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Cherry Clafouti to Commemorate D-Day

6/5/2023

Clafouti is a French dessert that looks beautiful and is simple to make. It might be just the thing to make in early June, when cherries are ripe and we think back to D-Day and the sacrifices our Allied troops made when they stormed the beaches of Normandy to wrest control from German troops.

Clafouti

1 1/2 sweet cherries, pitted
1 cup milk
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp almond extract or kirsch
confectioner's sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°
Butter a 1 ½ quart baking dish with low sides.
Arrange the cherries in a single layer in the dish.

Combine the milk and cream in a saucepan and heat but do not boil. Remove from heat and use a whisk to add the flour a little at a time until well blended.

Wisk together the eggs, sugar and salt in a small bowl. Add the kirsch or almond extract and the heated milk mixture and pour over the cherries.

Bake 45-55 minutes, until browned and puffed, yet still soft I the center. A knife stuck into the center should come out clean.

Transfer to a rack and cool slightly before dusting with confectioner’s sugar. Serve warm. 4 servings.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author who writes historical fiction for middle grade through adult readers. Elephants on the Moon is her story about a French girl who joins the Resistance fighters in preparing for the D-Day invasions, and is available in paperback and ebook.

Both the image and the recipe featured here are adapted from Chuck Williams: Simple French Cooking, (San Francisco, Weldon Owens, Inc., 1996)

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Samuel M. Logan: Man of Action

6/1/2023

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Samuel M. Logan isn’t a name that many would recognize as a Civil War personality, but he played an important supporting role in the Colorado Volunteers and has a small role in my novel The Worst Enemy, the second of three books in Rebels Along the Rio Grande.

Little is known about his childhood. Military records suggest he was born on December 18, 1821 in Ohio, who the names of his parents and whether he had any siblings is unknown.

Samuel M. Logan was a Mexican American War veteran who was working as a blacksmith in Denver when the Civil War broke out. He didn’t waste any time in showing on which side his sympathies lay with a grand gesture.

On April 24, 1861, just days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter, the southern sympathizers who owned Wallingford and Murphey’s Mercantile on Larimer Street in downtown Denver raised the Confederate stars and bars on the pole atop their building. The flag attracted an angry mob of pro-Union sympathizers who threw rocks at the store and demanded that the flag come down.

The Worst Enemy Illustration by Ian Bristow

Logan swang into action -- literally. He climbed a hitching rail and swung himself onto the roof of the store. Accounts of what happened next contradict each other. Some accounts say that the Marshal showed up at this point, dispersed the crowd, and allowed Wallingford and Murphey to continue flying the Confederate colors. Other accounts say that Logan pulled down the flag and ripped it to shreds as the crowd cheered him on.

Whichever is the case, Logan’s stunt made him popular enough that he was able to recruit a company of men to follow him into the volunteer army that William Gilpin, the newly appointed governor of the territory, was raising. In those days, whoever brought in the required number of men was given the commission to lead them. Samuel M. Logan, blacksmith and climber of roofs became Captain Samuel M. Logan of Company B of the Colorado Volunteers.

Logan’s reputation for quick and dramatic action led him to receive some orders that made for exciting press releases. In late August, his Company was ordered to clean out the Criterion, a saloon that was a notorious gathering place for secessionists. Logan and his men stormed in with bayonets fixed. They confiscated a large pile of weapons and ammunition and became the darling heroes of Denver.

However, the same qualities that made him a man of action didn’t make him a beloved leader. By September, Company B had delivered a petition to Governor Gilpin requesting that he remove Captain Logan, “whose overbearance and tyranny have become untolerable.” The Governor chose to ignore this petition.

Logan’s Company engaged the enemy on both days of the Battle of Glorieta. On the second day, it was part of the group that Major John Chivington led over the top of Glorieta Mesa in what was intended to be a flanking movement to attack the Confederate force in the rear. Instead, they overshot and instead of fighting in the Battle of Pigeon’s Ranch, descended from the mesa at Johnson’s Ranch, where they were able to destroy the Confederate baggage train, effectively destroying the Confederate Army’s ability to wage war in New Mexico.

From then on, Logan’s rise through the military was tied to that of John Chivington’s. Both were men of fiery and decisive action who held a “take no quarter” attitude, especially when it came to treatment of American Natives. By spring of 1864, Logan had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, bypassing other officers who argued for more leniency in dealings with the Plains Tribes. With Chivington, Logan participated in the infamous Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864. Both men managed to avoid prosecution for their part in the massacre because both mustered out before charges could be filed, but their implication in Sand Creek would permanently destroy their hopes for a future in politics.

The 1870 census indicates that Logan was married, had fathered three children, two of whom died in childhood. He was working as a freighter.

Logan died in 1888, at age 61. He was buried in Riverside Cemetery in Denver. His wife, Mary, and son Samuel are buried with him.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer and educator who lives in New Mexico. The Worst Enemy, her second book in Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of novels about the Civil War in New Mexico, will come out this August.

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Fake Money to Raise Real Troops

5/25/2023

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William Gilpin believed in the west. A native of Pennsylvania, Gilpin was born in 1813. He attended school in England for two years, then went to the University of Pennsylvania, finally graduating in really 1836 from the United States Military Academy at West Point

In 1843, Gilpin joined Kit Carson and several other notable westerners on John Charles Fremont's expedition to map the route over the Continental Divide as far as Oregon. A few years later, Major Gilpin marched his regiment to Chihuahua City during the Mexican-American War. He did well enough there that Gilpin received command of a volunteer force organized to suppress Indian uprisings in the West and to protect the Santa Fe Trail. After this, Gilpin settled in Independence, Missouri, where he set up a law practice and gave lectures on the health and wealth that was available in the Rocky Mountains.

In February of 1861, Colorado was organized as a territory of the United States, and President Lincoln appointed Colonel Gilpin to be its Governor. Upon arriving in the Territory, Gilpin realized that one of the most important tasks he had was to defend against a Confederate invasion. Almost all of Colorado's regular Army troops had been called east when the Civil War began, leaving the rich gold fields of the Rockies vulnerable. Not realizing that Confederate General Henry Sibley was raising an invasion force in Texas, Washington refused to support Gilpin's request for the organization of Union forces in Colorado Territory.

Gilpin then took it upon himself to protect the territory. He organized the First Colorado Regiment of Volunteers and paid for it by issuing $375,000 in negotiable drafts that were payable from the national treasury. The drafts became known as Gilpin Scrip, and the Colorado First Volunteers, a force of 1,342 men the scrip helped arm and house, became known as Gilpin's Pet Lambs.

At first, the merchants of Denver were all too happy to exchange their goods for Gilpin Scrip. However, Washington considered the scrip illegal and the U.S. Treasury refused to redeem them. Despite traveling to Washington to plead his case, the cabinet removed Gilpin from office by a unanimous vote. Ironically, Gilpin achieved his purpose. His illegally funded First Regiment distinguished itself, participating at the Battle of Valverde outside Fort Craig, and routing Confederate General Henry Sibley's Army at Glorieta Pass.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a former New Mexico history teacher who now writes from her home in the mountains of central New Mexico. Her next book The Worst Enemy, tells the story of the Colorado Volunteers and the Civil War battle of Glorieta. Written for middle grade through adult readers. It will be published this August by Artemesia Publishing and is available now for preorder.

If you would like to know more, join Jennifer's email list here.

One very entertaining book on Gilpin is Colorado: A History, by Marshall Sprague (1984).

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John Potts Slough: Victor of Glorieta

5/11/2023

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Colonel John P. Slough , of the First Colorado Regiment ( From a war - time photograph loaned by Mr. Samuel C. Dorsey , of Denver . )

John Potts Slough came from a prestigious military and political family. His ancestor, Mattias Slough, was the first colonel appointed by General George Washington during the Revolutionary War and was also a member of the Pennsylvania assembly before he left public life to run a tavern in Lancaster County.

John had big shoes, and expectations, to fill.

John Potts Slough (whose name rhymes with 'plough') was born on February 1, 1829, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned a

degree in law and was elected as a Democrat to the Ohio General Assembly. Things were looking promising for this young man, but all was not perfect. Potts was noted for having a fierce temper and could pepper his tirades with obscenities. He was expelled from the Legislature after engaging in a fist fight with another assemblyman. He then moved to Kansas where he was narrowly defeated in a race for the Governor's seat.

Slough then moved to Denver and became one of its preeminent lawyers. When the Civil War broke out, he entered the service as the Captain of the 1st Colorado "Pike's Peakers" Volunteer Regiment, then convinced the territory's Governor, William Gilpin, to raise his rank to Colonel. Slough used family money to support the troops. He located a vacant building, the Buffalo House Hotel, and got it donated for use as barracks until Camp Weld was built on the south side of Denver. Despite his organizational acumen, Slough was not popular with the troops, who found him cold and imperious.

In 1862, a Confederate army invaded New Mexico Territory, and Slough marched his regiment to Fort Union. Once there, he took assumed control of the fort, arguing that he outranked Colonel Paul, the regular Army officer who had been in control, by reason of an earlier appointment date.

Colonel Edward Canby, who commanded the Department of New Mexico, ordered Slough to stay at the fort, but Slough deliberately misinterpreted the orders and marched to Glorieta Pass, where he engaged in a battle that ultimately turned the tide and sent the Confederate Army back to Texas. The victory was not a sweet one for Slough. Worried that he would be drummed out for disobeying orders and convinced that his own men fired on him during the battle, he resigned his commission and left the state.

Slough went to Washington, D.C., where once again things seemed to be going his way. He was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers and became the military Governor of Alexandria, Virginia. Slough served as pallbearer at Lincoln's funeral and was a member of the court that convicted Henry Wirz, commander of the notorious Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson appointed Slough the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico.

Slough is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Once he returned to the territory, Slough again showed concern for his old troops. His efforts to have proper burials for the soldiers killed at Glorieta resulted in the creation of the National Cemetery in Santa Fe in 1867. In 1895, Confederates who died in the battle were interred there as well.

But once again, Slough's fiery temper and outspoken tirades got him into trouble. President Andrew Johnson wanted Slough to break down the corrupt patronage system that had plagued New Mexico for centuries, and Slough began by attacking peonage, which he compared to slavery. This swiftly earned him enemies in the still divided and notoriously violent territory. On December 17, 1867, Slough was playing billiards in the La Fonda Hotel when he and another former Union officer and New Mexico legislator, William Logan Ryerson, got in an argument. Two days later, Ryerson, who was also a part of the notoriously corrupt Santa Fe Ring, fatally shot an unarmed Slough in the lobby of Santa Fe's Exchange Hotel. Ryerson was tried for murder but the jury acquitted him, saying he had acted in self defense.

Slough is one of the historical characters in Jennifer Bohnhoff's Civil War novel The Worst Enemy which will be published in August 2023 by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. The Worst Enemy is the second in the trilogy Rebels Along the Rio Grande. and is available for preorder. The first book in the series, Where Duty Calls, was published in 2022 and is available here. Both novels are suitable for middle grade readers and above.

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Samuel H. Cook, Miner and Soldier

5/4/2023

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A photo of a real boy who became the inspiration for my fictitious character, Cian Lachlann.

When I began writing Rebels on the Rio Grande, my series of historical novels on the Civil War in New Mexico, I soon realized that no real characters were present for all the events I wished to portray. That left me with a choice: did I add a lot more point of view characters into my stories so that I could always be assured to have someone the reader knew at each event? Or did I take out interesting and significant events because none of my characters were actually there?

I finally settled on a third approach. I filled my books with real, historical characters, yet I created fictitious characters for my main characters. That way, they could be everywhere I needed them to be. In The Worst Enemy, the second novel in my series, I created Cian Lachlann, an orphaned boy originally from Ireland, to represent the Union side of the story. He is representative of a number of real boys who joined the war effort out of desperation and a need for food and guidance.

Samuel H. Cook

One of the real people who show up in The Worst Enemy, is Samuel H. Cook.

Cook came to the Rockies in 1859 in search of gold.
By summer of 1861, he and his partners, George Nelson, and Luther Wilson, were out money, out of food, and nearly out of hope.

Reading a newspaper near their Golden, Colorado claim, Cook saw an advertisement that stated "the United States Government desperately need troops to wage war and defend itself from secessionist aggression."

The article claimed that any man who could recruit 25 volunteers would be an officer and lead his own troops.

Cook rode the fifteen miles into Denver and had recruiting posters printed. He plastered those posters throughout Rocky Mountain gold mining towns. Men began to show up at his tent to sign up the next day.

Luther Wilson

Cook's first two recruits were his mining partners. George Nelson became Captain Cook's First Lieutenant, and Luther Wilson his Second Lieutenant.

But these three were not the only men in the Colorado gold fields who needed a fresh start. The prospect of regular meals, warm clothing, and a comfortable bed attracted many hungry miners from across the region. By mid August, Cook was able to report that he had 87 volunteers ready to ride with him to Kansas to join the Union Army. Cook's old friend, Colonel Jim Lane, wrote back from Leavenworth, Kansas with Cook's appointment, welcoming him.

Governor William Gilpin

Cook and his men never made it to Kansas.
They stopped for lunch in Denver on the first day of their ride to Kansas, and William Gilpin, the territorial governor, treated Cook to a meal at Sutherland House, one of the fanciest eateries in town. During that meal, Gilpin convinced Cook that the territory needed protection just as much as the Union did, and that he and his men would do well to stay in Colorado.

Cook convinced his men to join the 1st Regiment of the Colorado Volunteers, which Gilpin had appointed Colonel John P. Slough to lead.

John Slough

Slough wanted to run an infantry regiment, but two of his companies, one of which was Cook's Company F, refused to give up their horses.

Cook is credited with being the first Union casualty in the Battle of Apache Canyon, the name given to the first day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass. He was his three times in the thigh by buck and ball before his horse went down. He survived his wounds, but never saw action again.

Rebels Along the Rio Grande is a trilogy of historical fiction novels set in New Mexico during the Civil War. Samuel Cook, George Nelson, and Luther Wilson are all real people, but are portrayed fictitiously in the second of the novels, The Worst Enemy which will be published on August 15, 2023 by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. It can be preordered on Bookshop.org. The Worst Enemy continues the story begun in Where Duty Calls, which was a finalist for both the prestigious Zia Award and the Spur Award.

Mrs. Bohnhoff is an educator, historian, and author who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. You can read about all of her books here.

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Johnson's Ranch, the Third in Glorieta: The Battle of Three Ranches

4/27/2023

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Johnson Ranch, 1917

Three ranches figure prominently in the action surrounding the March 26-28, 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass. The first was Martin Kozlowski’s ranch. Situated at the eastern entrance of this narrow pass in the mountains east of Santa Fe, this location served as headquarters for the Union Army. The second, Pigeon’s Ranch, sits near the top of the pass and is where the main battle took place. The third site, Johnson’s Ranch, is located at the western end of Glorieta Pass, and was where the Confederate camp was located. All three ranches were also waypoints along the Santa Fe trail, which wended through Glorieta pass before dropping out of the mountains to its western terminus in Santa Fe.

Like the other two ranches, the owner of Johnson’s Ranch, a Missouri native named Anthony D. Johnson, was known to be strong Union supporter. At the first appearance of the Southern Army, Johnson took his New Mexican-born wife, Cruz, and their five children, and fled into the hills, where they camped in the frigid weather until it was safe to return home.

On March 28, the second day of the battle, Confederate Major Charles L. Pyron and Colonel William Scurry thought their camp, far to rear, was safe. Thinking no Union forces could get by them through the narrow pass, they left their 80 supply wagons lightly defended with just one canon and a small contingent of soldiers. Most of the remaining men in camp were either injured or ailing.

It never occurred to the Confederates that the Union Army could attack their supply train, but that is exactly what Colonel John M. Chivington did. Guided by the legendary Manuel Antonio Chaves, a New Mexico Volunteer nicknamed El Leoncito due to his small stature and outsized courage, he led a flanking party over Glorieta Mesa, on the south side of the pass. Chivington's intention was to outflank the Confederate Army so that he could attack its rear while Colonel John Slough attacked from the front. However, he overshot his objective.When he looked down on the supply wagons, Chivington realized that he had a unique opportunity. Changing his plans, he had his men then climb down the steep bluff and capture the Confederate guard. They spiked the cannon and burned the Texan supply train. He also ordered that all the Confederate’s draft mules and horses be bayoneted.

An etching of the burning of the Confederate supply train, with Confederates fleeing toward Santa Fe. If you look closely, you can see a line of Union Soldiers on the left, climbing away from the flames.

When the Confederate Army, fighting at Pigeon's Ranch, learned the fate of their supply train, the battle ceased. The Confederates began the slow process of withdrawing, first to Santa Fe, then down the Rio Grande to Texas. Johnson later testified that after the battle, he was forced to transport sick and wounded Texans back to Santa Fe.

For the Johnson family, the invasion proved an economic disaster. They returned to find that Confederate soldiers had looted the house and ranch. They had taken a barrel of whiskey, ten bags of flour, 20 bushels of corn, sugar, molasses, soap, his clothing, and even his canned oysters. They had burned his furniture and fences as firewood. His house and the stagecoach station had nothing left to them but their bare walls. Johnson filed a claim against the U.S. government for $4,075, but there is no record that his claim was ever paid. Luckily, he had the foresight to drive his cattle into the hills, so he had not lost everything.

Eventually, the Johnsons recovered and got back to the business of operating their stage stop and cantina on the old Santa Fe Trail. He acquired wagons and ran a freight service that hauled goods to and from Fort Union on the edge of the plains. In late 1869, he moved his family to Trinidad, Colorado, just north of Raton Pass. Soon, Johnson hauled ties for the advancing Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. In early 1879, Johnson was attacked and killed by highwaymen at a river crossing just east of Springer. His body was never found, and although the culprits were captured and brought before a federal judge in Santa Fe, the trial record has been lost and it is unknown what happened to the highwaymen.

The historic Johnson’s Ranch building lasted nearly 90 years longer than its owner. The building which had been a stage station on the historic Santa Fe trail and sheltered a Confederate Army for a few days was bulldozed in 1967 to make room for Interstate 25, that connects Denver to El Paso.

Johnson's Ranch is one of the settings for Jennifer Bohnhoff's historical novel The Worst Enemy, which is book 3 in Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of Civil War Novels published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. The first is Where Duty Calls.

Mrs. Bohnhoff lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. From her north-facing windows she can see Santa Fe and the mountains through which Glorieta Pass travels.

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Pigeon's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

4/20/2023

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The Battle of Glorieta Pass ranged through a narrow mountain divide in the Sangre de Cristo mountains just east of Santa Fe on March 26-28, 1862. The pass was part of the Santa Fe trail that had connected Old Santa Fe to Franklin, Missouri for nearly half a century. The three ranches involved in the battle were also used as way stops along the trail. Three very different characters owned and operated the ranches.

Union troops were headquartered at a ranch on the eastern end of the pass that was owned by a Polish immigrant named Kozlowski. You can read more about him and his ranch here.

The Confederate base was at Johnson's ranch, located at the western mouth of the canyon.

Pigeon's Ranch in the 1880s.

Between Kozlowski's and Johnson's place sat Pigeon's ranch, which operated a hotel and saloon and was a popular watering hole along the trail. Pigeon's Ranch was the frequent venue for fandangos, the local dances.

Pigeon's ranch was owed by a French immigrant whose very name is a matter of speculation. Some records list him as Alexander Pigeon. Some sources, however, say that Pigeon was a nickname he received because he strutted and flapped his elbows when he danced, making him look rather like a pigeon. On some documents, he is named Alexander Valle. Some historians suggest that Valle is less a surname as a placename given to him because his establishment was in the center of the valley. Both Pigeon and Valle are names that can be found in France, so either may be the man's actual name.

An old postcard showing Pigeon's Ranch.

Early in the morning of March 26, a Union scouting party led by Lt. George Nelson encountered and captured a Confederate scouting party near Pigeon's Ranch. The two armies clashed west of the ranch later that day. By nightfall, Union Forces had fallen back to Pigeon's ranch, which had become a hospital for wounded and dying men on both sides. Two days later, the ranch was the center of the battle, its short adobe walls shielding Union soldiers from the oncoming Confederates. In 1986, a mass grave with the skeletons of 31 Confederate soldiers was discovered on the property.

Pigeon's Ranch continued to be a waystop along the Santa Fe trail for years after the battle, as evidenced by the photo and old post card shown above. The ranch's fortune began to dim when the railroad came through in 1879, when the New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a railroad through the pass, effectively reducing the need for wagon trains. The automobile made the journey to Santa Fe a much faster proposition, eliminating the need for overnight stays. Today, all that is left of Pigeon's Ranch is one building abutting state road 50 as it makes its way to Pecos, New Mexico.

In this depiction of The Battle of Glorieta Pass by Roy Anderson, Pigeon's Ranch is depicted in the background.

The Battle of Glorieta Pass is sometimes called 'The Gettysburg of the West" because it is the battle that marks the farthest north the Confederate Army got during the New Mexico Campaign. Had H.H. Sibley's forces not been turned back here, they might have taken the Colorado gold fields, then turned west and taken the gold and harbors of California, and the Civil War might have ended very differently. But this battle could easily have been called The Battle of Three Ranches because of where it was fought.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and author who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. The view from her backyard includes the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Part of her novel The Worst Enemy, book 2 of Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series, takes place at Pigeon Ranch.

The Worst Enemy i is scheduled to be published by Kinkajou Press on August 15, 2023 but can be preordered at Bookshop.org.

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Kozlowski's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

4/13/2023

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The decisive battle in the Confederacy's attempt to take New Mexico during the Civil War took place on March 26-28, 1862. Called the Battle of Glorieta, or the Battle of Glorieta Pass, it ranged through a narrow mountain pass that was the last leg of the Old Santa Fe Trail before it reached Santa Fe. Three ranches, owned by three very different characters, were settings for this battle.

Martin Kozlowski came to the area by a circuitous route. He was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1827 and fought in the 1848 revolution against the Prussians. He was a refugee for two years in England, during which time he met and married an Irish woman named Ellene. The two immigrated to American in 1853, and Martin enlisted in the First Dragoons, who were fighting Apaches in the Southwest.

Martin must have fallen in love with New Mexico during his Army years. In 1858 he mustered out and used his 160-acre government bounty land warrant to purchase the land on the far eastern edge of Glorieta Pass. Here, the Pecos River meets Glorieta Stream in a wide, flat area that is well watered and has fertile soil. Kozlowski's 600 acre spread included 50 improved acres, which consisted of a home for the family, a trading post, a tavern, and rooms for travelers. It had a spring for fresh water, and lots of forage for horses and mules. The 1860 agriculture census shows that Kozlowski grew corn and raised livestock, but a lot of his livelihood came from accommodating for travelers on the Santa Fe trail.

The Spanish mission church at Pecos Pueblo. The entrance to a kiva is in the foreground

This area had been settled long before the Santa Fe Trail opened. Perhaps the first settlers in the area were the people who founded Pecos Pueblo sometime around AD 1100. Historically known as Cicuye (sometimes spelled Ciquique), which mean the "village of 500 warriors," the Pueblo was visited by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540. The Spanish mission church was built in 1619 and the kiva in 1680, after a revolt that caused the Spanish to abandon the area. In 1838, attacks by Comanches compelled the inhabitants to abandon the area and move in with their relatives at the Walatowa Pueblo in Jemez. Twenty years later, Kozlowski moved to the area and used some of the timbers and bricks from the abandoned pueblo to build his buildings.

Martin Kozlowski in front of his trading post.

Kozlowski's ranch became site of Camp Lewis, the headquarters for the Union Army during the Battle of Glorieta. The troops were mostly men from Colorado, who had come from Camp Wells in Denver, through Raton Pass, and stopped in Fort Union. Their leader, John Slough, intended to engage the Confederates in Santa Fe and was surprised to encounter Confederate troops in the pass.

The Union Army continued to maintain a hospital in Kozlowski's tavern for another two months after the battle was over.

After the war, Kozlowski complimented them, saying “When they camped on my place, they never robbed me of anything, not even a chicken.” Perhaps their good behavior was because Kozlowski was former military himself.

The early 1870s appear to be the high point for the Kozlowski family's enterprises. In 1873, U.S. Attorney T.B. Catron sued him for violating a federal law that prevented non-Indians from settling on pueblo land grants. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, but ultimately Martin paid $1,000 and was able to keep his land. In 1880 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad ran its line through the canyon, effectively ending the lucrative Santa Fe Trail traffic. Soon thereafter, Kozlowski moved to Albuquerque, where he died in 1905.

Kozlowski's ranch traded hands several times after he left it. Sometimes, it was a working ranch. At other times, It became a dude ranch where tourists could live like pampered cowboys. In 1939, a Texas oilman and rancher named Buddy Fogelson bought the property and renamed it The Forked Lightning Ranch. Fogelson's widow, the actress Greer Garson, donated the ranch to the National Park Service in 1991. It is now part of Pecos National Park.

Kozlowski's Ranch is one of the major settings for The Worst Enemy, which will be published August 15, 2023 and is available for preorder at Bookshop.org.

The Worst Enemy is book 2 of Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of middle grade historical novels about New Mexico during the Civil War.

Book 1: Where Duty Calls, is available in ebook and paperback. It was a finalist for both the NM Women's Press Zia award and the Western Writer's of America spur award in 2023.

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Horse Theft: not just in the Old West

4/5/2023

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This drawing appears on all membership certificates of the Society in Dedham (Massachusetts) for Apprehending Horse Thieves.

No one likes a horse thief. The term ‘horse thief’ is used not only for people who literally steal horses, but as an insult, implying that the person has no moral decency whatsoever. This may have come about because horses were central to life in the west during the 19th century. Without a horse, travel, farming, and ranching were virtually impossible. A person who stole a horse left his victim unable to support himself and unable to move on. In the Old West, the saying was that if you stole a man's horse, you had condemned him to death.

Horse theft was such a problem that organizations were founded just to address the issue. The Anti Horse Thief Association, first organized in Missouri in 1854, grew to over 40,000 members spread across nine central and western US states. Between 1899 and 1909, they recovered $83,000 worth of livestock and saw the conviction of over 250 thieves in Oklahoma alone.

Because horse theft was such a serious crime, the punishments were also serious. In 1780, Pennsylvania passed "An Act to Increase the Punishments of Horse Stealing," which had a tiered system for dealing with offenders. First time offenders were given 39 lashes, then had their ears cut off and nailed to the pillory, where they had to stand for an hour. A second offense added branding of the forehead with an ‘H” and a ‘T.” This law was repealed in 1860. Horse theft was a hanging offense in many western states and territories. Often, the aggrieved would take justice into their own hands. These days, while punishments are not so severe, they can still be stiff. In 2011, one Arkansas woman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for stealing five horses and their equipment.

While horses are no longer as important to life and well being as they once were, their theft is still relatively common. Horse Illustrated Magazine estimates that approximately 55,000 horses a year are taken from their lawful owners by strangers or opponents in civil or legal disputes. Organized groups of thieves often work one area or state, moving on when the law becomes aware of them. Other thieves move into areas that have suffered natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes, stealing animals that have escaped during the chaos and preying on vulnerable victims. Some stolen horses are killed for their meat. Others become the focus of ransom attempts. Many are resold with false papers at auction, or end up as riding mounts.

In my novel Summer of the Bombers, it is a wildfire that leads to the theft of a girl's horse. Punkin Davis has to ride her horse into the fictional town of Alamitos when a Forest Service Controlled burn jumps its lines because of high winds. In the parking lot of the high school that is organizing assistance for those affected by the fire, Punkin meets a woman who says she is from the Equine Assistance League, and will keep her horse in a safe place. Unfortunately, there is no Equine Assistance League, and woman and horse disappear. It takes Punkin quite a bit of time to get on her feet and figure out what she needs to do to get her horse back, but she finally gets the help she needs from Stolen Horse Internaational..

While Summer of the Bombers might be a work of fiction, Stolen Horse International is not. The organization works diligently to recover stolen horses. Also known as NetPosse or SHI, it has been assisting horse owners with recovering their horses for over twenty-five years. It was founded by Debi and Harold Metcalfe after their own horse, Idaho, was stolen on September 26, 1997. Idaho was recovered after almost a year of searching. The non-profit organization relies on thousands of volunteers, who distribute fliers, usually by e-mail. In addition for helping in the search and recovery of horses, the organization works closely with law enforcement personnel to aid in the apprehension of the thieves.

Debi Metcalfe's book, Horse Theft. Been There—Done That, explains how horse owners can protect their horses from theft, and what can be done to recover stolen horses. There are chapters on identification methods and prevention information that can stop theft from ever happening, and lots of resources to help if it does.

This book was a fantastic resource for me as I wrote Summer of the Bombers. It's been a tremendous resource for many who've lost their horses. It is worth reading if you have a horse or know someone who does.
Now that my novel is complete, I would like to give my copy of this book away to someone who would benefit from it. Comment on this blog if you would like to be considered for it.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a novelist who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. An avid horsewoman in her youth, her novel Summer of the Bombers was inspired by the Cerro Grande Fire, which swept through Los Alamos during the summer of 2000.

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Play Ball!

3/30/2023

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Baseball is America's sport! When it became America's sport well over a century ago, that really meant it was a sport for white males. Over time, like America itself, it's changed and become more inclusive. Now that opening day is here, it's time to share some great books about baseball with middle grade readers.

Like Madelyn l'Engle, Ellen Klages follows a family of brilliant and talented people through their adventurous life. L'Engle follows the Murry family through the series that begins with A Wrinkle in Time. Klages follows the Gordon family beginning with Green Glass Sea.

In Out of Left Field, youngest daughter, Katy Gordon is a baseball fanatic in a world where everything, except Little League admission rules, is changing. The San Francisco Seals, the hometown favorites for 50 years, are going away, to be replaced by the Giants. Sputnik is launched and schools in the south are being integrated. But Kay, who throws a mean pitch so singular that it doesn't even have a name, cannot join Little League because she's a girl. When her teacher assigns an American hero research paper, Katy delves deeply into the history of female baseball players in order to prove that the Little League rules make no sense.

This book has interesting, fully developed characters, and a plot line that shows how kids can change the world through activism, but it also paints a brilliant picture of what life was like in 1957. You can read this novel on its own, but it's even richer when read with its companion stories, Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace.

If you're looking for a movie tie-in to Out of Left Field, try The Perfect Game. Based on a true story, this sweet and innocent movie tells the story of a group of boys from Monterrey, Mexico who became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series. It, too, is set in 1957 and gives a good picture of the prejudice against both blacks and hispanics that was common in that period.

Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen is a sweet story about a girl with autism who wants to join a baseball team and pitch the knuckleball she learned from a pro player. Told in letters and emails between Vivy and VJ Capello, the major-league knuckleballer who's her hero (and a pretty nice guy for responding to all her letters!), this novel will help readers get into the head of a girl who's not much different despite her disabilities. She has to face bullies and her own personal fears when she gets on the mound, but she does it with bravery and honesty and a kindness towards others that is genuinely inspiring.

Baseball Genius was written by Tim Green and Derek Jeter, so you know the sports parts are dead-on accurate, exciting, and detailed enough to follow well: it's like listening to a game on the radio! The rest of the story is exciting, too: every one of the very short chapters has a cliff hanger of an ending that will keep even reluctant readers going. The story centers on Jalen DeLuca, the son of a hard-working immigrant father and a mother who's left the family to pursue her dream. Jalen's dad doesn't make enough at his Italian restaurant to support his son's baseball aspirations, so Jalen tries to make money by stealing balls from the home of the Yankee's second baseman. This starts a series of events that leads to Jalen using his uncanny ability to predict pitches to help the Yankee stay on the team. While most middle grade readers will love this book, I can't help but feel uncomfortable with the message that kids can steal and cheat if their circumstances justify it. Green and Jeter wrote this book before the Astros' infamous trashcan banging episode. I wonder how they feel about it now.

In The Grip, a Middle Grade book that reads like an autobiography, Marcus Stroman and co-author Samantha Thornhill team up on a story about a young ball player. Marcus showed talent from a young age, and his father is determined to make that talent pay off. Even though he and mom are divorced, he makes sure Marcus practices every morning. Eventually, Marcus feels overwhelmed by the mental pressure this brings, but his mother finds him a therapist who can help him deal with it.

The book will help children explore what it is like to have parents divorce, being teased for being short, and the need to just be a kid. It is not a fast paced or exciting book, and the plot has no real surprises, but kids who have aspirations for the big league will find an affinity with Marcus and will appreciate knowing that even Golden Glove winners were kids once.

Jenn Bishop's novel The Distance to Home tells the story of Quinnen, a girl who was the star pitcher on her baseball team, the Panthers. When her sister Haley dies, Quin loses heart for everything, including baseball. Told in chapters that alternate between last summer, when Haley died and this summer, when Quinn is still working through guilt and grief, the story slowly emerges as Quinn begins to understand that she isn't the only one affected by the death. As she develops empathy and understanding, she finds the courage to get back in the game. This book made me cry!

Another baseball book about a player dealing with the loss of a sibling is Mike Lupicia's The Only Game. Lupicia is the uncontested king of sports novels for middle grade readers; when I was still teaching, his books were in the hands of all my jock boys. He does a good job of describing the games like a true sports announcer, but he also does a good job of revealing the secret fears of middle school athletes. In this novel, the main character is a star pitcher, but feels so much guilt after his dare devil brother's accidental death that he leaves the team. What helps him heal is helping another kid named Teddy, whose weight and lack of confidence has kept him on the sidelines all his life.

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but this one attracted me both because it was about baseball and because it was historical fiction. I'm glad I read it, and I think it's perfect for 3-7th grade boys, especially reluctant readers.

The story in Stealing Home is about Sandy Saito, a Canadian of Japanese descent whose life changes when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Sandy is a typical boy. He reads comic books and loves baseball, especially the local Japanese team, the Asahi. Suddenly, he is perceived as different and dangerous. The Canadian government begins treating ethnic Japanese as enemy aliens, taking away their radios and cars. He is excluded from games and taunted by other children. Finally, his family is separated and forced to move to internment camps with substandard facilities.

J. Torres and David Nashimoto tell a fictional story with so much emotion and historic accuracy that it reads like a memoir. I especially appreciated the extensive background information and resources for further study that are in the back of the book .

Linda Sue Park's Keeping Score is the story of Maggie Fortini, a Dodgers fan who lives in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Maggie can't play baseball for the same reason that Katy Gordon, the girl in Out in Left Field can't play: back then, it just wasn't allowed. Unlike Katy, Maggie doesn't buck the system. Instead, she learns to keep score from Jim, one of the guys down at the firestation where her father used to work. When Jim enlists and goes to Korea, keeping score is one of the things that connects her to Jim, and it develops into a child-like kind of magic that keeps the world orderly. But when the Dodgers lose AGAIN and then Jim stops writing, Maggie begins to question everything, even God.

The Sweet Spot, Stacy Barnett Mozer, is a great book for athletic middle school and upper elementary girls. Thirteen-year-old Sam Barrette’s baseball coach tells her that her attitude's holding her back, but how can she not have an attitude when she has to listen to boys and people in the stands screaming things like “Go play softball,” all season, just because she's the only girl playing in the 13U league. Lovely and sensitive, this book will help guide girls through the difficulties of asserting themselves and becoming leaders in a man's world.

The Girl Who Threw Butterflies, by Mick Cochrane, is another book about a girl trying to play baseball. After her father's death in a car accident, eighth grader, Molly Williams decides to join the baseball team and show off the knuckleball her father taught her how to throw. Although the author does a little more telling than showing, this book also gives a fair picture of a girl overcoming hardships, both on the field and in her personal life.

Anne E. Burg's All the Broken Pieces is a novel in verse that tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy whose mother was Vietnamese and his father, an American soldier who abandoned him after the war. He flees his native Vietnam and is adopted in the U.S. is mother urged him to flee to the US, and now he lives with a caring adoptive family.

It's a story about baseball, but it’s even more about fitting in, adoption, discrimination, post traumatic stress disorder, guilt and sorrow, and the difficulty of soldiers returning to the US after the war. Both haunting and lyrical, this book goes beyond the usual baseball-themed books to show an emotional picture of a specific and difficult time in history. Matt Pin is a boy between cultures, who can show the reader both sides of the story with grace and courage.

I've got one copy of this novel. Tell me in the comments that you'd like it and I'll pick one lucky responder to get it!

The links in this blog will take you to Bookshop.org, an online bookseller. I am an affiliate with Bookshop and receive a small commision when someone uses my link to purchase a book. A local bookstore also receives a commission. I appreciate the fact that this bookseller supports local businesses in a time when more and more sales go to distant, online retailers. Community is important and deserve our support.

However, I encourage readers to check with their local libraries first!

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author of books for readers from middle grade to adult. She is not an avid baseball fan, but she is married to one and loves to sit in the stands, eat a hot dog, and take in the action. You can read more about her and her books on her website.

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Cherry Clafouti to Commemorate D-Day

Samuel M. Logan: Man of Action

Fake Money to Raise Real Troops

John Potts Slough: Victor of Glorieta

Samuel H. Cook, Miner and Soldier

Johnson's Ranch, the Third in Glorieta: The Battle of Three Ranches

Pigeon's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

Kozlowski's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

Horse Theft: not just in the Old West

Play Ball!

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