Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1903-07-31

AZ IA G.. A. II. rally call for the
" thirty-seventh national en-
campment. which meets Aug.
II. The soldier cry ION to San Fran
cisco!" was voiced in 1861. but the men
who raised it were not going to a pic
mic like the veterans of 1903. The
shouters of 1861 were out for territory
and gold. principally gold, and the prize
was to be enjoyed by the new Confed-
crate States of America, not Brother
Jonathan's time honored realm.
And why the G.. a. X. rally at San
Francisco in 1901 Less than 10000
men were enrolled in the Federal army
from the Pacific coast states. and few
If any of these fired shot in defense
of the flag. Simply this 49, the star of
empire in its westward fight since
1860 has drawn the old soldiers after it
by tens of thousands. The Grand Army
follows the veterans to add to its roll
and spread its influence. 1t has never
chosen a commander In chief from the
territory west of the Rockies much
less west of the Sierpas, and probably
never will Yet for the second time the
Golden City is honored with the en-
campment. 1t met there in 1886.
Strangely enough, the Pacific states,
although far removed from the seat Of
war, with their own military problems
to tax their patriotism, gave one of the
earliest battle field heroes to the cause
for which the veterans fought. This
was Colonel f. d. Baker, United States
senator from Oregon who was killed
Oct. q, 1861, at Balls Bluff, Va. Bak-
er was a patriot of the stalwart type,
and when Sumter was fred on raised
regiment of Pennsylvanians, who had
been fortune hunters ON the coast, and
named it, after the Golden State, the
First California" Colonel Baker fell
in the heat of battle, and the first G. A.
r. post organized in his adopted state
took his name.
The volunteers raised on the gold
coast during the civil war were needed
at home to strengthen the garrisons of
regulars or relieve those ordered to the
seat of war in the east, and a speck of
the great war between the states
threatening the Pacific territory was
nipped in the bud, in part, by the mar
tial zeal of California volunteers. The
march of the California column of Fed
eral troops from southern California
nearly 1000 miles across the deserts of
Arizona to Santa Fee, n. NJ, in the sum-
mer of 1862 is one of the most remark
able and. probably the least known of
the minor achievements of the boys in
blue. The object of the expedition,
which was undertaken in a desperate
emergency and pushed with undaunted
energy and daring. was to forestall the
Confederates in the occupation of the
southern route to the gold coast and
prevent the founding of a southwest
ern territory under Confederate rule.
The summer of 1861 had been an
eventful one in the States, and the
Federal authorities had paid scant at
tention to affairs beyond the Missis-
sippi. AS open revolution never sleeps
and every malcontent is Il soldier and
an organizer to certain degree the
Confederate cause grew day by day
in the far away empire along the Rio
Grande and the ella. BY the LIST of
August all the regular army forts built
for defense against Indians and Mex
lean marauders in New Mexico We're in
the hands of Confederates, and the
southern commander in that territory,
Colonel John Il. Baylor, by proclama-
ton established the Confederate de-
partment of Arizona. Soon afterward
General ii. ii. Sibley, Confederate
States army, arrived from the east and
assumed command of the Confederate
Army of New Mexico" His first
move was to attempt the capture of
Fort Craig, the extreme southerly post
of the Federal forces in the territory.
About the same time General Z. X. S.
Candy, United States army, was sent
from Washington to organize the Fed
eral militia and make the best possible
defense of eastern New Mexico. He
constructed Fort Craig, on the west
bank of the Rio Grande, opposite Val
verde.
Sibley marched northward from San
Antonio. Tex, early in 1862, and the
10th Of February he made feint to at.
tack the fort then struck out to cross
the river and get in the rear Of the
Federais. He had about 1000 men
while Canby's whole force numbered
nearly 1000. But Candy had an extern