The American Military Frontiers: The United States Army in the West, 1783-1900

9: Civil Wars in the Borderlands

163 life on the nation’s frontiers profoundly changed during the Civil War. ignoring or fleeing the awful carnage in the east, farmers, miners, adventurers, and entrepreneurs flooded the West by the thousands . Spectacular prewar gold and silver strikes in California, Colorado (1858–59), and nevada (1859) were followed by big new wartime discoveries in idaho, Montana, and Arizona as well as by smaller finds in eastern oregon and Washington. the expansion of stagecoach services, completion of a telegraph line to California, and better steamboat travel up the Missouri River further encouraged migration into areas already strained beyond their ecological limits. Political change accompanied these developments, Washington being eager to cement the West’s ties to the Union. in the last days of the flagging buchanan administration, Kansas belatedly received statehood, and Colorado, nevada, and Dakota were granted territorial status. Congress recognized Arizona and idaho as territories in 1863, with Montana joining them the following year. Seeking to create another safely Republican state and to reward mining interests, Congress also pushed through nevada’s statehood. Military events—featuring a new set of characters—would be essential to these developments. the Lincoln administration kept the regular army intact, expanding it by eleven regiments (which amounted to just over twenty-two thousand more men). it also eliminated the archaic +n i n e∂ civil Wars in the Borderlands 164 chapter nine distinctions between cavalry, mounted riflemen, and dragoons by designating all mounted units as cavalry. the vast majority of the three million Americans who saw military service during the war, however, were volunteers. in the West, this mobilization also meant that the United States would field greater numbers of men: whereas about ten thousand regulars had been available for indian campaigning in 1860, nearly twice that many were on hand four years later. Participation varied sharply by region. in Kansas, scene of bitter internecine guerrilla warfare as well as conflicts against indians, nearly one in five persons saw military service , the highest percentage of any free state or territory in the country. engaged in several ferocious campaigns against indians, nevada ranked second. by contrast, the six lowest rates of Civil War participation came from other borderlands regions: from lowest to highest, these included Utah (less than 1 percent), oregon, California, new Mexico, Dakota, and Washington (under 9 percent).1 for the Confederacy, the West offered many strategic opportunities. Missouri, the most populous state west of the Mississippi River, was an especially important prize, ranking among the top ten states in its production of hemp, corn, and livestock. the largest lead-producing state in the Union, Missouri boasted a vibrant industrial base, and St. Louis controlled the strategic junction of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Many of the most favored overland routes from Washington to the Pacific were also vulnerable to a rebel strike, and there was no guarantee that the largely Hispanic population of new Mexico would remain loyal to the Union. Loss of this territory would in turn endanger southern California and Colorado, thus allowing the Confederacy to establish a Pacific outpost and to lay claim to rich mineral wealth. Although Richmond evinced little interest in a far-western strategy and could spare precious few resources for the war in the trans-Mississippi, with a bit of luck and the cooperation of American indians, even minor western thrusts offered the South a chance to trim the north’s tremendous material advantages.2 American indians, of course, had their own interests. for those tribes who had been removed to present oklahoma, the division of the Union sharpened long-simmering internal rivalries. John Ross, the aristocratic, slaveowning principal chief of the Cherokees, initially tried to remain neutral. others—like Stand Watie, who had supported civil wars in the borderlands 165 the decision to move west, and John Jumper, a prominent Seminole minister—backed the Confederacy. traditionalists such as the Cherokee leader opothleyahola, on the other hand, preached loyalty to Washington. As the war opened, the Confederacy’s Albert Pike, equal parts linguist, lawyer, and romantic, skillfully isolated the pro-Union factions, and seven indian regiments—three Choctaw-Chickasaw, two Cherokee, one Creek, and one Seminole-Creek—eventually saw Confederate service. opothleyahola and ten thousand loyalists fled north, suffering a major defeat at the hands of a mixed force of texans, Arkansans, and proConfederate indians at Salt Creek (Chustenahlah) before reaching the relative safety of Kansas.3 in nearby Missouri, Union troops...