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Touring Pecos National Monument -- The Glorieta Battlefield Interpretive Trail

10/22/2024

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Some Civil War Battlefields have become national parks or tourist attractions, and they have kiosks and guidebooks to walk interested people through the events that happened there. Pecos National Monument strived to do a similar thing with its Glorieta Battlefield Interpretive Trail. Unfortunately for history fans. Much of the battlefield is buried under the asphalt of I-25, or is in private hands. While the Park Service has published a little guide to the interpretive trail, I'd like to add some information about areas of the battle that are outside the Park's boundaries to supplement the park's guide.

To follow along, begin driving I-25 east as it leaves Santa Fe.

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The Battle of Glorieta Pass could just as easily be called The Battle of Three Ranches, because three different ranches played prominent roles in the conflict. The first, Johnson’s Ranch, is no longer standing. This picture is what the ranch looked like in 1914. It would have been located on I-40, a little east of the turn off for Canoncito.
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Anthony D. Johnson, the owner of the ranch, had served in the Union Army. A Missouri native, he had bought the ranch with his severance pay, married a local woman named Cruz, and had fathered five children. Johnson made his living keeping travelers along the Santa Fe trail, and transporting supplies. When the Confederates arrived, he and his family fled into the hills just north of the ranch, where they could watch what was happening below. They camped until it was safe to return home. Johnson later transported wounded Confederates back to Santa Fe. He later moved his family to Trinidad, Colorado, where he died a mysterious death. 

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As you drive past the exit, you will see an old church on the left (north). That is Nuestra Señora de la Luz Church, built in 1880, it has a fascinating old cemetery full of unusual molded cement tombstones.
If you drive on the little frontage road in front of the church, it turns north and becomes Johnson Ranch Road.
The ranch itself was bulldozed in 1967 so that the interstate could go through.


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Confederate Major Charles L. Pyron (1819–1869) encamped at Johnson’s Ranch with 200-300 men from the Texas Volunteers 5th Regiment. As he waited for other Confederate units to catch up, he sent a scouting party up into Glorieta Pass. 

The first day of the battle took place just east of Johnson’s Ranch, in Apache Canyon. At the time of the Civil War, Apache Canyon had a deep arroyo that crossed the road, and there was a bridge over it. 
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Exit I-40 at exit 299. Cross over the interstate, then turn right to continue towards Pecos on state road 50. After about a mile, you will pass an old adobe that’s on the north side of the road. This is all that remains of Pigeon’s Ranch.
Alexander Pigeon (or Valle. No one is really sure what his real name was, and there are legal documents using both) Was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1817. He came to New Mexico along the Santa Fe Trail, probably in the late 1830s. He lived in Santa Fe, making his living as a trader, gambler, and land speculator until 1852, when he bought a portion of an 1815 land grant for 5,275 pesos.

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He and his wife Carmen built a large adobe ranch home, an inn large enough to house 40 guests, a tavern, corrals, stables, granaries, and a water well. The Ranch remained a viable hotel until 1879, when the New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a railroad through the pass. It continued to be a tourist destination when route 66 went through the pass, but gave up the ghost after I-25 made it into a backwater.  The black and white picture is by Ben Wittrock, and is dated 1880.

Early in the morning of March 26, a Union scouting party led by Lt. George Nelson rode to Pigeon’s Ranch, where a very excited Pigeon told them that a Confederate Party had just passed, going east. The patrol doubled back and encountered the three Confederates, who in the gloom thought that the Union soldiers were Confederates. “Are you here to relieve us?” one of the Confederates called. Nelson yelled back. “Yes! We’re here to relieve you of your arms.” He then captured the men and brought them back to Kozlowski’s Ranch, where the Union troops were bivouacked.

Kozlowski’s Ranch is the third of the three ranches involved in the Battle of Glorieta Pass. Located on the western side of the pass, it was where Major John Chivington and a 418-man unit from the 1st Colorado Volunteers  stopped, waiting for Colonel John Slough to bring the rest of the Union Troops down from Fort Union so they could capture Santa Fe. 
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Martin Kozlowski came from Warsaw, Poland. Born in 1827, he fought in the 1848 revolution against the Prussians, then became a refugee in England, where 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. When he mustered out of the Army in 1858, he used his 160-acre government bounty land warrant to purchase his ranch. Kozlowski grew corn and raised livestock, but a lot of his livelihood came from accommodating for travelers on the Santa Fe trail. A big Union supporter, he was thrilled to host Chivington and his men. 

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In 1925, the Kozlowski family sold the Ranch to Tex Austin, who renamed it the Forked Lightning Ranch. Tex used Martin’s old Trading Post as the Ranch headquarters. In 1941, "Buddy" Fogelson, a Texas oilman and rancher bought the ranch. He married Hollywood actress Greer Garson 8 years later. Garson donated the land to The Conservation Fund, who donated it to the federal government.

When you get to the Pecos Visitor Center, check to see if the Forked Lightning Ranch is open (it isn’t always open, but it has a nice little museum and is worth the visit.) 


When the Union scouting party returned to Kozlowski’s Ranch on the morning of March 26, 1862, and Chivington learned that the Confederates were encamped only 9 miles away, he decided not to wait for Slough and the rest of the Union army to arrive. They reached the summit of the pass, close to where Glorietta Retreat now is, at around 2p.m, and quickly a 30-man Confederate advance force.
Excited by this, the Coloradans rushed into Apache Canyon. The two sides met about a mile and a half west of Pigeon’s Ranch, or six miles northeast of Johnson’s Ranch.  The Confederates withdrew about a mile and a half, to a narrower section of the pass that could be better defended. They destroyed the bridge after crossing it. Chivington’s cavalry charged, leaping over the arroyo and sending the Confederates into a panic. 
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They fled to a bend in the road, where they could hold off the Federals and prevent a complete rout. Chivington decided that they were too far from their supply base to risk another attack and fell back to Pigeon's Ranch. In this first day of battle, the Federals sustained 27 casualties (19 killed, five wounded, and three missing), and the Confederates lost 125 (16 killed, 30 wounded, and 79 captured or missing). This small engagement, no more than a two hour skirmish, marked the first Federal victory in the New Mexico Territory. Up to this point, Confederates had won every battle. 
Having lost about a third of his command, Pyron retreated back to Johnson’s Ranch. He sent a messenger to Lieutenant Colonel William R. Scurry’s column, which was about 16 miles south, at Galisteo. Chivington also sent a messenger, urging Colonel Slough to hurry southward. That evening, both sides called a truce to tend to their dead and wounded. The truce continued unbroken through the next day.

​Stop in the Pecos National Monument Visitor Center.

While you’re there, tour the museum. You can pick up a guide for the Ancestral Sites Trail, an easy gravel path that loops through the old pueblo and church. 1.25 mile, with an elevation Change of 80 ft.  There is a free ranger guided tour from 10-11 am most days. Check the website for more information.
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Also, get the gate code and map to get to the Glorieta Battlefield Trail. The trailhead is 7.5 miles away from the visitor center and behind a locked gate. It is an easy, gravel loop trail that is 2.25 miles around. You can buy a trail guide at the visitor center which will have different information that this guide.
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Glorieta Battlefield Trail doesn’t really encompass the entire battle, but some of the third day. I suggest you read the trail guide produced by the Park Service. Here are a few extra notes that might make the route a little more interesting.

Marker 2: The trail isn’t set up in a way that presents the battle in order. The actual beginning of the battle occurred west of here. This is where the second part of the battle occurred. The Union had pulled back to here, Artillery Hill, to take advantage of the high ground.

Confederate Major John Shropshire was a rich landowner who owned a 750 acre plantation and owned 61 slaves. Born in 1833 in Kentucky, both his parents died of cholera when he was just 3 years old. He was married and had one young son, Charles. He was a very tall man: I’ve seen 6’4” and 6’5”.

Shopshire led a flanking movement around the Union forces, then charged up the hill.  He and 30 of his men were killed in the fight. One source I read said that Shropshire was shot between the eyes by a Union private named George W. Pierce. Another says that the top of his head was sheared off by a cannonball.
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In June 1987 a man digging a foundation for a new house just across from the Pigeon Ranch discovered a the body. Archaeologists were called in. They discovered that the skeleton was of a 6’4” (or so) man, and the top of the skull was missing. Shropshire was reburied with military honors at his birthplace in Kentucky, alongside his parents in 1990. Archaeologists then discovered a grave with 30 skeletons, which were reburied in the Santa Fe Veterans cemetery.
 

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Marker 3 Is where the battle actually began.
John Slough had decided to use a pincer movement, sending John Chivington and two infantry battalions up Glorieta Mesa, with orders to circle around the Confederates and attack them from behind. He therefore had less men with him to attack the front of the Confederate forces.

Scurry believed the Union force was retreating to Fort Union. He decided to go after them, leaving his sick and wounded, one cannon, and a small guard with the supply wagons at Johnson's Ranch. He advanced up the canyon with around 1,000 men.

Slough ran into the Confederates here about 11:00 am.  Thirty minutes later, the Confederates' numerical superiority managed to push back the Union men to Marker 2’s position.

Marker 4
At the same time as Shropshire was storming Artillery Hill, Scurry sent Henry Raguet to attack the Union right, and around 3:00 pm they succeeded in outflanking the Union right and taking what thereafter became known as Sharpshooters Ridge. Raguet was killed, but the ridge allowed Confederate riflemen to pick off Union artillerymen and infantry below them at Piegeon’s Ranch, making the Union position untenable.
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Slough was convinced that his own men were firing on him at Pigeon’s Ranch. This caused him to resign his commission and return to Colorado within days of the battle. 


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Marker 9  Alfred B. Peticolas kept a multi-book journal of his times with Sibley’s Battalion which included sketches of the places he’d seen. Unfortunately, some of the books were burned at Johnson’s ranch. The Confederates were poorly provisioned, and, coming from Texas, unprepared for how cold New Mexico would be. Many of them wore coats and pants scavenged from Union dead. (The wore the belts upside down, so the US on the belt buckle looked like SN, which they said stood for Southern Nation. This helped distinguish them from Union Soldiers – if you looked close enough. Obviously, Lt. Col Tappan did not.
 

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Lt. Col Samuel F. Tappan was raised in Massachusetts and came from a family of famous abolitionists. A man of high principles, he was the ranking officer and acting colonel when Slough resigned a few days after the victory at Glorieta Pass, but voluntarily relinquished his seniority rights and joined in signing a petition from among the men of the First Colorado to elevate Chivington. He had reason to regret this decision. Tappan headed the military commission that investigated Colonel Chivington for his role in the Sand Creek massacre. He and Gen. Sherman were the two commission members who finalized the Treaty of Bosque Redondo, which allowed the Navajos to return to their homelands, and he worked to assure the rights of the Plains Indians.

Marker 10 Slough reluctantly ordered a retreat, and Tappan and his artillery on Artillery Hill covered it. Slough reformed his line a half-mile east of Pigeon's Ranch, where skirmishing continued until dusk. The Union men finally retreated to Kozlowski's Ranch, leaving the Confederates in possession of the battlefield.
Control of the Battlefield is one of the factors in deciding who won. Scurry and the Confederates technically won the battle and, had they not lost their supplies, might have been able to push the Union troops back further in another day of fighting. Furthermore, Col. Tom Green’s men, who’d taken an alternative route south of the mountain pass, might have been able to swing around the mountain’s eastern edge and perform the pincer act on the Union Troops that Slough had intended to perform on the Confederates. The Confederate Army might then have been able to push on to the lightly guarded Fort Union, where they could have gotten enough supplies and ammunition to continue on to Colorado, and then California. With gold, and the deep ports of Los Angeles and San Diego, the war might have ended very differently. 


Jennifer Bohnhoff is the author of Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of historical novels based on New Mexico during the Civil War. The second book in the series, The Worst Enemy, includes the Battle of Glorieta Pass. 

If you are planning to visit Pecos National Monument and want a printable version of this blog, click here. 
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Gabriel Paul, Civil War Hero

7/20/2023

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Just about anyone can name a general from the Civil War. Gabriel René Paul’s name doesn’t come as readily as others, but he was an important figure and his story is an interesting one.

Gabriel René Paul was born on March 22, 1813, in St. Louis, Missouri, a city that had been founded by his maternal grandfather, the prosperous fur trader René-Auguste Chouteau, Jr. His father, Rene Paul, was a military engineer who had served as an officer in Napoleon’s army and who was wounded at Trafalgar. Paul followed in his father’s military footsteps, entering the United States Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, when he was only 16 years old. He graduated in the middle of the Class of 1834, ranked 18th of the 36 graduates.  

After graduating, Paul was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 7th United States Infantry. He served in Florida in the last 1830s and early 1840s, where he participated in the Seminole Wars. Like many of the other men who would become generals during the Civil War, he served under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott during the Mexican-American War. He saw battle action at Fort Brown, Monterrey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey and Chapultepac. He was given an honorary promotion, or brevet, to the rank of major when he led a storming party and captured a Mexican army flag during the battle of Chapultepac. After the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Paul served in several different frontier army posts and participated in several expeditions up the Rio Grande and into Utah.

​When the Civil War began, Paul was a Major in the 8th Infantry Regiment stationed at Fort Union in the New Mexico Territory. In December 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the 4th New Mexico Volunteers and commander of the fort. After the Battle of Valverde, Colonel E.R.S. Canby, the commander of all Union troops in New Mexico, sent a message to Paul telling him to hold the fort at all costs. However, when Colonel John Potts Slough arrived with his Colorado volunteers, he announced that he outranked Paul because he had been commissioned a few days earlier than Paul had. Slough deliberately ignored Canby’s orders and proceeded south with his troops, who engaged in the Battle of Glorieta, leaving Paul to guard the fort. 


PictureA portrait taken after Gettysburg. If you look closely, it is clear that his eye socket is empty.
In late May 1862, Paul mustered out of the New Mexico Volunteers, and holding the rank of Major in the Regular Army, was sent east to work on the defenses of Washington. While he was stationed there, his wife went to the White House and pleaded President Lincoln for a promotion for her husband.  Lincoln documented the meeting with a note that read “Today Mrs. Major Paul calls and urges appointment of her husband as a Brigadier [General]. She is a saucy woman and will keep tormenting me until I may have to do it.” Less than two weeks later, President Lincoln signed Gabriel Paul’s commission as a Brigadier General of volunteers. He was given the assignment of brigade commander in the First Army Corps, and he led troops at Fredericksburg and at Chancellorsville.

At Gettysburg, he was transferred to a brigade in 2nd Division, where he led the soldiers of the 16th Maine, 13th Massachusetts, 94th and 104th New York, and 107th Pennsylvania Infantries as they threw up makeshift barricades and entrenchments in front of the Lutheran Seminary building during the early parts of the first day of fighting. When some 8,000 Confederates backed with 16 cannons began making significant inroads into the Union First Corps’s exposed right flank along a prominent rise of ground known as Oak Hill Ridge, the Second Corps was called in. When Henry Baxter’s brigade was nearly out of ammunition, Gabriel Paul’s brigade was brought forward to take its place.  It was soon after his men had arrived on Oak Hill that he was struck in the head by a bullet that entered behind his right eye, passed through his head, and exited through his left eye socket. The men who watched him fall believed that Paul had been killed and left him where he lay as the battle intensified. Late in the afternoon, the First Corps and Eleventh Corps troops surrounding Paul’s brigade broke and began to retreat.  Baxter’s and Paul’s men followed. When the division reformed on Cemetery Hill, it was discovered that 1,667 of the approximately 2,500 men who had gone into battle that morning had become casualties. Paul was one of the 776 men killed, wounded, or missing from his brigade.
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When soldiers returned to the field to search for living among the dead, they found Paul and carried him to a field hospital in the rear. Later, Paul was brevetted a Brigadier General in the Regular Army “For Gallant and Meritorious Service at the Battle of Gettysburg.” He was completely blind and his sense of smell and hearing were seriously impaired for the rest of his life, and he suffered frequent headaches and seizures, yet he refused to leave the service. He worked as Deputy Governor of the Soldier’s Home near Washington, and then was the administrator of the Military Asylum at Harrodsburg, Kentucky. On December 20, 1866, he finally retired.

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For the next twenty-two years, Gabriel Paul’s health deteriorated. During the final years of his life, seizures were an almost daily occurrence, and he suffered up to six epileptic attacks a day. When he died on May 5, 1886 twenty-two years, ten months, and five days after the battle of Gettysburg, his doctor pronounced that the cause of death was an “epileptiform convulsion, the result of a wound received at the battle of Gettysburg, Pa.” He was buried in Section 1, Lot 16 of Arlington National Cemetery.

The Battle of Gettysburg claimed the lives of more generals than any other battle in the American Civil War.  Six general officers fell either dead or fatally wounded at both Antietam and Franklin. By most accounts, nine generals were either killed or listed among the mortally wounded at Gettysburg. The casualties include four Union (John Reynolds, Samuel Zook, Stephen Weed, Elon Farnsworth) and five Confederates (Lewis Armistead, Paul Semmes, William Barksdale, Dorsey Pender, Richard Garnett.) If we include Strong Vincent, who fell atop Little Round Top and who was posthumously honored with a promotion to brigadier general, the number climbs to ten, five for each side.  I think that Gabriel Paul should be included in this list, even though he didn’t die until much later. He represents the countless many whose lives ended due to the Civil War, even if they didn’t die. 



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Gabriel Rene Paul is a background character in The Worst Enemy, book 2 of Jennifer Bohnhoff's trilogy Rebels Along the Rio Grande. Written for middle grade readers and above, the trilogy tells the story of the Civil War in New Mexico Territory.  It is published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. Contact the publisher for class set discounts and teacher's guides.

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Samuel H. Cook, Miner and Soldier

5/4/2023

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PictureA 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.

PictureSamuel 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.

PictureLuther 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.

PictureGovernor 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.

PictureJohn 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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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. 
PicturePigeon'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.

PictureAn 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. 

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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. 

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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. 

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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.

PictureThe 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.

PictureMartin Kozlowski in front of his trading post.










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​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. 
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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.  


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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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A Confederate Point of View

2/9/2023

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When historians want to know what it was like to be part of the Confederate invasion of New Mexico, one of the people they turn to is Alfred Brown Peticolas.

Peticolas was
was born on May 27, 1838, in Richmond, Virginia.. In 1859, he came west to Victoria, Texas, where he set up a law partnership with Samuel White.

On September 11, 1861, he joined the Confederate Army. 
Peticolas enlisted in Company C of the Fourth Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers,. This was part of Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico, a brigade with which Sibley intended to capture the rich Colorado gold fields, then secure the gold and harbors of California for the Confederacy. Throughout his time in New Mexico, Peticolas kept a diary in which he set down his keen observations about the country through which he traveled. He was also an artist and sketched his surroundings. The diary filled several books, the first of which was destroyed when the wagon in which is was stored was burned.

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Peticolas sketched the San Miguel mission church in Socorro, New Mexico. After the Civil War, Bishop Lamy remodeled this adobe church.. . 

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He also drew San Felipe church, in Albuquerque's Old Town. In his sketch, the Confederate flag flies from a flag pole in the center square of the village, right in front of the church. 

The Confederate, Mexican, Spanish, and American flags, flew over Albuquerque's Old Town representing all the governments that had controlled the town. In 2015, deemed too controversial, the stars and bars were taken down.
Departing Albuquerque, Peticolas' unit traveled through Tijeras Canyon, then turned north, taking the road now known as N14 towards Santa Fe. They camped for over a week in the mountain village of San Antonio. The church, the building at the far left of the picture, burned down and was rebuilt in 1957. The Confederate tents and wagons are on the far right of the picture.
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 After Sibley's retreat back to San Antonio Texas, Peticolas participated in the Louisiana Campaign. Finally, illness led to his reassignment as a clerk at the quartermaster headquarters, and he finished the war behind a desk. 
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​Rebels on the Rio Grande: the Civil War Journal of A.B. Peticolas, edited by Don E. Alberts, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1984 is a compilation of the passages from the diary that related to New Mexico. 

While he is not represented in Jennifer Bohnhoff's trilogy of novels about the Civil War, his material was instrumental in shaping the narrative and illuminating it with the little details that make historical fiction feel accurate. 


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Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author and educator who lives very close to the mountain town that Peticolas sketched. Where Duty Calls the first novel in her triloogy Rebels Along the Rio Grande, came out in 2022. The second, The Worst Enemy, will be published in the summer of 2023.

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Civil War Weaponry: Mountain Howitzers

3/30/2022

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PictureThe 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. 

PictureFort 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.​

PictureA 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.


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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. 

1 Comment
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    ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

    I am a former middle school teacher who loves travel and history, so it should come as no surprise that many of my books are middle grade historical novels set in beautiful or interesting places.  But not all of them.  I hope there's one title here that will speak to you personally and deeply.

    What I love most: that "ah hah" moment when a reader suddenly understands the connections between himself, the past, and the world around him.  Those moments are rarified, mountain-top experiences.



    Can't get enough of Jennifer Bohnhoff's blogs?  She's also on Mad About MG History.  

    ​
    Looking for more books for middle grade readers? Greg Pattridge hosts MMGM, where you can find loads of recommendations.

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