_Pre-Civil War Period._
The period 1846 to 1861 was characterized by constant Indian warfare.
Treaties were made, then broken. Forts were established, then abandoned,
and new forts built as the military tried in vain to cope with the
problem. Punitive expeditions proved ineffective as the Indians
separated into small and predatory bands which overran the country.
Forts Union, Marcy, Fauntleroy, Craig, and Stanton were established
during this period. Additional forts, whose sites have returned to the
desert, are Fort Conrad (1851), on the Rio Grande about twenty-five
miles south of Socorro; Fort Thorn (1853), on the Rio Grande about five
miles north of Hatch; Fort Fillmore (1851), on the Rio Grande about
seven miles south of Las Cruces; Fort Webster (1852), on the Mimbres
River about one and one-half miles northwest of San Lorenzo; Fort McLane
(1860), at Apache Tejo about four miles south of Hurley; and Fort Floyd
(1857), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.
_Civil War Period._
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 created a new problem on the
frontier in New Mexico. Confederate military leaders moved quickly to
seize control of the Southwest and California to cut off the supply of
gold to the North and divert it to the Confederacy. Confederate troops
under Col. J. B. Baylor occupied abandoned Fort Bliss at Franklin (El
Paso), Texas on July 1, 1861. Baylor began his move northward along the
Rio Grande on July 23 and quickly occupied Mesilla. Nearby Fort Fillmore
was abandoned and the Union forces retreated toward Fort Stanton, but
they were soon captured by Baylor’s troops. Upon the fall of Fort
Fillmore, Fort Stanton was hastily abandoned on August 2 and was taken
over by the Confederates shortly thereafter.
Gen. H. H. Sibley arrived at Fort Bliss in December 1861 to assume
command of the Confederate forces. Sibley’s troops moved northward along
the Rio Grande and were engaged in battle by Union troops from Fort
Craig, under Gen. E. R. S. Canby, as they attempted to bypass the
well-garrisoned post. The Battle of Val Verde took place four miles
north of Fort Craig on February 21, 1862. After a day of bloody
fighting, Sibley emerged the victor. He occupied Albuquerque on March 2,
1862, and Santa Fe on March 23. The Confederate forces then moved toward
Fort Union in an attempt to gain complete control of the territory. On
March 27 and 28, they were met by Union forces sent out from Fort Union
and were defeated in battle near present-day Glorieta. Sibley then
retreated to Fort Bliss.
[Illustration: The Confederate campaign in New Mexico, 1861-1862]
While Sibley was thus engaged, another part of his army moved across
what is now southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona and
occupied Tucson (Arizona). Gen. J. H. Carleton and his California Column
left Los Angeles on April 13 and cleared this area of Confederate
troops, reaching the Rio Grande on August 7. Carleton reoccupied Fort
Bliss, which had been abandoned by the Confederate troops in their
retreat.
_Post-Civil War Period._
While the Union troops were preoccupied with the Confederates, the
Indians stepped up their raids and depredations. With the passing of the
Confederate threat, attention was once more focused on the Indian
problem. A new plan was formulated which called for the capturing of the
Indians and confining them to reservations. A reservation (Bosque
Redondo) was established late in 1862 near present-day Fort Sumner, New
Mexico, to which were eventually confined several thousand Navajos and
Mescalero Apaches. This resettlement was not a success since the Apaches
ran off and the Navajos suffered greatly from sickness and disease. A
treaty was signed with the Navajos in 1868, and they were allowed to
return to their homes, no longer a threat to the frontier. The Mescalero
Apaches were finally settled on a reservation in their own country south
of Fort Stanton, and the Jicarillas on a reservation west of Tierra
Amarilla.
The Mimbreno, Mogollon, and Warm Springs Apaches of southwestern New
Mexico were more of a problem. In 1871, a reservation and Fort Tularosa
were established near present-day Aragon in western New Mexico. After a
futile attempt to keep the Indians there, they were moved in 1874 to a
new reservation and military post at Ojo Caliente, about forty miles
northwest of present-day Truth or Consequences. This, too, proved a
failure and the Apaches were moved to the San Carlos Reservation in what
is now Arizona. During these attempts to locate the Apaches on
reservations, various rebellious bands of Apaches led by Victorio, Nana,
and Geronimo continued on the warpath. Geronimo and his band surrendered
in 1886 and were imprisoned in Florida. After Geronimo’s surrender,
relative peace descended upon the frontier in New Mexico.
Established in the post-Civil War period were Forts Wingate (old and
new), Selden, Cummings, and Bayard, as well as Fort Lowell (1868), near
Tierra Amarilla; Fort Bascom (1863), on the Canadian River about eight
miles north of Tucumcari; Fort Sumner (1862), on the Pecos River about
five miles southeast of present-day Fort Sumner; Fort McRae (1863), on
the Rio Grande about ten miles northeast of Truth or Consequences; and
Fort West (1863), on the Gila River about two miles south of Cliff.
With the arrival of the railroad and cessation of hostilities with the
Indians, a new era was begun. One by one, the old forts were abandoned:
their need had passed. The colorful frontier forts of New Mexico are
just a memory now.