A Visit to Fort Union National Monument

“The country around Fort Union is pretty—by far the nicest in the Territory. The streams have formed deep narrow canons, the borders of which are rocky and timbered. The prairie is swelling, smooth, and covered with excellent grass. Small mountains and wooded points give variety, and it only wants seasonable rains to vie with any place in the world for beauty and salubrity” (p. 220). So wrote Ovando J. Hollister of the 1^st Regiment of Colorado Volunteers in his book Colorado Volunteers in New Mexico: 1862.

This blogster visited Fort Union National Monument last month, a mere 149 years after Hollister’s visit. Like Hollister, I thought the area was quite pretty, and I would guess that the countryside around Fort Union has changed little since Hollister’s visit.

Fort Union, approximately twenty-eight miles north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, was established in 1851 by Lieutenant Colonel Edwin V. Sumner, the commander of the Ninth Military Department. Situated near the Santa Fe Trail, the fort was well placed to provide supplies to travelers and as a base for military activities. Hastily constructed with green wood, the buildings often were in need of repair. Once the war started, Fort Union morphed into an important supply point for Union forces, and soldiers labored on a large star shaped fortification. In 1863, construction began on the third and final phase of the fort: most of the surviving fort dates from this final phase. The fort survived until the military abandoned it in 1891.

On June 25^th, my mom, a friend, and I pulled into a nearly full parking lot; this was a surprise as Fort Union is a bit off the “beaten track.” It turns out that we happened in on a living history event featuring guest speakers, reenactors, and exhibitors. The reenactors below represent men of the 1^st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry—the presenter pointed out that many Americans today do not realize that the New Mexico Territory even fielded troops during the Civil War.

Freight wagons played a vital role in supply:

In the postwar period, residents of Fort Union could make use of the sun dial:

And even know the elevation: “6835.423 Above Tidewater Aug. 1867”

The ruins were fascinating to me—and a bit haunting:

Those Wild Colorado Volunteers

Last night, I returned from a wonderful vacation to Taos, New Mexico. It was a relief to escape the heat on the Oklahoma prairies! Of course, I managed to work in a bit of sightseeing to Civil War related sites so look for a couple of future postings about those.

For now, I will offer some brief reflections about a book that I recently purchased at the Dickson Street bookstore in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Often cited in works about the 1862 New Mexico campaign, Ovando J. Hollister’s History Of The First Regiment Of Colorado Volunteers was published in 1863; my copy is a reprint edition published by The Lakeside Press in 1962 and edited by Richard Harwell. At that time it was retitled as Colorado Volunteers In New Mexico. One unusual feature of the book is the fact that it was originally published during the war. Of course this adds more immediacy to the book, and it also is more raw, blunt, and opinionated than many accounts published after the war. Books like Hollister’s remind the reader of the emotions of the time and the fact that the war was very much a young man’s war.

Hollister himself was in his late twenties when he enlisted in the 1^st Colorado Volunteers. A native of Massachusetts, Hollister drifted westward as a young man and arrived “in the mining district of South Clear Creek, Colorado” near the beginning of the war (p. xx). So far, I am most struck by the wildness and undisciplined nature of these young Colorado volunteers, although there is evidence of Hollister maturing as a soldier and recognizing the importance of discipline. The following passage dated March 22, 1862 is a good description of the behavior of these soldiers:

“About noon we succeeded in getting under way. A party started ahead early, to secure the plunder stolen from the sutler last night. A squad of regulars were sent after them, but they had no inclination to interfere with the volunteers and took care to discover nothing. The boys concealed some, drank more, lost and sold the balance. What was drunk immediately under the eyes of the sutler was about all the good they got of it; a doubtful good certainly, for the command was scattered from Dan to Beersheba, burying plunder, drinking, fighting and carousing with Mexican women, at the Lome, a small ‘Sodom’ five or six miles from [Fort] Union. There were a dozen of us too drunk to know friends from foes, consequently most provokingly troublesome. Many came in during the night with rough usage painted on their faces in unmistakable colors” (p. 88-89).

Four days later, part of the 1^st Colorado Volunteers saw combat at Apache Canyon followed on March 28^th by the battle at Pigeon’s Ranch (Glorieta).