Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-18
A TALE OF THE OLD FRONTIER
BY Edgar Beecher Bronson
CHAPTER UL,-(Continued,)

CHAPTER HI.-(Continued,)
Third, because California held
heavy leaven of native southerners,
come out over the old Indianola and
B%utterworth trails.
Thus it was as early as July, 1861,
shortly before the first call for volun'
teers in California, that Colonel John
r. Baylor, having marched his little
column of native, long-haired Texans,
the elder veterans and the younger
sons of the men of The Alamo and
San Jacinto, from Uwadle up n to
the head of Devils river, west past
Hudson's Wells to the Pecos. up that
river to Horsehead Crossing, thence
west to Comanche Springs, to Eagle
Springs, over to the Rio Grande and
up stream to the then tiny Mexican
placita of Franklin-now Ell Paso-
crossed into New Mexican territory,
seized the town Of Dona Ana, and
there established his headquarters.
He then boldly claimed for the Con-
federacy all territory between the Rio
Grand and the Pacific coast.
But while Baylor was busy, at the
same time Californians were neither
OLllO " SHolA uoAe0A AO AAlS. NSA
eral e. v. Sumner, then commanding
the few regulars on the coast, was
concentrating his outlying garrisons
at Los Angeles, as the point most
liable to develop serious d~isaffection.
And Thomas Sprague, a merchant
resident at La Plaza, was writing
Washington as follows. THE Seces-
sionists are about to take possession
Of the Peninsula preparatory to &C
quiring a portion, or the whole, of
Mexico, seize the Panama steamers
and obtain thereby enough treasure to
carry on the conquest into Alta Cali
fornia."
Meantime, recruiting had been 60
ing ON in the north, 80 that in the ear
" fail Of 1851 Camp Latham had been
established on the cienga between
Santa Monica and Los Angeles, and
there was finished the recruiting of
the force that later became known as
the California Column.
It was composed OF the First and
Fifth Volunteer infantry, the First
cavalry and a light battery of four
brass field pieces Of the Third (regu-
lar) artillery; in all one thousand
eight hundred men, commanded by
Colonel James H. Carleton, previously
a captain of the Sixth Regular infan-
try.
For a time invasion and temporary
occupation of the two Mexican states
was seriously considered at Washing
ton, by Selling Guaymas and thus
opening a possible route of attack Of
the C%onfederacy in the rear, along
the Texas border. 7
But, obviously lacking available
forces in the far West adequate to fol
low up any initial advant IS that
be gained, this wholly raw
piece Of strategy was soon abandoned,
and Carleton was ordered to move
east on Yuma, to cross Arizona and
New Mexico to the Rio Grande and
do his best.
Shortly before the starting of the
column, Colonel Baylor write his de-
partment commander as follows:
California is on the v of a revolu-
ton. There are many southern men
there who would cheerfully Join us
If they could get to us, and they
could come we'll armed and mounted.
l would ask permission to get all such
men as choose to join us, and would
further ask that some arrangement
for the purchase of horses in Cali
be made.
I could now buy the best horses
there for $50, and many southern men
would sell them for Confederate mon
ey. Another thing I take the liberty
of suggesting is, that a force be
placed in western Arizona to watch
the landing of United States troops
in Guaymas, that they may % pass
through Sonora to invade us.
A party Of Californians have just
arrived, and report that there are no
troops on the road at this time. but
that the United States government
was trying to raise them for the pur-
pose of invasion, and I am reliably in
formed that the government of Mexi-
has sent orders to the governor Of
Sonora to allaw the passage of Unit
ed States troops through that state.
Baylor's suggestion bore fruit. A
plan was laid to rush troops through
New Mexico to California, and thence
to swing them east cro the Rockies
into the northwest, and General H. H.
Sibley led the force assigned to the
task.
In February, 1852, after a waterless