Fort Union National Monument (Part 1)

Fort Union National Monument protects 720.6 acres near Las Vegas, NM encompassing the ruins of the largest 19th century military fort on the Santa Fe National Historic Trail. Fort Union protected travelers on the trail, served as the supply hub for the U.S. Army in the West, and provided military responses to conflicts with Native Americans in the region.

In 1821, Mexico gained independence from Spain and lifted trade barriers with the United States. The deeply in debt William Becknell immediately led a small party west from Franklin, MO along old indigenous routes to trade and sell goods in Santa Fe, NM, establishing the Santa Fe Trail. Many other traders soon followed along various routes of the trail. For much of the first two decades, the Santa Fe Trail was dominated by American traders heading west and most wagon traffic took the Cimarron Cutoff. By the 1840s, New Mexican traders heading east dominated the trail and the longer Mountain Branch along the Arkansas River became more popular due to better water access.

When the Mexican-American War erupted in 1846, the U.S. utilized the Santa Fe Trail to quickly transport soldiers and supplies to New Mexico. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war in 1848 and annexed New Mexico as a U.S. territory. The army established 11 small outposts in towns near the Rio Grande and along trade routes to protect residents and travelers from Native American attacks. This approach soon proved inefficient and Secretary of War C.M. Conrad ordered the revision of the New Mexico Territory defense strategy in 1851. Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Vose Sumner, who commanded Military Department No. 9 (later renamed the Military Department of New Mexico), broke up the garrisons and moved them to posts closer to Native American territorial conflicts. He also moved the department headquarters and supply depot away from the distractions and temptations of Santa Fe to a site in the Mora Valley near the junction of the Cimarron Cutoff and Mountain Branch paths of the Santa Fe Trail, establishing Fort Union.

From top to bottom are a hanoolchaadi, or Navajo trade blanket, a Jicarilla Apache cradleboard, Pueblo pottery, mortar and pestle, and a Navajo stick game called Tsidil.

Frontier posts were typically constructed by civilians working for the Quartermaster Department but these men were discharged by Lieutenant Colonel Sumner. The First Fort Union was instead built using the unskilled labor of soldiers, resulting in terrible living conditions as insects quickly infested poorly prepared logs that rotted away over time. The Fort Union Arsenal on the other hand was constructed to a higher standard under the close supervision of Captain William Shoemaker. He was the commanding officer of the arsenal which operated under a chain of command separate from the Post and Quartermaster Depot. The Fort Union Arsenal supplied weapons, ammunition, and gunpowder to dozens of forts across the Southwest and often served as a test site for new technologies. Soldiers stationed at the First Fort Union participated in several military operations against Native Americans. After Jicarilla Apaches nearly eliminated an entire company of dragoons in 1854, the Army pushed the tribe into the mountains west of the Rio Grande. Campaigns were also carried out against Southern Utes of Colorado in 1855 and against Comanches and Kiowas raiding the plains to the east in 1860–1861.

From top to bottom are a Winchester repeating rifle, a Navajo language instruction book, a cartridge belt, arrowheads cut from metal barrel hoops, and a Comanche lancehead.

Native Americans adapted to the Spanish and later Anglo-Americans encroaching on their lands, trading for guns and fashioning weapons from what was at hand. When they were forced onto reservations, their children were taken to boarding schools where they were given new names, new clothes, and forbidden to speak their native languages. As a result, many tribes today make a great effort to preserve and teach their languages, traditions, and culture lest they die out.

From top to bottom are a shovel head, a Springfield carbine rifle, a bugle, a kepi, which is a traditional Army cap from the Civil War, and a haversack, used to carry extra food and personal possessions.

As the Civil War became inevitable, up to 15% of Army officers in the New Mexico Territory defected to the Confederacy. The name Fort Union became ironic in 1961 when Lieutenant Colonel George B. Crittenden, Major Henry Hopkins Sibley, and Lieutenant Donald Stith each defected to the Confederacy after being named commanding officer of the fort. In addition, Colonel Thomas Fauntleroy and Colonel William Loring both resigned as commander of the Military Department of New Mexico, with Loring defecting to the Confederacy.

Here are some items used by Hispanos. From top to bottom are a .58 caliber musket with bayonet, a leather belt with cartridge and cap boxes, a Spanish language bible, glasses, and a freighter’s whip.

At the start of the Civil War, the Union Army moved most of its troops from western forts to fight in the East but then learned that the Confederates were planning to invade the New Mexico Territory. The Union Army needed to recruit quickly but New Mexico had only been a U.S. territory for 12 years and locals had no strong allegiances to the Union. Many did not speak English as the majority were Hispanos, people descended from Spanish settlers in the Southwest before it was annexed by the U.S. Instead of the usual rallying cry of “Save the Union,” army recruiters exploited hostility and border disputes that the locals had with Texas to persuade men to enlist. Later in life, many locals would refer to the Civil War as "la guerra contra los Tejanos," which means “the war against the Texans.” By the end of 1861, 3,500 Hispanos had enlisted as New Mexico Volunteers and many of them trained at Fort Union under Lieutenant Kit Carson and Ceran St. Vrain.

On the top shelf are surgical instruments, a Jamaica Ginger bottle, a Blood & Liver Syrup bottle, and a Dr. S. Pitcher’s Castoria bottle. On the bottom shelf is a medical kit.

The Confederate invasion of the New Mexico Territory prompted the construction of the Second Fort Union. The First Fort Union was a frontier fort for protecting travelers from conflict with indigenous peoples and did not have walls since it was almost unheard of for Native Americans to attack a fort. The First Fort Union was also dilapidated and located by a mesa that made it vulnerable to Confederate artillery. The Second Fort Union was built as a defensive structure about a mile east of the First Fort Union but still near the water supply of Wolf Creek. Under the command of Major William Chapman, the New Mexico Volunteers worked in round-the-clock shifts to finish the earthen fort in less than a year. The Second Fort Union was completed in early 1862 as the Confederates advanced north up the Rio Grande Valley under the command of Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley, former commander of Fort Union.

The objectives of the Confederate invasion were to seize Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Fort Union, and the Colorado gold fields. In February 1862, the Confederates took Albuquerque and by early March they seized Santa Fe, causing Territorial Governor Henry Connelly and his wife Dolores to flee the capital and take refuge at Fort Union. The next target for the Confederates was the Fort Union Arsenal, with its 21 cannons and roughly 5,600 rounds of artillery ammunition, 7,100 small arms, and 2.8 million small arms cartridges. Fort Union soldiers and Colorado Volunteers fought the Confederate army to the south at Glorieta Pass from March 26-28, 1862. The Battle of Glorieta Pass was the major turning point in the New Mexico Campaign of the Civil War. Union forces under the command of Colonel John P. Slough and under the direction of Major John M. Chivington destroyed the Confederate wagon trains, cutting off their resources, and forcing a retreat to Texas.

This portion of the Santa Fe Trail passes right through Fort Union National Monument.

Almost none of the First Fort Union remains. The ruins to the west are those of the Fort Union Ordnance Depot which was constructed at the site of the First Fort Union in the 1860s. That portion of the monument is not accessible to the public.

From above, the Second Fort Union had the appearance of an eight-pointed star, with four bastions and four demilunes. Ditches were dug around the outside of the fort and the dirt was used to build its walls. The bastions protruded from the corners of the main fort walls, allowing defenders clearance to fire down the length of the walls. The demilunes were triangular fortifications set in front of each of main fort walls for greater protection and to allow for forward combat.

This is a wall and one of the bastions of the Second Fort Union.

Terrible drainage often caused the barracks to flood and left the powder magazine damp. By 1866, flooding forced soldiers to move into tents outside the walls of the fort. Today, the Second Fort Union is the only surviving earthen star fort west of the Mississippi River.

The fort is not particularly easy to discern from an ordinary mound.

M1857 12-pounder Napoleon cannons like this one were the primary weapon of defense for the earthwork fortification of Second Fort Union.

With the Confederates defeated in the West, construction began on the Third Fort Union late in 1862, but it would not be completed until 1869. The Third Fort Union was built as a frontier fort in the traditional Territorial Style using native materials more capable of withstanding local weather conditions than the previous forts. The walls were made of adobe brick coated in kiln-fired plaster set on stone foundations. Despite the use of more suitable materials, hasty construction left the fort with leak issues that required frequent repairs. The Post at Fort Union originally housed four companies of cavalry and infantry but was later expanded to hold six. The Fort Union Quartermaster Depot was larger than the Post and employed more people since it acted as the supply hub for posts across the Southwest.

After the Battle of Glorieta Pass, soldier duties at Fort Union reverted to protecting those in the region from Native American conflicts. The Fort Union Arsenal provided weapons and ammunition for campaigns against the Navajos (1863-1864) as well as the Comanches and Kiowas (1868-1875). By 1873, western expansion of railroads led to the construction of the Granada-Fort Union Military Route to better supply Fort Union and traffic along the Santa Fe Trail largely shifted to this new road.

The Post Officers' Quarters housed officers and their families. Eight duplexes in this row could house two families and quarters were assigned according to rank.

Between late 1875-1881 four companies of African-American soldiers from the 9th Cavalry were stationed at Fort Union. These soldiers were colloquially known as Buffalo Soldiers, a moniker believed to have been bestowed by Native Americans due to the dark appearance of the troops as well as their valor in battle. Six members of the 9th Cavalry became the only Fort Union soldiers ever awarded the Medal of Honor. The 9th Cavalry participated in campaigns against the Apaches and helped keep the peace during long-running range conflicts known as the Colfax County War (1873-1888) and the Lincoln County War (1878-1881).