National Guard April 2012 : Page 84
G UARD R OOTS : T HE C IVIL W AR Gettysburg of the West By Maj. Adam Morgan A bold raid by Colorado militiamen turned a battle in
National Guard April 2012 : Page 84
G UARD R OOTS : T HE C IVIL W AR Gettysburg of the West By Maj. Adam Morgan A bold raid by Colorado militiamen turned a battle in New Mexico and ended Confederate designs to take the fight all the way to the Pacific 84 LL WAS NOT quiet on the nation’s western front in the middle of the 19th century. While America braced for a civil war, frontiersmen traveling west carried with them their political leanings for either the North or the South. As both political bands began to form, President James Buchanan, in one his ﬁnal acts before leaving office in 1861, declared Colorado a U.S. territory in an attempt to maintain Union control of the area. That same year, President Abraham Lincoln appoint-A | Na tional Guard
Gettysburg Of The West
Maj. Adam Morgan
A bold raid by Colorado militiamen turned a battle in New Mexico and ended Confederate designs to take the fight all the way to the Pacific
ALL WAS NOT quiet on the nation’s western front in the middle of the 19th century.
While America braced for a civil war, frontiersmen traveling west carried with them their political leanings for either the North or the South.
As both political bands began to form, President James Buchanan, in one his final acts before leaving office in 1861, declared Colorado a U.S. territory in an attempt to maintain Union control of the area.
That same year, President Abraham Lincoln appointed his personal friend, William Gilpin, as the governor of the new U.S. possession.
The new commander in chief could not know it at the time, but the decision turned out to be an important step in winning the war that would define his presidency.
In 1858, settlers discovered gold and silver in the Rocky Mountains. The prospect of instant wealth lured eastern Americans westward to capitalize. The attention that the gold put on the mountain range led to the discovery of coal and other minerals abundant in the state, and soon there was a huge migration.
Miners from Georgia and Pennsylvania, many sporting the famous “Pikes Peak or Bust” slogan on their wagons, headed to the territory. Others continued west after coming from as far north as Maine to Kansas in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, a governmental experiment in which popular sovereignty would decide the fate of slavery at statehood.
Still others came to sell mining tools, booze and prostitutes to prospectors and miners. Everyone undoubtedly understood the urgency of the situation brewing in the country, and the Colorado Territory was Union in name only. It was severely divided between Unionists and Secessionists.
This was evident when the first two militia units were formed in1860. One had sympathies with the South; the other leaned to the North.
When a citizen raised the Confederate colors over a Denver business, the enraged response was a well-aimed mountain howitzer threatening the man and the business. The offending flag was quickly lowered.
When Gilpin arrived in Denver, he immediatel