Fort Union National Monument, twenty-six miles northeast of Las Vegas
and on the route of the old Santa Fe Trail where the mountains meet the
plains, preserves the ruins of a famous frontier Army post. As a base of
operations for military and civilian ventures in New Mexico from 1851 to
1891, Fort Union helped to direct the course of events in the formative
years of the Southwest. More than 11,000 visitors come to the Monument
each year.
Five years after the conquest of New Mexico by the United States in the
war with Mexico, Col. E. V. Sumner moved some of his troops from Fort
Marcy, in Santa Fe, to the site of Fort Union and there began
construction of log buildings on the west side of Coyote Creek. This was
the first Fort Union.
The first post took an active part in protecting settlers and traders
from Indian raids during the 1850’s. Mounted patrols of dragoons made
many expeditions into the mountains against the warring Apaches and Utes
and out onto the plains to pursue Comanche war parties.
Fort Union was also charged with supply and support of many outlying
military posts, such as Fort Defiance and Fort Craig. The Quartermaster
Depot at Fort Union in later years came to be the hub of all Army supply
services in the Southwest.
During the first three decades of its life, Fort Union saw the great
Conestoga wagons and prairie schooners of the Santa Fe Trail caravans
pass in increasing numbers. By the outbreak of the Civil War,
enterprising traders were hauling more than ten million dollars’ worth
of goods from Missouri each year. The fort provided escorts for caravans
and when requested by apprehensive company or postal officials, escorts
for stage-coaches of the Independence-Santa Fe Mail. Century-old tracks
of the Santa Fe Trail can be still seen near Fort Union.
The start of the Civil War in 1861 brought new activity to the fort.
Immediate invasion of New Mexico by Confederate forces from Texas was
expected. Gen. E. R. S. Canby, commanding Union troops in the territory,
began construction of an earthwork fortification in a defensive position
about a mile from the original fort. The ditches, parapets, and
bomb-proofs of this redoubt were completed late in 1861.
The Texas column was not slow in coming. By March 1862, these invaders
under Gen. Henry H. Sibley had defeated a Union force at Val Verde, had
frightened the defenders from Albuquerque and Santa Fe into inaction,
and were marching eastward across the mountains toward the final
stronghold, Fort Union. On March 10, the First Regiment of Colorado
Volunteers, under Col. J. P. Slough, arrived at Fort Union as
reinforcements. And on March 22, Colonel Slough led his 1342 men out of
the fort to meet the advancing Confederates. In a two-day battle fought
in Apache Canyon and Glorieta Pass, the Union forces defeated the
Confederates, thus saving Fort Union for the federal cause.
From 1863 to 1869, the garrisons at Fort Union were chiefly occupied in
a construction program that produced most of the adobe-walled buildings
whose ruins may now be seen. Fort Union then returned to its earlier
mission of a base for Indian fighting.
The usefulness of Fort Union was reduced with the final submission of
the Indians and with the arrival of the railhead at Las Vegas in 1879.
The huge fort was demoted to caretaker status in the 1880’s and was
abandoned in 1891.
At each of these New Mexico units of the National Park System, as at
other units throughout the nation, trained personnel of the National
Park Service—archeologists, historians, naturalists, and park
rangers—are on duty. Their purpose is to make the visitor’s trip
rewarding. This they do through museum exhibits, guided walks and
self-guiding trails, campfire talks, and publications.
Here in New Mexico, then, escape the irritations that seem to go with
progress. Awaiting the traveler are unspoiled places where he can
surround himself with the quiet majesty of nature, walk the paths made
by prehistoric people, camp where the Spanish _conquistadores_ camped,
stroll among the ruins of buildings erected by the men who helped to
fashion the Southwest.