Warner transcribed Allyn’s letter as written from the steamer “Dio Vernon,” but the ship’s name was where the Union maintained a major military probably Die Vernon, a 211-ton side-wheel packet steamer belonging to supply depot and fort and where they would pick the St. Louis and Keokuk Packet Company and named for a character in Sir Walter Scott’s novel Rob Roy. Jared Olar, “The Steamboats Named 20. Stanley B. Kimball, “Sail and Rail Pioneers before 1869,” Lucy Bertram,” From the History Room (blog), October 20, 2017, Pekin BYU Studies 35, no. 2 (1995): 15–16, http://files.lib.byu.edu/ Public Library, Pekin, IL, https://fromthehistoryroom.wordpress. mormonmigration/articles/SailRailPioneersl35.2Kimball.pdf. com/2017/10/20/the-steamboats-named-lucy-bertram/. 21. Ibid., 32–33.

72 Kansas History up their military escort to New Mexico.22 and Arny, both ministers, took the opportunity The Leavenworth that Allyn and his to preach to the congregation at the First Baptist companions encountered in September was “all Church in Leavenworth on Sunday, September 20. alive with business” despite the ongoing border Meanwhile, the promised escort camped on a hill war. The governor’s party set foot in Kansas a mere a few miles from town and away from supervision, three weeks after Quantrill’s shocking massacre of a separation that would soon prove inconvenient. Lawrence citizens but found the people busy in Finally, on the afternoon of September 26, the their pursuit of prosperity. Everything from the wagons were loaded, the escort by Companies A plank sidewalks to the hotel was “painfully new,” and H of the Eleventh Missouri Volunteer Cavalry but Allyn predicted that if the war continued, and Company I of the Fourth Militia Cavalry was Leavenworth could garner the main western trade mounted, and the Arizona territorial governor’s and eclipse Kansas City. Within a day or two of party were told it was time to go.24 their landing, General Order No. 11 had gone into ccording to Allyn, by this time most of effect; in it, Union Gen. Thomas Ewing Jr. ordered the soldiers were feeling “good,” which the evacuation of three Missouri counties and meant they were feeling the effects of part of a fourth along the western border between drinkingA too much alcohol the day before, and Kansas and Missouri. This action was meant to some had been left behind. It soon became apparent prevent Confederates from receiving support from that due to the lack of supervision, the governor’s rural sympathizers, but it also displaced residents party’s personal baggage had been left out of the who were loyal to the Union, filling Leavenworth’s wagons, with the teamsters offering the excuse streets with tension. Adding to the mixture were that there was no room for it. The commanding free Blacks and escaped slaves who came looking officer, Maj. James A. Phillips, finally rode over for work or places to settle. They were in high to investigate the delay, and an instant change demand as a labor force, which interested Allyn, occurred. As Allyn described it, baggage began as he hoped to hire a cook to accompany him to to fly until everything was loaded, but without Arizona. Outside the city, the border war continued any kind of order. It was about four o’clock in to simmer, and Allyn observed that on one afternoon, the afternoon before the mile-long column finally all of the stores closed so that the able-bodied men could muster for the local militia.23 began to move toward the military freight road By mid-September, most of the party had trickled that ran between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, into Leavenworth. They had been on the road for a well-traveled route that they should have been three weeks, and the lion’s share of the journey still able to follow without much effort. “We followed lay before them. The wagons they had brought the troops, and the wagons followed us,” Allyn 25 with them from St. Louis had not been ferried reported. Within an hour, they were lost. across the Missouri River, so while they waited for The train had covered less than four miles. them, the party spent nearly two weeks in town According to Randolph Marcy’s Prairie Traveler and at the fort getting outfitted and organized. As high-ranking territorial officials fresh from the East, 24. Strate, West by Southwest, 46; Leavenworth Times, September all members of the party, particularly the officers, 20, 1863, 3, https://kansashistoricalopencontent.newspapers.com/ image/381066059/. Interestingly, the Leavenworth Times could not tell would have been in demand for social events. Read the territorial officers apart and reported that “Gov. W F M Arny, of Arizona, is in town.” Leavenworth Times, September 11, 1863, 3, https:// kansashistoricalopencontent.newspapers.com/image/381065045/. 22. Strate, West by Southwest, 33–34. Aside from Arny and Read, none of the other members of the Arizona 23. Ibid., 37; Albert Castel, A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861–65 contingent were mentioned. It is not known why, but the governor’s party (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press for the American Historical spent more than two weeks in Leavenworth spending money but going Association, 1958), 142–53; Strate, West by Southwest, 35–42; and Castel, unnoticed in columns that discussed local items of the smallest interest. 124–41. 25. Strate, West by Southwest, 46–48.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 73 Handbook, this would put them somewhere just past telegraphed with news that Quantrill was out with a Salt Creek, Kansas, and Allyn’s description of the hundred men looking for the Arizonans. Since they location matches that valley perfectly.26 The wagons were heading for that territory expressly to thwart were trapped in a ravine, some were damaged, the Confederacy’s plans and install a Republican all the coffee pots were broken, and somehow government, this was not a far-fetched notion, the doctor’s wagon had been overturned. It was causing them to load their pistols in anticipation of late enough in the day that the leaders thought it a fight. In the end, they did not see any action, and prudent to camp there for the night. At this moment, the local newspaper noted after they left that they they discovered that the wagons had been hastily had camped at Indianola.29 packed by the troops without any thought to which There was no possibility of sneaking through one had the tents, cooking gear, food, or blankets. the countryside unnoticed, as the size of the train The whole company dined on snacks they had alone attracted public attention. In Manhattan, brought with them from Leavenworth, and they Kansas, the newspaper reported that the governor’s spent the first night of the journey under the stars.27 party had passed through the city around October The next day, the column started at noon 1. Describing the train as “extensive,” it named the and found their way to the main road. At camp main territorial officials and remarked that they that evening, Major Phillips kept the troops up carried “three thousand stand of arms,” meaning unpacking and repacking the wagons so that they they carried enough weapons to arm three thousand could find their equipment, and somebody had men.30 Lieutenant Clark enumerated the train in a found a place to buy a coffee pot. For the remainder letter to his wife, stating that it had three hundred of the trip, military discipline reigned in the men plus a thousand head of horses and draft caravan, and from that point on, they were packed animals. Eighteen wagons of military supplies and and ready to move by six o’clock every morning. forage led the train, with the governor’s group and This early start necessitated reveille being sounded the rest of the wagons traveling one day behind at 2:30 a.m., but each day’s march was halted after them.31 about six or eight hours. The governor’s party often The party arrived at Fort Riley on October went out to hunt for the night’s supper, as quail and 3. There, they spent two days taking on supplies, prairie chickens were found all along the trail.28 fixing the wagons, socializing with the officers, Despite the peaceful conditions thus far, the and preparing for the next leg of their journey Arizonans were still alive to potential danger on on the Smoky Hill Trail and then the Fort Riley– the trail. When the train drew near Lawrence, the Fort Larned Road. Surveyed in 1855, this second local residents were on high alert after Quantrill’s raid and massacre the month before. More than 29. Ibid., 53–54; “The Officers of Arizona,” Weekly Commonwealth once, Allyn noted that people were nervous about (Topeka, KS), September 30, 1863, 4, https://kansashistoricalopencontent. the party passing through their area because they newspapers.com/image/366980139; and “Story of a Town That Was,” were afraid that Quantrill would return, drawn to Topeka State Journal, November 16, 1901, 14, https://chroniclingamerica. loc.gov/lccn/sn82016014/1901-11-16/ed-1/seq-14/. Indianola was the potential prize of a massive train and a party of a small town outside Topeka located directly on the military road. It Union officials. Farther down the road, some local disappeared when the Union Pacific Eastern Division Railroad passed men came by to tell them that General Ewing had it by in 1867. Albert Castel described in detail the situation caused by Quantrill and his “bushwhackers” as well as the difficulties authorities had in controlling them, giving credence to the anxiety the Arizonans 26. Randolph B. Marcy, The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland doubtless experienced. Castel, Frontier State at War, 102–23. Expeditions. With Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes 30. “The Executive Officers of Arizona,” Manhattan (KS) Nationalist, between the Mississippi and the Pacific (New York: Harper and Brothers, October 5, 1863, 3, https://kansashistoricalopencontent.newspapers. 1859), 266, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Prairie_ com/image/384017167/. A “stand of arms” is a complete set of weapons Traveler/MCg4AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1. for one soldier. These weapons were being shipped to arm the New 27. Strate, West by Southwest, 48–50. Mexico volunteers under Kit Carson. 28. Ibid., 49–51. 31. Oliva, “Escort Duty,” 10.

74 Kansas History road served as an alternative to the earlier Santa At Salina, the last real settlement that they Fe Trail route and proved to be more direct and would pass before striking out across open country better suited to military freight traffic, although on the Fort Riley–Fort Larned Road, Allyn took the not much safer from attack; in 1862, it had been opportunity to visit the local hotel and have one the scene of some spectacular raids by thieves as last restaurant meal. By then, the travelers had well as Indigenous raiders. Nevertheless, it had been seeing a few bison and other Kansas wildlife become reliable enough for use by various stage for two days, but on October 8, they came across a companies for passengers and mail. In his October good herd, and the entire caravan began hunting. 4 letter, written from Fort Riley, Allyn remarked on Leathery bison meat became a menu staple for a few the beauty of the Flint Hills, the stands of timber days. In his letters, Allyn mused on the future of the on the riverbanks, and the layout of Manhattan. area, believing that the presence of so many bison He compared the hill overlooking the new city to indicated that the land, while stark and treeless, Chapultepec Hill in Mexico as it was featured in could not be dismissed as a valueless desert. They a painting hanging in the Senate in Washington, passed the Santa Fe Trail landmark Pawnee Rock D.C., and predicted that Manhattan would become and soon arrived at Fort Larned. Here, Jonathan a wine-producing region.32 Richmond and William Turner finally joined the Following the track, the Arizona-bound train others.35 passed through Junction City, where Allyn was Despite Kansas’s reputation for Native greeted by an acquaintance from his home in depredations, the Arizona officials did not have Hartford, Connecticut, and was surprised to be any real trouble with Indigenous peoples on the recognized despite his frontier garb. While in Santa Fe Trail. The Natives that Allyn saw at Fort the vicinity, the soldiers and teamsters gave the Larned in 1863 were Caddo who had come up local whiskey shops a good business and became from Oklahoma because of their Union sympathies “beautifully drunken,” as Allyn wrote.33 A few when the majority of their nation elected to fight wagons tipped over, items were lost, and somebody for the Confederacy. The army at Fort Larned started a prairie fire that raced off and almost supported the refugees, encouraging them to try destroyed a German family’s farm. Prairie fires to grow corn nearby. Other Indigenous groups were a persistent nuisance on the plains, especially in the region included the Comanche, Kiowa, near roads. Contemporary newspapers were full of Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Apache, who in previous accounts of fires, many of which destroyed homes years had caused problems for trains on the trail. or crops. Both Allyn and Richmond recounted fires However, 1863 was the third year of a drought, and that were set by someone in the column either the Indigenous people were destitute and hungry. through carelessness or by design. The fires were Many of those that Allyn encountered were only a day apart and occurred on the same stretch anxious to show their “certificates,” which were of road, and in both cases, the members of the train some form of letter of introduction or government- contributed to a cash fund to cover the farmer’s issued statement of character, or tried to engage in losses.34 a little trading. As the train moved closer to Fort Lyon, Colorado, they encountered some Arapaho 32. Strate, West by Southwest, 55–57; David K. Clapsaddle, “Conflict and returning to their land after receiving treaty goods Commerce on the Santa Fe Trail: The Fort Riley–Fort Larned Road, 1860– 1867,” Kansas History 16, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 129–33; and James Walker, The at the fort. Allyn described their homes as similar Battle of Chapultepec, 1858, U.S. Capitol, west staircase, Senate wing, https:// to a Sibley tent, with poles gathered at the top; in www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_33_00010.htm. other words, probably tepees. He was invited to 33. Strate, West by Southwest, 58. enter one and admiringly felt the hide cover to 34. Ibid., 57–60; Clapsaddle, Conflict and Commerce, 124–28; and Farish, History of Arizona, 3:48–49. Richmond and Turner had left Fort Riley a day after the rest of the party and remained a day behind all the way to Fort Larned. 35. Strate, West by Southwest, 60–70; and Farish, History of Arizona, 3:47.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 75 This photo, circa 1862 to 1864, was taken by William Gunnison Chamberlain and provides a view of Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory, at the time of the Arizona territorial officials’ stopover. Fort Lyon is also notable as the place where Black Buffalo Soldiers of the Tenth Cavalry were posted in the late 1860s and 1870s. Courtesy of Denver Public Library, Special Collections.

discover that it was not made from canvas.36 furiously cold storm. The officers and territorial Once the train left Fort Larned, the road officials luxuriated in stone buildings, warm fires, became “wider, harder, and more level” than some and hot food, and Read had the chance to preach a eastern roads Allyn had encountered back home in few more sermons. Always keeping an eye on the Connecticut.37 Now that they were on the main trail, main chance, Richmond wrote to his father with the they began to meet and be passed by stagecoaches news of a Santa Fe newspaper containing a report and small wagon trains plying the trade between that gold had been discovered in the San Francisco Santa Fe and points east. Wood had been scarce Mountains in Arizona. The enterprise took on a for a while, and the entire column, including the new sense of urgency, and as the train started the governor, spent part of each day collecting buffalo next leg of the journey, the weather grew colder. “chips,” also known as bois de cache, or dried bison Allyn rode ahead and visited Col. William Bent at dung, to use as fuel. Lieutenant Clark wrote to his home on the Purgatoire River before rejoining his wife about the “delicious odor” arising from the column for the next, difficult part of the journey. a hundred buffalo-chip campfires at night. Both As they approached Raton Pass, horses and mules Allyn and Clark described digging for water, but began to sicken and die from lack of fodder and Heagerty proffered no comment on the matter, fatigue. In summary, it was a miserable nine-day despite being closer to the business end of a shovel trudge over the pass and down to Ocate, New than his superior officer or the territorial justice. Mexico, where Gen. James Carleton waited to urge Instead, the sergeant cataloged the game brought them along.39 in by the soldiers and the falling temperatures.38 One of the southern officers who remained Leaving Kansas behind them, the entire train loyal to the Union when the war began, General rested four days at Fort Lyon, Colorado. They Carleton had been instrumental in securing New made needed repairs and took shelter from a Mexico and Arizona before Congress had acted

36. Strate, West by Southwest, 65, 70–78. earlier that year. Once the news of gold in northern 37. Ibid., 76. 38. Ibid., 75–76; Farish, History of Arizona, 3:51; and Oliva, “Escort 39. Strate, West by Southwest, 98–118; and Farish, History of Arizona, Duty,” 10, 15. 3:51–54.

76 Kansas History Arizona had begun to circulate more widely in the summer, he had sent an escort to the mines with John Clark, the surveyor general of New Mexico, and asked for a report, which he had received in late September. Carleton responded to the swelling chorus from the leading miners in Arizona asking for a military post in the region. In October, he set up a military district, and in November, he sent two companies of California volunteers out to establish the post. Fort Whipple was founded on December 23, 1863. As the column approached Fort Union in present-day New Mexico, Carleton rode out to meet the governor’s party.40 All along, Goodwin and the rest of the party had planned to set up the territorial government in Tucson, but once they encountered Carleton, they were urged to reconsider, head for the mines in northern Arizona, and establish the capital near Fort Whipple. Allyn griped that it was a shorter journey by two hundred miles, but “it leaves us in the woods, in the winter . . . at an elevation of at least 5000 feet above the sea, to found a city.” He might have been regretting the loss of established buildings, restaurants, and more varied company. On the other hand, Richmond expressed nothing By the time that Gen. James H. Carleton rode out to meet the gov- ernor’s party near Fort Union in present-day New Mexico, he had but excitement; that he had contracted a case of already gained a reputation for boldness as a Union officer and for gold fever was evident in his letters to his father, in ruthlessness against southwestern Indians. This 1860 photo was which he repeated rumors and begged him to send taken just prior to the Civil War, when he was commander of the First California Infantry. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. money so that he could outfit himself for mining. “Governor has letters from responsible men stating that fortunes are daily made, etc.,” he wrote in Arizona Territory. Twenty months before, breathlessly. At Fort Union, the Arizona officials Colorado volunteers under Maj. John Chivington bade farewell to most of their Missouri escort, had stopped the Confederates in a series of battles including Major Phillips, Lieutenant Clark, and that would later become known as “the Gettysburg Sergeant Heagerty; these soldiers set out to return of the West.” The Arizona party spent the night on to Fort Leavenworth the day after they arrived, and one of the battle sites.42 Carleton furnished a new escort for the governor’s The Arizona territorial governor’s party arrived party for the rest of the journey.41 at the end of the Santa Fe Trail on November 14. Once again on the trail, the column camped at Despite their impatience to be on their way, they Glorieta Pass. The area was a stark reminder of their spent almost two weeks in the city getting ready original mission to establish a Union government for their final destination of Arizona. Richard McCormick had realized that they would need

40. Pauline Henson, Founding a Wilderness Capital: Prescott, A.T. 1864, a printing press for official documents and to illus. Don Percival (Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Press, 1965), 62–72. 41. Strate, West by Southwest, 119; Farish, History of Arizona, 3:55; and 42. Strate, West by Southwest, 124. For a detailed account of the Battle Oliva, “Escort Duty,” 12. of Glorieta Pass, see Colton, The Civil War in the Western Territories, 49–80.

“A Long and Trying Journey” 77 Governor Goodwin still had a deadline to meet, and after ten days in Albuquerque, the officials turned their steps toward the mines via the route surveyed across the region by Lt. Amiel W. Whipple ten years previously. They crossed the thirty- fourth parallel on December 27, but to ensure that they were definitely inside the territory’s boundary they marched west for two additional days. At Navajo Springs, McCormick raised the Union flag and made a speech, followed by the proclamation of the territory by Goodwin in English and the Reverend Read in Spanish. McCormick issued oaths of office to the justices, and Chief Justice Turner issued the oath to Goodwin, but it would be another three weeks before they arrived at Fort Whipple Some of the bustling activity and rustic nature of Santa Fe is to begin the task of governing. With the captured in this photo of wagon trains at San Francisco Street and oaths taken, the arms and money delivered to New Plaza, circa 1869 to 1871. Nicholas Brown, Courtesy of Palace of the Mexico, and a Republican government installed in Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), Negative No. 070437. Arizona Territory, the mission was complete. In the establish a newspaper, so he purchased an old hand end, it took about 147 days for the governor’s party press somewhere in Santa Fe and cobbled together to reach its destination. They had passed through a set of type and printing furniture. Governor Bleeding Kansas safely, if nervously, but very much Goodwin began the rounds of making necessary aware of the enormity of the job still ahead of them. political connections with New Mexico’s territorial They still had to bind together a divided population, officials. Allyn characterized the city as “a strange a task that would take years and continue after the chapter torn out of the past and stuck in between war’s end. Just as Union soldiers on the Santa Fe the leaves of American progress,” but they enjoyed Trail had defeated Confederate invaders and saved its amusements, visiting local attractions and the West for the Union, the Arizona territorial attending parties and fandangoes.43 Meanwhile, governor’s party traveled the trail to counter the Read and Arny delivered their monetary burden to Confederate government and establish firm Union John Greiner, replenishing the territorial treasury control of the region.45 and fulfilling their part of the mission to secure New Mexico, and now Arizona, for the Union. At the Santa Fe Trail’s terminus, the governor’s party received their mail, gathered materials, and garnered strength to make the rest of their journey. They left Santa Fe for the last leg of their journey on November 26 and arrived in Albuquerque two days later.44 45. David E. Conrad, “The Whipple Expedition in Arizona, 1853–54,” Arizona and the West 11, no. 2 (Summer 1969): 147–78; Farish, History 43. Strate, West by Southwest, 128. of Arizona, 3:65; “Territory of Arizona,” Arizona Miner, March 9, 1864, 44. Ibid., 124–31; Theobald, Hiram Walker Read, 17; and Farish, History 1, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/data/batches/az_apachetrout_ of Arizona, 3:59. ver01/data/sn82016242/00211105483/1864030901/0008.pdf.

78 Kansas History