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An Interesting Connection

8/24/2023

Back in July I wrote a blog about Gabriel Rene Paul, the commanding officer at Fort Union at the time of the Civil War. I had no idea then that I would run across a curious connection to him so soon, but I have: a connection between him and Sacajawea, the young Shoshone woman who traveled with the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Not much is actually known about Sacajawea. The teenaged girl left no writings of her own, if indeed she could write. The journals, letters, official records, and reports from the period call her by many names, and often fail to record that she was even present. Author Candy Moulton’s Sacajawea: mystery, myth and legend does a great job of piecing together a thorough timeline of her life those few references, then goes on to tackle Sacajawea’s legacy and the myths surrounding her years after the Expedition.

© 2022 by WikiCommons user Tommy5544. Permission to use granted under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. This design by Glenna Goodacre and modeled by Shoshone Randy’L He-dow Teton

Sacajawea may be legendary for her travel with Lewis and Clark, but her legacy comes through her son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau. Jean Baptiste was just an infant when he crossed the continent with his mother and father, the French trapper Toussaint Charbonneau. The members of the expedition nicknamed the baby Pompey, and named a prominent stone pillar in Montana after him. He is the only Native American child who has been honored to have his image placed on an American coin.

Pompey's Pillar

August Chouteau,

William Clark was so taken with the child that he offered to adopt him and raise him as his own. This was too good an opportunity for the Frenchman and his Indian wife to refuse. Adoption by the man who had been the Indian agent for all tribes west of the Mississippi and was now the Governor of Louisiana Territory would open the child to the upper echelons of power and wealth. In 1809, when Jean Baptiste was about four years old, the couple brought him to St. Louis, where he was baptized and handed over to his new guardian.

Toussaint was clever in his choice for his son’s godfather, picking someone who would offer just as much prestige and chances for advancement as Clark himself did. August Chouteau, who jointly founded the city of St. Louis with his stepfather, Pierre de Laclède Liguest, was one of the richest and most politically prominent men on the western frontier. His twelve-year-old daughter, Eulalie, became the child’s godmother.

Now, here’s the curious connection: Four years later, after her marriage to Louis Rene Paul, Eulalie would give birth to her son, Gabriel Rene Paul. This child would grow up to be the commander of Fort Union at the time of the Civil War, and later be seriously wounded at Gettysburg. The godmother of a child on the Lewis and Clark expedition was the mother of a Civil War general!

Colonel Philip St. George Cook

But that wasn’t the only connection I found between Jean Baptiste Charbonneau and someone else who’s been an interest of mine. Charbonneau followed his in his father's footsteps, becoming and trapper and guide and meeting many of the men who were famous for trailblazing the west, including Kit Carson and Jim Bridger. In 1846, during the Mexican American War, he was hired by Colonel Philip St. George Cook to guide the Mormon Battalion to California. Charbonneau met Cooke and his men in Albuquerque on October 24 and took them all the way to the Pacific. It was the second time he’d seen this ocean, but the first time he’d remember it: he’d seen it when he was just about a year old, when his mother had guided Lewis and Clark through the Rockies.

Left: The only picture that may be a picture of Charbonne.

Above: Charonne's gravestone. He died enroute to a Montana goldfield when he was 61 years old.

Jennifer Bohnhoff writes novels for middle school readers through adults. Gabriel Rene Paul plays a very small part in her recent novel, The Worst Enemy, book 2 of the trilogy Rebels Along the Rio Grande.

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Now Available!

8/17/2023

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I am pleased to announce that The Worst Enemy, book 2 in the Rebels Along the Rio Grande series, is now available in paperback!

If you prefer ebooks to paperbacks, you can pick up your download of The Worst Enemy here.

And if you would rather buy a signed copy directly from the author, you can buy your copy here.

The Worst Enemy is the story of two boys. Jemmy Martin is a farm boy from San Antonio, Texas. In Where Duty Calls, the first book in the series, Jemmy joins H.H. Sibley's Army of New Mexico. Sibley invaded New Mexico in the hopes of capturing the Colorado and California gold fields for the Confederacy and fulfilling a dream of manifest destiny for the south by extending its territory to the Pacific Ocean. Jemmy goes not because he has strong Confederate sympathies, but because his brother has sold the family's mules to the Confederate army and he feels the need to protect them and return them home.

The second boy in The Worst Enemy is Cian Lochlann. Cian came to America with his parents to escape the Irish Potato Famine. The family settled in Boston, but by the time he enters his teens, Cian is an orphan. He travels west to try his luck in the Denver gold boom and then, at the outbreak of the Civil War, enlists in the Colorado Volunteers, who are sent south to stop the Confederates.

The two armies, and the two boys, meet in the mountains east of Santa Fe in what becomes known as the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Jemmy and Cian must make a life-changing decision.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former Middle School New Mexico History teacher, who now writes full time from her home in the mountains of central New Mexico. The story of Jemmy Martin, Cian Lochlann, and Raul Atencio concludes in the third book of the Rebels Along the Rio Grande trilogy, The Famished Country, which is expected to be released in spring 2024.

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Happy Birthday, Smokey Bear!

8/9/2023

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Smokey Bear was authorized by the US Forest Service on August 9, 1944. His creation was part of the effort to protect forests during WWII when so many of the nation’s firefighters were serving in the armed forces. It took two months before artist Albert Staehle delivered the first poster for the campaign. On it, Smokey wears jeans and a campaign hat while he pours a bucket of water on a campfire. The message reads, "Smokey says – Care will prevent 9 out of 10 forest fires!"

The slogan "Remember ... only YOU can prevent forest fires." Was created by the Wartime Advertising Council (later called the Ad Council) in 1947. The words “forest fires" were replaced with "wildfires" in 2001 in response to a massive outbreak of wildfires in natural areas other than forests and to clarify that the campaign was advocating the prevention of unplanned fires, not controlled burns or prescribed fires for conservation purposes.

In May 1950, firefighters quelling the Capitan Cap Fire in New Mexico’s Lincoln National found a five-pound, three-month old American black bear cub high up in a tree. Because his paws and hind legs had been burned, the little bear was named Hotfoot Teddy. He was sent to Santa Fe, to live in the home of New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Ranger Ray Bell and his family while a local veterinarian helped him recover. After that, he lived with the assistant director of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish while the state game warden negotiated the cub to the Forest Service if he could be used in their conservation and wildfire prevention publicity programs. Somewhere along the line, the cub was renamed Smokey. At the end of June, 1950 the recovered, four-month old cub was flown to Washington, D.C., where a special exhibit was created for him in the National Zoo.

Smokey Bear lived at the National Zoo for 26 years. During that time he received millions of visitors. So many letters were addressed to him that he got his own ZIP code (20252) in 1964. Because Smokey and his mate, Goldie Bear, never had cubs, the zoo added "Little Smokey" to their cage in 1971. Interestingly, Little Smokey was also an orphaned bear cub from the Lincoln Forest.

Smokey Bear officially "retired" from his role as living icon on May 2, 1975, and Little Smokey was renamed Smokey Bear II. A year later, Smokey died. His body was returned to Capitan, New Mexico, where he is buried in the State Historical Park.

Author Jennifer Bohnhoff is a New Mexico native who remembers visiting Smokey Bear at the National Zoo when she was a child. Her book Summer of the Bombers tells a fictionalized story of the Cerro Grande fire that ravaged Los Alamos, New Mexico in 2000. An avid hiker, she asks you to help keep Smokey's memory by preventing fires while out in nature.

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Manuel Antonio Chaves, the Little Lion of New Mexico

8/3/2023

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Chavez in 1848

Manuel Antonio Chaves is an interesting person not only because he lived and was influential in three eras of New Mexico’s history. Born at the end of the Spanish colonial period, he grew to manhood in the rough and wild days of the Santa Fe trade when Mexico ruled the land. He spent his mature years during the period when New Mexico was a territory of the United States. He personally witnessed and was often an important part of almost every major historical event which occurred during the period, including the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition, the Mexican War, rebellion and uprisings, the Civil War, and skirmishes with Utes, Navajos, and Apache. Although just 5 feet 7 inches and 140 pounds, Chaves was such a tough fighter that he was called El Leoncito, The Little Lion. Although not everyone today honors him, he was a man of his time who worked tirelessly for his people.

An early map of Atrisco

Chaves was born October 18, 1818 in the village of Atrisco, which is now a part of Albuquerque. His family claimed lineal descendant from one of the Spanish conquistadores that came to New Mexico with Don Juan de Oñate in 1598. At the time of his birth, At that time, New Mexico was still a part of the Spanish Empire, an isolated northern border considered far from civilization. Hispanics and Native American tribes clashed, often violently in this frontier. As he likely spent most of his childhood tending the family’s sheep and working in their fields, he would have needed to keep a watchful eye out for raiding Navajos, who often stole livestock and children.

Navajos weren’t the only raiders in New Mexico at the time. Ranchers mounted raids against the Navajo, Ute, Apache and Comanche, stealing children to trade or sell as slaves. Chaves joined his first raiding party when he was only 16 years old. It was a disaster. His group, which had approximately fifty men, accidentally stumbled into a ceremonial gathering of thousands of Navajos in what was probably Canyon de Chelly. Chaves was wounded by arrows seven times. The only survivor, he managed to make the nearly 200-mile trek home with no provisions. Chaves’ bravery led him to be a leader whenever ranchers needed someone to organize attacks or to retrieve stolen sheep or horses. In 1851, Chaves led 600 men on a raid “to pursue the Navajo Nation to their extermination or complete surrender.” Although there is no record of how that particular campaign went, it is clear that over the years Chaves and his men killed dozens of Ute and Apache and stole horses, jewelry, blankets, weapons and slaves. Chaves’ household servants had been captured from the Comanches while still children.

Manuel Armijo

By the time he was nineteen, New Mexico had become a province of an independent Mexico and the handsome, steely eyed and soft-voiced Chavez had gained a reputation as a capable fighter and fearless under fire. He was a crack shot with his Hawken rifle and a cunning scout. In August 1837, he was under the command of his cousin Manuel Armijo, who was putting down an uprising in Santa Fe that resulted in the murder of the governor, Albino Perez. Armijo was appointed to take Perez’ place and within two years, Chaves was commissioned as an ensign in the rural mounted militia.

In 1841, he rejoined his cousin when New Mexico was threatened by a group of invading Texans. Governor Armijo and his militiamen managed to capture the hapless armed force known as the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition and Chaves, serving as secretary and interpreter, most likely negotiated the surrender of about half of the Texans, who were sent south to Mexican prisons. The Mexican government awarded Chaves the cross of honor for his service.

Stephen Watts Kearny

Chaves was prepared to fight as a militia officer for Armijo in 1846, when the United States invaded during the Mexican-American War, but this time, Armijo surrendered and the Battle of Santa Fe ended before it began. Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny managed to take New Mexico without firing a shot. Chaves was jailed, on charges that he was attempting to foment an uprising in Santa Fe, but he was later acquitted of all charges.

In 1847, Chaves swore an oath of allegiance to the United States. He enlisted as a private in the U.S. “Emergency Brigade” that put down the Taos Revolt during which another New Mexican Governor, this time Charles Bent, was murdered. During the Siege of Pueblo de Taos, Chaves used his rifle butt to club down a Puebloan who was fighting with his captain, Ceran St. Vrain.

Once the U.S. was firmly in control of the territory, they found themselves just as beleaguered by Native incursions as the Spanish and Mexican regimes before them. In 1851, Chaves took part in military campaigns, leading an expedition against the Navajos. He was commissioned to Captain to lead one of six companies during the Ute-Jicarilla War in 1855. By 1860, he held the rank of Lt. Colonel in the Second New Mexico Mounted Volunteers, a unit that was formed to fight the Navajos and Apache. In 1861, he was placed in command of Fort Fauntleroy (later renamed Fort Wingate.) During his tenure there, a fight caused by allegations of cheating during a horse race led to several Navajo deaths. a fight between his men and visiting Navajos in which a number of Navajos were killed. Kit Carson arrested Chaves after the fight, but since the circumstances of the killings unclear and Confederate forces were threatening New Mexico’s southern border, Colonel Edward Canby suspended the house arrest after two months.

In 1862, Confederate General Henry Sibley led a force of Texans into New Mexico and Chaves found himself battling Texans once again. He and his militia fought at the battle of Valverde. Then, at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, he guided Major John Chivington's force to the Confederate supply train, where regular Union soldiers and New Mexico militia destroyed the supplies, forcing the Confederates to retreat back to Texas.

Manuel Chaves later in life.

After the Civil War, he was honorably discharged after allegations that he had sold Army wagons for his profit were dismissed. It seems from the record that Americans were constantly attempting to tarnish Chaves’ reputation but never had adequate proof to do so. But while the Civil War was over in New Mexico, the battle between Natives and Europeans was not. In 1863, a group of over 100 Navajos raided the Rio Grande valley near Socorro. They killed many people and drove off herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. When they took captive a son of Matías Contreras, a prominent local citizen, Chaves gathered a posse of 15 civilians. The Navajos attacked Chaves's group at a spring called Ojo de la Mónica. Chaves, recognized as the best marksman, fired his own rifle and also some of the others' while they reloaded for him. By nightfall, only Chaves and two other men remained alive and all their mounts had been killed. At dawn, with only three bullets left, the three men found that the Navajos had disappeared. Chaves later called the battle at Ojo de la Mónica his greatest fight. It most certainly helped result in the Long Walk, which ended the Indian wars in most of New Mexico.
In 1876, he relocated to San Mateo, New Mexico, where he ranched. He built a home within a hundred feet of oak trees where he had rested in his flight from Canyon de Chelly as a wounded teenager. Immediately behind those trees he built a family chapel where he was buried after he died in January 1889. The blind and frail 70-year-old was laid to rest with two musket balls in his pocket.

Manuel Antonio Chaves lived a tumultuous life, during which his beloved land was held by the Spanish Empire, the Mexican Republic and the United States. Both Native Americans and the Confederacy contested for the territory. Throughout it all, Chaves served as a staunch defender of his people, regardless of what flag he fought under.

Manuel Chaves plays a large part in the Battle of Glorieta and a small part in The Worst Enemy, Jennifer Bohnhoff's middle grade historical novel. The Worst Enemy is book two of a trilogy set in New Mexico during the Civil War. The author is available for class visits and talks to groups who are interested in the history behind the story.

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An Interesting Connection

Now Available!

Happy Birthday, Smokey Bear!

Manuel Antonio Chaves, the Little Lion of New Mexico

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