The Civil War in the Southwest

The Skirmish at Mesilla, the Disastrous Surrender of Major Lynde, & The Confederate Territory of Arizona

This is the fourth episode in the series over the Civil War in the American Southwest. In this episode, the fight for the Southwest begins.

In a revolutionary time when leaders dreamed big, the potential of success in the far West was staggering. First, however, the Rebels had to accomplish two vital, no-compromise steps: Arizona had to be maintained as a Confederate Territory, and New Mexico had to be redeemed from the Union. Only then could the dreams of empire proceed.

Author Donald Frazier from his Blood and Treasure: Confederate Empire in the Southwest

With war fast approaching by June of 1861, the newly appointed Commander of the Department of New Mexico, Lt. Col. E R S Canby got word that the Texan Confederates were planning to invade from El Paso. He would then frantically write to Washington DC, which had not yet understood the enormity of the theater in the Southwest and the consequences of losing those territories. Canby would also attempt to muster more forces in New Mexico. He would go to Governor Abraham Rencher that month and ask for eleven companies of Volunteers. Canby would then ask the Governor of Colorado, William Gilpin for two companies of militia. Canby, on June 30th only had 2,466 men in the entire Department of New Mexico. A number he felt was completely insufficient to stop the marauding horde of Texans amassing at the border. In reality, he had ten times as many men under his command than did the leader of the incoming Rebels.

On July 23rd, 1861 Lt. Col. Baylor and his 258 men of the Second Texas Regiment of Mounted Rifles left Fort Bliss under the cover of darkness and marched north into New Mexico along the Rio Grande to take Fort Fillmore. This would be the Confederacy’s first major offensive in the entire War between the States. Except New Mexico was only a territory. There had been battles and skirmishes in the east but they were defensive in nature. This was the Confederacy’s first push for territorial gains during the war and the Rebels first invasion of Union territory in the Civil War. 

As they marched towards the sleeping Fedrals garrisoned at Fillmore, they hoped to take the fort in a surprise attack where they would capture or kill as many men and officers as they could and plunder the much needed armaments and resources.

It is crucial to understand how the entire war in the Southwest for the Confederates was lacking resources. Basic resources like food. But also armaments, guns, ammunition, cannons, clothing, medicine, and eventually horses and mules. And also men under arms. This discrepancy will ultimately decide the fate of the war in the Southwest… but for now, the Rebels were high with the hopes of expanding the Imperial Confederacy. And they took those hopes 600 yards from Fort Fillmore in the early morning hours of July 23rd.

In Martin Hardwick Hall’s article for Arizona and the West in 1959 titled, The Skirmish at Mesilla, he described Fort Fillmore which explains why the Rebels were able to get so close. He wrote, quote, the fort was built in a basin partially surrounded by chaparral covered sand hills. So dense was the growth that an enemy could come within 500 yards of the post without fear of detection. If artillery were mounted on the hills the post would be rendered completely helpless. A further weakness, the major observed, was that the only water supply for the stock was at the Rio Grande, a mile and a half to the west. End quote. The Major that Hall refers to is a Major Lynde. I will talk more on him in a minute but he was told at this time, by Canby, to wait for reinforcements from the west before abandoning the fort altogether. This command will influence his decision in the coming days.

But during this stall in the tall ocotillo, mesquite, and piñons, two Rebels, who were retired US Army soldiers, abandoned their posts and snuck into Fillmore where they warned the Yankees of the impending attack. Immediately the men awoke, rallied, and manned their posts. The attack had been foiled.

After hearing the horns blaring from within the fort, Baylor realized his plan of cutting the troops off from their horses and then attacking the vulnerable position was futile. Baylor then led his forces towards the town of Mesilla where he had heard the people were sympathetic to the Confederates. Remember, just a few months before the town had declared themselves in Rebellion and had claimed they were the seat of the newly created but Federally ignored territory of Arizona. They’d even raised a Rebel flag.

Mesilla was a historically important town which had two major thoroughfares running through it. One was the ancient El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro or the Royal Road of the Interior Lands which countless Spaniards and conquistadors had used centuries prior. And the other was the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, which I talked about in the Apache series. That ran mail from Missouri to Los Angeles… theoretically. You know, when it wasn’t being attacked by the Apaches. Especially the Apaches under Mangas Coloradas and Cochise. Mesilla was also the place where New Mexican and Arizonan miners took their copper, gold, and silver.

Additionally, the Mesilla valley along the Rio Grande river was quite fertile and would have been a boon to the Confederate forces in the Arizona territory. The city was extremely pro south and Mesilla was one of those southwestern regions which many western Southerners felt slavery would have been quite useful and a good fit for. One ultra-Unionist visitor to Mesilla, as Martin Hall writes in his The Skirmish at Mesilla, bitterly complained that quote, this country is now as much in the possession of the enemy as Charleston is. End quote. Baylor hoped to control this important town and with it, access to the wealth, information, and passage of people through future Confederate Arizona.

On the way to the town though, which was only a 6 mile or so march to the north of the Fort, the men came upon seven Fedrals stationed at Santo Tomas who were guarding some supplies. The men surrendered without a fight. Baylor interrogated them and asked them for information on what the Union forces were doing and where they were doing it. When the men showed no signs of having any intelligence of their fellow forces, Baylor released them and told them to tell the commander of the Fort about the strength of the coming Rebels.

Bolstered and in good spirits, Baylor and his Texan Rebels then entered the Confederate aligned town of Mesilla to vivas, hurrahs, and quote unquote manifestations of joy. Baylor became the first Confederate to lead a successful invasion of Union Territory. But he was just getting started.

At about the same time that Baylor entered the town and claimed it for the Confederacy, a group of Arizona soldiers from that mining town I’ve talked so much about, Pinos Altos, these men who had called themselves Minutemen, entered Mesilla as well. Although many of them were leaning towards joining the Rebellion, their allegiance wasn’t set in stone. To convince them of their righteous cause, Baylor lined up some speakers who would convince the hardened frontiersmen into signing up with the Lt. Col. But the speakers were boring. These men didn’t come all this way to sit and hear about grand ideas of Empire and the virtues of the Confederacy. So, after the not so rousing speeches, Baylor had the mostly Hispanic town throw the entire group of soldiers a party. One of the men present, a Sergeant Smith who led the Pinos Altos Minutemen, he had this to say of the fiesta, quote, The high cockalorums invited us to a grand fandango that night and you bet it was a dandy. Whiskey, mescal, and champaign were as free as water.... The Senoritas came out in their best harness and, talk about love, every son of us fell in love and came very near ending our war propensities. End quote. A cockalorum is a quote unquote self important man. I just love the way these guys write.

The party obviously worked and the minutemen signed up to find and kill themselves some Yankees. Although, they would end up mostly fighting Apaches, as y’all will remember from the Apache series. Frazier writes this of the newly designated Arizona Guards, quote, Although agreeing to fight U.S. regulars, the principal mission of this unit would be keeping the road to Tucson and the mines at Pinos Altos free of Indian attacks. End quote.

Edwin Sweeney in his opus on Mangas Coloradas further expounds upon this new mission for the Arizona Guards and quotes Baylor.

Their immediate duty was to fight Apaches and quote, to reopen the road between Mesilla and Tucson, and especially to rout the savages from Apache Pass. End all quotes. Many of these Arizona Guards knew the Apaches and some even knew Mangas personally. These men would be instrumental in fighting Cochise and Mangas Coloradas to the west near the mines and the passes of the Apache Strongholds as I will go over again later.

Baylor had even more surprising success when another group of soldiers signed up to join the cause. This group was known as Roy Bean’s Free Rovers and they numbered only a few dozen men. But Baylor would take what he could get. Unfortunately, this group of Free Rovers weren’t the most chivalrous soldiers on account of their propensity for pillaging the countryside and eventually they would be called the Forty Thieves… not a very flattering nom de guerre.

Two days after Baylor had entered New Mexico and after the foiled attempt at taking the Fedral fort, the leader of Fort Fillmore, a man named Major Isaac Lynde, decided to take the battle to the Confederates. This poor guy, was not the man for the job of defending southern New Mexico. Lynde was from Vermont, graduated near the bottom of his class at West Point, served in the northwest territories of what is today the Midwest, served in the Mexican American War, and served in the American Southwest. But during his 34 years of service his record includes no battles nor distinctions of any kind. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time… and the coming weeks would prove that.

On July 25th, at 4:30 pm, Lynde marched to Mesilla with 380 troops and a few howitzer cannons. The Confederates could see this huge cloud of dust which almost 400 marching men and galloping horses had created and they were ready for a fight. Martin Hall describes what Baylor does next:

Baylor quickly moved his whole force to the southern end of town to form a skirmish line. Several main streets converged at this point, with a number of scattered adobe houses forming an angle, and several old corrals and the proximity of cornfields along both sides of the road made the location admirably suited for defense. The confederates, including a number of civilians, took positions on the adobe housetops, behind the corrals, and under other cover. End quote. The Rebels were ready.

About two miles before reaching this small town of Mesilla, which is now eclipsed by Las Cruces, but with two miles between the two armies, Lynde sent a couple men out to order the Confederates to surrender. Two Texans, with double barreled shotguns on the front of their saddles heard the Major’s request and answered with Baylor’s own words, quote, if you wish the town and my forces, come and take them! End quote. Baylor then told his men quote, we will fight first, and then surrender afterwards! End quote. He had no intention of surrendering.

Lynde took Baylor’s daring demands and advanced upon the town. He sent three companies of the US Regiment of Mounted Rifles under Captain C H McNally to go ahead of the marching forces and the cannons and to charge at the Rebels in the town. Behind McNally, the howitzer cannons fired off their shells but… they exploded in the air well before their target of the city. The next volley of shells bounced around the rooftops and in the streets without exploding or hurting either soldier nor civilian.

The Texan Confederates and the townsfolk, who were again on roofs and in the street where they could see the battle, they all laughed and taunted the Fedrals. They yelled, if you Yankees couldn’t hit anything, the war was as good as over! It’s time for y'all to go home and give New Mexico to the South. They continued to taunt Lynde as his shells soared over the heads of the townsfolk and Rebel soldiers and asked him why on earth he was willing to spill any blood at all? The Confederacy was now in charge!

Before the cannons had fired and missed, Baylor had sent a few men with rifles into the thick and tall cornfields to the north of the town and he had ordered them to pick off the officers at his signal. All the while, Lynde was attempting to better position his cannons but they were getting stuck in the sand of the southern New Mexican desert land. Slowly, the cannons, and McNally’s mounted men were approaching the range of the Southern snipers and behind them, the infantry marched in the narrow street which was surrounded by high stalks of corn. It was an ill-advised advance.

At Baylor’s signal, when the mounted troops were close enough, the excited Rebels opened fire. Frazier writes, quote, The first bullet cut away McNally's saber; the second and third hit him in the chest and exited his neck. End quote. Father Stanley in his The Civil war in New Mexico outlines what happens next, quote, more Texans poured into the fields on both sides. Men lined the house tops and streets, dusk fell upon the scene. End quote.

The fighting was brief but fierce. McNally survived and began ordering his men to fall back while firing bravely into the fields. As the men retreated, the infantrymen behind the cannons mistook the Union troops for Confederates and opened fire! No one was killed in this accidental skirmish though. But Three Fedrals had been killed in the initial volley and many more were wounded. While six Confederates had been wounded and 20 of their horses had been killed. Lynde had no choice but to retreat back to Fillmore.

On the Mesilla rooftops and in the streets and in the deep corn fields, cheers erupted. Baylor ordered his men not to pursue the retreating Yankees in case it was a trap. He then ordered his troops back into position to await a second attack that would never arrive.

Back at the fort, Lynde ordered fortifications to be made with earthworks and the troops suspended ropes between posts to stop cavalry charges. The Union forces then dug in for the coming battle. But all the while, Lynde was leery of a Confederate attack and in the back of his mind, he knew he would be abandoning the well dug in fort anyways… why wait? He was surely thinking.

On account of the twenty dead horses killed in the battle, most of which had belonged to the newly created Arizona Guard, the Minutemen decided to liberate them some new steeds. At first they asked the New Mexicans at Mesilla but the locals knew the strength of the hand they held so they asked for exorbitant prices. Not to be defeated, these hardy frontiersmen decided to instead just steal horses from the Fort Fillmore herd which was near the Rio Grande away from the fort itself.

Here’s how Frazier describes the liberating of the Fort’s horses. He quotes from that Captain Smith of the Arizona Guards.

Quote: The Rebels divided into two groups. One detachment crept quietly into the herd, while the other took positions to cover the regulars as they played cards. Quote, They could not see us coming as the game at that time was very interesting, end quote, Smith remembered. When the signal came, the Confederates sprang from the river bank on the unsuspecting Federals. Quote, They all jumped up and at the command to drop their arms, they did so quick and started laughing. End quote. The raiders quickly gathered their prisoners and horses and rode away. The Arizona Guards had taken eighty-five cavalry horses and twenty-six mules; the raiders got to choose their personal mounts. Quote, I picked Lieutenant McNally's horse-the same he was riding at the first fight," Smith recalled. "You bet he-was a dandy. End all quotes.

When Major Lynde found out about the theft of the horses, he was embarrassed and devastated. He then learned that since the battle and his fortifications, Baylor had sent for men and artillery from Fort Bliss to join him in attacking Fillmore. Also, many more citizens of Mesilla had swelled the ranks of the Confederates. The battle was planned for the following morning.

With the horses, the Rebel’s reinforcements, the fact that the fort’s water was a mile away and the men, who had been marching and shooting and erecting fortifications and had been high on adrenaline all day, his men were thirsty and exhausted… he realized if that battle came, which it would, he would no doubt have to surrender the Fort to the Rebs. So, Lynde made the decision at 1:00am to abandon the fort. He also ordered the destruction of everything they couldn’t carry. They weren’t leaving anything for the Rebels. Of course, later McNally, the brave and injured Captain, he would later claim that three hundred men could have defended that fort against 3,000. But the order was given and it was followed.

The men piled the beds up, poured medicine on the heap, and burned everything they could. Everything except… the government’s store of medicinal whiskey, that is. Father Stanley writes of this, quote, many of the men decided against throwing away good whiskey, emptied their water cans in favor of the more potent liquid. They did not know it then but this action was to have telling effects on the march to Saint Augustine springs. End quote. While it is true that many a soldier took some whiskey instead of water, I did read a footnote that the number of soldiers that participated in these spirits had been exaggerated. Regardless, some soldiers absolutely partook and they would suffer the following day for it.

So in the dead of night, during the coolest part of the day, the Union troops along with 108 women and children, family members of the Fedrals, they all marched under Lynde’s command northeasterly towards a spring called Saint Augustine. A spring which lay 2,000 feet above the scorching valley floor. Saint Augustine spring laid in a pass of the Organ Mountains east of Mesilla and modern Las Cruces. Today, highway 70 closely resembles the Fort Stanton trail they were following. It goes up into a massive pass in the mountains, the same one the highway runs over, before going back down into the scorching desert of White Sands before crossing the Tularosa Basin. They then would have to go north through volcanic black sharp rocks before ascending the Mescalero Apache riddled Sacramento Mountains. It was going to be a very difficult journey. And one the Fedrals would not complete.

The going was easy at first, in the cool dark, but once the sun came out and with it, the heat, the problems began stacking up. First of all, the guides Lynde had trusted, it turns out, they had no idea where this spring was. And Lynde was clueless of the terrain himself. They seemed to be wandering.

At daylight, Baylor was awoken to news of a dust cloud heading from Fort Fillmore and rising to the northeast. He quickly took his spyglass, ascended to the highest roof and sure enough, fifteen miles to the north, he spotted the entire strewn out Federal Column. The Yankees were attempting to escape.

He ordered his men to saddle up and ride for the pass. They were going to overtake them.

Meanwhile, Lynde’s column was beginning to lag. Many soldiers were regretting their decision to trade whiskey for water and their dehydration was only accelerated by the sun and it’s scorching temperatures. This was late July in southern New Mexico, after all. By mid morning, the women, the children, the horses, and the men were excruciatingly hot and exhausted. Those that had filled themselves up on spirits were now attempting to barter with those soldiers who hadn’t given in to temptation. And then, six miles from the spring, the land begins to relentlessly ascend. They were heading up into the organ mountains. Again, on a two thousand foot incline. The task, for many, seemed impossible.

I’ve hiked the eastern side of the organ mountains at the beautiful over 4 mile Pine tree Trail hike. It’s in the organ mountains Desert peaks national monument and it was no joke. It was beautiful but I did it in February or March so it was fine but I couldn’t imagine climbing those dry harsh mountains in the summer… with no water… and a pack full of ammunition, a rifle, and in a cloud of dust. That would be insane.

Eventually, many of the fedrals fell to exhaustion and thirst. Lynde, could see no one in pursuit so he promised the staggering and collapsing men that he would return on horseback with water. He then proceeded with those still standing to the spring. Once there though, Lynde was disappointed in what little water the spring held. Again, it was July. Lynde then ordered the mounted men to fill up and take what little water they could gather to the men who had fallen along the trail. Lynde himself then turned back with more of the water to help his soldiers but he became so ill he almost fell from his horse. Most likely, it was a sun stroke. He ordered his men to proceed without him.

All the while though, rumors were coming in that mounted soldiers were on the way. Lynde wasn’t sure if it was the fedral reinforcements he had been promised or if it was the Texans. He assumed, it was the Fedral reinforcements. He was wrong. In reality, Baylor was riding hard and fast for his beleaguered troops. Troops which were falling on the trail by the minute.

The mounted troopers had made it to the spring but the men on foot were dropping like flies. And then, word came from Lt. Gibbs, the man he had assumed were the men on horseback, but Gibbs told Lynde look, you’ve got 8 mounted companies, artillery, and many a man on foot headed your way from whence you came.

Lynde, mustered what strength he could, he was at this time at the spring so maybe he had cooled down and drank his fill. But Lynde rode to the rear where he confirmed by the dust and the noise that… shoot, Gibbs was right and the Texans were riding straight for em. So, he sounded the call to arms! But, much to his disappointment and somewhat unsurprisingly on account of their fatigue, only 100 men could stand and fight. And stand was putting it loosely.

Then even more bad news reached Lynde. His four howitzers and the men moving them up the road had all been captured. They were too tired and hot to fight. But the bad news didn’t stop there. Next he learned from Gibbs that Gibbs himself, and his men had also been without water for 24 hours and they would be of little help if they arrived in time as reinforcements.

Baylor would later write of the scene he came upon and say quote, The road for five miles was lined with fainting, famished soldiers who threw down their arms as we passed and begged for water. End quote.

Another of Baylor’s soldiers was a man named Treadwell and he would write of the horrible situation they discovered. He wrote it was, quote, a pitiful sight. Husbands and fathers was scared so bad that they ran off and left them. End quote. Them, being the women and children.

At several occasions, the Fedrals would line up in attempt to repel the Texans, only to collapse in defeat or retreat as a staggering mob.

Another soldier at the disaster, a Pvt. Milam Taylor from Texas wrote, quote, Well we crowded on in full chase after the brave birds, and about 30 miles from Mesilla we overtook stragglers of the infantry and disarmed them in squads. End quote.

Baylor’s forces eventually rode up on Gibbs and overtook him without bloodshed before they all parlayed together with the thirsty and hot Lynde who had no choice but to surrender. Otherwise, he would have sent many of his own men and their women and children to the afterlife.

Lynde later wrote, quote, I could not bring more than 100 men of the infantry battalion on parade… under the circumstances… it was worse than useless to resist; honor did not demand the sacrifice of blood. End quote.

But others in his command would later disagree… wholeheartedly. Captain Gibbs would later write, despite he himself surrendering, he would write, quote, nearly every officer in the command protested against it. End quote. Captain J H Potter would also later write, quote, that damned old scoundrel has surrendered us. End quote. Another man of Lynde’s, a Doctor McKee would bitterly write, quote, Eleven companies.. of infantry and cavalry, between five and six hundred veterans, well disciplined and drilled troops with two pieces of artillery... arms and equipment, some two hundred cavalry horses, mules and wagons and two or three hundred head of beef cattle were unconditionally surrendered. ... Was there ever such a suicidal, cowardly, pusillanimous surrender as that in all history? End quote.

A Cuban Confederate Private D’Hamel would write of the surrender, quote, Our own force, good, bad, and indifferent, consisted all told of about 280 long eared, ragged Texans. When Lynde's soldiers found they had to surrender to a mob of ragged Texans, they were ready to mutiny. End quote.

Lynde, the seasoned in years, but not really in battle, Lynde, the US Army commander had surrendered to a rugged Texas Rancher leading a ragtag group of frontiersmen with the aims of establishing a Confederate Empire.

The result of the surrender near Saint Augustine Springs was some 700 captured Yankees, with over 500 of them being soldiers, the loss of Fedral drafts amounting to $17,000, 100s of rifles, plenty of ammo, and some cannons. The South also gained some turncoats when 26 of Lynde’s men joined the Rebs. Although, only 10 of them would keep their freedom since Baylor indefinitely jailed the other 16.

Also, because of them never arriving to Fort Stanton, the target of Lynde, it too would be abandoned by the time the Texans arrived later to occupy it. The defeat was a disaster for the Union in the American Southwest. Which was quickly becoming the Confederate Southwest.

Lynde’s forces were held for two days at the springs where they rested up before the lot of them were marched back down to the Rio Grande. But there was no way the Rebels could hold, guard, house, and feed these weary Fedrals so they opted to parole them and send them to the north, to Fort Craig instead. Fort Craig was 120 miles north on the Rio Grande. The Rebels hoped to take it soon as well.

Baylor said of these prisoners, quote, being desirous to afflict the enemy in every way… it was much better for the yankees to bear the expense of feeding them, than for me to do so. end quote. So, off the prisoners went north along the Rio Grande to Fort Craig.

Colton in his Civil War in the Western Territories writes that these captured Union soldiers and their families had a different fate than what the other sources wrote. He said that these people were forcefully marched under quote, terrible privations and hardships to Santa Fe, fort union, fort wise in Colorado, and then on to fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the east. End quote. But I’m not sure how the Confederates would have been given free passage to Kansas… or Colorado… or even Santa Fe, which was held by Canby and the Governor. Not to mention, the all important Fort Craig is just up the River and that’s the site of the next battle. There’s no way they were forcibly marched north by Confederates. Colton goes on to write, quote, some of the men became mentally deranged during the march from the agony of thirst, while others, to quench it, opened their veins and drank their own blood. End quote. I find this tale completely ridiculous and I could find no other source that mentioned this. There are countless springs, let alone the rio grande along the entire way to Fort Craig. And again, how were the Rebs allowed to force march nearly 700 people through enemy territory unmolested? I am not buying it. This was a problem with a few of the sources, even newer ones. There were a lot of tall tales told about the Confederates while the Yankees, and especially the New Mexican Volunteers are praised throughout and universally. More on them New Mexican Volunteers in the coming episodes…

Colton cites the Santa Fe weekly gazette from August 17th, 1861 for his telling of the blood drinking deranged 700 prisoners… but I have no doubt that the story was sensationalized and downright fabricated.

As I mentioned, because of the surrender of Lynde, Fort Stanton was abandoned and then occupied by the Rebels. Although Baylor wouldn’t hold it long since he didn’t want to thin his line out too much. Again, the Rebs had few men and fewer supplies in the field. The taking of Fort Stanton was mostly to loot it of Fedral goods. But the nearby townsfolk and the Apaches had already taken everything of value.

At the same time as Fort Stanton was abandoned, Fort Breckinridge and Fort Buchanan to the west were also abandoned by the Fedrals. This would have dire consequences for the civilians in Tucson and Arizona. Which I will talk about in the coming episodes.

Lynde was fired from the Army in November of 1861 on account of his disastrous surrender… a surrender which I suppose was inevitable. Although, they probably could have fought it out if Lynde hadn’t given such contradictory orders and hadn’t bungled the whole affair from the start. He probably should have waited at the Fort. He shouldn't have abandoned the fort at all. Especially with Gibbs and his men coming swiftly. And Lynde shouldn’t have led such a disastrous retreat. Maybe the fact that over 100 civilian women and children were amongst their number, maybe that gave Lynde pause. But they too shouldn’t have been there. They should have been sent to Fort Craig as soon as he heard the Rebels were advancing from Texas. Also, the sun stroke which had given Lynde a terrible and possibly deadly headache, no doubt forced his ill-fated hand.

But Lynde’s surrender would anger Washington and force the Union to think more sincerely and fervently about keeping the West in Union hands. Although not at first… The surrender also galvanized the citizens of New Mexico. No longer were the Texans a distant and paltry threat. They were winning in the southern half of the territory of New Mexico. And within days, it would no longer be New Mexico at all.

On August 1st, 1861, Baylor created the Confederate Territory of Arizona, installed himself as governor, and declared martial law. Baylor declared, quote, The social and political condition of Arizona being little short of general anarchy, and the people being literally destitute of law, order, and protection, the said Territory ... is hereby declared temporarily organized as a military government. End quote. Mesilla, near future Las Cruces, was to be the capital. The northern boundary was the 34th parallel from Texas to the Colorado River; the border of California. The southern border was Mexico but also, curiously, he included a good amount of Mexico Proper in his boundary delineation. The Confederate Congress ratified his creation on February 14th, 1862, giving Baylor a sweet Valentine’s Day gift. Nelson in her Three Cornered War calls Baylor the quote unquote, Vanguard of Confederate Manifest Destiny. The Confederate Empire was growing, and with it, hopes soared that California, Mexico, and the Knight’s dream of the Golden Circle would soon follow.

In the next episode, Baylor and the Confederate Territory of Arizona will have to contend with the Yankees as well as a new enemy: The Apache.