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San Miguel Chapel: Oldest Church in the U.S.

5/6/2022

Last week I drove to Santa Fe and visited some of the oldest buildings in the United States. One of those building was San Miguel Chapel.

Don Pedro de Peralta established Santa Fe in 1610, when he moved New Mexico’s capital south from San Juan de los Caballeros, near the modern city of Española. The site he chose was on the north side of the Santa Fe River. As was common in that period, Peralta built a rectangular set of buildings that faced inward toward a central plaza. This plan resulted in the Palace of the Governors and the city plaza, both of which remain at the center of Santa Fe. The Palace of the Governors is the oldest public building in the continental United States that was constructed by European settlers and has been in continuous use.

Draftsman José de Urrutia 1767 map of Santa Fe

Spanish/Tlaxcalan Contract

Across the river from the Palace, Peralta allowed the Tlaxcalans who accompanied him into New Mexico to found a neighborhood of their own, which also still exists. This neighborhood, or barrio, is called El Barrio de Analco. Analco” is a Nahuatl word which became incorporated into the Castilian of New Spain. It means “on the other side” or “beyond the river.”

The Tlaxcalans lived east of Mexico City, in what is now the state of Tlaxcala. They had never been conquered by the Aztecs. They spoke Nahuatl. In 1521, they allied themselves with Cortes to defeat the Aztecs. Afterwards, those Tlaxcalans who agreed to settle in the north were given the right to live in their own neighborhoods (barrios), free from tributes, taxes, and personal service. To protect the Tlaxcalans, Spaniards were not allowed to buy their property. Unlike other Native Americans, Tlaxcalans who went to the new settlements were permitted to carry arms and ride saddled horses without penalty. According to some sources, as many as 700 Tlaxcalans came north into New Mexico with Don Pedro de Peralta. The Barrio de Analco became the northernmost of the Tlaxcalan barrios.

San Miguel Chapel

Although the earliest surviving historical written record dates from 1628, it is likely that the Franciscans who accompanied Peralta began designing and supervising the construction of the San Miguel Chapel in the Barrio de Analco soon after they arrived in 1610. Archaeologists say that its foundations were laid directly over an early Pueblo settlement that existed between 800 and 1300 CE. In addition to serving the Tlaxcalans, the chapel was used by the Spanish middle class, which consisted of laborers, artisans, tradesmen, and farmers. Spanish soldiers also attended mass in the chapel.

The Retablo, 1798

In 1680, the Indigenous Puebloans revolted in a coordinated attack. On the first day of the revolt, the Puebloans, jealous of the special treatment the Spaniards accorded their Tlaxcalan allies, and angry that Tlaxcalans had Puebloan servants, burned the church of San Miguel and almost wiped out the Analco Barrio. The Tlaxcalans joined the more than 2000 Spanish in their retreat south to El Paso. Twelve years later, in 1692, they returned and began rebuilding the chapel. Although it has undergone significant structural changes, the present building dates from 1710.

In 1859, a decade after the US took New Mexico and Upper California from Mexico in the Mexican American War, Archbishop Lamy purchased the Chapel and adjacent land for the De LaSalle Christian Brothers. The Brothers built a three-story school building next to the Chapel. The school continued to teach students until 1968, when St Michael’s High School was built. The third story burned, but two stories of the old school building, which is the largest all-adobe building in the state, still stands and now houses State Government offices.

https://sanmiguelchapel.org/

Jennifer Bohnhoff taught New Mexico History to 7th graders at two different school. Now retired, she tours places of historical importance within the state as research for historical novels written for middle grade readers through adults. Her next novel, Where Duty Calls, is about the Civil War in New Mexico, and will be published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing, in June 2022.

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Quaker Cannons

4/27/2022

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I recently gave an hour-long presentation on the Civil War in New Mexico to a group of 5th graders. This class will be getting a class set of Where Duty Calls, the first in a trilogy of middle grade novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War. They are studying the Civil War in their class, and they already knew a lot about the conflict. Luckily for me, I still knew a few things that they didn’t. One of the things they’d never heard about was the use of Quaker cannons.

Quaker Cannon placed behind German lines, WWI. By National Library of Scotland - https://www.flickr.com/photos/nlscotland/4687953503/, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53213095

Quaker cannons are wooden logs that have been rigged up to resemble cannons. Often, they are painted black. Sometimes they are mounted on wheels or placed in gun carriages. The object of a Quaker gun is to deceive the enemy forces into believing that the place where they were used was much more heavily fortified. The name comes from the nickname for the Religious Society of Friends, who were pacifists. Because of their religious opposition to war and violence, Quakers would not fire on the enemy, and neither would a log painted to masquerade as a cannon.

William Washington

Quaker cannons are not exclusive to the Civil War, and they weren’t used only in New Mexico. Many historians believe that that they were first used during the American Revolution by American Colonel William Washington, a second cousin of our first president. On December 4, 1780, after nearly a year of brutal backcountry fighting, Colonel Washington’s light dragoons managed to surround the Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley’s force of about 125 men. Rugeley's men barricaded themselves in their Colonel’s house and barn, near Camden, South Carolina. To flush them out, Washington had a pine log made up to resemble a cannon. He aimed his decoy at Rugeley’s house and barn and threatened to open fire if they did not immediately surrender. Rugeley surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired. The "Quaker gun trick" worked.

Quaker gun at Port Hudson, 1863.

Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston

Both the Union and the Confederacy used Quaker cannons during the Civil War. During the siege of Port Hudson, in Louisiana, Confederates painted black rings onto the ends of logs and mounted them facing the river so that the Union would believe they were much better armed than they were. It worked. Admiral Farragut's two vessels passed Port Hudson by, and the Union never attempted a river-side attack.

In March 1862, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston placed Quaker guns in his field works around Centreville, Virginia so that Union troops would believe that the works were still occupied as his men withdrew to the Rappahannock.

E. R. S. Canby (as a Major)

In New Mexico, Quaker cannons were used by Colonel E. R. S. Canby to bolster the defenses of Fort Craig. Although his forces outnumbered those of the invading Confederate army led by Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley, Canby, who commanded all forces in the New Mexico Territory, was a cautious man. By the time the Confederates arrived, the fort bristled with cannons, some Quaker and some actual. Sibley's army was traveling light; he had convinced Confederate President Jefferson Davis that New Mexicans would support his army, and that the forts would easily fall, offering up their stores of food and ammunition, Fort Craig was, then, to be both a Confederate conquest, but a handy resupply depot for the southern troops. However, after a standoff of one day,. Sibley decided that the fort was too heavily fortified. He directed what he called a "roundance on Yankeedom," going around the fort and forgoing its supplies. Once again, the Quaker cannons had done their job without firing a shot.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a retired New Mexico history and language arts teacher who now writes in her home high up in the mountains of central New Mexico.

Where Duty Calls will be published June 14. It can be preordered in both paperback or ebook. Contact Geoff at Artemesia Publishing if you’d like to purchase a class set of Where Duty Calls.

If you’d like to purchase class sets of any of Ms. Bohnhoff’s other books, contact her directly. Special rates are available for all bulk orders. Ms. Bohnhoff would love to present to classes, civic or book groups, social clubs, or others who are interested in the topics in her books.

For a list of other books about the Civil War that are suitable for middle grade readers, click here. Mrs. Bohnhoff is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and receives a commission when people buy books by clicking through links in her blog or on her shop at https://bookshop.org/shop/jenniferbohnhoff. A matching commission goes to independent booksellers. However, she encourages people to also see if these books are available at their local library.

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Horses in History: Beautiful Jim Key

4/22/2022

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April is Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month. Two of the key players in creating this observation were Dr. William Key and his horse, Beautiful Jim Key.

Dr. William Key, who often went by the nickname Bill, was born a slave in 1833 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. His master, Captain John Key, died when Bill was five. The captain’s will gave Bill and some other slaves to his cousin, John W. Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee. John’s father was disabled and exhibited wild and violent behavior, but it soon became apparent that Bill could calm the old man down. Bill was still quite young when he began showing a special talent for calming recalcitrant horses, too.

When the Civil War began, Bill followed John W. Key’s two young sons to Fort Donelson, where he constructed his own shelter, a log-covered dugout known as Fort Bill. He and his two young masters sheltered in the dugout during Union bombardment. When Fort Donelson surrendered, Key helped his masters escape to Confederate forces commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest. He was later captured and sentenced to hang, but the execution was postponed when Union soldiers discovered he was a good cook and poker player. Key traded his release for forgiveness of the gambling debts of his captors.

At the conclusion of the war, all three returned to Shelbyville. Bill, now a free man, opened a hospital for horses on a lot he purchased on North Main Street. His reputation of being able to do wonders for horses caused him to be considered a veterinarian even though he had no formal training as such. In five years, Bill had morphed into Dr. William Key, and was among the most prominent and prosperous individuals in Shelbyville.

Key developed Keystone Liniment, which he promoted with a traveling minstrel and medicine show that used animals to demonstrate his medication’s effectiveness. The liniment was a big enough success that Dr. Key was able to send the two Key boys to Harvard. When asked about this act of kindness and generosity toward his master’s family, he is said to have responded, “I was one of those fortunate men who had a kind master.”

Dr. Key then took an interest in racehorses. He decided to breed the fastest horse in the world. Instead of creating a champion, his experiment produced a colt whose legs were so spindly that he was unable to stand for weeks after birth. He named the pitiful little colt Jim, after the town drunk, who had a similarly wobbly gait. As Jim grew, he began showing an unusual intelligence. Beautiful Jim let itself out of gates, opened drawers to retrieve apples, and responded with affirmative and negative nods to questions. Key spent the next seven years training Jim so that he could perform in his traveling minstrel and medicine show. By 1897, the horse could spell, distinguish among coins, make change, write letters and his name on a blackboard, identify playing cards, play a hand organ, and respond to political inquiries.

One of the men to watch Beautiful Jim Key perform was Albert R. Rogers, an officer of the American Humane Association. Impressed that Key used nothing but positive rewards to train his animals, Rogers went into business with Key. For the next nine years, Key, Rogers, a dog named Monk, and Beautiful Jim toured cities across America. Billed as the most educated horse in the world, Beautiful Jim Key became the hottest attraction in the United States. An estimated ten million Americans saw him perform, and others collected his memorabilia – buttons, photos, and postcards – or danced the Beautiful Jim Key two-step.

But more important than entertaining audiences, Key and Rogers changed the way the world looked at animals. During his time touring, hundreds of thousands of children received Jim Key Band of Mercy cards on which they pledged to be kind to animals. Key and Rogers sent sizable shares of their admission sales to local humane societies in the towns they visited. In 1906, after appearing before almost two million spectators, Key and Beautiful Jim retired to Shelbyville, where Key lived comfortably until his death in 1909.

Beautiful Jim Key outlived his master by three years, and died in 1912 at the age of 23. A monument to Beautiful Jim Key and “Jim’s Dear Friends” Albert R. Rogers (Promoter), Monk (Pal – the dog) and Dr. William Key (owner and trainer) sits on a low grassy rise three miles south of the Shelbyville Courthouse just north of Himesville Road where it intersects with the Old Tullahoma Highway.

This story is part of a series of stories on horses in history.. If you wish to learn more about Beautiful Jim Key, read this early source.
Click the names to read about other horses from history:
Black Jack
Traveller
Man-o-war
Sergeant Reckless

Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction that is suitable for middle grade readers and older. Her novel Code: Elephants on the Moon is set in Normandy, France during World War Two and features Galopin, a Breton horse who helps his owner in the Resistance against the German occupation. Her next book, Where Duty Calls, tells the story of a young man who invades New Mexico with the Confederate Army as he tries to protect his mules.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a Bookshop.org affiliate. If you make a purchase by clicking through the links in this post, she will receive a commission, and Bookshop.org will donate a matching commission to independent booksellers.

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Bosque Redondo and the Goodnight-Loving Trail

4/20/2022

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Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving made a name for themselves, moving cattle from Texas, through New Mexico, and then onwards to Colorado and Wyoming. The trail they blazed to do so, named the Goodnight-Loving Trail, was created to supply beef for rations at Bosque Redondo.

The construction of the 1,000,000-acre Bosque Redondo Reservation and Fort Sumner, the military installation that guarded it, was authorized by Congress on October 31, 1862. General James Henry Carleton then had over 9,000 Navajo and Mescalero Apaches rounded up and relocated to the reservation on what became known as the Long Walk. Carleton justified the move by claiming that the Indians were raiding white settlements near their homelands.

Charles Goodnight

The intention in bringing the Apaches and Navajos to Bosque Redondo was to teach them modern farm practices that would make them self-sufficient. However, the lack of water and good soil provided poor conditions for agriculture, and it became clear that the government had not planned inadequately for the number of people who were brought to the reservation. Crop failures, drought, insect infestations and other issues caused severe food shortages. The demand for new food supplies became urgent.

In June of 1866, two Texas ranchers, Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving, saw an opportunity in Bosque Redondo’s terrible straits. They hired 18 cowboys, rounded up 2,000 head of longhorn cattle, and took the Butterfield Overland Mail Route to Horsehead Crossing, on the Pecos River. From there, they blazed a new cattle trail up the Pecos to Fort Sumner. There they were able to sell most of their animals for 8 cents a pound, earning the pair a $12,000 profit. Goodnight took the profit back to Texas and began buying cattle from John S. Chisum’s Concho River range for a second drive to Fort Sumner later that same summer.

Chief Conniache

While Goodnight headed east, Loving continued north from Fort Sumner up the Pecos to Las Vegas. He then followed the Santa Fe Trail to Raton Pass and around the base of the Rockies via Trinidad and Pueblo to Denver, Colorado.

When the drive reached the Raton Pass, they were stopped by a tollgate chain. Richens Lacey Wootton, often called “Uncle Dick” Wootton, an early mountain man, trapper, and hunter had moved on from Bent’s Fort in 1866, claimed the Raton Pass for himself, and hired a group of Utes under Chief Conniache to build a toll road through it. Later, Wootton sold the road to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad for $1, a monthly stipend and grocery money for his wife for the rest of her life.

Dick Wootton's home in Raton Pass

"Uncle Dick" Wootton

Loving paid Wootton 10 cents per head, then drove the cattle through Trinidad, Pueblo, and on to Denver, where he sold them to cattleman John Wesley Iliff.

Another, similar drive in 1867 did not go as well. After a heavy storm and an attack by Comanches had scattered their herd, Loving rode ahead to Fort Sumner to let them know there would be delays. On the way, Loving was attacked by Comanches. He managed to escape, but was seriously injured. The Army surgeon at Fort Sumner advised Loving amputate the injure limb, but Loving refused. He died of gangrene on September 25, 1867. Goodnight continued the drive to Colorado. When he returned, he exhumed Loving’s body and returned it to Texas, as Loving had requested before his death.

Oliver Loving

By 1869, it was obvious that Bosque Redondo was a failure. After the Navajos were freed to return to their native lands, Fort Sumner was abandoned. Lucien Maxwell, a rich rancher and cattle baron bought the fort. He rebuilt one of the officers' quarters into a 20-room house, which is Sheriff Pat Garrett shot and killed Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881.

Maxwell's house in Fort Sumner

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/goodnight-loving-trail
http://www.sangres.com/history/uncledick.htm#.YmBT9trMIak

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a retired New Mexico history teacher who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. Her next book, Where Duty Calls, is a historical novel for middle grade readers, and is set in New Mexico during the Civil War. It will be released by Kinkajou Press in June 2022 and is now available for preorder.

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The Controversial Manuel Armijo

4/13/2022

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Pastel portrait of Manuel Armijo by Alfred S. Waugh, ca. 1840

Manuel Armijo was the last governor of New Mexico under the Mexican Republic, and the only person to serve in that office three times. Although he was dead by the time of the Civil War, he was important enough in New Mexican history that he still has an important role in Where Duty Calls, book 1 of a trilogy of middle grade historical novels set in New Mexico. In my attempt to present the historical controversy surrounding Armijo, the two main characters in my book have very different opinions of the man. One considers him a hero, while the other thinks him a villain. The truth, as is so often the case, is somewhere in between.

Manuel Armijo was born in Albuquerque in 1793. His father, Vicente Ferrer Armijo was a stockman and lieutenant in the militia. His mother was María Bárbara Chávez. The Armijo and Chavez clans were among the ricos of the Rio Abajo region and were among the wealthiest families in the region. The family home was in the Plaza de San Antonio de Belen. Manuel Armijo was already a landowner by the age of seventeen when there is a record of him selling a piece of land in Albuquerque.

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.

Charles Beaubien

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-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 and for his support of the people. In an early scene, Raul Atencio, one of the main characters in Where Duty Calls, is walking past the cemetery in San Miguel Mission, where Armijo is buried, Raul nods as a way of paying respect. That day at the family meal, his uncle gleefully tells the story of the failed Texas-Santa Fe expedition, and paints Armijo as New Mexico’s greatest hero. For obvious reasons, Texans felt otherwise. The father of Jemmy Martin, another character was a part of the Texas-Santa Fe expedition, and paints a rather brutal picture of the treatment the Texans received, vilifying Armijo.

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 1845.

Raul Atencio and Jemmy Martin, the two characters on opposite sides in Where Duty Calls. Ian Bristow, illustrator.

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. 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.

San Miguel Church, Socorro Illustration by Ian Bristow in Where Duty Calls

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 in San Miguel Mission Church in Socorro..

Jennifer Bohnhoff taught New Mexico history to 7th graders in Albuquerque and Edgewood, New Mexico. A native New Mexican, she is the author of several novels for middle grade and adult readers. Where Duty Calls will be published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing in June 2022 and is currently available for preorder as both a paperback or ebook.

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Explaining New Mexico’s Mindset

4/11/2022

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A line editor who recently read through my upcoming novel, Where Duty Calls, had a lot of questions about the mindset of some of my characters. New Mexico had been a territory of the United States for almost two decades when the Civil War broke out. Why, then, did the characters think of Americans as foreigners? Did people with Hispanic ancestry think of themselves as Americans? Or did they yearn for the old days when Mexico, or even Spain ruled their land? Even if I knew the answer, I was hard-pressed to explain it. A book that I’m reading right now would have helped.

That book is American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, by Colin Woodard. This award-winning journalist and historian argues that North America is culturally divided into eleven nations, whose boundaries are very different from the boundaries that divide Mexico, the United States, and Canada. Each of Woodard’s nations has unique historical roots which influence their people’s understanding of basic concepts of government. New Mexico is part of the nation that Woodard calls El Norte.

According to Woodard, El Norte forms a band of land that

stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The southern boundary of El Norte encompasses the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California. South and West Texas, Southern California, and Southern Arizona are also a part of El Norte. In New Mexico, El Norte stretches up the Rio Grande, all the way into Southern Colorado. The economy of this area is orientated towards the United States, but much of the culture and social norms have Hispanic roots. It is, as Woodard notes, a place apart.

El Norte in general, and New Mexico in particular were places apart from mainstream society from their very inception. It was no surprise to me that Spain provided little support for its colony in New Mexico, which remained poor and isolated. What was news to me was the reason that Woodard gives for this neglect. When Pope Alexander VI granted Spain ownership of almost the entire Western Hemisphere, he believed that he was setting in motion the creation of a ‘universal monarchy’ that would bring about Judgement Day. Spanish King Philip II and his son, Philip III thought it was their duty not only to convert the Western Hemisphere’s Indians to Christianity before it was too late, but to subdue Protestant Europe before pressing on to conquer the Turks, then “Africa, Asia, Calcutta, China, Japan, and all the islands adjacent.” (pg. 27) When Spain had achieved world domination, Christ would come in glory and, no doubt, his servants the Spanish would receive a reward even greater than all the gold they had discovered in the New World.

So, while the gold and silver mines of Central and South America financed Spain’s religious wars in Europe, the most important commodity in El Norte was souls. The Spanish financed Franciscan missions that gathered in Native Americans in an attempt to turn them into Catholic, Spanish speaking farmers and tradesmen. The ideal, which was often corrupted, called for integrating Native Americans into their society, then granting them land on which to live. Many of the small villages in New Mexico were founded by Genizaros, people who were ethnically Native but socially Hispanic. Many Genizaro further integrated by marrying Hispanics. By the early 1700s, the majority of the population was Mestizo, or mixed parentage. In the lower portion of Mexico, society remained stratified, with those of pure Spanish blood ruling over the Mestizo and Genizaro peasantry. In El Norte, however, where almost everyone had at least one nonwhite ancestor, this was less pronounced. It was not parentage that separated the Spanish from the Indian: it was action. Act like someone whose ancestors came from Spain, and you could claim that ancestry yourself. El Norte ended up being populated by people that were neither Spanish nor Indian, but something unique to the area.

Although Spain was too embroiled in war against the English and other Europeans to have much time, energy, or resources to put into their colonies, they didn’t want to relinquish their power. Most of the Hispanics who had entered El Norte had been ordered to do so by the church or state, and could not travel from town to town or settle on new land without permission from the King or his Viceroy. Citizens were not allowed to trade with anyone but the Spanish government, which meant that any goods New Mexican’s offered for sale had to go through Mexico, via the Camino Real. Any items that New Mexicans wanted to purchase had to come over the same road. Resupply caravans of ox-drawn wooden carts arrived in New Mexico only once every three or four years.

Woodard says that El Norte had no self-government, no elections, and no possibility for local people to play any significant role in politics. The governors were often also military commanders. Under them, the local patron took care of his peons in a system not unlike medieval serfdom. However, the wide swaths of unsettled land allowed people who wished to escape the watchful eyes of the priests and military could move into the wilds or in with the Native Americans.
Because of their isolation and the neglect of their government, the people of New Mexico developed self-sufficiency and adaptability. They were a people with ties to both their Hispanic and Indian roots, and were intolerant of tyranny and distrustful of outsiders. When the United States claimed New Mexico during the Mexican-American war, most New Mexicans considered the Americans just another government far away from them that might try to assert itself over them. They didn’t want America telling them what to do any more than they’d wanted Mexico to do so, or Spain before that. When the Civil War began, and New Mexico was asked to take sides between the Union or Confederacy, many chose not to choose. The May 11, 1861 of the Santa Fe Gazette put it this way:

“What is the position of New Mexico?
The answer is a short one.
She desires to be let alone.
In her own good time she will say her say,
and choose for herself
the position she wishes to occupy
in the new disposition
of the new disrupted power
of the United States.”

Woodard states that the border that divides Mexico from the United States also divides El Norte. While many people are clamoring for a wall to be build on the border, Woodard says that the situation resembles Germany during the Cold War. He says that the wall separates two peoples with a common culture. One thing I did not realize was that many of those peoples would prefer to unite and form their own country. He says that Charles Truxillo, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico predicts that this nation, which he calls La Republica del Norte, will come into existence by the end of the twenty-first century.

A native New Mexican, Jennifer Bohnhoff has spent a lifetime explaining to people from elsewhere that no, New Mexico does not use the peso, and yes, we are pretty good at speaking English.

Where Duty Calls, a novel for middle grade readers about the Civil War in New Mexico, will be available in June 2022 from Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. You can preorder it by clicking here.

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Canister and Grapeshot

4/6/2022

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Before I became a full-time writer, I taught history and English to middle school students. I found that one of the things that made historical fiction difficult for my students was the vocabulary. Many terms were perplexing to young teens.

This became apparent one day when a 7th grader asked me what was so scary about having grapes shot at you. We were studying the Mexican American War, and read that the cannons were loaded with grape. She honestly believed that cannoneers loaded their guns with the same kind of grapes that make their way into jelly and jam. While this would lead to a sticky situation, and perhaps some stained uniforms, it likely wouldn't lead to many fatalities.

"A little more grape, Captain Bragg." General Zachary Taylor's comment at the Mexican American War Battle of Buena Vista (February 23, 1847) continues to confuse students.

By Geni - Photo by user:geni, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11925339

Grape, when referring to 18th and 19th Century war, is just a shortened form of the word grapeshot. Neither grape or grapeshot refer to shooting people with grapes. Rather, it refers to how small metal balls, or shot, were bundled together before being loaded into the gun. Those bundles resembled clusters of grape: hence the name. When the gun fired, the bag disintegrated and the shot spread out from the muzzle, much like shot from a shotgun.

When I began teaching out in the country, I found that this perplexed students less. Although a few of my city kids were hunters or had a father or mother who hunted, many more of my country kids did so. They knew that buck shot was fired from shotguns when shooting deer, and birdshot, with its smaller pellets, was effective for shooting pigeons. But even in the country, students were dumbfounded that anyone used shot on grapes.

I also coached track and field. My 7th grade students who were also athletes quickly realized that the shot they "put" in shot put was related to grapeshot.

Grapeshot was especially effective against amassed infantry movements, such as Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg or the Confederate charge of McRae's Guns at the Battle of Valverde. But by the Civil War, grapeshot was already becoming a thing of the past, replaced by canister.

By Minnesota Historical Society [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Canister, which is sometimes known as case shot, involved small metal balls similar to the ones used in grapeshot. Instead of being encased in muslin, they were packed into a tin or brass container, the front of which blew out, scattering the balls into the oncoming enemy.

Canister is a word that is unfamiliar to many middle grade readers. They are too young to know what a film canister is. They do, however, know what a can is, and can readily accept that can is short for canister.

Understanding vocabulary words like grape and canister can help middle grade readers understand the historical fiction they are reading. Understanding the fiction can lead them to understand the history behind it, enriching their lives and making their reading much more informative and pleasurable.

After many years in the classroom, Jennifer Bohnhoff is now devoting herself to full time writing. Her novel The Bent Reed is for middle grade readers that is set at Gettysburg during the Civil War. Where Duty Calls, the first in a trilogy of novels about New Mexico during the Civil War is now available for preorder and will be published by Kinkajou Press on June 14, 2022.

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Animal books for Young Readers

4/3/2022

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A couple of books about animals crossed by desk recently. They are very different and are for different age groups, but they are both fun reads.

Any kid who loves animals, especially wild ones, will love Raccoon Summer by Betty Vanderwielen. When his father hits and kills a raccoon that was crossing the road, Lance feels compelled to find the babies she’s left behind. Lance’s father is no raccoon lover; he’s an insurance agent who’s had to settle too many claims caused by raccoon damage. His stepmother wants nothing to do with the little creatures, either, so Lance recruits a neighbor with some wildlife rescue experience to help him with three kits that are so small that their eyes aren’t even open yet. The two begin a program that starts with feedings from an eye dropper and progresses through training the kits to live in the wild. But this isn’t the only challenge for Lance. In addition to caring for raccoons, Lance helps his neighbor move through the grieving process, comes to terms with his best friend’s out-of-state move, and copes with his mother’s desire to adopt a baby with special needs. Lance learns a lot and develops a lot of empathy before this story is over. The author provides a lot of details about what goes into raising wild animals and why wild animals shouldn’t be treated as pets. I think any child who is considering becoming a veterinarian, wild life biologist, or zoo keeper would be intrigued by this story.

Although I didn’t find a date for when the story is set, I’m guessing it’s in the mid1980s, based on the fact that no one has a cell phone, Lance has a land line in his room, they go to a Blockbuster on the weekend, and there’s a really great scene with a Star Wars themed birthday party that only mentions three movies, and the family watches MASH and Star Trek on TV. Some kids might be a befuddled by no cell phones! The more controversial issues, like surrogate parenting and the treatment of special needs children are handled delicately and with a light hand. There is a sweetness and innocence to the book that is refreshing. I’d recommend Raccoon Summer to readers between fourth and sixth grade.

What is it about pack rats? Here in the mountains where I live, most of us consider pack rats a nuisance the same way Lance's dad thought raccoons were. They have a habit of climbing into the engine blocks of cars and chewing the wires. They root through the attic, scattering scat and chewing the glitter off Christmas decorations. But I guess their peculiar habits make them particularly interesting to young readers. In January I reviewed The Dreaded Cliff, a middle grade novel about a feisty female packrat who goes on an epic journey and saves her clan from a monster who’s taken over their homeland.

This month, I came across another story about packrats. A Packrat’s Holiday: Thistletoe’s Gift is for younger readers and makes a great read aloud for younger kids and for everyone else. Thistletoe Q. Packrat and his mom are facing a joyless holiday. Times are “tougher ‘n horseshoes and the cupboards are bare. But when three cowboys drive their cattle by, Thistletoe and his cousin Cuz are determined to wrangle some of the vittles for themselves. Author Linda Wilson has written a text that’s filled with enough Westernisms to make this book a read-aloud hit, and Nancy Batra’s black and white illustrations, which cover every page, are cute and filled with details that will keep little eyes busy. While Raccoon Summer was realistic, this sweet book anthropomorphizes the packrats. They speak and wear bits of clothing and eat their feat while sitting around a table. Author’s notes in the back of the book share information about real pack rats and their behavior, the desert of the Southwest, and Western cattle drives. Altogether, this is a fun and informative book that I recommend for readers over the age of five, and listeners of any age.

Jennifer Bohnhoff lives in the mountains east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has written a number of books for middle grade readers. Her next book, Where Duty Calls, is historical fiction set in New Mexico during the Civil War, and will be published by Kinkajou Press in June 2022. It is available for preorder in both paperback and ebook here.

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Civil War Weaponry: Mountain Howitzers

3/30/2022

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The youngest reenactor at Glorieta. His father told me that this was his first encampment.

Last weekend, the 160th anniversary of the Battle of Glorieta Pass was observed. I drove up to Pecos National Historic Site on Saturday morning to witness the observation.

The weekend was pretty low key. A group of Union reenactors attended. They put up tents and spend the night. No Confederate reenactors were there.

I was walking up from the parking lot when I heard gun fire. The reenactors gave some black powder displays, but there was no reenactment of the battle. The one and only artillery piece, a mountain howitzer, was going to be fired at noon, but I didn't stay around long enough to hear it.

Fort Union's Mountain Howitzer

The New Mexico Artillery Company has several cannons they bring to reenactments. However, the Park Service demands that all cannons brought on to their property are accurate reproductions. Most of the ones used by the Artillery Company have smaller bores than authentic Civil War cannons. Smaller bores are cheaper to fire. The one present this past weekend was a mountain howitzer which was brought down from Fort Union for the day. This replica, like the actual gun, was made of bronze and had a smooth bore. It could fire an explosive shell, a cannon ball, or canister 1,005 yards.

A mule carrying cannon wheels.

The mountain howitzer was first created in 1837. The United States Army used it during the Mexican–American War (1847–1848), the American Indian Wars, and during the American Civil War, (1861–1865). It was used primarily in the more rugged parts of the West. It was designed to be lightweight and very portable, even in difficult, mountainous terrain. The carriage design allowed it to be broken down into three loads, that could then be loaded onto a pack animal for transport where other guns could not go. When broken down, the tube could be carried by one horse or mule, the carriage and wheels by another, and ammunition on a third. This made it well suited for Indian fighting and mountain warfare.

.Although mountain howitzers provided artillery support for mobile military forces ion the move through rugged country, their shorter range made them unsuitable for dueling with other heavier field artillery weapons. They were replaced by other guns by the 1870s.

Author Jennifer Bohnhoff writes historical fiction for middle grade readers and adults.

Where Duty Calls, the first in a trilogy of novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War, will be published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing, in June 2022 and is available for preorder from Amazon or Bookshop.

For class sets or other bulk orders, contact Artemesia Publishing. A teacher's guide will be available this summer from the publisher.

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Where are the People from Where Duty Calls Buried?

3/23/2022

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Some of the people in my middle grade novel Where Duty Calls are fictitious, and therefore have no grave markers. They were never born, and they will never die as long as readers keep them alive.

But other characters were real people, with lives that began long before I wrote about them - lives that were filled with events that I didn't include in my novels.

William Kemp was a real man, and Confederate records indicate he really died of pneumonia on Friday, February 7, 1862 somewhere on the Jornada del Muerto south of Fort Craig. He was buried by the side of the trail, but his resting place was unmarked and is now unknown. Information about young men who died without heirs is often difficult to track down. In my novel, illustrator Ian Barstow has drawn Kemp's grave to look like this.

Pedro Baca, Raul Atencio’s rich merchant uncle was a real man who lived in Socorro. He was indeed rich, and he was a merchant. Everything else in Where Duty Calls about him is fictitious. He was married, but not to the woman he is married to in my story. By all accounts, he was an upstanding citizen, and is buried in the local church, the same one that I have Raul and his family attend Christmas Eve mass in my novel. Raul, his father, mother and siblings are all fictitious characters.

Frederick Wade and John Norvell, who both served with the fictional Jemmy Martin, survived the war and went on to live long and full lives. Their memories, published in newspaper accounts, helped give life to my novel. Both men were characters with great senses of humor, which I tried to impart in the characters I created.

Captain James "Paddy" Graydon died three years after trying to use mules to blow up the Confederate mules and horses (a story that some historians question. This escapade might have been made up by Mark Twain!).

After the war, Graydon was involved in controlling the Mescalero Apaches in southern New Mexico. After Surgeon John Whitlock accused him of needlessly killing a number of braves, the two ended up dueling at Fort Stanton. Graydon was killed, and Whitlock was then killed by Graydon's men. He was buried at Fort Stanton, but twenty-four years later his remains were reinterred at the Federal Cemetery in Santa Fe.

Like most Federal Veteran's Cemeteries, the one in Santa Fe contains row upon row of white headstones, giving it a look as uniform as a rank of soldiers. But there are a few exceptions. The most unique marker does not come from the Civil War period, but it deserves notice. It belongs to a Private named Dennis O’Leary, who died at Fort Wingate in 1901. According to local legend, O'Leary himself carved the statue, then committed suicide on the date he had inscribed. However, military records say he died of tuberculosis, a common illness of the period. O'Leary is, of course, not in Where Duty Calls, but his story seems like it has many possibilities.

Where Duty Calls is a novel about the Civil War in New Mexico. Written for middle grade readers, it is the first in a trilogy entitled Rebels Along the Rio Grande, and will be published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing, in June 2022. The author, Jennifer Bohnhoff, taught New Mexico history to 7th graders at two different middle schools in central New Mexico. She is a native New Mexican who is fascinated by the state's rich and diverse history.
If you'd like more information about her or her books, you can visit her website or sign up for her email list.

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San Miguel Chapel: Oldest Church in the U.S.

Quaker Cannons

Horses in History: Beautiful Jim Key

Bosque Redondo and the Goodnight-Loving Trail

The Controversial Manuel Armijo

Explaining New Mexico’s Mindset

Canister and Grapeshot

Animal books for Young Readers

Civil War Weaponry: Mountain Howitzers

Where are the People from Where Duty Calls Buried?

ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

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