Such is a Dragoon’s Life: Corporal Mathais Baker, Company B, 1st Dragoons, 1845-1849[1]

By Will Gorenfeld and Tim Kimball
The year 1845 found Mathias L. Baker, a twenty eight year old clerk from Middlesex County, New Jersey, residing in a reasonably comfortable neighborhood in St Louis. On October 17, 1845, he enlisted in the United States Army.  His enlistment papers indicate that blue eyed, dark haired, fair skinned Mathias stood six feet tall.  Assistant Surgeon William Hammond certified that he was free of all bodily defects and mental infirmities.   Recruiting officer 1st Lieutenant Henry S. Turner certified that Baker was entirely sober when he enlisted and of lawful age (twenty one). [2]

After a short stay in the recruit depot at nearby Jefferson Barracks, on November 13, 1845, Private Baker and seven other recruits were escorted up the Mississippi River to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Territory, by the 1^st Dragoons Regimental Sergeant Major.  From that river port the recruit party traveled another forty eight miles west, arriving at castle-like Fort Atkinson, Iowa Territory on November 25, 1845.  The fort and its stone buildings, on the heights above the Turkey River, had been home to Company B of the First Dragoons since June 1842.  Company B and its long-time Captain, Edwin Vose Sumner, had just returned from a late summer’s typical campaign, marching northwest almost to the Canadian border, showing the flag, and encouraging peace among the Natives. [3]

There is no detailed record of Baker’s winter at Fort Atkinson, but likely it was spent learning the rudiments of Dragoon skills—the School of the Soldier and School of the Company.  It would have included dismounted and mounted drill and use of the dragoon weapons: pistol, carbine, and sabre.  Baker’s other winter duties would have been caring for his assigned horse, occasional guard duty, and fatigue details.  More experienced men from the company would undertake a series of assignments during the hard winter, including removing Winnebago Indians from the Neutral Ground, testifying at a murder trial, chasing deserters, and maintaining the peace during payment of annuities by Indian Agents.  Baker probably had little time or inclination to visit the adjacent off post drinking sites known as “Sodom and Gomorrah,” or “Whiskey Creek,” nor spend time with the dissolute Winnebago and Minominee women found there.  No indications of disciplinary problems or extended illness involving Baker are found in company records.  Baker also would have learned—if he did not already know—that in the army, even in the dragoons, many of the men were chronic drunkards and shirkers.[4]

Less than five months after his enlistment, probably as a tribute to his discipline, reliability, and perhaps the legible hand of this former civilian clerk, Sumner selected Baker to be 4th corporal, the most junior of the core of eight non-commissioned officers authorized for each company. This gave Baker a raise from eight to ten dollars a month, a substantial increase in responsibility, and a set of a Non Commissioned Officers as peers who would stay with him through the duration of his life: Sergeants Frederick Muller, Benjamin Bishop, Corporals Jacob Martin, Michael Albert, Israel Haff, as well as Bugler Langford Peel.[5]
By May 11, 1846, Congress declared war on Mexico. On June 20, Baker and his comrades of Company B were ordered from Fort Atkinson, leaving it to be garrisoned by a volunteer force during the war. Reaching Prairie du Chien on June 22, they joined forces with 1^st Dragoons Captain Philip St. George Cooke’s Company K from nearby Fort Crawford, with Sumner serving as commander of the two company squadron.  They and their mounts embarked on the Steamboat Cecelia and a pair of towed barges for St. Louis, traveling 370 miles downstream on the Mississippi River and arriving June 28, 1846.[6]

The original orders for Companies B and K had directed them to San Antonio, Texas, join the forces of Major General Zachary Taylor.  But Dragoon Colonel and commander of the Army of the West, Stephen Watts Kearny insisted that Sumner, Cooke, and their companies (“among the very best”) were indispensable to his assignment: the conquest of Mexican-held New Mexico and California.  In St. Louis, they were redirected to Fort Leavenworth, assembly and starting point for Kearny’s Army of the West.  On July 3 they loaded on to the Steamboat Amaranth, traveling the length of the Missouri to that post, over 300 miles west.  On July 6 they disembarked at Fort Leavenworth and, and began their march to Santa Fe on the same day, becoming the last of Kearny’s initial force to leave for the Conquest of New Mexico.  Company B headed overland with a total of 63 dragoons in the ranks, having left a trail of seven deserters in its wake.[7]

Sumner’s squadron made up for lost time, traveling across the picked-over prairie. On July 31 they rendezvoused with the 1600-man balance of Kearny’s troops camped around Bent’s Fort, on the north bank of the Arkansas River.  Kearny turned over command of the five dragoon companies (B, C, G, I, and K) and a St. Louis mounted volunteer company (the Laclede Rangers, equipped for dragoon service) to Sumner, the senior Captain.  Crossing the Arkansas River, the border between the now-warring United States and Mexico, on August 2 Kearny (and Private Baker) began the 250-mile balance of the march down the Mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail, through Raton Pass to Santa Fe, capital of the Mexican Department of New Mexico. This portion of the march was hard on man and beast–with scanty forage for the animals and half rations for the men.[8]

The Army of the West entered an undefended and partially deserted Santa Fe on August 18, 1846. Kearny took formal possession of New Mexico late that afternoon with a flag rising and the firing of a national salute. Baker and his dragoon comrades fared well enough on the march—Missouri volunteer private John Hughes complained that Kearny favored them unfairly—but even the regulars would soon turn in their already worn out, starving horses and resort to mules or even shoe leather.[9]

Soon after arrival in Santa Fe, Kearny began planning and organizing for his California trek. Although plans were constantly changing with the circumstances, his next mission was to head to California by marching south along the Camino Real, west to the basin of the Gila River, across to the Colorado River, and enter California from the south.  Kearny’s force would include his  “three hundred wilderness-worn Dragoons, in shabby and patched clothing,” and a like number of emigrating Mormons recruited as infantry volunteers for California (the Mormon Battalion), which had left Fort Leavenworth in mid-August but not yet arrived in Santa Fe.  In California this force was to be increased by a regiment of New York volunteers and a regular army artillery battery sent by sea.[10]

By the time Kearny returned to Santa Fe from a show-the-flag march south to Tomé, he realized that most of the Army of the West’s original horses were too worn down to make a march to California. The general ordered the dragoon horses replaced with the best mules the Quartermaster could find, directing the return of the surviving dragoon mounts to Fort Leavenworth.  The dragoons had first established a grazing camp in the Galisteo Basin, south of Santa Fe.  By the time of Baker’s first letter, they had moved to the village of La Cienega, in the valley of the Santa Fe River.  Neither venue had enough grass to even begin to restore their mounts.[11]

First Letter:

Baker’s observations about New Mexico were fairly standard for an American who had recently arrived in the region.  As with so many others, he was consciously (or unconsciously) repeating negative observation found in two very popular works about New Mexico: Josiah Gregg’s 1844, Commerce of the Prairies, and George Wilkins Kendall’s 1843 Narrative of the Santa Fé Expedition, both of which expressed a substantially jingoistic and ethnocentric view of New Mexico and New Mexicans. Baker had seen little of populated New Mexico, passing through Las Vegas and the few villages between there and Santa Fe, with a single day or two in the capital, starting south later on the march to Tomé, but being turned back to the grazing camp he wrote from shortly after that journey began.[12]

On Sept. 13, 1846, Baker wrote his sister, Mrs. Hugh Martin (1 Hudson Street in Manhattan) from the dragoon grazing camp.  He described New Mexico as bare and mountainous, with only a few valleys capable of cultivation.  Its homes of sun-dried bricks he found to be limited to a single story and devoid of windows, dark during day time when the door is shut, but warm in winter and cool in summer.  Some of the ladies were “extraordinarily fine,” though generally the population was of “mixed” Indian blood.  All this from a man who had arrived less than a month before and spent most of his time on isolated duty in the grazing camps!  Baker urged his sister to write him back AND to send the latest copies of the New York Herald.  He did not expect any fighting, as “the Mexican Army will not fight.”  He asked about the family’s health and assured them that HE was healthy (“This is the most healthy country in the world.”) and “burnt to the colour of Mahogany and wear immense Moustachios.”  He expected to be marching to Monterey, California, soon, via “Chuwauwau” (Chihuahua).[13]

Second letter:

On September 27, Kearny set off for California with all his Dragoons, a topographic engineer party, and his staff.  His plans changed significantly when on October 6, he encountered eastbound Christopher Kit Carson south of Socorro.  Carson carried dispatches announcing that American naval forces, Fremont’s topographical engineer party, and local American residents had seized control of California.  Relying upon this information and Carson‘s assessment of the extremely limited resources available on the coming march, Kearny reduced his force to a small staff, the Topographic Engineer party, and a 100-man Dragoon escort composed of only Companies C and K.  Baker’s Company B, along with Companies G and I, each stripped of their of the best of their mules, were ordered by Kearny to return to Albuquerque and winter under the overall command of Captain Sumner.[14]

On October 13, the Kearny party was below Fra Cristobal, last camp before entering the Jornado del Muerte from the north.  Kearny now had learned that wheeled vehicles would be more of a hindrance than an asset on the Gila route, and sent back for pack saddles and men to collect all the rolling stock except for two small mountain howitzers and their limbers.  When a last mail arrived, Kearny received notice of a series of promotions that set several final changes into motion for the stay-behind Dragoons.  Sumner had been promoted to Major in the Second Dragoon regiment and ordered to join his regiment in Mexico. Kearny directed that Sumner’s Company B, already returning north with companies G and I, be broken up. Its privates were distributed among the other two companies, and recently promoted 1st Lt. John Love was to return east with the balance of company B’s non-commissioned staff and recruit the company full again.[15]

Baker would be included in Sumner’s party of seventeen Dragoons and discharged volunteers returning to Fort Leavenworth.  Beginning on October 18, from Sabinal, north of Socorro, his party traveled the more direct  “Dry” route of the Santa Fe Trail, bypassing Bent’s Fort. Included in the Sumner group were Love, 1st Lt. Henry Stanton, 2nd Lt. Bezaleel Armstrong (also newly promoted and headed for the Second Dragoons), the 1^st Dragoons’ non-commissioned regimental staff, and Baker’s cadre of fellow non-commissioned officers of Company B: Sergeants Muller, Martin, the newly promoted Sgt. Albert, Corporals. Haff, Baker, Nickerson, and Bugler Peel.  Sgt. Bishop and Corporal McFeters—the balance of  Company B’s non-commissioned staff—had headed east with earlier returning parties.  Baker by now had become a solid member of this core leadership group, and would continue so for the balance of the Mexican War.[16]

Sumner passed through Santa Fe on their way out.  Love secured wheat and corn as forage for the party’s mules in San Miguel, Tecolote and Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, they exchanged five unserviceable mules for five fit ones, paying the standard premium of $20 each, $100 total. This party made a well managed late Fall trip, the main group arriving at Fort Leavenworth on November 20, 1846. [17]

Sumner and Armstrong continued on to join the 2nd Dragoons in Mexico, where Sumner won Brevets of Lt. Colonel at Cerro Gordo and Colonel at Molina del Rey. Baker, Martin, Albert, Haff and Peel remained in the Dragoon detachment at Fort Leavenworth while Lt. Love and Sgt. Muller journeyed to Ohio and Indiana to seek recruits; Bishop was assigned to the regimental depot at Jefferson Barracks with 2^nd Lt. Leonidas Jenkins  [18]

Three weeks after the arrival of the Sumner return party at Fort Leavenworth, on Dec. 15, 1846, Baker began penning a letter to his namesake nephew, Matthais Lee Baker Martin, son of his sister, Mrs. Hugh Martin, to whom he had addressed the first of this series of letters.  It seems young Martin had written his uncle, telling him that he “hoped” that he was NOT in the army!  Baker shot back with pride in his service, his role in the occupation of New Mexico and his achievement of non-commissioned rank.  Corporal Baker described the Sumner party’s return trip:  two wagons and a carriage (probably a spring wagon) with most of the men mounted on mules and living largely off game.  They had a single brush with the increasingly aggressive Indians, at what Baker called “Rocky Point,” probably Point of Rocks, the beginning of that dangerous middle portion of the Santa Fe Trail in which native raiders often held the upper hand.  Towards evening Baker and his comrades encountered a single native lurking outside their camp and chased him off with carbine fire.   The Corporal speculated that the fugitive was a “Camanche” who would now recognize and avoid Dragoons.   Ten of the party’s mules died on the journey, leaving most of the men to walk the last one hundred and fifty miles.[19]

Third Letter:

Lt. Love sought to recruit a full company of men quickly, return to the war, and actually TASTE gunpowder before the war was over. On December 20, 1846, he wrote to Roger Jones, the Army’s grandfatherly Adjutant General, expressing how “extremely anxious” he was “to fill the Company which fortune has given me the command” and that he expected to take the field by April 1, 1847. Finding recruits in a hurry was not going to be an easy task. One of Love’s West Point classmates, also on recruiting duty, complained to him in February of 1847 that, after “pegging away since some time last summer and [he had] done any thing but a ‘land office’ business” finding Hoosier recruits for his regiment.[20]

February of 1847 found Lt. Love in Indianapolis, Indiana, with his recruiting flag draped from a balcony of the Drake Hotel. He placed the army’s prepared advertisement in the Indianapolis  State Journal, requesting the wartime services of men of good character, between the ages of 18 and 35.  “None need apply to enter the service but those who are determined to serve the period of their enlistment honestly and faithfully.”  The advertisement optimistically promised each mounted recruit eight dollars a month, good quarters, the best of medical attention, as well as a “large supply of comfortable and genteel clothing.”  The recruiting laws, now having been changed by Congress, made service in the regulars somewhat more attractive. A recruit was now allowed to opt for a shorter enlistment, the “duration of the war,” instead of only a five year term with no alternative.[21]

The 1st Dragoons were a mounted regiment; the five Mexican War volunteer regiments from Indiana, were all infantry.   Lt. Love knew that he had an ace in the hole and he was quick to play it–pointing out to the Hoosier farm boys the glory of their becoming splendidly clothed and mounted “bold dragoons”–whose military status, pay, uniform, weapons, and bearing were unquestionably superior to that of the humble and often ill-clad “doughboys” of the volunteers or regular infantry, stumbling along with their “fence rails” (a derogatory term for the long, heavy musket with which they were perpetually burdened). When Love’s bright-eyed recruits arrived at Newport Barracks, Kentucky, however, they found there were no horses available and, worse, infantry officers were daily putting them through the wearisome close order drill of the foot soldier. Many of Love’s recruits were not happy with their training at Newport Barracks, and wrote to tell him so.[22]

Due to the immediate need for a completed company, recruits would be limited in their training to the basics: mounted and dismounted drill, care of their mounts and equipment, and use and care of their carbines, sabres, and pistols.   Many recruits would have less than two months to develop adequate skills, a time frame far better than volunteer received and typical of the other two 1^st Dragoon companies reorganized during the Mexican War.  It was incumbent upon Stanton, Jenkins and the non-commissioned cadre of company B at Fort Leavenworth and Jefferson Barracks to use the available time to train the recruits on hand with the skills necessary for them to be competent soldiers. [23]

At Jefferson Barracks Lt. Leonadis Jenkins had been seeking men, horses and equipage for B Company around the St. Louis area.  On February 17, 1847, Jenkins marched his accumulation of twenty five recruits and their mounts more than 300 miles overland across Missouri to Fort Leavenworth in sixteen days.  There they would undergo further mounted training under the tutelage of Albert, Baker, and Peel.  On return to Jefferson Barracks, Jenkins wrote a March 20, 1847, letter to Love boasting of his completed trip, the quality of his recruits, the status of equipping the company, and army gossip.  Jenkins promised that if more mounts could be furnished, he could advance the training of the next group of Company B recruits at the Depot.[24]

By April, the Company B non-commissioned officers available for training the initial recruits at Fort Leavenworth were down to Baker, Sgt. Albert, and Bugler Peel, under the command of Stanton.  Bishop was at Jefferson Barracks and Haff had joined Love at the recruiting rendezvous in Indiana.[25]

The third letter was also written by Baker for his namesake nephew.  Dated April 28, 1847, it reflected on his daily duties, the training of the recruit party left by Jenkins on March 4, the prospects and schedule for Company B as it completed its reorganization and returned to service.  Baker was hoping to dissuade his nephew from the common notion that all soldiers’ lived an easy life in garrison—perhaps an additional response to the nephew’s apparent negative opinion of the army mentioned before.  Baker wrote that while an infantryman’s life might be easy, a Dragoon’s life was filled from Reveille (at sunup) to final Tatoo (long after dark), and must always be prepared to ride out.  “Such is a Dragoon’s life…”  Baker wrote of how difficult it was training 25 recruits with only three non-commissioned officers, “especially when they are sometimes so Dutch as to not understand or be understood.”   And he figured that the company was likely to be full enough to be officially reorganized “in about three weeks” (actually two and a half weeks, May 15), and would either be sent south to join Scott in his assault on Mexico City or returned to Santa Fe.  Baker wrote that he preferred the latter, as the “climate is the most healthy” in the world.  As for the future, perhaps Baker would stay in the army if “inducements” were held forth, but in such a case he surely would take a furlough and visit his nephew.[26]

Fourth Letter:

Love would bring twenty five men he had recruited in the East with him to Jefferson Barracks on April 25, 1847. There they joined with the on-hand recruits and recycled veterans—sick returned to health, confined men returned to duty—to make a contingent of fifty eight men when Company B was officially reorganized on May 15, 1847.  The company marched for Fort Leavenworth that same day. [27]

The Missouri Republican was quite impressed with what they saw in a public drill of the company in St. Louis on May 11:

“[Lt. Love] has with him a very fine company of men and they are probably the best fitted and prepared for service of any company which has ever left this city.  They are all mounted on horses which in appearance, for strength and beauty, cannot be surpassed in or out of the service, and their military trappings correspond.  When the company is full, as it will be upon its arrival at Fort Leavenworth, they will of themselves constitute a body in appointments, command and stamina, almost sufficient to overrun a large portion of New Mexico.”[28]

George Ruxton, an English officer touring Mexico and the West in mufti, observed this same group of fifty Company B recruits and Lt. Love as they were finishing their march from St. Louis to Fort Leavenworth in late May. Ruxton was less than impressed with what he saw and wrote that while the group was “superbly mounted” on beautiful horses “fifteen hands high, in excellent condition,” the raw recruits were “soldierlike neither in dress nor appearance.” [29]

The reorganized company arrived at Fort Leavenworth on May 31, joining with the on-hand group of thirty four NCOs and men already on hand.  With B Company recruited up to full strength and well mounted—albeit neither men nor horses fully trained— and present at Fort Leavenworth, the army considered it ready to march to Santa Fe. The troops stationed in newly conquered New Mexico and the locals provisioning them had not been paid for several months.  Now Company B would escort Paymaster Major Charles Bodine and $350,000 in specie on his trip to Santa Fe, and do the same for slower moving quartermaster trains and beef herds already en route as they were overtaken.[30]

A week after arrival of the reorganized Company B at Fort Leavenworth, Lt. Love, the only officer, with Corporal Baker and an eighty three man strong Company B, paymaster Bodine, and various supernumeraries, paraded out of the fort on June 7, 1847 in a column of fours.  Each dragoon was astride his government sorrel, the column trailed by the nine mule-drawn wagons of the paymaster and three more of Company B.  Following the custom of the time it is likely they were played out of the Fort by First Dragoon Principal Musician John Schnell and the 1^st Dragoon Regimental band, with a selection of songs that included “The Girl I Left Behind.”  This time the company left six deserters behind—including Privates Isaac Cameron (who also had deserted in St. Louis the year before) and John Stein, recaptured the next day across the Missouri in Weston.[31]

Prior to the commencement of the Mexican War, Native Americans living near the Santa Fe Trail controlled their outrage at the invasion and destruction of their range by raiding only the smaller trading caravans, confining themselves to horse stealing, pilferage, and simple begging.  Experienced traders traveled in large numbers, heavily armed, and were rarely attacked. By 1847 the Santa Fe Trail became the highway of conquest as a vast stream of troops, animals and supplies headed west along the 873-mile path that crossed the Great Plains from Ft. Leavenworth to Santa Fe. As troop movements and supply trains proliferated during the war, the travelers not only polluted the streams and spread contagion, but consumed the sparse grasses, fuel, and water along the trail, and butchered or chased off the game.  Drought put further pressure on the Plains tribes, as did the necessary hunting of many once-eastern tribes, Cherokee, Delaware, Osage, and others, forced to migrate and subsist on the fringes.   Starvation and disease were becoming progressively more widespread among the Plains tribes, even more so after 1845. The boldest and most desperate of them began to assault nearly every one of the caravans and quartermaster trains—even those accompanied by troops—that traveled on the route.   It was reported that the raiding was encouraged or participated in by Mexicans, fugitive slaves, and American renegades.  During the summer of 1847, 47 Americans would be killed, 330 wagons destroyed, and 6,500 head of stock plundered. [32]

Although Lt. Love, in his six years of military service, had never commanded a troop in the field and most of his men had limited training, his experience suggested that tribesmen would not be so foolish as to attack this large force of armed Dragoons.   In 1843, while on an expedition on the Plains, he wrote, “6 men could have kept off 500 Indians as they never approach within gun shot.” Corp. Baker observed the carnage caused by the tribesmen.   Baker was confident that his company would soon give battle with the Comanches and Pawnees and avenge the deaths of travelers recently murdered on the Santa Fe Trail. [33]

On June 14, 1847, a day Company B spent at Council Grove, the usual rendezvous site on edge of contested portion of the Santa Fe trail, Baker responded to his nephew’s letter brought with the previous day’s express in our fourth letter.  He described the party as including over one hundred men, twelve wagons, the paymaster and his specie, and another one hundred and twenty wagons moving slowly ahead of them, to be added to those already escorted as the faster moving Company B caught up with them.  Baker wrote that eight hundred lodges of Comanche and Pawnees were within 200 miles and that he hoped that Company B would get a chance to give them the “severe punishment” they “deserved.”  He told of the suffering of men in a returning quartermaster train the Company had encountered and claimed that Native’s attacks had been encouraged by the Mexicans.  Baker speculated that Company B might be returning to guard the threatened central portion of the trail after delivering Bodine and the specie to Santa Fe.  He advised his namesake to obey his parents and study, and hoped to see him someday.[34]

Fifth and Final Letter:

Newly appointed Indian Agent, but old time mountain man Thomas “Brokenhand” Fitzpatrick, making his way to his assignment at Bent’s Fort, overtook the Dragoon column at Council Grove and traveled on with it and our bold corporal. Fitzpatrick, a trapper, guide, scout, and Indian agent, had ranged the frontier since 1823. Fitzpatrick would later write that the Dragoons and paymaster’s wagon train “traveled along happily and with much expedition, until we arrived at Pawnee Fork, a tributary of the Arkansas River, three hundred miles from Fort Leavenworth.” It was at this point that, on the early evening of June 23, they came upon the encampment of three large government commissary wagon trains (two outbound and one homebound). These wagons had been attacked two days prior by a large body of Native Americans Indians, who left three men wounded. The eastbound train had lost most of its oxen to the marauding raiders. Left without the means of hauling several of its wagons any further, the wagon master destroyed the badly needed wagons.[35]

Seeking the dragoons’ protection, the three trains traveled along with the dragoons at a brisk pace, making 27-miles on the 25th and, camped on a plain in about a mile from the Arkansas River. The dragoons made their camp on the north bank of the Arkansas River, at a site known as Pawnee Fork.  Two of the trains made camp nearby. The third, headed by Hayden, a wagon master reluctant to take orders from young Lt. Love, camped almost out of sight.   Although the plain was sandy and nearly barren of grasses, the river bottoms provided good grazing for the animals. The treeless prairie was bisected by two washes that flowed into the Arkansas, known as Little Coon Creek and Big Coon Creek.[36]

In the pre-dawn hours of June 26, 1847, Lieutenant Love mounted and rode to the top of a slight hill. The sky was clear and a slight breeze blew up from the south. This young officer knew that horses and mules should not be allowed to freely graze until it was safe to do so—i.e., when no raiders lurked in high grasses of the nearby washes. For the moment, all horses and mules remained tethered to the picket lines. Looking to the west he noticed that Hayden had turned his oxen out of his evening’s corral  (formed of wagons circled, wheel to axel) to graze. Love opened his spyglass for a better view of the early morning countryside. He saw well over one hundred Comanches spilling out of the Big Coon Creek wash. Lt. Love could see the teamsters frantically grabbing what few clumsy weapons they possessed and firing wildly at the raiders. The Comanches fought back, wounding three teamsters; within minutes they had stampeded Hayden’s oxen and seized control of the herd.[37]

The next day Baker began the final one of our known letters to his nephew from the Pawnee Fork campsite, as Company B lay by to allow its seriously wounded a chance to recover before moving on.  He told how they had encountered the quartermaster trains and incorporated them loosely into their party, after the homebound train had been attacked, stock stolen, and men wounded.  Baker wrote of how Hayden’s stock was carelessly turned out that morning and quickly being driven off.  All of Company B saddled up, Baker being one of the first.  Only a party of twenty one dragoons and Sergt. Bishop, according to Baker, were allowed out to halt the stock theft, the rest being held back to protect the camp from a large party of threatening hostiles on the opposite side of the Arkansas.  Baker wrote when he saw the Bishop group get cut off by at least two hundred warriors, he begged for a party of twenty dragoons to intercede, but was refused by Love.  The teamsters from the train whose stock was being run off had themselves fallen back and left Bishop and his party helpless and surrounded.  Bishop’s dragoons retreated as quickly as they could, but five men were unable to reach the camp, and were later found dead.  Of those getting back, Bishop and four others were badly wounded—Baker himself leaving the camp to bring in the wounded Farrier, John Lovelace, holding him on his horse until safe inside.  After roll was called, Baker was part of the group that went out to recover their comrades’ bodies.  That day they found four bodies, badly mutilated, the next morning they recovered the last one.[38]

Baker was not sure what would happen if the Comanches would attack again, or they would be able to move on before being hit again.  “Fort” Mann, a small and adobe and cottonwood
palisade erected by quartermaster teamsters, the strongest point on the central trail, just had been abandoned under repeated attacks.  Baker told his nephew that if he should perish in coming assaults, he wanted him to have whatever the government owned him and anything else of value, and “if you see me no more, spare a moment to think of your uncle.”[39]
We have not, as yet, found any later letters from Mathias Baker. From military records, we know that he and his fellows did NOT return to guard the Santa Fe Trail nor to Fort Leavenworth until after the end of the war.  Six weeks after he wrote his last letter Baker was with Love’s battered command when it reached the end of the Trail in Santa Fe on August 6, 1847.  Though bloodied and reduced in numbers, these dragoons had accomplished their primary mission of protecting the paymaster funds and quartermaster trains.  Now they stayed on to reinforce New Mexico. At this time the twelve month enlistments of Price’s Missouri volunteer 1846 force had been completed and the companies had marched back to Fort Leavenworth to be paid off and discharged. This left the occupation to companies G and I, and now B, of the 1^st Dragoons, four volunteer companies being reenlisted in Santa Fe to create the Santa Fe Battalion, and the last hand full of Price’s original force.  Soon though, New Mexico would be crowded once again with newly recruited “for the war” volunteers, including both a mounted regiment and infantry battalion from Missouri and an infantry regiment from Illinois.[40]

On August 19, 1847, Love turned in the wagons, mules and gear Company B had used in conveying Bodine and his specie.  They left Santa Fe at the end of the month, spending four days in Albuquerque, and formed a grazing camp near the mountain village of San Antonio.  On October 15, they returned to Albuquerque and its Dragoon garrison. In December, Company B received all the mules, guns, and ordnance it would use as a scratch light artillery battery in Price’s hoped-for expedition against Chihuahua—including two 24-pound howitzers, two of the captured Mexican 5-pounder guns, the recaptured “Texian” 6-pounder, and one of the dragoons’ on-hand 12-pound Mountain Howitzers.  During December, three privates died of illness.[41]
The company’s captured deserter, Pvt. John Stein, had been released from confinement and sent on by Acting Regimental Commander, Lt. Col. Clifton Wharton as part of the escort party for the returning Sterling Price, now promoted to Brigadier General of volunteers.  Price, his staff, and the escort arrived in Santa Fe on December 9, 1847.  Stein immediately disappeared again, to be recaptured on the 16th.  Twelve days later an Albuquerque general court martial composed of Dragoon officers found him guilty of both desertions as well as selling his army great coat. He was sentenced to forfeit all pay, have his head shaved, be stripped of all badges, receive 50 lashes “well laid on, with a raw hide ,” and be drummed out, in front of the assembled Dragoon command. Other Company B Dragoon miscreants were tried before the same court along with Dragoons from companies G and I.  Stein was convicted as were all others charged.   His horrible sentence approved and carried out.[42]
The month of January was filled with preparation for a possible march south by Price, his volunteers stationed below Albuquerque, and the three Dragoon companies.   On February 11, Company B marched, the last to do so.  An alarm had been sent up by Missouri volunteers from occupied El Paso, announcing the approach of General Urea and 3,000 Mexican troops. The company made a difficult crossing of the swollen and ice-choked Rio Grande above Fra Cristobal.  On February 28, Company B reached El Paso, a 280 mile journey from Albuquerque.  Price left that city the next day with his advance units, leaving the slower artillery and infantry to catch up.   Price’s immediate command reached Chihuahua on March 7, to find their prey—Governor Angel Trias, with a few Mexican regulars and several hundred recently enrolled militia—had fled south.  Price again set off at a fast pace, following the wheel ruts of Trias’ cannon. At 9 a. m. the morning of March 9, the American advance group brought Trias and his 900 man force to ground in the town of Santa Cruz de Rosales, which Price immediately besieged.[43]
Price had sent back an express, reaching the slower parties on March 12 and hurrying them forward. Love and Company B immediately left their baggage wagons behind and began a fast march, covering 150 miles. They reached Chihuahua on the 15th, pressed (confiscated) fresh mules for the guns, and hurried the last 60 miles at a pace that put them in front of the enemy town at 5 a. m. on March 16.  As Company B wheeled its six guns into position, it was reported that the volunteers heard the defenders cry “Estos dos carajos!” “Here come two monsters!”  Company B immediately began firing shell and canister against fortified Mexican positions in the city center. Company B’s Dragoons-as-light-artillery played a major role in the victory at Santa Cruz de Rosales that day—the last of the already-concluded Mexican War.[44]
General Price’s report declared: “The distinguished conduct of Lieutenant Love–in the highly efficient manner in which his battery was served; in the rapidity of movement which characterized his conduct, when ordered to reinforce me, traveling night and day, going into battery four hours after his arrival, and his unceasing efforts during the entire day in working his battery–deserves especial notice…”  Love apportioned plenty of praise to the men who did the fighting, singling out section commanders Sergeants Muller and Bishop (still weak from his Coon Creek wounds), gun commander Corp. Haff, and all of the privates. The company suffered two men severely wounded and five slightly, one of the heavier tolls among the American units engaged.[45]
Company B was ordered to serve as part of the occupation force in or near the beautiful city of Chihuahua for the following four months of peace.  There some Dragoons fell in love and everyone enjoyed the city life, bullfights and horse races. When the peace finally was approved, army command ordered Chihuahua to be evacuated.  On July 17, Company B began its return march to Santa Fe.  On August 19, 1848, the ordnance was turned in there and the “for the war” enlistees discharged. On August 21, Company B once again was broken up, with the few remaining privates distributed to Dragoon Companies G and I, again remaining in New Mexico.  And again, Corporal Baker would form part of the core of a rebuilt Company B.  With Love, Muller, Bishop, Haff, and Peel, much of the same party as Baker had traveled the length of the Santa Fe Trail with three times in two years, he left Santa Fe on September 2, 1848, arriving at Fort Leavenworth twenty six days later.[46]
Baker was shown on the October 1848 return as a Sergeant for the first time, promoted up as Muller took the position of Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant.  Captain Robert H. Chilton, the designated commanding officer of Company B, arrived at Jefferson Barracks to take command at that post on November 9.  Recruits began filling out the reforming company the same month.  Lt. Love left on leave.[47]
Once again, on December 19, 1848, a Company B recruit group was mounted at Jefferson Barracks and marched out for Fort Leavenworth where Sgt. Baker and his non-com friends awaited them.  The newly organized company arrived on Dec. 31, 1848.  In January, Baker’s first company commander, Sumner, now promoted to Brevet Colonel and line Lt. Colonel, arrived at the post as the new regimental commander.  That same month Baker, Sumner’s one time clerk recruit from Fort Atkinson days, was designated as Acting Sergeant Major of the First Dragoons.  On February 8, 1849, the promotion was made permanent, and with it Baker became the senior non-commissioned officer of the regiment.  When the reorganized Company B left to reoccupy Fort Kearny on May 11 (nine of these recent recruits deserted on the three days before the company marched—some things never change), Baker stayed  at Fort Leavenworth with his new regimental duties, along with Sumner, Lt. Love (now Regimental Quarter Master), and Quarter Master Sergeant Muller.  The history and traditions of the company would travel with Bishop, Martin, Haff, and Peel, and several of the once new recruits who had fought Comanche and Mexicans, now part of a new Non Commissioned core.[48]
Some four months later, on June 7, 1849, Sergeant Major Baker suddenly sickened and died of Cholera (then epidemic in the West) at Fort Leavenworth.  As did so many unheralded antebellum regulars in dirty shirt blue, Baker stood ready to pour his life-blood freely pro bono publico and died in the quest of manifest destiny, four and one half years after he began his dragoon adventure. That his death was from sickness rather than in battle was hardly exceptional; in the war and on the frontier deaths of soldiers from disease far outnumbered those in combat.  One hopes that his friends Sumner, Love, and Muller were able to be part of their comrade’s Dragoon funeral.[49]
No marker for our bold Dragoon was found twelve years later when the graves from the “Soldiers Burying Ground” were moved to what became Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery. Baker’s remains likely lie there among some two hundred mostly anonymous dead of those earlier decades, far away from family and childhood friends.  Such was a Dragoon’s death.[50]

Maj. Ben Beall to Lt. John Dickerson, 2d Arty., AAAG, Head Quarters, 9^th Military Dist.

Don Fernando de Taos, NM, March 12, 1849

Sir,

Agreeably to a letter of instructions from Head Quarters 9^th Mily Department, dated 27^th January 1849, directing me to “proceed as soon as possible to the country inhabited by the Kiowa Indians” for the purpose of releasing “a number of prisoners in their possession who have been captured in New Mexico,” I have the honor to submit the following report.

On the morning of the 10^th ultimo I left Taos with Company I 1^st Dragoons under the command of 1^st Lieut Whittlesey accompanied by 2d Lieut. J. H. Adams 1^st Dragoons acting adjt to the Detachment, and asst. Surgeon H. R. Wirtz. I crossed the mountains of the “Rio de la Mora” by different passes and through deep snow and reaching the Prairie on the eastern side I was joined Lieut. A. Pleasanton in command of Co. H, 2d Dragoons, on the 14^th. I then took the most direct route to the Arkansas River and camped on the “Rio Lempa” on the 22d being then within thirty miles of Bent’s Fort.

It appears that news had reached Bents Fort from the “Green Horn” that a military force was en route to the Kiowa Nation to liberate the Mexican prisoners in their possession and accordingly on the evening of that day I received a letter by express from the Fort from the U. States Indian Agent for the Upper Platte and Arkansas (Mr. Fitzpatrick) and also one from an influential resident at the Pueblo. The purpose of these letters was as follows—That the Indians in the vicinity of the post were at present exceedingly civil, but that if forcible measures were resorted to in order to liberate the prisoners in the hands of the Kiowas, the lives and property of the Americans residing in that portion of the country would be in the most imminent danger if they were not absolutely compelled to leave the settlements at the sacrifice of all they possessed. The Indian Agent, therefore, requested that I come on to Bents Fort in advance of my command in order that we might confer together about the feasibility of the expedition. On the following morning, I marched to the Arkansas, and early the next day reaching the Fort encamping my command on the South bank of the Arkansas river.

By the letter of instruction to me directed, I understand that every possible measure was to be adopted in order to secure the liberation of the captives in the hands of the Kiowa Indians, but that if they could not be obtained “peaceably” they must be obtained “otherwise.”

I was convinced by the opinion of every person on the Arkansas who was acquainted with Indian affairs that to obtain the Mexican captives by peaceable means was a thing impossible and great stress being laid in the above mentioned letter of instruction upon the desirability of a continuance of the friendly relations between the Kiowas and Whites I was in doubt how to act.

On arriving at the Fort I learned from the U. States Indian Agent that the greater part of the Kiowa nation was absent on a great hunt with the Comanches and that but a few lodges were at that time on the Arkansas River. The majority of the prisoners I also understood were with the absent party.

The expediency of an attack upon the few Kiowas who were then on the Arkansas (for I was convinced they would not release their captives without a fight) and the chance of losing thereby those persons who were with the remainder of the nation, thus defeating in a measure the object of the expedition, induced me to call a council of my officers, and I now present for the consideration of the comg officer of the 9^th Mily Department my reasons for acting as I have done, and the conclusion which I have adopted.

1^st In the first place I thought it best to learn the disposition of the Kiowas in regard to their prisoners, and I obtained the following information—the majority of the captives are women who are married to Indians and have by their numerous children. This portion is perfectly satisfied, with but a few exceptions, to remain, and even if offered their “liberty” would doubtfully refuse to leave a nation with which they have so many ties. The male portion of the captives have become perfectly barbarianised, and in their mode of life and custom have affiliated themselves            more or less completely with their captors. These individuals if liberated would be totally unfitted for and made miserable by the usages of civilized life. The Indians themselves are much attached to their prisoners from affection or cupidity and would fight for them with as much tenacity as for their own people. I therefore saw that the Kiowa would must certainly give us battle rather than give up a portion of their own nation as it were into our hand.

2dly  The feasibility and expectancy of successfully resorting to forcible measures was there to be considered. (1) The great map of the Kiowa nation was absent. The majority of the prisoners was with them. To attack those who were in camp on the Arkansas was no easy matter.  Here was a Kiowa lodge, there Arapahoe lodge; here again a Kiowa lodge — there a Cheyenne lodge, for about fifteen miles along the river bank, indeed so interrupted and scattered were they that in a sudden attack upon the Kiowas, many Indians of other tribes would have been there fired, and many Kiowas would have escaped.  To tell them the object of the expedition, to order them to separate themselves and fight us, would have been the extreme of folly, inasmuch as if they did present a bold front, the prisoners would certainly be run off or if there was no chance to effect this they would massacre them rather than let them fall into our hands. (2) Even supposing it to have been reasonable to have obtained every prisoner there from the Arkansas, all hope would have been lost of our regaining by forcible means the remainder and the majority.  In the inaccessible vastness of the mountains and in the wide spread plains of the Indian country they would have hidden them from us most probably successfully. (3) Again — several Comanche chiefs have lately arrived at this post suing for peace.  Now the Comanches have more prisoners than any other tribe of the Plains, and as a peace with the Comanches was considered a desireable object by the U. States Indian Agent, and as a statement of the object of my expedition would most certainly have interrupted such arrangements by informing them that the United States intended to take all prisoners from the Indians forcibly and not purchased them as has always been done heretofore I give to this consideration also its proper weight. (4) There was still another consideration of great importance, namely defenseless condition of the American citizen on the Arkansas, far away from the new Mexican settlements, exposed to the cruelty of outraged savages and unable by their number or strength to stand such odds.  The effect of a fight with the Kiowa would have certainly have broken up the prospect of civilization along the course of the Arkansas and the valley of the “greenhorn.”

Under these adverse circumstances I concluded according to the best of my judgment that it would be to the interest of the service and the general Government to delay forcible measures until I could lay the state of the case before the army officer of the 9^th mily and Department and at the same time to avail myself of every piece of useful information I could collect for their action.

That the expedition might not be unproductive of useful results, and there being present at the fort several principal Chiefs of the different tribes, I concluded to call them together in Council and give them some advice and information with regard to the present State of New Mexico, Texas and the Plains carefully advising in conformity with my conclusions herein stated, any mention of the Mexican Prisoners in the hands of the Kiowas.

Leaving Bents Fort on the 2d inst, I directed my course up the Arkansas, ordering Lieut. Pleasanton with his command to return to Santa Fe via the Mora intending myself to reach this post with Company I, 1^st Dragoons via “Sierra Blanca” leaving the Spanish peaks on my left.

The passage of this mountain was very difficult.  The snow in many places ten or fifteen feet deep, and was only by the most untiring exertion on the part of the command in beating down the drifting snow that a track was formed. The command reached this Post on the 9^th inst.

Subjoined are the minutes of the council, and two letters from the U. States Indian Agent, and one from a citizen of the Pueblo.

I am very respectfully your obt. Servt.,

B.L. Beall, Major, 1^st Dragoons Comy

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Thomas Fitzpatrick to Beall

Bents Fort, February 2, 1849

Sir

Being at the Puebla a few days ago on my way to the Katty [?] I learned that you were en route for this place, and being apprehensive that some difficulty might arise out of your mission I thought it best to return and be present. There are great numbers of Indians in this vicinity at present all of which are exceedingly civil, but should you be obliged to resort to harsh measures in regard to the Mexican prisoners I doubt much whether they will remain civil longer than your presence will keep them in awe. Such a state of things, you are aware will leave many American citizens in a very dangerous situation in this country. But I hope that your judicious management in the matter will not leave the least appearance of danger behind. Your arrival here at this time is very opportune for more reasons than one, as four Comanche Chiefs suing for peace have just arrived.

You may rely implicitly on my cooperation with you and would be glad if you could arrive here in advance of your command in order that we might confer together on the whole subject.

Thos. Fitzpatrick

I have just arrived last night late in haste.

Thomas Fitzpatrick to Beall

Bents Fort, February 24, 1849

Sir, For the purpose of fulfilling, and carrying out the 4^th article of the late treaty between the United States and Mexico (which obligates the United States to liberate and restore to Mexico all persons in possession of Indians residing within the territories of the United States), being the object of your visit here at present, with your command. I hope you will not consider me presuming too much if I take the opportunity of submitting my opinion and views on a matter which so deeply interests the general government, as well as many American citizens whose business leads them into this remote and unprotected region.

I am not aware, nor do I make pretentions of possessing any power or authority whatever that could give one a right to interfere in the smallest degree with the performance of your duty or instructions. On the contrary I feel bound by duty as well as inclination to cooperate with and aid you to the utmost of my abilities, and inasmuch as I consider myself acquainted with the disposition, manners, customs, habits and prospects of the Indian tribes of this country, as well as the situations of the whites thereby, I respectfully lay before you the following statement in order that you may thus more readily decide on the most proper course to pursue.

There is immediately in the vicinity of this place at the present time, a portion of several tribes—Cheyenne’s, Kiowas, Aripahoes [sic], Apache, and a delegation of Comanche Chiefs now in this fort who have first arrived and are immediately suing for peace with the American people. Of all these tribes, the Kiowas are the only tribe who have prisoners amongst them, and I am quite certain that they will never surrender them without ransom of by force of arms, which if resorted to will not only cause the death of some of the prisoners, but will drive them once more into an inveterate state of hostility against us. What is meant by force of arms causing the deaths of a part of the prisoners is that, whenever the Indians are attacked on their account, those having any in possession will immediately will put all those to death whom they suppose have any inclination to leave them. A similar effect with a like policy will be produced on the Comanche, who have, perhaps more Mexican prisoners than all the others put together, and are now, as before observed, within this fort seeking the “olive branches”. But the greatest difficulty which I perceive you are likely to meet with in the accomplishment of the object of the present campaign is that the Indians are so scattered and interspersed, that in making an attack on any encampment you will liable to injure necessarily olf each of the above tribes and thereby embroil yourself with the whole.

In bringing to you notice all of the foregoing considerations you will perceive that I have said little or nothing in regard to the very dangerous, and precarious situation which such a state of affairs as I have referred to, would place many American citizens pursuing a lawful and laudably, and laudable business in this country. But the many disasters and misfortunes which American citizens have been subjected to in this country, are well known, yet up to this moment there has never been the slightest effort made towards their protection, or redress for wrongs.

The foregoing is but a brief and hasty writing of what is likely may arise out of any attempt to obtain the Mexican prisoners by force of arms. Indeed, the whole matter seems to be so different from the first and various usages of the United States government towards the red man, that I can with difficulty, and only because coming from so respectable source, realize or believe the fact. It is well known that any thing taken in war by Indians, according to their notions is of more value than any other sort of property, inasmuch as it becomes a portion of the history and fame of the warrior.

When I first became acquainted with the article of the treaty which is the subject of this letter I at once came to the conclusion that congress as soon as practicably devise and means for its fulfillment, by appointing commissioners, or agents to treat with the friendly tribes and thereby accomplish the object amicably. I wish to be understood as having no objection whatever to any thing or course you may see proper to pursue. I only beg to be allowed to say that this is not the proper season of the year to accomplish this object in view, over winter, is your command sufficiently strong in case of a union of the bands now almost together, as it were in one camp on the river.

If the antiquated term dragoon manages to appear in current literature, it may conjure, to some, images of antiquated mounted troops, fighting in antediluvian European wars of a forgotten past; to others, the forcing of somebody to do something he doesn’t want to do.

The word has its origin on the fields of battles fought five hundred years ago. Mounted warriors using missile weapons, such as bows, have their roots in ancient times. Soon after the introduction of firearms in the 15^th Century, there appeared mounted sharpshooters who discarded their traditional mounted weapons of sabre, bow or lace and chose to fight with the arquebus, were dominated arquebusiers a cheval. [i] The term “Dragoon” came into popular use during the European wars of the 16^th Century to describe this hybrid military formation, mounted on horse who rode to where they were needed on a battlefield, dismounted, and fought on foot with their firearms. Because they were well mounted and armed with longarms, these soldiers could often reach an important location or cover a retreat than faster foot soldiers. In this capacity, dragoons came to represent an amalgam of infantry and cavalry. Their short-barreled muskets sometimes featured a dragon–shaped side plate. Comparing these swift-moving troops, who used fire-spitting weapons, to dragons of fable, the Count of Mansfeldt fashioned the name “Dragonieres”, shortened to “Dragoons” to describe them.[ii] Armies soon equipped dragoons with sabres in addition to firearms and put them to use as shock troops.[iii]

The Napoleonic era brought with it revolutionary changes in the use of dragoons. Cavalry, armed with sabre and pistol, had long did their fighting in the saddle. Most European armies came to the realization that all mounted soldiers should remain in the saddle and not be trained to fight dismounted. Enlightened generals came to realize swords and spurs encumbered a soldier attempting to fight on foot; there was a need to protect the horses when fighting dismounted and this necessarily reduced the size of the force; and the training recruits to perform double duty of fighting mounted as well on foot is time consuming.[iv] The infant military of the United States balked the trend of European armies. Until mounted forces were fully mechanized in 1941, they used their horses to ride to where they were needed, and then did most of their fighting on foot.

There was a time in our nation’s early history that dragoons formed a important part of the army. Trooper James Hildreth wrote in 1836, “The regiment of the United States dragoons forms, although a small, yet conspicuous portion of the American army.”[v] Then, in August of 1861, the War Department, caught in the grip of the Civil War, merged the nation’s two dragoon regiments with its two cavalry and a mounted rifle regiment, added a new cavalry regiment, forming a corps of six regiments of cavalry. The First Dragoons became the First Cavalry and the term dragoon, henceforth, disappeared as a designation of regular army formations. With these steps, the appellation dragoon, in effect. disappeared from the name of federal military formations, but from everyday speech.

[ii] Nolan, Cavalry, 39; Peter Schmidt: Hall’s Military Breechloaders (Lincoln: Andrew Mowbray, 1996) 57; Theophilus Rodenbough. From Everglade to Canyon with the Second United States Cavalry: An Authentic Account of Service in Florida, Mexico, Virginia and the Indian Country, 1836-1875 (Reprinted Norman: University of Oklahoma Press 2000) 8.

[iii] Nolan, Cavalry, 38. The American army later added a light howitzer to the dragoon’s arsenal, allowing this versatile corps to encompass all three combat arms: horse, foot, and artillery. John Elting, A Dictionary of Soldier Talk (New York: The Scribner Press 1984) 90

[iv] Nolan, Cavalry, 39.

[v] James Hildeth is the putative name most historians have given to the anonymous author of Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains: Being a History of Enlistment, Organization, and First Campaigns of the Regiment of United States Dragoons; Together with the Incidents of a Soldier’s Life and Sketches of Scenery and Indian Character (New York: Wiley & Long, 1836). 111. One writer expresses doubt that Hildreth, having due to a physical disability to have left the service prior to the expedition depicted in the book, was not the author. (Joseph B. Thoburn, “Dragoon Campaigns to the Rocky Mountains” Chronicle of Oklahoma, Vol. 8, 1930, 35.

THE FIRST DRAGOONS AND FORT STANTON CAVE

By Mike Bilbo (Outdoor Recreation Planner/Cave Specialist, BLM-Socorro Field Office)

Prologue

In 1855, a patrol of the 1st Dragoons from Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory, explore a large limestone cave located about one mile north of the fort. Their horses tied up and under guard, the men slowly and carefully make their way down the steep, loose entry sink talus. At the dripline the musty smell of the cave assails them. The soldiers are dressed in the military clothing typical of the period: white wool shirts under dark blue wool shell jackets, sky blue wool kersey trousers supported by cotton galluses, leather boots, and either non-descript campaign hats, brims flopped down in the slouched style of the western hat, or M1839 forage caps.

Down they descend into a dark, dank cavern for the first time – the first white men to explore this cave. Down into the gloom, carrying bulky whale oil lamps, ropes, haversacks, tin canteens, their heavy .44 caliber pistols belted around their waists and maybe carrying their musketoons, too. These men are young but they’re veterans – tough ‘ombres all right – they’ve been in some fights with Apaches, Comanches and Comancheros. They take it slow and cautious. Their lantern lights – their only outside reminder – flicker dimly on the walls, casting grotesque shadows all about.

Following a main passage south and east, the patrol treads first through mud and water, and then up onto massive piles of limestone blocks covered by white, powdery rubble – one of them mutters, “Shore and tis the Gates o’ Hell.” Another: “Nein, das ist der Backbone oaf zee Teufel.” Devil’s Backbone, an apt name in an appropriate place. “Knock it off and keep your eyes and ears open!” hisses the corporal. They continue the scout.

Caving is a part of their duty – they must understand all aspects of the topography they are to patrol in the coming years. Fort Stanton has been established to protect regional settlers from Plains Comanche and the nearby Mescalero Apache. Somewhere in the Guadalupe-Sacramento-Capitan mountain chain lies a cave the Apaches hold sacred. It is where the Mountain Spirits protected some Mescaleros from certain death. This event is commemorated every year by the dance of the Mountain Spirits. Religion is powerful medicine for any people. The military strategy is harsh and simple: destroy their religion and subsistence – there is a chance you can subdue the people – maybe.

Is this the cave…?

After some 1,200 feet of slow, careful progress and a slippery climb up a steep 20-foot mud slope, they are suddenly faced with a choice: the main passage bears away north and east, while to their right it pinches down into a crawl way. Being adventurous troopers, this intrepid band of recent recruits from Governor’s Isle, which includes some immigrant Germans and a Scot, choose the crawlway. On hands and knees, carrying their lanterns by the bales between their teeth and dragging their gear behind them, they enter a broad, low passage and behold a most amazing sight: like a carpet of grass, thousands and thousands of crystal clear gypsum needles, each almost a foot high, fill the passage.

The Dragoons push forward, but out of respect for this wonder of nature, they keep their passage shoulder-width only. This is not new to the Germans – they caved many times in Bavaria only a few years before. 600 feet later the party exits the crawl and stands up, “Let’s take five for a lit.” The soldiers have just come out of Crystal Crawl and are relaxing at the beginning of Decoration Passage.

Introduction

So in March, 1975, one hundred twenty years later, with three friends, I go on one of my first caving trips. With a caving permit from the Bureau of Land Management, we are here in Fort Stanton Cave because we came to look for some reported military names associated with Fort Stanton. We are soldiers ourselves – all members of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Bliss, Texas. The ancestral unit, the illustrious Regiment of Mounted Rifles, had once been stationed at Fort Stanton in the 1850′s. With me is the regimental museum curator, Sgt. Dan Peterson, and his assistants, Specialists Ron Howie and Lisa Meyers. We’re thinking that maybe these reported names can be traced through post returns, hoping they turn out to be Mounted Rifles.

Supposing to be where the names were located and beginning to wonder about the accuracy of directions to the names, we had once again come the same way and had come to the same resting spot. “Well, no names here. Great, just great. Well, let’s push on and see what’s up ahea…Wait! Here they are, here they are! Wow, this great! Look, look at the dates – “1855.” And look at this: “K Co. 1st Dr(agoons) U.S.A.” So we had found the names. Not Mounted Rifles, but close enough.

In 1855 both units worked hand-in-hand in this region. The names were written in a characteristic mid-19th Century style. There were two groups of names, actually. They were etched on a protruding mass of light yellow flowstone and were covered by a transparent mineral layer, which had probably helped preserve them through the years. The layer also helped fix the authenticity of the names.

The Names

One group of six names was associated with the phrase “5 for a lit (or possibly bit),” while the other group of two German names, possibly immigrant-soldiers, was associated with a phrase or sentence: “Caxes Texeher uns Anhalt Deffuer (or De/fuer).” Two dates of 1855 were associated with the latter group. The first group read:

John Lepsey, Washington, Kansas

K, Cherry, John (John Cherry, Company K)

L. Loerhe, K Co. 1 Dr U.S.A. (L. Loerhe, Company K, 1st Dragoons, United States Army)

Victor H. Brown, Tracy City, Tennessee

Horace Belknap, Company B

William Richards, Capitan, New Mexico

The German group read:

E. Fritz 1855 (probably Emil Fritz)

Joseph Meyers, Wiessemberg 1855

The dates 1855 are the year the soldiers visited the cave in conjunction with the establishment and building of Fort Stanton by the 1st Dragoons in March of that year. In each case the individual either listed his unit or his hometown. Follow-up research on the names has been limited, but with some interesting findings. In order to find out more about these men and their relationship to regional or national history, we contacted Marion Grinstead, a noted regional military historian specializing in pre-Civil War frontier military unit histories of West Texas and Southern New Mexico, especially the Mounted Rifles.

Marion obtained microfilm copies of the official post returns from the National Archives pertaining to Fort Stanton in 1855. With special reference to the location of Companies B and K, Marion was able to confirm that these were members of the 1st Dragoons. Because of this fact, Fort Stanton Cave is nationally significant relative to the garrisoning of the West by the U.S. Army in this time period, when many other forts were also built.

While Marion was not able to follow up on the personal histories of each man, she feels quite confidant she has identified four of the men. The one, “E. Fritz,” is almost certainly Emil Fritz, who rose from private to colonel in and around southern New Mexico, and retired into business at Lincoln town in partnership with Messrs. Murphy and Dolan; in the late 1870′s he played a significant role in the Lincoln County Wars. His descendants remain in the Lincoln vicinity to this day! The following section is Marion’s notes on the Fort Stanton Post Returns:

Analysis of the Military Names in Fort Stanton Cave, Prepared for Mike Bilbo by Marion Grinstead, April, 1975

The Captain of Company K (and post commander), 1st Dragoons was James H. Carleton, one of the truly (to my notion) outstanding military men in New Mexico during the Civil War. He received his baptism of fire along the plains of Mexico during the Mexican War, 1846-48. The 1st Lieutenant was D.H. Hastings, at this time not present; and the 2nd Lieutenant was A.B. Chapman, also not present. Carleton was in command and present when they arrived at what would become the site of Fort Stanton, and remained in command until they left.

March – July, 1855: March 19 Co. K left Albuquerque March 19th and camped in the Gallinas Mountains, New Mexico. March 31/55.

April 1, 1855: Departed Camp in the Gallinas Mountains and arrived at Camp Garland, Rio Bonito, N.M. April 6.

May – June, 1855: Fort Stanton.

July 16, 1855: Left Fort Stanton, N.M.

July 21, 1855: Arrived at Albuquerque, N.M.

The above is all carried on the face of the Regimental Return. There is no other information regarding the men, i.e., they were not on Extra Duty or Daily Duty during this period, nor were they on Detached Service.

One interesting reference was to a Corporal Brown who was on Extra Duty, but there were several Browns, though no Victor H. They do not indicate that a corporal by this name was discharged in the five years examined. However, I do not suppose this to be really important – there were one or two names omitted (and noted by the Washington office to which these returns were sent) and were apparently never picked up.

Discharged, 1 January 1856: Emil Fritz, Sgt, Co. K, Reenlisted in Regiment same date. Last muster, 1861. Company K then at Albuquerque.

Discharged, 15 February 1856: John Cherry, Pvt, Co. K. No reenlistment. Company K at Albuquerque.

Discharged, 12 February 1858: Joseph Myer, Bugler, K, at Ft. Buchanan, New Mexico (Arizona). Reenlisted same date and place. (After looking at Mike’s photos of this particular name, I am convinced this is his “Meyers” – “Myer” is probably a clerical error.

Discharged, 26 February 1858: Louis Loeslie, Pvt, K, at Ft. Buchanan, New Mexico. No reenlistment. (Again, after careful examination of Mike’s photos, I am sure this is his “Loerhe.” There are no other names which fit, and in this instance – bless that old trooper – he added his company and regiment!).

ä Enlistments during this period were for five years. Therefore the first muster dates may possibly be

determined by subtracting from the discharge date.

ä From Returns from Regular Army Cavalry Regiments, 1833-1916. Microcopy 744. Rolls 4 and 5, First Cavalry, 1851-1859 and 1860-1866.

ä So Emil Fritz was 23 years old when he scratched his name on the Decoration Passage wall – and the time he did it can be pinned down to a few months. ——————Marion Grinstead

The 1st Patrol

A common, mostly true story, has an 1855 —œCavalry— (actually, 1st Dragoon) patrol looking for Apaches, finding ponies tied near the cave entrance, and finding moccasin tracks leading into the Fort Stanton Cave entrance. The soldiers did not actually see the Apaches enter the cave but assumed they were in the cave and set up a picket to starve them out. Later, the same group of Apaches is seen by soldiers trying to make for their ponies. It is probable that the soldiers—™ assumptions about the Indians

actually being in the cave were erroneous. The nature of the entry sink is such that the skillful Apaches could well have slipped out a certain area of the sink while the troops entered the other. Area lore has it that the Apaches exited from another entrance.

To date there is no evidence of a second entrance and the geology does not seem to support this. For the last 50 years cavers have thoroughly explored, documented and mapped the cave to a length of about eight miles (the third longest in New Mexico). This has been careful, step-by-step documentation and every physical lead has been followed. There is plenty of evidence of a Pleistocene

entrance in the north part of the cave due to vertebrate bones found in a certain area in the cave of which there is a sink depression on the surface directly overhead, although separated by 100 feet of limestone. However, never say never. In late 2001 cavers broke through into a new passage, the Snowy River section, so named due to a rare calcite floor area where once there was a water pool.

It is quite possible that the 1st Dragoon Name Site is the only record, though not recorded in any document, of the entry by the soldiers following the Apaches.

Fort Stanton and Mounted Forces in 1855

The 1st and 2nd Dragoons and Mounted Rifle regiments were closely related for, in 1855, the U.S. Army’s mounted frontier regulars consisted of the 1st and 2nd Dragoon regiments and the Regiment of Mounted Rifles. The three units were veterans of recent combat, having seen hard action throughout the Mexican War, 1846-1848. They were posted in the borderlands frontier west during the 1850′s for security and exploration purposes. In 1862 these units were redesignated the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Cavalry regiments respectively.

A Brief History of Union Cavalry (Eric Wittenberg: Www.civilwarcavalry.com)

Civil War armies consisted of three major components: infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Cavalry played a major role. It’s primary role was to support the infantry and artillery, gathering intelligence, scouting, screening the movements of the army, and serving as the “eyes and ears of the army.” As the war dragged on, the Federal cavalry’s role changed. Instead of scouting and screening, the primary role became that of an offensive weapon. By the end of the Civil War, the Northern cavalry had become one of the most fearsome offensive forces that the world had ever seen.

In 1861, with the coming of the war, the United States Army had several mounted units. The oldest was the First Dragoons, formed in the 1830′s. In the 1840′s, a second regiment of Dragoons was formed, followed by the Regiment of Mounted Rifles. In the 1850′s, the 1st US Cavalry was formed, which was followed by the 2nd US Cavalry in 1856. Dragoons combined most aspects of both light cavalry and mounted infantry. They carried a weapon known as a musketoon in the early days, which was a shortened musket. Later, they carried carbines. Dragoons used their horses to move them from place to place, not for fighting. Most, if not all, of their fighting was done dismounted. Light cavalry served an entirely different purpose. It was primarily intended to scout and screen an army’s advance, and do whatever fighting it did do mounted, typically using either the saber or pistols.

Col. Phillip St. George Cooke of the 2nd Dragoons is generally considered to be the father of the U. S.

Cavalry. In the 1850′s, he wrote the tactics manual that governed the operations of the U. S. Army’s mounted forces. In 1861, with the coming of the Civil War, the US Army reorganized its mounted arm. The 1st Dragoons became the 1st US Cavalry, the 2nd Dragoons became the 2nd US Cavalry, the Regiment of Mounted Rifles became the 3rd US Cavalry, which served in the West, the 1st US Cavalry became the 4th US Cavalry (which also served in the Western Theatre), and the 2nd US Cavalry became the 5th US Cavalry, which was a fine unit. A new regiment was recruited in the summer of 1861, which became the 6th US Cavalry, which was the only Regular cavalry regiment formed during the Civil War. Its men came from the area around Pittsburgh, who typically enlisted for a term of five rather than three years.

On August 10, the Adjutant General’s Office General Order No. 55 re-designated the regular army’s mounted units as follows:

The 1st Dragoons – 1st US Cavalry

The 2nd Dragoons – 2nd US Cavalry

The Mounted Rifles – 3rd US Cavalry

The 1st US Cavalry – 4th US Cavalry

The 2nd US Cavalry – 5th US Cavalry

The 3rd US Cavalry – 6th US Cavalry

Fort Stanton & Fort Stanton Cave Chronology

Jul 26, 1851: Lawrence Murphy enlists in the Army at Buffalo, New York.

Jan,1855: Captain Stanton in command of a 1st U.S. Dragoon column, is ambushed and killed by Mescalero Apaches on the Rio Penasco at a location between Cloudcroft and Artesia.

Mar, 1855: Co. K, 1st Regiment, U.S. Dragoon members – privates Emil Fritz, bugler Joseph Myers, Victor Brown, John Lepsey, Horace Belknap, John Cherry, Louis Loeslie inscribe their names, unit and date on a wall of Fort Stanton Cave 3/4 mile in!

May 4, 1855: Fort Stanton established at present location by Col. Dixon S. Miles, 3rd U.S. Infantry. Fort named in honor of Captain Stanton.

Jun 3, 1859: Land around the fort established by Executive Order as “Fort Stanton Reservation.”

Jul 27, 1861: Strong federal force of 450 men at Fort Fillmore (Las Cruces) abandons post due to disposition of Major Isaac Lynde, 7th U.S. Infantry. Federals start across Organ Mountains to Fort Stanton.

Jul 28, 1861: Because Major Lynde surrenders his force of 400+ to Lt. Col John R. Baylor’s 258-man column at San Augustine Springs, Fort Stanton cannot be reenforced.

Aug 2, 1861: Union force at Fort Stanton abandons and partially burn some buildings upon learning of situation at Fort Fillmore – join in other withdrawals toward Rio Grande Valley and Fort Craig.

Aug 13, 1861: Confederate troops under Scurry ransack Placitas after federal abandonment of Fort Stanton. Shortly after, elements of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles occupy Fort Stanton.

Sep 9, 1861: Confederate troops abandon Fort Stanton after the federal victory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.

Oct 16, 1862: Col. Kit Carson and five companies of the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Cavalry/Infantry Regiment (now the New Mexico Army National Guard) reoccupy Fort Stanton and begin renovating the post.

Nov 18, 1869: In one of the first major actions of the early Indian Wars, Lieutenants Cushing and Yeaton and a 32-man troop of the 3rd U.S. Cavalry from Fort Stanton raid a Mescalero Apache rancheria in the rugged Guadalupe Mountains, destroying tons of food stockpiled for the winter months.

Aug 7, 1872: Fort Stanton Reservation, except fort, transferred to the Department of the Interior.

Sep 30, 1873: Post traders Murphy and Company evicted from Fort Stanton for cheating the

government.

Feb 2, 1874: Mescalero Apache Reservation established on lands surrounding Fort Stanton.

Aug 21,1877: Wheeler Expedition (U.S.Survey of the Territories) explores and maps Fort Stanton Cave with members of the Fifth U.S. Infantry. Names with dates can be seen in cave.

Dec 18, 1877: Buffalo Soldiers of Companies F and M, 9th Cavalry sent to El Paso, Texas to assist troops from Fort Davis in quelling racial fighting of the El Paso Salt War.

Feb 21, 1878: Company H, 9th Cavalry and Company H, 15th Infantry sent to Lincoln to preserve peace and prevent bloodshed.

Apr 5, 1878: Col. Nathan Dudley assumes command at Fort Stanton.

Apr 20, 1878: Four soldiers 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers sent to Lincoln to assist sheriff John Copeland in keeping peace after killing of Sheriff Brady by Billy the Kid.

Jul 15, 1878: “Five Day War” begins in Lincoln. Col. Dudley and force of 9th Cavalry and 15th Infantry travel from Fort Stanton to Lincoln to quell the Five-Day War. Brought Gatling gun and 12-pound mountain howitzer.

Jul 19, 1878: Lincoln. Day of the “Big Killing.” McSween house burned, McSween and five men killed, with troops who were supposed to be intervening, looking on.

Mar 6, 1879: Regulators, including Billy the Kid, arrested and taken to Fort Stanton.

Mar 10, 1879: Stanton troops sent to vicinity of Seven Rivers (Carlsbad) to prevent rustling and retrieve stolen cattle.

Sep 4, 1879: Victorio leads Apaches off Mescalero Reservation. Victorio Campaign starts with coordinated movement of troops throughout region.

May 19, 1882: New Mescalero Apache Reservation established in present location.

Aug 26, 1887: 2nd Lieutenant John J. (“Blackjack”) Pershing arrived at Fort Stanton – assigned to Troop L, 6th Cavalry. The nickname “Blackjack” given to him at Stanton —“ several colorful version of nickname origin. Participates in the U.S. Army’s first ever “War Games.” Names associated with 6th Cavalry and 8th Cavalry (Ft. Bayard) can be seen in cave.

May 30, 1888: 10th Infantry arrives at Fort Stanton as the 6th Cavalry departs.

Apr 9, 1891: The Great Divide Expedition consisting of three 10th Infantry Band members at Stanton make a three-day journey in Fort Stanton and publish the results in the Great Divide Newspaper of Colorado Springs, Colorado: “Three Days and Nights Spent Among the Wonders of a Midnight World.” Names with dates can be seen in cave.

Oct 28, 1895: General Order No. 56 orders the abandonment of Fort Stanton, with the establishment of the Mescalero Apache Reservation.

Aug 17, 1896: To Adjutant General: “Sir, I have the honor to report that detachments at this post were withdrawn today and therefore no further returns will be rendered.” Lt. William Black, 24th Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers).

Apr 1, 1899: Fort Stanton transferred to the U.S. Marine Health Service (now the U.S. Public Health Service) as a hospital to treat Merchant Marine victims of tuberculosis. Names with dates can be seen in cave.

Aug 16, 1956: Fort Stanton transferred to the New Mexico State Department of Public Welfare as tuberculosis clinic. Surrounding 26,381 acres transferred to Bureau of land Management.

Jun 22, 1970: NMSU signed cooperative agreement with BLM to conduct range and wildlife research for 20 years.

Aug 10, 1963: Lincoln Cavern, first major find since 1855 in Fort Stanton Cave, is discovered.

1975: Fort Stanton Cave designated as a National Natural Landmark

Nov 22, 1975: Bilbo party of cavers record names and 1855 date of 1st Dragoon soldiers who established Fort Stanton – reports find to BLM (see Mar 21, 1855).

Oct, 2001: John McLean, Lloyd Swartz, Andrew Grieco & Don Becker, Fort Stanton Cave Study Project, discover Starry Nights and Snowy River passages.

July, 2003: After completing detailed environmental assessment, BLM cave specialist Mike Bilbo and lead researcher John Corcoran coordinate first Fort Stanton Cave Study Project scientific and survey trips to Snowy River.

2003-present: Fort Stanton Cave Study Project continues to research and document natural and cultural history of Fort Stanton Cave National Natural Landmark. Bilbo currently documenting all known inscription sites —“ 18 so far.

Fort Stanton Cave is closed to public visitation annually from Nov. 1 to April 15 due bat hibernation. For permit information, please write or call: Cave Specialist, BLM-Roswell Field Office, 2902 West 2nd Street, Roswell, NM 88201-2019. 505-627-0278/0272

Will Gorenfeld and George Stammerjohan
copyright April 5, 2008

Artill’ry at a distance play,
And troopers often clear the way—”
A skirmish sharp, a pistol shot
The quick retreat in rapid trot;
The foe advances, light and free;
Who meets them now? The Infantry!
Though other corps are dear to me
Yet most I prize the Infantry.
The Infantry by Captain Barnard Bee (United States Infantry)

All too frequently, military historians are quick to dismiss the role played by the Infantry stationed in the antebellum West. They would give one the impression that the Infantry was simply relegated to garrison duty. This is not true. The “Dough Foots” were active participants in many battles: Live Oak Springs, Four Lakes, Ash Hollow, Fort Mohave, and Truckee River. In California, the mounted arm fought but few actions; the foot soldier, meanwhile, participated in nearly every battle and skirmish.
Antebellum California
With the conclusion of the United States-Mexican War in 1848, the U.S. had expanded its borders to the Pacific Ocean. This increase in territory would soon create major problems for the federal government. At the end of the war, the volunteers mustered out, and the regular Army reverted to its authorized pre-war strength of 10,310 soldiers. Once again the US Infantry consisted of eight regiments, numbering 4,464 men.
In 1848, there was stationed but a single company of 3d Artillery and five companies of Dragoons to protect the newly conquered territory of California. Their numbers were reduced further when quick riches to be made in the gold fields lured many of the $11.00 per month troopers to desert their camps.
The two senior officers in California, Brevet Major General Bennet Riley (of the 2d Infantry and Military Governor), and Brevet Major General Persifor F. Smith (Regiment of Mounted Rifles), found a way to decrease the number of desertions by moving their men to the western edge of the diggings. As long as camp duties were completed in the mornings, soldiers were allowed to prospect for gold work in the afternoon. Soldiers stationed at San Diego and Fort Yuma on the Colorado River were given 60-day furloughs to try their hands at mining. Most soldiers, after several weeks of mining the cold rivers of the Sierra Nevada and backbreaking work for a few dollars, quickly returned to their companies and desertion to the mines was dramatically reduced.
This was not an especially good time for the cutback of a strong military presence in California. How would a population of some 7,000 Californios, former citizens of Mexico, react to the change of governments? There were also unfounded rumors of civil unrest, riots, and Hispanic forces organizing on both sides of the international border, ready to drive the Yankees out of California.
And then there was California’s Native American population. For years prior to the Mexican-American War, the Californios had been steadily losing parts of their domain to the native tribesmen who inhabited the interior regions of California. In some areas, it was dangerous for even an armed man to travel alone. Tribes such as the Yokuts and Miwoks had become highly accomplished raiders of livestock, routinely stealing stock from the sprawling ranches near the villages of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose and San Luis Obispo.
With the discovery of gold, swarms of contentious settlers poured into the interior valleys and foothills where most Native Americans lived. Viewed as a hindrance to mining and ranching operations, the Golden State—™s original inhabitants were often ruthlessly hunted, slaughtered, and enslaved; their economies disrupted, villagers driven from their homes, food sources destroyed.
Some scholars estimate that, prior to the Gold Rush, there were 100,000 Native Americans in California. By 1860, California’s Native American population had declined to 32,000. This was the most monstrous destruction of any group of Native Americans in the history of the United States.
When the natives stole cattle in order to feed themselves or retaliated for the murder of tribesmen, settlers were quick to call for army protection. The military was repeatedly sent in to punish the Native Americans and keep them away from the settlers. Of these engagements, special agent J. Ross Browne would write, “The federal government, as is usual in cases where lives of valuable voters are at stake, was forced to interfere. Troops were sent out to aid the settlers in slaughtering the Indians.”
But on other occasions, troops were detailed to protect the natives from vigilantes or militia groups. It was very confusing for everyone. An officer wrote: “Our Indian war is over for the present, and I do not think will be revived unless the whites commit more murders. The Indians look to us as their protectors. The stories that I have heard of the outrages perpetrated by the whites would be incredible were they not well vouched for. The Indians are naturally quiet and would continue so if left alone.”
Most of the battles in California, from a military point of view, were minor skirmishes. For the starving and impoverished native peoples of California, however, these battles were devastating.
A typical skirmish involved Company G, of the 2d Infantry at Fort Miller. Two members of a Yokuts triblet were accused of stealing an ox from a settler in the vicinity of the town of Visalia. On December 8th of 1853, Lt. John Nugent departed the fort with a detachment of 14 men and marched south to the Yokuts village. The troops marched at night march through the foothills of the western Sierras, reaching the village at daybreak. Nugent reported that when they surprised the encampment at dawn’s first light, “[t]he Indians were much frightened; nonetheless a few commenced shooting their arrows at the men. Their fire was promptly returned, killing two and wounding several others . . .”
The 2d Infantry: the first to serve in post-war California
The 2d U.S. Infantry was one of the last regiments of regulars to leave Mexico. The regiment had barely settled into its station at Fort Hamilton near New York City, when orders arrived directing that it be recruited up to strength. In the winter of 1848-1849, the 2d Infantry set sail for California, via Rio Janeiro, Cape Horn and Valparaiso.
By early summer of 1849, companies of the 2d Infantry were scattered about central California, along trails leading to the gold diggings or the entry into California. One company of the 2d was escorting Brevet Major Emory’s survey of the California/Mexican border. The entire force in the department was estimated to be about 650 men.
In 1850, a company of the 2d Infantry, under the command of Captain Lovell, were garrisoned the Rancho Chino. This outpost, located a few miles east of Pueblo Los Angeles, was to prevent raids coming through Cajon Pass from the Mojave Desert. Some citizens may have been impressed enough with the uniform, but not with the 2d Infantry’s alacrity. Years later, Los Angeles lawman Horace Bell recalled that the troops at Jurupa were “well-fed, clean shaved, white cotton-gloved, nicely dressed, lazy, fat fellows, who were seemingly happy and content on their $8.00 per month . . . They all, from Captain to Corporal, seemed resigned to a life of well-fed indolence. . . Every military collar at Jurupa must stand with the most mathematical uprightness; every button, every brogan, and every military tin cup, be burnished daily.”
Ranger Bell, of course, loved to criticize the regulars and frequently spun exaggerated tale after tale of how his posse boldly chased down outlaws. In truth, Bell and his rangers spent much of their time holed up at the saloons of the Pueblo of Los Angeles in pursuit of liquid courage.
In May of 1850, Lieutenant and Brevet Captain Nathaniel Lyon marched a battalion of 2d Infantry along with a company of 1st Dragoons from Benicia Barracks to the northern shore of Clear Lake. Pomo tribesmen had killed a couple of disreputable white men who had been enslaving some of their people. Lyon was under orders to punish the tribes responsible for these murders. He did not bother to determine which was the guilty band and attacked the first Pomo village that he discovered.
The Pomos took refuge on an island surrounded by tules. Lyons sent his men wading across the marshy bog, cartridge boxes and muskets held over their heads as they reached the island. Firing at close range targets, the troops ruthlessly slew over a hundred men, women and children. Witnesses later claimed that the water of Clear Lake turned red. Thereafter, the land mass became known as “Bloody Island.”
Marching to the headwaters of the Russian River, Captain Lyon’s command cornered another band of Pomos in what he called a “perfect slaughter pen.” Lyon confidently wrote that his men killed “not less than seventy-five, and have little doubt to nearly double that number.”
In I851, witnessed the Antonio Garra uprising of desert tribes in Southern California. Joshua Bean of the California Militia sought to suppress this rebellion and complained to the Governor that Captain Lovell’s troops at Rancho Jurupa “are unable to render any assistance, as they are not mounted nor have they suitable arms and are short of ammunition.”
Indeed, these troops of the 2d were quite capable. While the erstwhile general contemplated his options within the safe confines of Los Angeles, part of the 2d Infantry led by Captain and Brevet Major Samuel Heintzleman marched swiftly across the lower Mojave Desert and, on December 20, 1851, killed two leaders of a band of Cahuillas in Los Coyotes Canyon and ended the uprising.
During the ensuing months, Heintzleman’s hard-marching troops cris-crossed the parched sands of the Mohave, re-established Fort Yuma on the Colorado River, and engaged the Yuman tribe in a series of skirmishes.
In late 1853, the companies of the 2d in California were broken up. Officers and non-commissioned officers sailed east to reorganize the regiment. The enlisted men—”most of whom had less than a year left in their enlistments–remained in California and were sent to serve with the other regiments stationed in the Department of the Pacific.
1851 Uniform Regulations: The French look.
Our army is a motley crew
In dress and armour, duties too,
And each and all I love to see–
But most I love the Infantry.

Those first infantry troops to arrive in California wore a uniform mostly unchanged from that worn during the Seminole and Mexican Wars: a powder blue shell jacket, with a high collar, trimmed in white, light blue kersey wool trousers, white buff belts, and a Model 1839 fatigue cap. Given that Army storehouses were filled to the brim with these uniforms and that the 1851 regulations allowed “articles of the old uniform already manufactured for enlisted men [to be] used until exhausted . . . altered, so far as practicable, to correspond with the new pattern,” the quartermaster would continue to distribute them for years to come.
The 1850′s would prove to be a period of experimentation in weaponry and uniform. In 1851, regulations for a uniform were prescribed for the entire army. The new attire would be based upon the French Army design of 1844: a dark blue frock coat that came down halfway to the knees with a single row of nine buttons. The coat’s cuffs and collars were to match the color of the branch of service. On the front of the collar, in yellow metal and 1″ in height, was the number of the regiment. On each shoulder of the infantryman, light blue worsted epaulettes were to be worn.
The branch color for the infantry was Saxony or light blue, replacing the white worn by infantry since the days of the Revolution. Under the 1851 Regulations, the cuffs, collar, pom pom, and epaulettes for the Infantry would be light blue. The light blue trousers had a 1/8″ dark blue stripe.
The infantryman carried a black bridle leather cartridge box that was slung over his left shoulder by means of a black buff strap. Inside of the cartridge box were 40 paper wrapped cartridges. Attached to a black buff leather waist belt, measuring 1.5 inches wide and 38.5 inches long were a percussion cap pouch and a bayonet scabbard.
As for headgear, the army introduced a 6 1/2″ tall, stiff shako of dark blue cloth, with a crown that slightly sloped forward, and topped off with a round pom pom. For infantry, the hat sported a light blue band. The ungainly hat was authorized for all purposes: full dress, fatigue, and campaign. Each soldier was to be issued seven hats during the course of his five-year enlistment.
The shako was not especially popular with the troops. A colonel wrote to the Adjutant General complaining that the new shako was entirely unsuitable for service, being heavy, hot, and painful to the head when used in the sun, wind, or at a rapid gait; incommodes the soldier in the use of his arms, as well as in all fatigue duties.
Some Infantry officers complained: “In the light infantry drill, even with the assistance of the chin strap, it has been found impossible to keep the cap properly on the head, and from the nature of material of which it is made, it soon becomes shapeless and unfitted for parade purposes.” Resourceful soldiers would often remove the cardboard lining and thereby convert the ungainly shako into an early version of the kepi.
The regulations of 1851 Regulations notwithstanding, the troops stationed out West often were dressed in whatever clothes they were issued or purchased on their own. When Colonel Joseph Mansfield, Inspector General, toured the Department of the Pacific in 1854, he often failed to write in his reports how the troops were dressed. This would suggest that Mansfield ignoring the shabby and obsolete uniforms. Only at Ft. Redding, at the upper end of the Sacramento Valley, did he report that both the company from the 3d Artillery and the men from the 4th Infantry were properly dressed in the 1851 uniform.
Uniform regulations went completely by the board when the troops were in the field. One might find the troops wearing anything from blue checkered shirts to red bib-front miner’s blouses. Sergeant Eugene Bandel of the Sixth Infantry described the typical uniform worn on campaign in 1857 as consisting of a broad brim hat, with white canvas trousers, and a woolen shirt worn on the outside like a coat.
A mule-mounted column of 2d Infantry under Brevet Major Henry W. Wessels, heading into the Sierras to the east of modern day Red Bluff appeared as “being one-well armed party of miners.” When the observer got a closer look, he noticed that “those soldiers ain’t got a bit of uniform except polished muskets.” In 1857, a Southern California rancher spotted a detachment of 3d Artillerymen, walking across the beach on their way to Mission San Luis Rey “walking barefoot in the sand, their red flannel shirts unbuttoned and each wearing a Mexican straw hat.”
Officers in antebellum California sometimes even incorporated Hispanic garb into their dress. While stationed in Southern California, Second Lieutenant Lieut. Caleb Smith of the 2d Infantry was described as wearing non-regulation Mexican style buckskin leggings (botas de cuerro), sombrero, sash, jangling spurs and calzoneros along with his regulation frock coat.
Mansfield noted that the troops at Ft. Humboldt had complained to him that the issue white flannel undershirt had shrinkage problems. He recommended that the troops be issued “coloured flannel [which] does not shrink.”
Regulations of 1854: Brass shoulder scales for the Infantry
The regulations of 1854 called for the replacement of the light blue band on the hat and the light blue cuffs with thin welts. The new regulations also discarded the worsted epaulettes for dress substituting brass shoulder scales in their stead. Of course, it took nearly three years before most Infantry companies on the Pacific Coast received the 1854 uniform.
Often, the brass scales were never issued. Instead, the brass scales were left in a box under the Captain’s bed, or were accidentally lost while an army supply wagon was crossing a river. Broken as well as complete sets of scales are often found by archaeologists in old fort trash pits.
The Model 1842 Musket: the Last of the Smoothbores?
The infantry was generally armed with the 1842 musket. This lengthy (57 13/16 inches) and heavy (9 pounds, 3 ounces) smoothbore arm, with its brightly burnished iron barrel, was the first U.S. musket to employ the use of percussion caps. It used a paper cartridge containing powder and a .63 caliber ball. The musket had an effective aimed range of just about eighty to a hundred yards.
The muskets lacked a rear sight: due to the windage between ball and barrel, aiming at a specific target was a useless act. Grant observed in his memoirs that in using such an arm, “you might fire at a man all day from a distance of 125 yards without him ever finding it out.” It was, indeed, an unfortunate soldier who was stuck by a musket ball fired at him from a range of 125 yards.
In order to compensate for the musket’s lack of accuracy, the men would load buck and ball: a .63 caliber ball and three .31 caliber buckshot. At close range, the musket became a deadly shotgun.
The Model 1842 is occasionally referred to as the last smoothbore arm issued to United States regulars. It wasn—™t. Commencing in 1847, the Springfield Armory turned out the .69 calibre musketoon. This smoothbore weapon, a shortened and lighter form of musket, came in three versions: cavalry, sapper, and artillery. At least one company of the 2d Infantry in California was issued musketoons.
Some of the soldiers who served on the Pacific frontier carried the Model 1841 .54 calibre rifle. This weapon, about a foot shorter in length than the musket, was considered by many to be the finest rifle in any military. Because of the tight fit of the patched ball, it was slow to load—”but deadly accurate when placed into the hands of a trained infantryman.
The Hazardous Journey of the 4th Infantry
Realizing that the 2d Infantry was not strong enough to garrison all of the critical points in California, the War Department sent the 4th Infantry to the Pacific Coast. On July 5, 1852, the 4th Infantry Regiment boarded the old steam ship Ohio and departed New York Harbor, bound for California by way of the Isthmus of Panama. During their trek across the Isthmus, a great many of the party contracted cholera. On August 18th, the Pacific Mail steamship Golden Gate, loaded with the sickly 4th Infantry, arrived in San Francisco Harbor. The regiment lost one hundred and seven men to cholera. Among the survivors was a 4th Infantry brevet captain by the name of Ulysses Grant.
The 9th Infantry: a new regiment for service on the West Coast.
In 1855, Congress authorized two new foot regiments, the 9th and 10th Infantry. The 9th was organized at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, and sailed for California in late 1855 and early 1856. Upon arrival on the West Coast, these men were detailed to the Pacific Northwest. Several companies were immediately in combat in the rain-flooded meadows east of modern Tacoma.
The uniform worn by the 9th Infantry had two distinct attributes. Its frock coat, with a short pleated skirt, was of a French design known as chasseur a pied. The men of the 9th also wore leather suspenders and a rifleman’s belt with a plain double plate.
One interesting myth that has long be been held by many gun collectors is that the 9th Infantry arrived in California armed with the Model 1855 Harper’s Ferry rifle. This is not so. (The only positively identified ’55 rifle sent to the West Coast was received for testing at Fort Tejon, California, where the post butcher promptly appropriated it when he deserted.)
In fact, the 9th regiment sailed from Virginia unarmed. Moreover, the regiment departed for California two and a years before the M1855 rifle existed in sufficient numbers to be issued to any of the troops.
Upon arrival at Benicia Barracks, the 9th was issued Model 1841 Yaeger rifles. Colonel George Wright of the 9th declared the Yeager rifle “the best arm I have ever seen in the hands of a foot soldier.” In 1858, these 1841 rifles were re-bored to fire the new government M-1855 cartridges. The barrels were turned down at the muzzle to take either a long-bladed sword bayonet or the M-1855 musket bayonet. (Since bayonets were rarely used or mentioned in Army reports, and the authors have not had the opportunity to examine “stoppages” against 9th Infantrymen, we cannot say which of the two bayonet types was issued.) In 1860, the 9th Infantry was rearmed with the .58 caliber M-1855 rifle musket.
The Terrifying Voyages of the Third Artillery

In late 1853, the 3d Artillery was alerted for transfer to California and to serve as infantry replacing the departing 2d Infantry. Recruiting was stepped up and the ranks were soon filled. A significant number of new recruits were teenagers fresh from the shores of Ireland, England, and Germany.
The troops were crammed aboard the steamer San Francisco that —œdeparted New York on December 21, 1853, —˜… with light breeze from the southwest and clear weather.—™ On December 24 the weather changed to a —˜… moderate breeze from the west … and heavy rain towards evening.—™ By midnight the weather was very heavy and the San Francisco had lost many sails.— Off of Cape Hatteras, the San Francisco steamed into a monstrous storm, in which “waves rolled mountain high.” The steamer’s engines failed, the ship wallowing helplessly in boiling seas. On the midmorning of December 29, 1853, a giant wave crashed over the upper deck, stripping everything from the deck—”including a cabin in which some 200 artillerymen were sheltered.
When the first rescue boats reached the San Francisco, Colonel Gates quickly jumped aboard and abandoned his men. Following a court martial, he was shelved until 1861. The survivors, scattered around to ports in England, France, and the United States, were slowly gathered to re-organize the regiment.
This maritime disaster, coupled with the transfer of the 2d Infantry out of California, left General John Wool, commanding the Department of the Pacific, with a severe manpower shortage in his department. The 3d regiment was hurriedly recruited to strength, and in early 1854, four companies departed for California, only to run into another storm off of North Carolina. Their battered steamer eventually managed to limp into quiet waters of Hampton Roads on the Virginia peninsula.
Another ship, the Illinois, was sent. It would take the artillerymen to Panama. After crossing the Isthmus, they boarded the Oregon, which arrived in San Francisco on May 4, 1854. Meanwhile, two companies of the 3d Artillery, along with footsore recruits of the 1st Dragoons, marched overland, leaving Ft. Leavenworth in May of 1854. This column spent the winter in Salt Lake, and reached the West Coast in July of 1855.
Upon arrival, the various companies of the 3d were scattered about the west coast. Most of the troops of the “Marching 3d” were put to use as red-legged infantry.
In the spring of 1856, twenty-five men of Company K of the Third Artillery at Ft. Miller, under the command of 2d Lieutenant LaRhett Livingston, took to the field to suppress a war started by settlers. Angry over the theft of a cow, they had killed some Yokuts. The tribesmen retreated to a defensive position near the base of Battle Mountain and proceeded to defeat a band of volunteers who were bent upon the tribe—™s destruction.
In the pre-dawn of May 13, 1856, Lt. Livingston climbed a nearby hillside and peered into the Yokuts encampment. Seeing that the position was not heavily defended and could be attacked on its flank, Livingston swiftly put his company into motion. Suddenly, a group of Yokuts rose from the underbrush and peppered the detachment with arrows. The arrows were deflected by the bushes and caused no serious injury to the troops. Without hesitation they leveled their muskets and fired. At point-blank range, the muskets, loaded with buckshot and ball, took a deadly toll upon the defenders. Livingston shouted, —œCharge! Bayonets, forward!— The Yokuts hastily melted into the safety of the dense pine forests of the Sierra Range. Livingston reported twenty dead tribesmen. An unknown number of Yokuts would later die of wounds received in this battle. The emboldened volunteers looted and burned the Yokuts village.
The 1858 Uniform: Some New Headgear
General Order No. 3 for March 24, 1858, did away with the tall shako and replaced it with a tall, broad-brimmed felt hat in black. With its brim folded up on the left, a light blue braid ending in tassels circled around the crown, brass insignia attached to the front, and a debonair black ostrich feather placed on the right, the hat was not very practical for use in the field or on fatigue. A few months later, General Order number 13 authorized a fatigue cap in dark blue. This cap was essentially a floppy version of the 1851 shako with the stiff cardboard lining removed. It would soon evolve into the all-too familiar kepi of the Civil War. In 1858, the Quartermaster General began to issue a four-button fatigue jacket for all troops.
The Hard-Marching 6th Infantry
The last regiment of infantry to come to California before the Civil War was the 6th Infantry. Originally scheduled for Washington Territory, Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Newman S. Clarke, the commanding officer of the 6th, convinced the War Department to divert the regiment to newly created Department of California—”a department under the command of Colonel Clarke.
On the 21st of August 1858, the Sixth Infantry left camp near Fort Bridger, Utah Territory, and began its overland march to California. The regiment, and its two-mile column of 180 supply wagons and ambulances, crossed the Sierra Nevada range in October, often wading through knee-deep snow. On November 11th, with its flags flying and the band playing “Yankee Doodle” and “The Jordan is a Hard Road to Travel,” the regiment paraded westward on J Street past the state Capitol.
The Infantry gets a New Weapon: the 1855 Rifle-Musket
While large numbers of the Model 1855 rifle musket had been issued in the summer of 1858 for the Spokane Plains expedition, few of these weapons had been seen by the public in California towns. A Sacramento Union reporter wrote that 6th regiment was “armed with the new [Model 1855] percussion cap rifled musket, with Maynard’s patent primer attached.” This .58 calibre weapon was the first regulation weapon to fire the minie bullet and had an effective range of over 1,000 yards.
There is little question that the 1855 rifled musket was a marked improvement over the 1842 musket. The touted Maynard primer system, however, was hardly a blessing. The Maynard taped primer worked like a child’s toy cap pistol. A paper roll, containing bits of fulminate of mercury as primer, was placed in a chamber just below the hammer. The tape was mechanically fed under the hammer each time that the hammer was cocked. When the hammer dropped, the fulminate would be detonated and the paper cut away. This system had been first been tested in 1849 on muskets supplied to the Infantry by the firm of Daniel Nippes.
The concept was sound enough for those in Ordnance who tested it at the Washington D.C. armory. The primer compartment was not sealed. When the primer tape was exposed to wet weather, however, the entire tape could be ruined by dampness. In the hotter climes, the tape became brittle and would easily tear. Inspector General Joseph Johnston, in 1859, observed troops firing the rifle musket and reported “at least half misfired, sometimes from defective machinery, others by the fault of the [taped] primer itself.”
The Final Battles
As the 6th Infantry tried to settle in after their long journey from Utah, a campaign was brewing in the desert. The Mojave tribe regarded travelers on Edward Beale’s new road to be trespassers and driven off mail trains and killed immigrants. Elements of the 6th Infantry were ordered by General Clarke to protect to the travelers.
On the morning of February 11, 1859, four companies of the 6th boarded the creaky wooden side-wheeled steamer Uncle Sam. The ship sailed through the Golden Gate and turned south. Off of Point Ano Nuevo, it plowed into a severe Pacific storm. The bilge pumps stopped working and the Uncle Sam began to take on water.
In order to save the ship, overboard went the coal, soon followed by all of the baggage of the four companies along with 320 new M-1855 rifle muskets. As the ship continued to founder, the men turned their attention to the mules. These durable creatures, which had walked to California from Ft. Leavenworth, showed no interest in being dumped into the foamy sea and fought efforts to cast them overboard. As the battle of the mules was beginning, the storm broke, and the Uncle Sam was able to sail back to the repair yards.
The 6th Infantry requested replacement 1855 muskets. The arsenal at Benicia was slow to issue the new weaponry. There was an ample supply, however, of altered Springfield 1816 Type III smoothbore muskets and these aged weapons were issued to many of the troops.
Colonel Joseph Mansfield was again inspecting California as the Mojave campaign was being organized at Fort Yuma. He was astonished at the bewildering array of clothing, equipment, and weaponry. Due to the heat most of the men were in lightweight civilian shirts. But the troops looked hardy, ready for a long march and a tough campaign.
On August 5, 1859, Companies F and I, under the command of Major Lewis Armistead, took part in a fight with the Mohaves twelve miles south of the post. In this battle, the long-ranged 1855 Muskets proved their value in this long-range firefight. Major Armisted reported that, because of the dry desert weather, the Maynard primers worked well.
The twenty-three reported Mohave dead were among the first Americans to suffer from the powerful firepower of modern infantry weaponry. In less than two years’ time, tens of thousands back east would, likewise, experience the deadly effects of rifled weapons.
There would be several more infantry actions out in the far west: in the northern Redwoods; along the Pit River in north central California; on the shores of the Pyramid Lake in Nevada Territory; and patrols against horse thieves southeast of San Diego.
Soon after the firing upon Ft. Sumter, orders from the War Department began to arrive in the Department of California directing the scattered infantry companies, stationed in the interior, to concentrate on the coast for embarkation. By the end of 1861, the 4th and 6th Infantry as well as the 1st Dragoons and most of the Third Artillery, would be on their way to fight a greater war in the East. Only the 9th Infantry remained behind in San Francisco where it, along with a company of the 3d Artillery, took up positions guarding that important harbor for the duration of the Civil War.
SIDE BARS
Lt. Crook’s Sunken Rifle-Muskets
In 1858, Lt. George Crook’s Company D of 4th Infantry was stationed six miles up the Klamath River at Fort Terwaw. Crook’s troops were armed with .69 caliber 1816 muskets. Ordnance artisans at Benicia Arsenal to use percussion primers, have rear sights added, and given shallow rifling had converted these weapons, leftovers from the Mexican War. During the campaign against the Spokane Indians, the men of Company D effectively used these muskets.
When the company returned to Fort Terwaw, Lt. Crook was ordered to requisition Model 1855 Rifle Muskets for his troops. A few months’ later, four sealed crates of the M-1855 Rifle Muskets reached the dock at Crescent City, California.
These crates were transferred to a large whaleboat which set sail south to the Klamath River. As it broached the river’s tidal bar, the boat capsized, dumping eighty muskets and other equipment into the ocean. None of it was ever recovered. Several months later, the army hired local Native American fishermen to navigate the tidal bar and Company D got its new muskets.
Stoppages
Every two months, the troops would be called for muster. The muster consisted of roll calls, inspections, and possibly a pass in review. If the paymaster arrived, not always a sure thing, the troops were then paid.
Regardless of whether or not they were paid, the muster roll had to be prepared. In these documents, the company clerk would record, among other things, stoppages—”i.e., the amount that would be offset against the soldier’s pay for stolen, lost or damaged equipment. The notations for stoppages are useful for the researcher to determine what equipment a particular company was issued. Listed below are the amounts that would be charged, per General Order No. 14 (December 9, 1859), for lost or damaged articles of clothing:
Coat $1.88
Forage cap .85
Dress hat .75
Feather .19
Cord and tassel .16
Bugle insignia .05
Company letter .05
Regimental number .05

______________________________________

Footnotes

Dolph, E. A., Sound Off (NY: Cosmopolitan Books 1929), p. 325; Bee—™s untitled poem with matching illustrations may be found at the Special Collections—™ Mexican War Collection of the University of Texas at Arlington (http://libraries.uta.edu/SpecColl/crose02/beepoem.htm).
Message of the President, Report of the Adjutant General, November 28, 1849, Ex. Doc. No. 5, p. 188a.
During the first eight months of 1849, over 40% of the 1,200 regular troops stationed in California deserted. (Message of the President (31st Congress 1st Session 1849, Ex. Doc. 5) Report of the Secretary of War, November 30, 1849 Ex Doc. No. 5); Message of the President (31st Congress 1st Session 1850 Ex Doc. No. 17), Sec. War George W. Crawford to Gen. Persifor Smith, April 3, 1849, p. 273; Col. R, B. Mason to Adj. Gen. Roger Jones, August 17, 1848, p. 533.
Message of the President (31st Congress 1st Session 1849, Ex. Doc. 5) Report of the Secretary of War, November 30, 1849, p. 90.
Message of the President (31st Congress 1st Session 1850 Ex Doc. No. 17), Gen. B. Riley to A.A.A. Gen. W. T. Sherman, April 16, 1849, pp. 899-900.
Message of the President (31st Congress 1st Session 1850 Ex Doc. No. 17), Gen. B. Riley to Gen. R. Jones, April 25, 1849, pp. 874-876.
Sherburne Cook, The Conflict Between the California Indian and White Civilization (Berkeley: University of California Press 1976), p. 4.
Albert Hurtado, Indian Survival on the California Frontier (New Haven, Yale University Press 1988), p. 194.
J. Ross Browne to James Guthrie, May 20, 1856 (reports rec—™d, Secy. Of Treasury, 1854-1856) National Archives microfilm 177, roll 1, p. 347.
Captain John Gardiner to Frederick Gardner, July 13, 1856. John Gardiner letters at Fort Tejon State Park.
Sacramento Daily Democratic State Journal, January 5, 1854.
Ibid.
Rodenbough, Theo The Army of the United States (Reprinted New York: Argonaut Press 1966) 422.
Special Order #67, July 12, 1848; Persifor F. Smith to Roger Jones, May 21, 1849, California and New Mexico, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Exec. Doc. 17, 740; Niles National Register, Vol. LXXIV, no. 1913, September 27, 1848.
Ibid, Gen. Bennet Riley to Gen. Roger Jones, June 11, 1849; Asst. Adj. Gen. E. R. S. Canby to Capt. William H. Emory, June 30, 1849, 916, 924.
Ibid, Gen. B. Riley to Gen. R. Jones, April 25, 1849, 873.
Ibid, Gen. B. Riley to Col. W.G. Freeman, A.A. Gen., August 30, 1849, p. 938.
Census of the City and County of Los Angeles, California for the Year 1850 (LA: The Times-Mirror Press 1929) p. 97.
Bell, Reminiscences of a Ranger (reprinted by Univ. Of Oklahoma, 1999), p. 164.
Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress, Part II (31st Congress, 2nd Session, Ex, Doc. No. 1) Nathaniel Lyons to E.R.S. Canby, May 22, 1850, p. 81.
Ibid, at p. 82.
Hurtado, supra, at p. 105-106
Message from the President, supra, Lyons to Canby, p. 82.
George Harwood Phillips, Chiefs and Challengers (Berkeley, University of California Press 1975) pp. 92-94.)
Special Order No. 7, November 7, 1853, National Archives RG 94; Rodenbough, supra, p. 422..
Bee, supra; see footnote 1.
Todd, supra, p. 380.
General Orders No. 31, June 12, 1851.
Todd, supra, p. 380.
Ordnance Manual (Wash. D.C., Gideon & Co. Press 1850), p. 201.
Col. T.T. Fauntleroy to Col. Cooper, 30 October 1854, quoted in Edgar M. Howell and Donald E. Kloster, United States Army Headgear to 1854 (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Unstitution Press 1969), p. 67, fn. 204.
H. Dean Guie, Bugles in the Valley (Oregon Historical Society 1977) p. 26.
Mansfield, On the Condition of Western Forts 1853-54 (Norman: Univ. Okla. Press 1963), 160.
Bandel, Eugene, Frontier Life in the Army 1854-61 (Glendale, Arthur H. Clark, 1932), p. 128.
Bell, supra, at p. 164.
Mansfield, supra, 162.
Todd, supra, at pp. 115-117.
Reilly, Robert, United States Military Small Arms 1816-1865 (Highland Park, N.J., Eagle Press, 1970), p. 14.
Ulysses Grant, Personal Memories (New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885—“86), p. 60 .
U.S. Army, Ordnance Manual, supra, at pp. 244-247.
Woodward, Arthur, Journal of Lt. Thomas W. Sweeney (Westernlore Press, Los Angeles 1956), p. 147.
Reily, supra, p. 33.
Grant, supra, p. 117.
Grant, supra, p. 119; Ellington, Charles, The Trial of U.S. Grant (Glendale, Cal., Arthur H. Clarke Co. 1987) 60-66; Rodenbough, supra, 461.
Rodenbough, supra, p. 526.
Todd, Frederick, American Military Equipage Vol. II (New York: Charles Scribner—™s Sons 1980), pp. 382-83.
New York Daily Times, January 14, 1854.
New York Daily Times, February 10, 1854
Special Order, No. 17, Jan. 27, 1854. —œBy direction of the President of the United States, a Court of Inquiry will convene in the City of New York, on Monday, the 6th of February, 1854, or as soon thereafter as practicable, to examine into all the circumstances attending the embarkation, in December last, of the troops under the command of Col. William Gates, Third Artillery, on board the steamer San Francisco destined for California; the cause of the failure of the expedition, and the disorganization of the command at sea; and all facts and circumstances which may concern the conduct of the commander, and of the officers and men of the command.—
As of December of 1854, there were 1,365 officers and men stationed in the Department of the Pacific. (Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress, Part II (33rd Congress, 2nd Session, Ex, Doc. No. 1) Report of the Secretary of War, December 4, 1854, p. 6.)
Ibid, p. 3.
San Francisco Daily Alta California, May 5, 1854.
Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress (33rd Congress, 2nd Session 1854), supra, p. 3.
San Francisco Bulletin, May 16, 1856.
Los Angeles Star, May 10, 1856.
San Francisco Bulletin, May 23, 1856.

San Francisco Bulletin, May 16, 1856.
Todd, supra, at pp. 62-64.
Ibid, at pp. 65-66.
In April of 1859, Quartermaster General Thomas Jessup ordered that all remaining stocks of shakos be issued as forage caps. (Howell and Kloster, supra, at p. 67.)
Todd, supra, at pp. 57 and 383.
Swanson, Clifford, The Sixth United States Infantry Regiment, 1855 to Reconstruction (Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Co. 2001), p.22.
Ibid; Sacramento Daily Bee, November 11, 1858.
Sacramento Union, November 12, 1858.
Riley, supra, p. 22.
Jerry Thompson, Texas and New Mexico on the Eve of the Civil War (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press 2001), p. 54.
Swanson, supra, p. 32.
Message of the President (36th Congress, 1st Session 1860) Volume II, p. 415.
Swanson, supra, p. 43.
Ibid, p. 419.

PRO BONO PUBLICO:
1st Lieut. Thomas Castor

Benny Havens ran a tavern that was located about a mile and one-half from the cadet barracks at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. The saloon quickly became a favorite haunt for generations of cadets. Cadet Edgar Allan Poe wrote that Benny was —œthe sole congenial soul in the entire God forsaken place.— In 1838, a couple of appreciative young officers, borrowing the Irish tune known as the Wearing of the Green (also known as The Rising of the Moon), composed some verse to honor Benny Havens. The first verse went as follows:
—œCome fill your glasses, fellows, and stand up in a row,
To singing sentimentally we—™re going for to go;
In the army there—™s sobriety, promotion—™s very slow;
So we—™ll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, Oh!
Chorus:
Oh! Benny havens, Oh! Oh! Benny Havens, Oh!
We—™ll sing our reminiscences of Benny Havens, Oh!—

The song soon became quite popular among officers. During the ensuing years, many a new verse was added as cadets carried the song with them from the dismal Everglades to Buena Vista—™s barren plain and then out to the foothills of California—™s Motherlode.
Thomas Foster Castor entered West Point in 1841. His classmates, a rather notable group, included the likes of George McClelland, Thomas Jackson, A.P. Hill, George Crook and George Pickett. The latter cadet seems to have become —œaddicted to Benny—™s enticements.— During the years of Cadet Castor—™s stay at the Academy it is likely that he also frequently slipped out of the barracks to partake in a glass of hard cider and join in the good cheer at Benny Haven—™s public house.
—œLet us toast our foster-father, the Republic, as you know,
Who in the paths of science taught us upward for to go;
And the maidens of our native land, whose cheeks like roses glow,
They—™re oft remembered in our cups at Benny Havens, Oh!—

Upon graduation in 1846, Castor was posted to Fort Columbus in New York Harbor. Here is a copy of letter that a freshly minted brevet 2d Lieutenant Castor wrote to the folks back home in Pennsylvania.

Fort Columbus, 3 Sept. 1846

To Mrs. George Castor, Frankford, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

Dear Grandmother:

Well here I am snugly fixed on the Island. I arrived in N. York on Tuesday about 2 o’clock and reported myself for duty about 5 on the same day. I was attached to the dragoon recruits now here under the command of Lieut. Sibley. I have nothing to do but to superintend the drills and roll-calls, inspect their rations and keep them in order generally. I suppose that it will afford you a great deal of pleasure to hear that we will probably not sail for a month yet and very likely not that soon. Mr. Sibley told me that he would propose to the Captain when he arrived to take the company from here to Carlisle, mount it there and after drilling it for some time take it down to Mexico by land. if this obtains I would not be surprised if we did not leave this part of the country until November. And if the reports which have just been received prove true (viz. that private advices have been received that the war is over) we will very likely not go to Texas at all. Aunt Eliza I know will clap her hands at this news notwithstanding it cuts me out of all chance of distinguishing myself. I have been so lucky as to get quarters with one of my classmates who has been here for some time and we have to rooms carpeted with tables, sofa, beds, looking glasses and everything complete. To day I am Officer of the Day and it would make you laugh to see me strutting around with my sash and sabre followed all day by an orderly at a respectful distance and having Captains and old Lieuts. asking permission to have boats etc. The Officer of the Day being you know second in command for the time being. I am very well pleased with the post so much as I know of it. The officers are very clever and the society I am told is very good.

I had the blues going up the river and indeed the whole day after I left home. I waved my handkerchief as I passed our house but I suppose it was so foggy you did not see it as I could see none waved in return. Please tell me in your answer how Aunt Eliza and [Bud?] got home and particularly how Josephine is. I was afraid when I left that she would have a spell of sickness. How did she get through wit her teeth, how much did they cost and every thing. you must tell me all. I hope you have gotten over your troubles on account of my departure and if you have not I say you must!!

Yesterday about 700 troops sailed from here for Pt. Isabel. Poor fellows they were glad to get off but many a soldiers wife who was left behind went sorrowing to her home. If there are any letters at home for me please send them on directed to Ft. Columbus, Governors Island, N.Y. I am getting over my home sickness and am in good health. Please write very soon and tell all that has occurred since I left home, and everything that would be of any interest to me. Give my love to Aunts Liz and Buts [?] and take it yourself. I am going to write to all in succession? as I promised and I hope that nobody will fail to write me a long long answer. You dear grandmother must get Buts [?] to write for you. It is near 11 o’clock so good night dear Grandmother and I hope that you will not forget.

Your affectionate grandson

On 6 December 1846, Castor gained a permanent commission as 2d Lt. with the 1st Dragoons and campaigned in Mexico with the regiment, from the siege of Vera Cruz into the Valley of Mexico through the capture of Mexico City. While in Mexico he became quite ill and began to drink heavily. There may not have been much sobriety, but promotion came slow: Castor did not become a First Lieutenant until 1851. Following the war Castor was posted to Forts Snelling and Ripley, Minnesota. On 9 October 1851. While stationed at Fort Lane in Oregon he participated in a skirmish on the Illinois River on 24 October 1853. The next year Lt. Castor was sent to Fort Miller in California with Company A. Later that year he was ordered to start construction on what became Fort Tejon. Castor’s drinking and ill health continued to rack his body. In August of 1854, Castor led the first troops to the proposed site of Fort Tejon. The rigors of years of hard campaigning, and the effects of hard drinking, had taken their toll on the Lieutenant. Castor had a bout with tuberculosis and was seriously ill during his posting at Fort Tejon. On September 8, 1855, he died.

—œTo our kind old Alma Mater, our rock-bound Highland home,
We—™ll cast back many a fond regret as o—™er life—™s sea we roam;
Until on our last battlefield, the lights of heaven shall glow,
We—™ll never fail to drink to her and Benny Havens, Oh!—

His remains were ceremoniously buried under the spreading oaks that dot the landscape behind the Lebeck Oak. Fellow officers bought a marble headstone and an iron fence to honor their fallen comrade. Some years later, the fence and marble grave stone were moved to the site of the old post cemetery. As a consequence, no memorial marks final resting place of Lt. Castor.

—œTo our comrades who have fallen, one cup before we go,
They poured their life-blood freely our pro bono publico.
No marble points the stranger to where they rest below;
They lie neglected far away from Benny Havens, Oh!—

Finis

Following the capture of the town of Santa Cruz de Rosales in 1848, the Army inventoried the captured Mexican ordnance. Below is a copy of this report.

City of Chihuahua
March 26, 1848

The Board met pursuant to the foregoing orders, and soon after the
reception of the captured property, as was practicable, and up to the
present time have been busy in assorting and taking inventories of
said property, which they find to be as follows (incl.(?) accompanying
list or inventory as marked “A”).

All the large guns are more or less injured by firing, and some of
them badly cast, full of flaws and honeycombs. The majority of the
muskets and escopetas are in bad order, broken locks and stocks, bent
barrels &c. Three of the muskets are very much injured in the stock
by shot, or shell, of one, the entire stock is gone. The muskets, and
in fact all of the cartridges, are badly made, and only valuable for
the amount of powder they contain. The shells, strap shot, balls, and
canister, are as a general thing very badly made and would be apt to
greatly damage a good piece if fired from one.

One reference to the list, it will be found that there are
eleven large boxes of powder, this is supposed to be for cannons, as
also the five bags. Ten of the kegs contain very fine powder,
supposed to be for rifles, and the remainder for muskets. Having no
means to ascertain the weight, the amount in bulk only is first put
down as it appeared before the Board.

The horses are all small, poor, and weak, and many of the mules are
equally in as bad condition, none of them being fit for present use,
and scarcely any will ever be capable of hard service.

The saddles are of Spanish pattern and much out of order in their
present state worthless.

Of the drums, three are without heads or have but one, and the others
are so heavy and unwieldy as to be almost or quite unserviceable.

The articles, not having (sic) innumerated, are generally
in very good condition, and might, if necessary, be put to immediate
use.

The above is respectfully submitted as a report of the proceedings of
the Board, which, having no further business before it, adjourns sin
die.

B.L. Beall,
Major 1st Dragoons

“A”

A LIST OF ORDNANCE STORES &c. TAKEN AT THE SIEGE OF SANTA CRUZ DE
ROSALES, MEXICO, MARCH 16, 1848

2 Two 32-Lb. Brass Howitzers

1 One 10-Lb. Brass Cannon by Measurement

1 One 8-Lb. ” ” ” ”

1 One 4-Lb. ” ” ” ”

2 Three Swivels

7 Seven Wall Pieces

1 One Double-Barrel Wall Piece

392 Three Hundred and Ninety-Two Muskets

281 Two Hundred and Eighty-One Musket Bayonets

99 Ninety-Nine Cartridge Boxes & Belts

80 Eighty Escopetas

27 Twenty-Seven Service Rifles

78 Pistols

35 Sabres

122 One Hundred and Twenty-Two Lances Complete

142 One Hundred and Forty-Two Lance Heads and Ferrules

150 ________ Lance Straps

145 Shafts for Lances

6 Six Wipers for Wall Pieces

11 Eleven Large Boxes of Powder

23 Twenty-Three Kegs of Powder

5 Five Bags of Powder

58 Fifty-Eight Cartridges for 32-Lb. Howitzer

72 Seventy-Two Cartridges for 9-Lb. Gun

2600 Twenty-Six Hundred Musket Cartridges

7 Seven Bunches Signal Rockets

9 Nine 32 Lb Grenades

9 Nine 24 lb Shells

4 Four 32 lb Shells

75 Seventy-Five 4 lb Shells

7 Seven 3 lb Strap Shot

24 Twenty-Four 6 lb Strap Shot

4 Four 12 lb Strap Shot

103 One-Hundred and Three 4lb Balls

50 Fifty 3 lb Balls

76 Seventy-Six Cases 32 lb Canister

116 One-Hundred Sixteen Cases 3 lb Canister

1 One Lot Canister for Wall Piece

1 One Lot Balls for Wall Piece

1 One Lot Musket Balls

1 One Ten Ball Roller

10 Ten Bullet Molds

7 Seven Rifle Locks

1 One Lot Gun Flints

11 Eleven Sponges

2 Two Worms

6 Six Hand Spikes

1 One Treatment Scale

A List of Quarter Master Property Captured at the Siege of Santa Cruz
de Rosales, Mexico, March 16th 1848.

98 Ninety-Eight Horses

66 Sixty-Six Mules

7 Seven Wagons

52 Sets of Harnesses, four collars wanting

9 Nine Pack Saddles

35 Thirty-Five Spanish Bridle Bits

32 Thirty-Two Sets Spanish Saddle Rigging

1 One Bulk ” ” ”

35 Thirty-Five Buckles

7 Seven [Screw} Drivers

43 Forty-Three Files

8 Eight Hammers

4 Four Vices

2 Two Wrenches

1 One Grinding Stone

65 Sixty-Five Edge Tools

13 Thirteen Augers

18 Eighteen Saws

3 Three Screw Plates

2 Two Anvils

10 Ten Pounds Rod Steel

2 Two Boxes Tin

2 Two Boxes Shoes

8 Eight Boxes Blue Clothe

1 Lot Printing Type

1 Lot Duct Parts

1 Lot Rosin

2 Lots Steel Yards

12 Twelve Empty Boxes

11 Eleven Boxes Cigarilos

THE BATTLE OF CIENEGUILLA
Anatomy of an Army Disaster
April 5, 2008

By Will Gorenfeld

—œA contemptuous opinion of the prowess of these ferocious prairie Indians has been generally entertained by those who knew nothing about the matter—”a consequence, probably, of the thousand exaggerated stories which Western adventurers have told of their own feats, and of the cowardly and thieving propensities of the savages.—
—”New York Times, May 24, 1854

—œSome inexperienced people have charged Indians with possessing less courage than white men. There was never a greater mistake.—
—”Percival Lowe, Five Years a Dragoon and Other Adventures on the Great Plains

“This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend. ” The Man who Shot Liberty Valence

In 1854, Lieutenant John W. Davidson of the 1st Dragoons, boasted at Fort Union that Jicarilla Apache warriors were puny cowards. In a conversation with fellow officers, he had described a recent meeting with these warriors who seemed —œoverwhelmed by fear— at the sight of the dragoons. Had there been pretext, Davidson said, he would have —œwiped them out.— Another officer knew better. Lieutenant David Bell, recently touted in the territory as having defeated chief Lobo Blanco—™s —daring band of outlaws—, stated that Jicarillas were —œnot cowardly, to say the least—, he told Davidson, but was ignored. [Santa Fe Weekly Gazette, March 25, 1854; Lt. John Davidson to Maj. George A. H. Blake, Cantonment Burgwin, NM, 25 March 1854; Letters Received Dept. of New Mexico 1854, f. 596-597, Main Series (LR 1805-1889); National Archives Microfilm Publication [NAMP] Microcopy 120, Record Group 3, National Archives [hereafter M120, RG 3, NA].: Correspondence, 1800 -1917; Records of the Adjutant General—™s Office 1780 —“ 1917, [hereafter M120, RG 3, NA]. An account of this gathering may be found in Lt. David Bell to Lt. John Williams, 27 December 1854, Fort Leavenworth. Kansas Terr., Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry Convened at Santa Fe, New Mexico, February 8 1856, Headquarters, Department of New Mexico General Order No. 1, February 9, 1856, Transcripts and Proceedings of General Courts-Martial and Courts of Inquiry, 1799-1867) Judge Advocate General (Army), Record Group 153, National Archives, Washington, D.C. [hereafter referred to as COI], pp. 5-6; see also Durwood Ball, Army Regulars of the Western Frontier, 1848-1861 (Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press 2001), 55.]
In the Eurocentric view to which Davidson clung, a well-armed force led by a West Point officer was certain to prevail against —œprimitive— native Americans. Davidson soon learned not to underestimate the Jicarillas of northern New Mexico when the tribe decimated a force under his command. After the battle, one man, Lieutenant David Bell, called Davidson incompetent. Bell protested that Davidson, disobeying orders, had ineptly led his men into a disaster. According to Bell, Davidson was to blame for provoking the fight and his failure of leadership, in which U.S. soldiers had panicked and been routed by a small group of defenders.

Embarrassed, Davidson and his superiors whitewashed the defeat in an Army court of inquiry that found as unwarranted critical accusations against Davidson lodged by Bell. Generations of historians, without question, relied on the Army—™s inaccurate version of events, in which has Davidson being ambushed by superior numbers of warriors and, after fighting for three hours, the dragoons had deftly escaped a trap thanks to their commander’s cool leadership. [See Christopher Carson, Milo Quaife ed., Kit Carson—™s Autobiography (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1966)149; Albert G. Brackett, History of the United States Cavalry, from the Formation of the Federal Government to the 1st of June 1863 (New York: Argonaut Press, Ltd. 1965), 79; Dewitt C. Peters, Kit Carson—™s Life and Adventures, From Facts Narrated by Himself, Embracing Events in the Life Time of America—™s Greatest Hunter, Trapper, Scout and Guide (Hartford, Conn.: Dustin, Gilman & Co. 1874) 424; John K. Herr, The Story of the U.S. Cavalry (Boston: Little, Brown & Company 1953) 135; Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865 (New York: The Macmillan Co. 1967), 144; Homer K. Davidson, Blackjack Davidson: A Cavalry Commander on the Western Frontier (Glendale: Arthur Clarke Company 1974) 69-74; Gregory J.W. Urwin, The United States Cavalry: An Illustrated History (Dorset: Blandford Books 1983), 93; Edwin L. Sabin, Kit Carson Days (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press 1995) 2 vols., 2:660-661; Michno, Encyclopedia of Indian Wars, 24; Bill Yenne, Indian Wars: The Campaign for the American West (Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme Publishing 2006) 74; Only a few writers have questioned the official version of the battle of Cieneguilla. (See the foreword by Jerry Thompson in James A. Bennett, Forts and Forays (Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press 1996) edited by Clinton Brooks, Clinton and Frank Reeve, xxii-xxvii; Morris F. Taylor, Campaigns Against the Jicarilla Apache, 1854, New Mexico Historical Quarterly (1969), Taylor, 275-276; and Scott, Fields of Conflict, 2:236-260.]

Many of the criticisms tendered by Lt. Bell would be proven right by an archaeologist, Dave Johnson, whose study of the battle site refuted the Army’s findings. The true picture has come to lighting, revealing a story of an officer who disobeyed orders, placed his command in a tactically unsound positions and whose troops were routed by a weaker force.

To better understand this battle we must return to a chilled night along the Rio Grande. Flowing swiftly southward from the Colorado Rockies, this river divides most of New Mexico into two parts and then turns southeast towards Texas. The northern portion of the Rio Grande runs briskly down a steep gorge carved along the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains where crossings of the river are few. In the pre-dawn darkness of March 30, 1854, scout Jesus Silva and trooper Jeremiah Maloney reached the Embudo crossing of the river. They had been ordered by Lieutenant John Davidson to ride to this place and see if a defiant band of Jicarilla Apaches had crossed the river. Silva and Maloney found no signs of Jicarillas, but looking behind them to the northeast, saw distant campfires twinkling brightly atop a ridge. Suspecting these fires to be coming from the Jicarillas camp, the two men rode back to Cieneguilla to tell Lt. Davidson of what they had seen.

In February, a government beef contractor near Fort Union, New Mexico Territory had reported several of his cattle stolen by the Llaneros faction of the Jicarilla Apaches. A troop of Second U.S. Dragoons, under command of 2d Lieutenant David Bell, was sent from Ft. Union to intercept the cattle thieves. On March 5, 1854, Lt. Bell encountered some warriors under Lobo Blanco out on the Canadian River. It is uncertain whether these men had stolen any cattle, but the Army had long suspected Lobo Blanco—™s band of killing white and Hispanic settlers. A fight soon ensued and, when the dust settled, Lobo Blanco, four warriors and two Dragoons lay dead. The violence escalated; the next day Jicarillas and allied Ute warriors raided a herd of cattle near Ft. Union, killing two herdsmen.

To be continued in Wild West magazine for February 2008.

THE MODEL 1855 SPRINGFIELD PISTOL CARBINE
During the Ante-bellum period, the Ordnance Department remained concerned over the reliability of breech-loaders and efforts were made to improve muzzle-loading weapons. One weapon issued to some Dragoons was the Springfield Model 1855 Pistol-Carbine. It was originally intended for the two new regiments of cavalry created in 1855.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis believed that this weapon would also prove useful to the Dragoons. In 1855, he wrote, “No difference will be needed between the arms and equipments dragoons and those of light cavalry; but the whole, armed with this weapon, will be rendered in celerity of movements equal to light cavalry, and in combat to heavy dragoons.”
The weapon was designed to fire the .58 caliber minie ball. Carried in the pommel holster, like the .44 caliber Dragoon pistol, it came with a readily attachable shoulder-stock. This powerful weapon fired a 500-grain bullet and used a charge of 60 grains of powder. Akin to the Model 1855 rifled musket, the pistol carbine employed the cranky Maynard taped-primer system.
When fired with the shoulder stock attached, this weapon proved to be reasonably accurate and hard-hitting. But as a pistol, it did not fare so well. The hefty, 12-inch barrel rendered the pistol-carbine unbalanced. Dragoon Captain Richard Ewell, who tested this weapon in 1858, found that shoulder stocks did not always fasten firmly to the pistol and that this adversely effected its accuracy. Although about 5,000 pistol-carbines were manufactured at the Springfield Arsenal, it does not appear that this weapon was issued to any of the troops at Fort Tejon.
MAYNARD TAPE PRIMERS
The problem of placing a small brass percussion “hat” cap on a nipple of the carbine while aboard a skittish American horse was, at best, a nimble task for steady fingers. The ensuing complaints from the field persuaded the Army to purchase 400 Model 1855 Sharps carbines equipped with the Maynard tape primer system. These weapons were issued in limited numbers, beginning in the year of 1856.
The Maynard Taped Primer system worked in a manner similar to that of a child’s toy cap pistol: the tape featured a paper roll containing bits of fulminate of mercury as primers, which was mechanically fed under the hammer each time that the hammer was cocked. When the hammer dropped, the fulminate would be detonated and the paper cut away. This system had been first tested in 1849 on contract muskets supplied to the Infantry by the firm of Daniel Nippes.
When exposed to harsh wet, or icy weather, the tape became brittle, damp, torn, and would not fire. With age, the fulminate became defunct and would not detonate. Captain Ewell tested the system and found that the tape caps failed to explode two out of three times.

James E. Hicks: U.S. Firearms 1776-1956 (Beverly Hills, Eadco Publishing 1957), plate 48

During the Antebellum period, the War Department was concerned over the reliability of breech-loading weapons and it made efforts to design improved muzzle loaders for use by the mounted arm. Two such weapons were the 1855 carbine and the 1855 pistol-carbine. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis believed that the latter weapon would prove to be a useful weapon for both light cavalry and heavy dragoons. It could be carried either in the pommel holster or, as the ambrotype above shows, attached to trooper’s the carbine sling.

About 5,000 pistol-carbines were manufactured at the Springfield Arsenal.

On 12 September 1859, Inspector General Joe Johnston found Lt. Richard Lord’s Company D, 1st Dragoons, on duty at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico Territory, and observed their weaponry: “The dragoon company is not well armed. All of the men have sabres & Colt’s Navy revolvers–a majority, the pirtol carbine–some Sharps & a few, rifles of the cal. 54 of inch [Yeager Model 1841].” On the 4th of October, General Johnston visited Ft. Buchanan and had this to say about the arms of Captain Richard Ewell’s Dragoon Company D: “There is, however, a great variety of fire arms, Sharp’s, Hall’s & the pistol carbine, the rifle (cal. 54) & musketoon–Colt’s revolver of both sizes [.44 Dragoon and .36 Navy], & the old [Aston M1842] Dragoon pistol. Capt. Ewell advocates Sharp’s Carbine, in comparison with the musketoon, for he has had no opportunity to compare it with others of the same kind. The Capt. has made two requisitions for carbines annually for several years. His sabres are of the old pattern [1833].” Captain Ewell also pointed out that the shoulder stocks did not always fasten firmly to the pistol and this would adversely affect its accuracy.