A history of Arizona during the Civil War, 1861-1865 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Hastings, Virginia Marston Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 17:51:01 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/551115 A HISTORY OF ARIZONA DURING THE CIVIL V'AR 1861-1865 by Virginia Marston Hastings A Thesis submitted to the faculty of the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate College University of Arizona 1 9 4 3 Approved: 6" Date .. .riVTO -rvil^iu ':0 Y: YO" y•» • rti .1 u3H n c■1 a-iiX r. rniV r-1 Y or'v *>0 Y;n-iv uJ OOY t.Y i ;i?:; vvril ‘Lo "ro •tr-orui'.ii'.rl:;'; iaUiT/--;; ,v: ‘If- iY' :.-;i: '.o': ; lo yov ■: ^;',0.L '0 .'.V v.'lY I*:.: \ ;'L-;i/?vhvJ C ' E •• v r. •< -V \ ••• N-V : : . V • V j (• : ^ 9 7 9 / ; s TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION................................ i I. CONDITIONS IN ARIZONA BEFORE THE CIVIL TAR, FROM THE GADSDEN PURCHASE, 1854 TO 1861 1 The Gadsden Purchase 1853-1854.•.Terms of the Treaty...Significance of the Treaty...Arizona, 1854-1861....Explor­ ations ...Roads...Military Developments. ..Settlements...Early efforts at Government II. ARIZONA AT THE BEGINNING OR THE CIVIL WAR. 32 General Conditions.. .iwines and Mining. ..The Forts...Immediate Effects of the Outbreak of the War...Confederate Plans for Arizona...The Confederate Occupa­ tion III. ARIZONA DURING THE CONFEDERATE OCCUPANCY, JANUARY, 1862-APRIL, 1862.............. 54 The Account of Colonel S. Hunter... Occupation of Tucson...Hunter1s Accom­ plishments. ..Relations with Sonora... Confederate Legislation for Arizona IV. ACTIVITIES OF THE CALIFORNIA COLUMN TO j MAY 20, 1862........................ 72 Formation of the Column...The Column Ordered to Arizona...General Wright’s Plan...Colonel Carleton...Advance Guard...Skirmish at Picacho...Arrival of the Advance Guard in Tucson 155001 INTRODUCTION Arizona at the beginning of the Civil War was a part of the Territory of New Mexico. The United States acquired Arizona as a result of- the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 and the Gadsden Purchase of 1854. The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave the United States the Mexican cession. By this treaty the boundary of the United States was moved down from the line of 1819 to include California, parts.of Utah and Nevada, New Mexico, and all of Arizona north of the Gila River. When the Gadsden Purchase was completed in 1854, the United States gained the rest of Arizona to the present-day southern boundary. The people in Arizona at the beginning of the Civil War were agitating for a territorial government separate from that of New Mexico. Because of the distance of Arizona from New Mexico, the arid land between the two territories, and the sparse population, the New Mexican Territorial Legisla­ ture paid very little attention to the needs of the people in Arizona. Only after the Confederates had occupied the area and it had been retaken by the California volunteer troops for the Federal Government did the people actually win separate territorial government. When territorial gov­ ernment was finally granted on February 24, 1863, it was it not generosity of the Federal Government that gave this type of government to a sparsely settled, remote area hut the great need of the Government for gold to finance the war. Congress hoped that enough money in precious metals might be taken out of the mines in Arizona to pay for the expense of setting up a separate territory. While the people were trying to make a livable, lawful region out of Arizona, the area was invaded by the Confed­ erates once and retaken by the Federal forces. Arizona’s value in the Civil War, strategically, lay in the.fact that whoever controlled the Southwest controlled the route to the Pacific. Arizona was a means to an end, and lay 6n the outer fringe of war activities. Aside from one skirmish at Picaoho, there were no a other 1> battles in Arizona during the war. -' • ■ v It is the purpose of the writer, in this narrative of the history of Arizona during the Civil War years, to show the development of the territory through the years 1861 to 1865, and how the declaration of war stopped all activity in the region with the resulting Confederate occupation, and how the California troops regained the area for the United States Government, with a resulting era of local development in the last war years. ' • CHAPTM I ; CONDITIONS IN AHIZONA PREVIOUS TO THE CIVIL WAR PROM THE GADSDEN PURCHASE 1854 TO 1861 From 1851 to 1854 Arizona was part of the territory of New Mexico and was divided, supposedly, into five or six counties. The New Mexican counties extended west to Cali­ fornia and had very little county jurisdiction. Not much is definitely known about the preliminary negotiations for the Gadsden Purchase, but. eventually an agreement was made on the Tehuantepec concession, the reduction of territory which deprived the United States of a port on the gulf, the reduction of the price from $20,000,000 to $10,000,000, and the omission of an article making the United States responsi­ ble for filibustering expeditions that might cross the border into Mexico. Santa Anna rejected Gadsden’s proposi- tion for the cession to the .United States of Baja California and parts of Chihuahua and Sonora. On December 30, 1853 James Gadsden, United States min- ister to Mexico, concluded a treaty which was in fact a modification of a treaty concluded on December 13 of the 1 1. Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888. pp. 491-492. 2 same year. By this treaty the United States gained all of present-day Arizona, south of the Gila River, in return for $10,000^000. An-1 effort to gain a port on the gulf was unsuccessful. The boundary line lay along the Rio Grande River up to'latitude 31° 47*, due west for 100miles', south to latitude31° 20*; west on that parallel to longi­ tude 111 V and*' then in ' a straight line to a point -on the - • Colorado River'twenty miles: below:the"Gila junction^ up the middle of the Colorado id the'intersection of"the former line; that is, to the mouth of the Gila, and'thence•on the former line to the' Pacific. The United States also gained by the treaty a release from the responsibilities for Indian outrages"in Mexican territory, and- free railroad transit across the isthmus of Tehuantepec i i' The price had been reduced by the United States Senate from f20*000jOOO to $10,000;000. " u S.'i:-.1- - Friends of the Gadsden measure would hot permit the passage of a resolution calling on the" President for in­ structions to Gadsden nor correspondence on the treaty; Opposition was based on unwillingness to vote money for a treaty about whose true inwardness- so little was known. Many rumors, too, were current’about stock-jobbing and political intrigues of the administration and of the South. In June, 1854r the Gadsden Treaty was returned to 1 Washington with the approval of the Mexican Government. On 3 June 28 and"June" 29,' 1854 Congress, af ter much debate in the House, passed a bill appropriating the money for the Gadsden Purchase. The bill was passed in the House by a vote of 103 to 62, and it was passed in the Senate by a vote of 34 to 6. On July 20,1854 President Santa Anna of Mexico published the treaty. On June 30, 1854 President Pierce published -the Gadsden Treaty;in the .United States. 1 William H . Emory was "appointed United States com­ missioner and surveyor to establish the new boundary line. Jose Salazar Ilarfegue was the-Mexican commissioner. The n commissioners met at El Paso at the end 1of 1854. On i, -January 31,1855 the first point 'on the new:Gadsden Pur- 'chase boundary-was fixed. By June:of. 1855 the line had reached Eds Hogales on longitude 111° on the south; By .the =end of Augusti 1855 the line along the south.was completed. There was no controversy ini connection with the line'be­ tween the Americans and the Mexicans v Both ofithem!worked - along to get the. workrdone. quickly. Emory and Miller both kept good diaries of the geology, botany,; and zoology of the region." Monuments were erected along; the way, and'at each one they made careful sketchesiso that. they could be easily ’identified as to location because often.thermonu- ments were completely destroyed by the Indians. The reason that the Mexicans were so anxious for the completion of the job was that $3,000,000 of the purchase money was 4 payable only upon completion of the line. , At t^e end of .1854 Lieutenant Na Miohler arrived at Fort Yuma, and between 1854 and 1855 he...was busy with . Salazar fixing :the-initial point - on -the Colorado and sur­ veying the line eastward towards Sonoita. They stopped work because the water was so scarce and went;by way of Tucson to Nogales. : At Nogales they met Emory and by June completed the line westward. - ,v , : -- • r . There wereisome Mexican troops that remained.in Tucson after the Gadsden Purchase.' The United States did not take military possession of t h e :Gadsden [Purchase until March 10, ..