The Civil War in the Southwest

Carleton’s California Column, the Battle at Picacho Peak, & The Rebels Retreat from Tucson

This is the tenth episode in the series over the Civil War in the American Southwest.

In December of 1861, after hearing news of Baylor’s successful taking of southern New Mexico and his subsequent declaration of the creation of the Confederate Territory of Arizona, Union General George Wright, the commander of the Department of the Pacific wrote that quote, I propose to send Colonel Carleton to reopen the southern mail route and to recapture forts Buchanan, Thorn, Fillmore, and Bliss. End quote. The Californians, in what would become known as the California Column, were going to enter the theater of war in the Southwest.

Before the Civil War, California was a politically interesting place filled with immigrants, miners, homesteaders, powerful businessmen, and outlaws, and it was a bastion of White Supremacy. While absolutely disavowing and banning the practice of slavery, Californians were nonetheless ardent White Supremacists. Both the Democrats and the Republicans. Democrats had dominated state politics pretty much from its founding in 1850 but in the southern portion of the state, Secessionist Democrats had a strong foothold. Before the war had even broken out, there were a few attempts by Californians to secede from the Union and form their own state with the also Pro White Oregon. Militias were even formed to make this a reality. But once the Civil War broke out, the Fedral garrisons, newly handed over by Johnston, made this an impossibility and eventually, most secessionists would head east to fight in the Civil War proper.

So once news of the encroaching Rebels reached the Department of the Pacific, the Fedrals sprang into action and gathered an army to repel the Confederates to their east. They were going to stamp out any hope of the Confederate Empire’s expansion westward. And Wright had chosen Carleton as the man to lead this army.

by 1861, Carlton was 47 and he had been fighting as a Dragoon, or mounted infantry, on the frontier for nearly 20 years, and a lot of that was in New Mexico. Megan Kate Nelson in her Three Cornered War describes him as a lean and straight backed man with a clipped beard and intense grey eyes. Paul Andrew Hutton, in the Apache Wars, actually describes Carleton as a rigid self righteous tyrant. And if you listened to my Apache Series, that is quite evident. But in December of 1861, Carlton began training recruits for his mission just outside Los Angeles. Megan Kate Nelson writes that Carleton quote, instructed his officers to drill, drill, drill, the volunteers, who had mustered into infantry, cavalry, and artillery companies, putting them through their paces with their knapsacks on to get them used to carrying their own supplies. Carleton was sure that by working hard every day, the 1st California Volunteers would quote, become perfect as soldiers, as skirmishers, as marksmen. End all quotes.

Obviously, at first, his men were not fond of this tough regiment of work but over time, they understood and even appreciated the harsh training that would soon serve them well in the deserts to the east. These men would, after all, be commanded to keep a pace of twenty miles a day. Twenty miles through mountains, harsh windy deserts, and a land filled with very little water. Carleton’s plan was to march across the Colorado River and then, using the Gila River Trail, he and his men would take back Tucson before heading even further east and expelling the Rebels from New Mexico entirely. With him were around 1,500 men, including a man I mentioned quite a bit in the Apache series, John Cremony. He also had six cannons. General Wright would write of these men, quote, we have the power and will to drive every Rebel beyond the Rio Grande. End quote.

They were all to leave in January of 1862… but mother nature had different ideas. What would become known as the Great Flood of 1862 had actually began in 1861 when tons of snow fell on the Sierra Nevadas, and really, all the mountains in the entire west. And all the while, in the lowlands of the Pacific Coast, it rained or misted for months.

I lived in Southern California for a year and a half and let me tell you, rain, was an incredible event. On the roads, people had no idea how to drive and accidents skyrocketed. People avoided just going to work when it rained, I kid you not. The first time it rained when I lived there, I sat outside in it, in all my clothing, getting soaked and smiling the whole time. My wife joined me briefly before she got chilly but all the while, all my neighbors were eyeing me suspiciously. We actually made some friends of our neighbors because of this. One asked, you’re not from California are you? I replied, not at all, and I miss the rain. He said, I can tell. So the weather in late 1861 and early 1862 was incredibly unprecedented.

The Los Angeles Star paper wrote, quote, it seemed as if the clouds had been broken through, and the waters over the earth and the waters under the earth were coming into conjunction. End quote. Sixty… six… inches… fell on Los Angeles in just 45 days. New channels were carved into the earth to reach the Pacific Ocean by the torrents. And then… after an intense thunderstorm that swept over the entirety of the state dropped warm Pacific Water on all the record snowfall, the snowmelt flooded everything. Houses, animals, mines, entire towns! People, were all swept away. An estimated 4,000 people died in the floods… This same storm was the one constantly dropping snow on the exposed Rebels during the entire campaign to the east. It’s also this storm and its waters that would eventually, in the coming months raise the level of the Rio Grande and change its course near Mesilla, the Confederate Capital of Arizona… this swollen river would bar the Fedrals movements in New Mexico… but that was still months away. First, the California Column had to actually leave California. Which they did, in mid-March of 1862.

Carleton didn’t move his entire 1,500 men at once though, instead, he sent his men out in small groups so they wouldn’t overwhelm the watering holes. And by early April, Carleton had left Los Angeles and had taken up the rear.

The journey… was rough. If you’ve ever driven through eastern California, you know it is absolutely nothing like the western and northern portions. It’s just endless basin and ranges with a few dotted Joshua Trees and dried up ancient ice age lake beds. Carleton wrote of the landscape, quote, the whole distance is one unbroken waste of blinding white sand, which reflects the rays of the sun with terrible lustre and withering effect. Men, mules, and horses sink under its power, as if suddenly blighted, losing all energy. End quote.

Not long after their departure, the Sonoran desert sun was baking his men so he sent out the order to only march at night. Nelson sums up their march to Fort Yuma, quote: Using the light of the moon and hundreds of torches to illuminate the road, the 1st California Volunteers marched steadily eastward along the Butterfield route. They arrived at Fort Yuma in early May, having lost no men during a march of over three hundred miles. End quote.

During the march, Carleton’s men who were way out ahead, they were gettin’ themselves into some skirmishes with the Confederate Captain Sherod Hunter near Tucson.

During mid March, Hunter had sent his forces even further west to verify the rumors of the encroaching Californians and to disrupt them if the rumors were true. At the same time, he and his men headed to the friendly Pima, Papago, O’odham, and Maricopa Indians who resided along the Gila River. Hunter asked the Indians if they could please help the Rebels disrupt the coming Yankee forces from the west. But while at the Pima villages, Hunter arrested a nearby Unionist named Ami White. White had a flour mill along the Gila and he was producing tons of flour for the coming Californians. This was unacceptable to the Rebels so, they confiscated all the wheat before handing it over to the Indians. Hunter wrote of the flour quote, This I distributed among the Indians, as I had no means of transportation, and deemed this a better policy of disposing of it than to destroy or leave it for the benefit of the enemy. End quote.

But also while at White’s flour mill, a small fortune fell into the Rebel’s laps when Carleton’s favorite officer, an Irishman named William McCleave came strolling up to White’s flour mill door and knocked. McLeave had been one of the first men sent by Carleton so when he arrived to Fort Yuma, his commanding officer, Rigg, sent McCleave to go check on Ami White and how his flour production was coming. It just so happens, that McCleave arrived to the mill not long after Hunter and it would be Hunter that would open the door and greet the Yankee captain and his nine men. All 11 of them, which included White and McCleave, were taken captive by Hunter and his Rebels.

When Carleton’s officer Rigg, the one who sent McLeave ahead learned of his capture, Rigg wrote, quote, a whole staff could not compensate us for the loss of McCleave. End quote.

Now, with 11 captured and bound men, Hunter had to escort them back to Tucson. He divided his men into two groups with one of them led by Hunter, escorting the prisoners back to Tucson, and the other continuing west.

The men that went west were led by Podcast alumni, Jack Swilling, and they had one purpose, disrupt the coming Californians. This they did by destroying caches of hay and even more flour. These daring Confederates, as Frazier calls them, actually got within 80 miles of Fort Yuma and the Californians.

When Rigg learned of McLeave’s capture, he immediately sent a rescue party of two companies of soldiers. These 272 men would end up skirmishing the Rebel marauders at a place known as Stanwix Station. This would prove to be the westnermost engagement of the entire Civil war. It was here, that Swilling and his Rebels were burning some hay when the Yankees approached them and opened fire. The Rebels, holed up behind the station’s walls, actually hit a German born Union soldier in the shoulder which caused some confusion among the Californian’s ranks. A message was sent back to Rigg for reinforcements against the very small number of Rebels. Rigg would send an entire detachment and combined with the nearly 300 Union soldiers already there, they chased Swilling and his Confederates back to Tucson.

While this westernmost engagement of the entire war was not a decisive skirmish for either side, the German man would recover and the Rebels were unhurt, this burning of the supplies would actually end up slowing down the Column enough to allow the Rebels under Sibley to completely retreat back to Texas unmolested by Yankees… which I will talk about in the next episode.

Back at Tucson, in early April, Confederate Col James Reily had returned from his diplomatic mission to Sonora, in which he was to gain the support of the Mexicans and hopefully use their port at Guymas. His mission had been… not overly successful. Reily had asked the Sonora Gov. Don Ignacio Pesqueira if the Rebels could pursue their main threat in Arizona, the Apaches, across international lines. He also asked what Sonora’s plans were in regards to the Fedrals. Lastly, he wondered if the Confederates could please use the Port of Guaymas. Reily actually visited the port and found that it was suitable but… Governor Pesqueira gave him no definitive answer for any of his requests. Although, apparently, he was sympathetic to the Rebel cause. Eventually, Reily had to return back to Arizona and then to Mesilla with only optimistic hope that eventually, the Mexicans would grant access to the all important port.

He wasn’t only accompanied by hope though, Reily also had nine Fedral prisoners with him from White’s Mill to make the dangerous journey through Apache country. McCleave would stay behind in the Tucson jail, but you’ll hear more about McCleave soon.

While Reily was still on his way to Mesilla, on April 15th, the westernmost battle, real fight with casualties, not just a skirmish like at Stanwix, but the westernmost battle of the entire Civil War occurred at a place known as Picacho Peak. It was both the westernmost and quite possibly the smallest battle of the war. The Battle at Picacho Peak actually has annual reenactment that sees 4,000 people show up and around 200 re-enactors fighting it out in the Sonoran Desert. I visited Picacho Peak a few days before Christmas in 2024 and the landscape could not be further from how one pictures a Civil War Battlefield. It is rugged, strewn with Saguaros, and it affords a commanding view of the surrounding harsh desert landscape.

For almost a decade I have driven near the area and have planned on camping at the state park multiple times but I never got around to it. But I’m glad I hadn’t because as I explored the park in December, I saw it through new eyes. Eyes that could picture the battle erupt.

Picacho Peak looks like a volcanic plug but it’s actually just volcanic flow on an uplifted rock and the weaker material has eroded away in this basin and range landscape. Governor Juan Bautista de Anza, a man I have mentioned on several occasions in the past was the first to record this unique looking desert feature way back in 1775 during his expedition to San Francisco. A little later, the Mormon Battalion in 1846 would create a road that the Gold Seeking 49ers and eventually the Butterfield Overland Mail Route would use. So clearly, this place has much history. But on April 15th, 1862, The Confederates put up a fight against the advancing California Column. It would be the Rebel’s last fight in today’s Arizona.

On that day, the same day that Canby and Sibley were fighting at Peralta in the east, a small squad of Confederates led by Captain Sherod Hunter laid an ambush at the foot of this red volcanic rock northwest of Tucson.

Carlton’s vanguard under Rigg was over at modern day Casa Grand, as the Arizonans call it. And he was probing the desert mountains for Rebels. He sent out 13 Yankees under a Lt. Barrett to sweep the saguaro strewn landscape for the enemy. These 13 would soon capture three Rebel lookouts who refused to give away the Confederate’s position. Undaunted, the Unionist men then entered the pass at Picacho as another group of Yanks circled around the Peak to envelope any remaining Confederates.

Then, at 2pm, as the California Column crept through the thorny desert, the Rebels unleashed a volley at the main body of Yankees which wounded two and sent the rest a scattering. But once they’d regrouped, Lt. Barrett rallied his men and led them forward to engage the entrenched Southerners again. The fighting would go on for nearly 90 minutes and by the end of the engagement, Lt. Barrett and two other Yanks would lay dead on  the desert floor while three others were wounded.

The Fedrals eventually made a hasty retreat through the Sonora Desert to Casa Grande where they told Rigg and the Unionists quite the tall tale of the Rebel’s strength, which ultimately, this exaggeration dealt a blow to the Union Vanguard and the Columns morale. It also bought Hunter just a little time… which is all he had down in dusty ole Tucson.

While Hunter was optimistic about this small Confederate win, he knew it would only slow down the inevitable. He would write to Mesilla, quote, Our position is rather critical, though with a reinforcement of 250 men we can hold in check all the forces that can be sent from Calafornia [sic]. End quote. It’s possible, with Indian allies, that Hunter and the Rebels could hold this far west bastion of the Confederate Empire with only 250 more men. But the Column had over 1,500. And quite a few cannons. Against those odds… it was highly unlikely the Confederate’s could keep Arizona. And that knowledge, and the assumption that reinforcements indeed were not on their way, these thoughts would ultimately force Captain Sherod Hunter’s hand in Arizona. 

But he hadn’t give up hope just yet. In one final attempt, he gathered all the horses and cattle he could and housed them in Tucson to prepare for a coming Fedral siege. But agin, he could barely hold back the Apaches… who had just very recently killed four of his men and had taken 30 mules and twenty five horses. His position was becoming untenable.

So, on May 14th, Hunter gave the order to abandon Tucson. He left a James Tevis and a squad of men as their rear guard to keep the city for as long as possible. These Rebs would barely escape with their lives when the time came for the capture of Tucson by Carleton’s man Joseph West.

In mid May, around the same time Hunter had abandoned Tucson, Carleton had the remainder of his men board ferries and cross the Colorado River into Confederate Arizona en mass. Once in enemy territory, Carleton commanded that again, small groups go one after the other and hike only at night. But night brought little relief and sleeping in the hot sun was lousy. Eventually though, they made it to the same White’s Mill where a forward vanguard had built a small fort among the Indians. It was here, that Carleton learned that Tucson had already been abandoned by the Rebels.

Carleton would arrive in Tucson on June 6th to a cannon’s salute and the already waving stars and stripes. Arizona had now fallen from Confederate hands. The Empire was increasingly shrinking.

Over to the east, podcast alumni Jack Swilling had earlier been sent with the prisoner McCleave to hike to Mesilla… problem was, they were deep in Apacheria and the entire journey was fraught with danger from the Apaches. They were constantly being harassed and the two men feared they would not make it to Mesilla with their eyelids attached. So eventually, Swilling, by force of circumstance, ended up becoming friends with McCleave and in desperation, he gave him a gun for protection. He would later say he quote, did not want the blood of white men on his hands. End quote. By the time they reached Mesilla in April of 1862, Sibley and the Rebs were already retreating. The Rebels ended up releasing McCleave who would then get Swilling a position as an express rider for the Union army. But not before McCleave would cause havoc for the retreating Rebs.

Hunter would actually have the same problem in Apache Pass and he too would arm his captives in desperation. But they would eventually reach the Rio Grande and the retreating Rebels on May 27th.

Later in the century, the self declared father of Arizona, Charles Poston would say of the Civil War and its effects quote, The Civil War and its results set Arizona back about twenty years. End quote. And this is on account of the Apaches, who, taking advantage of America’s brother war, besieged the territory for the next thirty years. And you can learn about this in my Apache series, which I will finish in the future. But in that series I highlight the next moves for Carleton and the California Column, so for this series, the California Column’s story is complete.

In the next episode, we will return to the Rio Grande where the retreating Rebels under Sibley assess the futility of keeping the Imperial Confederacy’s Territory of Arizona.