California Column - Arizona Battles

Arizona Battles

Arizona Confederate volunteers, the Company A, Arizona Rangers, managed to destroy supplies along the Column's route, making its progress extremely slow. Most of Carleton's attempts to send messages to General E. R. S. Canby, the Union's beleaguered departmental commander of New Mexico, were intercepted, and one entire patrol was captured by Confederates at White's Mill at the Pima Indian villages.

The Column engaged the Confederates in two small skirmishes, first at Stanwix Station near the end of March 1862, and then in mid-April at Picacho Pass. Their subsequent rapid approach to Tucson nearly trapped the Confederate rearguard.

After the occupation of Arizona pioneer Sylvester Mowry was arrested at his mine in Mowry, Arizona by the Californians. General Carleton, coincidentally an old enemy of Mowry, charged him with selling lead for musket balls to Confederates. Mowry was imprisoned for six months at Fort Yuma before being released due to the lack of evidence, and as a result his mine was destroyed and he was forced to leave Arizona where he had intended to settle.

It was not until late June that a scout named John W. Jones was able to outrun pursuing Apaches and get a message to Canby: "The Column from California is really coming." On the march to the Rio Grande, 140 men of Company E, 1st California Infantry, and Company B, 2nd California Infantry, fought the famous Apache leader Cochise at Apache Pass in July. By the time the California Column reached the Rio Grande, the Confederates had already retreated to Texas.

Most of their service after that would be as garrisons of the settlements and forts in New Mexico Territory, and Franklin, Texas and in fighting against the Apaches and Navajo.