John R. Baylor
Major Lynde was in a quandary. Rebel Texans were gathering in overwhelming numbers
to attack his command at Ft. Fillmore, a lightly fortified post on the Rio
Grande River in New Mexico Territory. The
only alternative was to evacuate at night and try to reach the nearest Union
fort one hundred fifty miles away to the northeast. Such a trek would require a full canteen of
water, or so you would think. Lynde's
men thought they had something better.
After Texas seceded in February 1861, General Earl Van Dorn,
Commander of the Confederate Army in Texas, ordered Lt. Colonel John R. Baylor
to occupy Ft. Bliss in El Paso and defend Confederate held forts in West
Texas. These forts had been built by the
U.S. Army to protect settlers and guard stagecoach routes against Indian attacks. When the Civil War began, a number of these
frontier forts were abandoned as U.S. troops surrendered or headed back
north. On July 3, 1861, Baylor's 2nd
Texas Mounted Rifles reached Ft. Bliss.
Concerned about a Federal incursion from New Mexico Territory, Baylor
decided to move against Ft. Fillmore, just up the Rio Grande from El Paso. He set out with three hundred men.
John R. Baylor had a consuming hatred for Native Americans,
especially Comanches, and felt a firm hand, as opposed to signed treaties, was
the only way to deal with them. As the
son of an army surgeon, Baylor witnessed firsthand the tragic results of
frontier life. He later settled in Texas
and became a prominent rancher, lawyer, and single term member of the Texas
House of Representatives. After a Comanche
reservation was established on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, Baylor was
appointed the Indian agent; a worse agent couldn't have been appointed. He quarreled incessantly with his supervisor,
Robert Simpson Neighbours, who wanted to protect the Comanches from an
indifferent U.S. Cavalry and angry settlers bent on killing any Indian they
could lay their hands on. Baylor accused
the reservation Comanches of providing aid and comfort to non-reservation
Comanches still raiding nearby
settlements. In 1857, he was dismissed,
but that didn't stop him from stirring up settlers and forming vigilante groups
to attack the reservation. He even
established an anti-Indian newspaper, "The White Man." Things got so bad, Neighbors was forced to
move the reservation to the Indian Territory.
He became a marked man for his efforts and was later assassinated.
The southern half of New Mexico Territory was an area
plagued with constant Apache raids. The
Apaches were determined to drive out every white man in the Southwest. Feeling unprotected and abandoned by the
territorial capital in Santa Fe, the residents of Mesilla turned toward the
Confederacy for support. Many of the
residents were Southern transplants, who controlled the politics and local
economy. It's not surprising they warmly
welcomed Baylor's men.
The nearby Union garrison, at Fort Fillmore, would not be as
accommodating. The Union commander, Major Isaac Lynde, decided to attack Baylor
before he could advance on him. Leading three
hundred eighty men and two small mountain howitzers, the 58 year old Vermont
native tried to force Baylor out of Mesilla. Upon reaching the outskirts, he demanded
Baylor's surrender. Baylor replied,
"If you wish the town and my forces, come and take them." The
Texans took up positions behind a stout adobe wall and Mesilla's rooftops. Hampered by a dense cornfield and loose sand,
Lynde's attack fell apart at the start.
Armed mostly with double- barreled shotguns, Baylor's men poured a
deadly fire on Lynde's disjointed advance while Mesilla's residents cheered
them on. Lynde's aggressive spirit also fell
apart with the loss of nine men. He retreated
back to the fort and made a half-hearted
attempt to fortify it with sandbags.
Hearing from a spy that Baylor was going to be reinforced with more men and
artillery from El Paso, Lynde decided to
evacuate Ft. Fillmore. The evacuation
would require a daunting trek to across
the vast New Mexico desert and Organ Mountains to Ft. Stanton. To fortify their resolve, Lynde's men helped
themselves to the fort's supply of medicinal whiskey. They filled their canteens with the stuff before
heading off into the night.
Relief would come from the
mountain springs, which were much further away than Lynde expected. His men began dropping by the wayside from
the effects of soaring desert heat, overwhelming thirst and whiskey filled canteens. Seeing their dust trails from Mesilla, Baylor
set off in pursuit. For him, it was a simple matter of scooping up staggering, thirst crazed
stragglers without firing a shot.
Needless to say, Lynde was forced to surrender. He was paroled then later discharged for
abandoning his post.
Baylor set up a Confederate government with himself as
governor in Mesilla. He declared the
southern half of New Mexico Territory to be the Confederate Territory of
Arizona. The new territory stretched
from Mesilla to Tuscon in present day Arizona.
Almost immediately, the new Confederate governor was hit by a wave of Apache
raids; ranches were burned, people were killed, and livestock was stolen on a
daily basis. Criticism of the new governor
mounted steadily in the local newspapers; something the thin-skinned Baylor couldn't abide. After a critical piece appeared in the "Mesilla
Times," he sought out the editor, Robert P. Kelly, and shot him in the
face. Severely wounded, Kelley died a few
weeks later.
Baylor's frustrations with the
Apaches grew by the minute. Frustration
led to extermination as the only viable solution. Written orders were issued to his rangers to
kill all adult Indians and sell their children to defray the costs. Such orders horrified the Confederate Congress
and President Jefferson Davis who sought peace with the Native Americans. Baylor was removed from office and his
commission was revoked.
The Confederate Territory of
Arizona lasted just short of a year. It
was to be the only territory held by the Confederacy outside of state
boundaries. After the Confederate setback at Glorietta
Pass, the Texans were forced to retreat back into their home state. At the Battle of Galveston, where many of the
New Mexico veterans fought, John R. Baylor fought as a private in the
Confederate Army.
