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the life of a civil war soldier

3/23/2017

If you are curious about what it was like to be a soldier during the Civil War, there's no better place to start than John D. Billings' memoir, Hard Tack and Coffee. Historian Henry Steele Commager calls it "one of the most entertaining of all civil war books."

Subtitled The Unwritten Story of Army Life, this book was published in 1887 by Billings, who served in the 10th Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery Battery under General Sickles and General Hancock. It is not a history of the war, and doesn't talk about battles and strategy. Instead, it explains what it was like to enlist in the Union Army, how soldiers managed the every day acts of eating and sleeping, of punishments and pastimes, and what it was like to keep the Army on the move.

While some of the information in Billings' account is specific to his experiences in the Army of the Potomac, most of it would be useful for anyone who wanted to know about the life of the average soldier. Where else would we learn that troops camped near brooks washed their clothes in the running water until they realized that boiling them got rid of wood ticks and lice much better. To kill vermin, soldiers boiled their clothes in the mess kettles that also cooked their stews and boiled their coffee.

The writing is witty and the humor wry, the more than 200 pen and ink drawings are what really make Hard Tack and Coffee a treasure. The illustrations were created by another Civil War Veteran, Charles Reed, who served as bugler in the 9th Massachusetts Battery. Reed was awarded the Medal of Honor for saving the life of his battery commander at Gettysburg.

Reed shows the reader what a Sibley tent looked like. Invented by the man who left the Union Army to become a Brigadier General in the Confederacy, Sibley tents were used by both the North and the South. They resembled the teepees that Sibley would have seen while fighting Indians on the great plains and in New Mexico Territory, which Sibley invaded in 1862 in an attempt to conquer it for the South. One of my favorite pictures shows an interior view of a Sibley tent, and how the soldiers "spooned," or slept nested against each other in an attempt to keep warm.

General Sibley is a background character in Where Duty Calls and The Famished Country, books 1 and 3 of Rebels Along the Rio Grande, my historical novel trilogy about New Mexico during the Civil War. Reed's illustrations are now part of the public domain.

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Paddy Graydon's Scheme to Stop the confederacy

3/9/2017

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The Library of Congress calls this "a jurilla." Paddy and the members of his spy company probably didn't look much better.

While enormous Union and Confederate Armies battled each other in the east, a relatively small Confederate Army was attempting to conquer the American Southwest. Their ultimate aim was the rich gold fields of Colorado and the deep harbors of California. Luckily for the Union, the American's had Paddy Graydon to destroy the Confederate's plans.

Paddy Graydon was a rough, hard drinking, disagreeable man who was quick with his fists and short on temper, but his recklessness has earned him a place in the Civil War lore of New Mexico.

Paddy, whose Christian name was James, came to the United States from Ireland in order to escape the Potato Famine. It was 1853, and he was just 21 years old. Like many indigent immigrants, he joined the Army. Paddy became a dragoon, or light mounted infantry. He was posted to the southwest, where he learned to speak Spanish and Apache. Graydon's deprived childhood prepared, the blue eyed, 5' 7" man for the hardships of life in the saddle fighting Indians, bandits, renegades, and claim jumpers in an area that stretched from Santa Fe to the Mexican border. He stayed in the service for five years, until 1858.

Graydon opened a saloon near Sonoita, Arizona when he was discharged from the Army, His patrons were well-known for their rough and violent ways, but even such a tough clientele didn't provide Graydon with the excitement he was used to. The tough Irishman continued to track horse thieves, rescue captives from the Indians, and guide army patrols in his spare time.

When Confederate General Henry H. Sibley threatened to invade New Mexico in 1861, Graydon offered his services to Colonel Edward Canby, the highest ranking Union officer in the state. He formed an independent company of spies, most of them recruited from his former saloon patrons. Graydon's spies were known for being undisciplined and dangerous. They refused to wear uniforms or participate in drills and parades. But they were very good at collecting information. Graydon and his men excelled at wandering into Confederate camps and gathering information while posing as rebel soldiers.

Graydon's most famous escapade happened on a bitterly cold night in February, 1862, on the night before the Battle of Valverde. Under cover of darkness, Graydon and several volunteers crossed the icy Rio Grande and snuck up on the Confederate encampment. When they neared the corral that held Sibley's pack train, Graydon lit the fuses on boxes of explosives mounted on two old mules, then shooed them towards the Confederate lines. Unfortunately for Graydon, the mules turned back. Graydon and his men ran for their lives, and the mules blew up too far away to cause the carnage he had planned. However, the explosion caused Confederate pack mules to stampede down to the Rio Grande, where Union troops rounded them up.

Because of Graydon's scheme, the Confederate Army lost over 100 animals. Without their mules, they had to abandon many of the supplies that they desperately needed if they were going to conquer New Mexico and the rich gold fields of Colorado and California that Jefferson Davis had hoped to use to finance his fledgling country.

Jennifer Bohnhoff taught New Mexico History to 7th grade students in Albuquerque and Edgewood. Paddy Graydon and his escapade with the mules shows up in Where Duty Calls, the first book in a trilogy of middle grade historical novels about the Civil War in New Mexico.

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Manuel Armijo: New Mexican Hero?

3/1/2017

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Manuel Armjio was dead by the time of the Civil War, but he’s important enough in New Mexican history that he still has a cameo in Valverde, my historical historical novel due out in late April. In an early scene, Raul Atencio, one of the main characters, is walking past the cemetery in San Miguel Mission, and he nods as a way of paying respect to the man who was, at that time, considered New Mexico’s greatest hero.

Armijo began his public career in 1822, when he served as alcalde, a combination mayor and judge, in Albuquerque. During this period he protected his town by leading attacks against the Apache Indians, and was well respected for his administrative abilities. He was so well loved by the people that he was appointed governor in 1827.
While governor, Armijo sent reports to the central government expressing concern with poverty caused by the concentration of lands in the hands of a few people, and by drought. He asked for relief for New Mexicans who lived in poverty and hunger. Although his reports were ignored, his concern won him the appreciation of the people.
Armijo also expressed concern with illegal beaver trapping by Americans who were driving the animals to the point of extinction. He tried to impose tariffs and impound illegal furs, but the vast distances in the frontier made policing difficult. Unsurprisingly, his actions caused animosity with American traders and trappers, who retaliated by circulating rumors that the money gathered from tariffs and the resale of impounded furs lined Armijo’s pockets instead of helped New Mexico’s poor. Pictures of him in American papers depict a rotund man in a foolish and fancy uniform.
Armijo had returned to private business by 1837, when a rebellion broke out and the governor, a Mexican named Albino Perez, was murdered. Armijo led troops against the disorderly mob. He hung the four rebels responsible for starting the rebellion and executed the rebel governor the rebel-appointed governor.
When the Mexican government appointed Armijo to a second term as governor, Armijo imposed tariffs on American and New Mexican traders who brought goods over the Santa Fe Trail. He also distributed large land grants, ostensibly to draw in settlers from Mexico and the United States and widen the tax base. However, much of the money from those grants did not make it into New Mexico’s coffers. For instance, when Armijo granted Guadalupe Miranda and Charles Beaubien a large tract of land east of Taos along the Cimarron and Canadian Rivers in 1841, they deeded Armijo one-fourth interest in the land in exchange for his guarantees to support them against any future claims. They deeded another fourth to Charles Bent, who would later become Territorial Governor and be murdered by an angry mob for his alleged siphoning of money away from the people.
While Armijo was making a bundle on land, the Republic of Texas was threatening to take it all away. Texas claimed that their western border followed the Rio Grande, effectively cutting New Mexico in half. In 1841, a group dubbed the Texas-Santa Fe expedition attempted to make good on that claim. When their guides abandoned them, the Texans got lost in the Llano Estacado, where they endured frequent attacks by Apaches. By the time the expedition finally arrived in New Mexico, they were half-starved and in no condition to battle Armijo, who had a large force of well-armed soldiers from Mexico, which was angry about losing Texas. The Texans surrendered and were marched 2,000 miles under harsh conditions to Mexico City. They languished in Perote prison until the United States negotiated their release a year and a half later.
New Mexicans considered Armijo a hero for defeating the Texans, but the Texans felt otherwise, vilifying the governor. The father of Jemmy Martin, another character in Valverde, was a part of the Texas-Santa Fe expedition, and paints a rather brutal picture of the treatment the Texans received. In his account of the expedition, journalist George Wilkins Kendall depicted Armijo as an uneducated man from a poor family who worked his way up by stealing. This was untrue. Manuel Armijo’s family ranked among the ricos of Rio Abajo, which meant they were hacendados owning large herds and large tract of land.
In March 1844 Governor Armijo resigned his office. The man who replaced him raised tariffs on imported goods and taxed the people even more. In order to avoid revolt, Armijo was re-appointed to his third and final term as governor by mid 1945.
When the Mexican-American War began in May 1846, hundreds of enthusiastic but ill-equipped, ill-trained citizens answered Armijo’s call to arms against the American invasion. Although many of his volunteers were armed with nothing more than pitchforks and machetes, Armijo sent them to fortify Apache Canyon, a narrow space on the Santa Fe trail, just east of Santa Fe. By this time Armijo has grown so fat that a horse could not support his weight. When the rotund general arrived on the battlefield astride a strong-backed mule, Armijo found his men lined up against General Stephen Kearny and his 1,750 well armed and well trained soldiers. Armijo abandoned his forces. Some accounts say he even abandoned his own wife. What he didn’t abandon were the fine carpets, silver and china of the Governor’s Palace, which were loaded into carts. He, his treasures, and his bodyguard of 75 dragoons retreated to Chihuahua, Mexico, allowing General Kearny to take Santa Fe without a battle.
When asked why he abandoned New Mexico, Armijo justified himself by saying “I had but seventy-five men to fight three thousand. What could I do?” American writers, in their negative depiction of Armijo, have suggested that he accepted a bribe from the Americans for not opposing Kearny, but there is no concrete evidence to support this assertion. Armijo was tried for treason, but neither the Mexican Supreme Court or Congress found enough evidence to convict him. In January 1850 Armijo returned as a hero to New Mexico. He died at his home in Lemitar, New Mexico in January 1854 and was given a hero’s burial.
Jennifer Bohnhoff teaches New Mexico history to 7th graders in Albuquerque. She is the author of three historical novels for young readers. Valverde will be published in late April, but is currently available for preorder at a discount through Kickstarter.

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the life of a civil war soldier

Paddy Graydon's Scheme to Stop the confederacy

Manuel Armijo: New Mexican Hero?

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