Governor Gilpin was not only profoundly loyal to the Union cause,
but a man of ready decision and prompt action in its behalf. He believed
that "a strong and malignant secession element", as he characterized the
more zealous and outspoken of the southern men in Colorado, had been
"ably and secretly organized from November", of the previous year, and
reported that "extreme and extraordinary measures" were necessary "to
meet and control its onslaught". However, it is doubtful whether such
an organization existed before April, 1861, or even before the summer of
that year. The first flaunting demonstration of fealty to the Southern
Confederacy had been made in Denver on April ^-tth, a few days after
tidings of the Confederate assault tipon Fort Sumter had reached the Ter-
ritory. On that day, a Confederate flag was raised above the general store
of Wallingford & Murphy, on Larimer Street, near what is now Sixteenth
Street. Its appearance was followed quickly by the gathering of a throng
of excited men in front of the building, most of whom declared that the
emblem of Disunion should not float in Denver, while the minority in-
sisted that it was there to stay : and serious trouble seemed imminent.
But in the midst of the clamor, Samuel M. Logan, who became later a
gallant Captain in the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, went to
the roof of the store and pulled down the flag ; none of those who had
hailed it with approval daring tn attempt to prevent . his action. After
this episode, which also brought forth other manifestations of loyalty to
the Union on the part of the majority of Denver's citizens, the disunion
element was more circumspect, and refrained from ostentatious expression
of its political sentiments either by word or symbol, although some small
Confederate flags subsequently were privately exhibited in the city.

One of Governor Gilpin's early official acts was to provide himself
with a military staff', which consisted of Richard E. Whitsitt, Adjutant-
General; Samuel Moer, Quartermaster-General; John S. Fillmore, Pay-
master; and Morton C. Fisher, Purchasing Agent.

Whatever armament the erstwhile Jefferson Rangers and the Denver
Guards may have possessed doubtless was the property of their members,
as the Governor found no military equipment in Denver that was of public
ownership. Shortly after he had formed his military staff, he authorized
and directed Purchasing Agent Fisher to go forth among the people and
procure all the rifles, shotguns and ammunition that he coirld buy. As
nearly every man in the Territory had one or more of such weapons, a
motley assortment of a few hundred guns soon was collected; and for



380 HISTOEY Of COLORADO

which high prices were paid, or, rather, promised to be paid. Wliile mak-
iug these pureliases, Fisher came into competition with the Colorado Con-
federates, who were openly in the market for the same purpose, and who
now were suspected of an intention to organize a mounted force, make a
sudden descent upon Denver and plunder the banks and business houses
of that city, and then scurry off to join the nearest Confederate army.
They posted handbills in the towns and mining-camps, bearing a notice
that good prices would be paid for serviceable rifles and ammunition for
them, naming several places where these would be received and payment
tlierefore made ia cash. The leader in this movement was a Texan, named
McKee. He and about forty others believed to be identified with it were
arrested by order of Governor Gilpiu and imprisoned. This action and
the Governor's energetic preparations for organizing a regiment of volun-
teers caused the friends of the Southern Confederacy immediately to with-
draw from the gun-market.

However, some of the southern men established a rendezvous on
Cherry Creek, near its head, where a body of them, that was said to have
numbered upward of one hundred, was gathered early in the autumn. A
detachment of the First Eegimeut of Colorado Volunteers, which had been
organized in the meantime, was sent to round up these insurgents and
take them to Denver. But most of them escaped capture and moved to a
place on the Arkansas Eiver, below Fort Wise, where they appropriated a
small train of army-wagons laden with supplies — a windfall that was of
but little advantage to them. They were overtaken a day or two later,
and one-half of them made prisoners, the rest scattering as best they could.
The captured men were taken to Denver and there confined with the
others. But after several weeks, the prisoners, who had to be guarded
and fed, became a burden to their captors; and as no one Imew what else
to do with them, they were released and permitted to go their way.

Thus ended the only actual attempt of partisans of the Southern
Confederacy to form a military force in Colorado. As in the case of those
who had left the Territory earlier in 1861, other southern men, who de-
parted for their former homes in the autumn of that year, having the
courage of their convictions and determined to take up arms in behalf of
the South, went forth quietly as individuals and not as a militant organ-
ization. Near the end of October, Governor Gilpin reported that "the
core of the Eebellion" in Colorado "has at present withdrawn, to gather
strength", which he thought would be done in the Indian Territoiy and
northeastern Texas, with the view of returning and ''overwhelming tlie
loyal citizens" of his Territory. But Colorado's rebellious pioneers were
distributed far and wide in the Southern armies, and the great majority
of them never again beheld Pike"s Peak.

The Governor and some of the private citizens of Colorado had, in
July, of that memorable year, proposed to the authorities at Washington
immediately to organize in the Territory several companies of infantry,
or of cavalry, for the Union service, and which should consist of "men
inured to toil and hardship". But there was no response to this proffer;
perhaps because the number of men in the northern States that were
eager to enlist and were nearer at hand already largely exceeded the cur-
rent resources of the Federal Government for arming and otherwise
equipping them for the field.



HISTOEY OF COLORADO 381

The distinction of having made the first actual enlistment in Colo-
rado of volunteers for service in the Union Army has been accorded to
Samuel H. Cook, who, about the middle of July, began recruiting, at
Idaho and in the districts above that town, a company which he intended
to take into eastern Kansas, there to be mustered in as a part of a Kansas
regiment of cavalry. But toward the end of that month, wlien Cook's
enrollments were near the required number, Governor Gilpin persuaded
him and his men to remain in Colorado and become one of the companies
of the Territory's First Regiment of Volunteer Infantry.

The Governor had in the meantime determined to organize such a
regiment, of full strength, without waiting for a formal call frona AVash-
ington for troops, or for any other specific authority from that quarter
for so doing. He had power, as Governor of the Territory, properly to
provide for military protection and defense of the people in an emergency.

John P. Slough, a prominent lawyer in Denver, now had been com-
missioned from Washington to enlist two companies of infantry for the
United States Army. Upon their organization, these were to be sent to
Fort Garland to garrison that post and thus relieve the Regulars stationed
there, in order that the latter might be moved to the States and employed
in more active duty. But in this matter of detail a change was made in
the next month, and Slough was placed in a military position of much
greater imf)ortance.

In the last half of July and early in August, Governor Gilpin com-
missioned a number of company-ofBcers and authorized enlistments for
the nine companies which with Cook's volunteers were to form Colorado's
First Regiment. Late in August, he appointed James H. Ford to be a
Captain of volunteers, and Theodore H. Dodd to be a First Lieutenant;
giving authority to each to recruit an additional company. These two
organizations, when mustered in, were to serve the purposes intended for
the two companies which Slough had been commissioned to enlist, but
later to become the nucleus of the Second Regiment of Colorado Volun-
teer Infantry, the formation of which the energetic and enthusiastic Chief
Executive of the Territory already had in mind.

Recruiting offices were opened in all the larger towns and also in
several of the mining-districts proper. Enlistments followed at such a
rate that by the end of September the quotas of the First Regiment's com-
panies practically were filled. Meanwhile the principal regimental officers,
and most of the company officers other than those previously appointed, had
been designated, the greater number of the commissions bearing the date
of August 25th. John P. Slough, who had recruited Company A, was
made Colonel of the Regiment. He was a native of Cincinnati, where
he had lived before coming to Denver, in 1860 ; had been a member of the
Ohio Legislature, and Secretary of the Ohio Democratic State Central
Committee; and was an earnest War Democrat. It has been said that
while he did not prove to be a popular military leader he was a capable
man. Samuel F. Tappan, who had recruited Company B, in the mining-
districts that now form Gilpin County, was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel.
John M. Chivington, who had come to Denver in May, 1860, as Presiding
Elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Roclcy Mountain District,
and who later became the most conspicuous military figure in Colorado,
was commissioned Major of the regiment. The chaplaincy was first ten-



383 HISTOEY OF COLORADO

dered him, but he insisted upon being made a fighting-oiiicer, a position
for which he turned out to be eminently qualified.

'NMien the regiment's organization was completed the captains of the
companies were as here stated :

Company A, recruited in Denver ))y Colonel Slough, Edward W. Wyn-
koop.

Compan}^ B, recruited at and in the neighborhood of Central City
by Lieutenant-Colonel Tappan, Samuel M. Logan.

Company C, recruited for the most part in Denver and in the Buck-
skin Joe District in the South Park, Eichard Sopris.

Company D, in the main recruited iu Denver, Jacob Downing.

Company E, of which most of the men were from the California
Gulch and Buckskin Joe districts, Scott J. Anthony.

Company F, recruited in the section that is now Clear Creek County,
Samuel H. Cook.

Company G, also recruited in the Clear Creek County section, Josiah
W. Hambleton. At the end of Xovember, Hambletou was cashiered for
insulMrdination, but later was given an honorable discharge. He was
succeeded by William F. AVilder, wlio had Ijeen First Lieutenant of the
company.

Company H, recruited mainly at Central City, George L. Sanborn.

Company I, recruited in Denver, Central City and elsewhere in the
Clear Creek mining-districts, and which consisted almost entirely of Ger-
mans, Charles Mailie.

Company K, recruited for the major part in Denver and Central City,
Charles P. Marion. This officer was cashiered late- in November for in-
subordination, and was succeeded by Samuel H. Eobbins, who had not
theretofore held a commission in the regiment.

In October, a rendezvous, named "Camp Weld", in honor of the Sec-
retar}' of tlie Territory, was established on the east side of the South
Platte Eiver, in a locality about two and one-half miles above the mouth
of Cherry Creek, where ''comfortable and sufficient barracks" were built
at a cost of nearly $40,000. The troops, which previously had been quar-
tered in Denver, now were removed to the new camp and put under more
effective discipline.

By the end of Novemlier, tlie ranks of the two additional companies
which Ford and Dodd were commissioned to enlist had been filled, and
the organizations were ready to be mustered in. The one was familiarly
known in the Territory as "Captain 'Jim' Ford's Independent Company",
and the other as "Captain Dodd's Independent Company"; Lieutenant
Dodd having been promoted to the captaincy of the latter. These com-
panies were recruited at Canon City, most of the men being drawn from
the territory now embraced by El Paso, Fremont and Pueblo counties.

As the Federal Government did not at that time possess an abundance
of the materials of war, and as the means of transportation were slow. Gov-
ernor Gilpin had encountered many vexatious difficulties and delays in
procuring arms and other equipment from the War Department for his
volunteers. The guns that he had collected from the people, and of which
but few were alike, afforded makeshift arms for camp duty, but were ut-
terly unfit for use by an organized military force in the field, even had
their number been sufficient for all the companies. But at length,



HISTORY OF COLOEADO 883

weapons of regulation pattern and other military equipment for the regi-
mental organization, though scant in quantity and not of a superior qual-
ity, were received, and the ten companies at Denver were mustered in as
the First Eegiment of Colorado Volunteer Infantry.

However, the Governor's greater embarrassment was born of the lack
of money for his current military needs. The appropriations by Congress
to aid in the support of the Territorial Government did not include a dollar
for military purposes, nor had the executive authorities at Washington
placed any military funds at his disposal. As we have seen, the Territorial
Government was not put into full operation until nearly two months after
the Governor first began to prepare for war. But this did not seriously
affect the situation with respect to financial resources, as the conditions
were such that the Legislative Assembly practically was powerless to pro-
vide money for military uses. A system of taxation yet had to be estab-
lished, and the machinery of county government, one of the functions of
which was to levy and collect taxes, remained to be erected and set in
motion. So, at that time, the Assembly could do but little more in assist-
ing the Governor than to give him its moral support, which it did fully
and heartily. The joint resolution declaring the Territory's loyalty to the
Union, which it adopted at the beginning of October (approved October
3d ) , read as follows :

"Be it Sesolved by the Council and House of Sepresentatives of Colorado
Territory, as folloios, to-wit:

' ' Resolved, That the deplorable civil war in which the United States Govern-
ment is now engaged, was brought about by the unjustifiable and traitorous acts of
the disunionists at the South, and therefore the sole responsibility for all its legit-
imate consequences rests with them alone.

••Mcsohed, That all the resources of the Country both in men and means to
their utter exhaustion should be at once called out, if needed, to defend the National
Government, and to preserve the integrity of the Union.

"Eesoh-ed, That the pretended right of secession, as claimed by some of the
St;ites of the Union, has no warrant in the Constitution and is wholly repugnant to
the principles on which our Government was founded.

"J!i soh-id, That after this rebellion shall have been crushed out, the supremacy
of the Federal Constitution shall have been fully conceded, and the rights of the
Union shall have been amply guaranteed, then there should be invoked the same spirit
of concession and compromise to perpetuate our institutions, in which they were first
conceived and framed.

"Besolrcd, That the People of Colorado Territory, utterly ignoring all former
political classifications, heartily sympathize with the Federal Government in its present
contest, approve of its leading acts, which have been necessarily undertaken for its
own self-existence and self-defense, and pledge themselves to co-operate to the full
extent of their power, in all constitutional measures which may hereafter be adopted
â–  toward the prompt and decisive conclusion of the war thus waged on its part only
for the maintenance of the Constitution and the enforcement of the Laws."

Another joint resolution, approved on October 29th, in part consisted
of the following:

' ' Whereas, The rebellious war now waged against the United States of America,
(to the Government of which this Territory owes allegiance, and to which the people
are earnestly and heartily devoted,) has seriously affected our own interests and
threatened our peace, and Whereas, In such a time it is essential that the Executive
branch of the Government of this Territory should have the entire confidence and
cordial co-operation of the people thereof, and of the Administration at Washington ;
Therefore, as an expression of the people of this Territory, in this regard, be it



38i HISTOKY OF COLOEADO

' ' Resolved, by the House of Eepresentatives, the Council concurring :
' ' First, That in Governor William Gilpin, we find a man eminently fitted and
qualified for the diflScult and important position he now occupies, as Governor of the
Territory of Colorado.

' ' Second, That, surrounded as we are by numerous tribes of Indians, who are
aided and abetted by the common foe of our whole country, the rebel traitors, whom
we have among us and around us, we deem the precautionary action and policy of
our Executive wise and judicious, and pledge to him our cordial and hearty support. ' '

However, the expense of the Governor's military preparations had to
be met in some way — by some expedient that would serve as a substitute
for cash. His troops had to have food and shelter, and be provided for
otherwise; and means for supplying the numerous and varied incidental
requirements also had to be considered. The organization of even one
regiment of soldiers involves the outlay of a large sum of money.

Governor Gilpin turned to a novel method of dealing with his oiBeial
financial necessities in that emergency. In payment for military supplies
and of miscellaneous military expenses, he issued negotiable drafts, signed
by him as "Governor Colorado Territory", on the Secretary of the United
States Treasury, payable "at sight"; a proceeding for which he had no
authority whatever, as he was destitute of power to put forth such evidence
of indebtedness against the Federal Government. The total of the drafts,
all of which were issued in the autumn months of 1861, was said to have
approximated $375,000, but no definite statement of their sum is at pres-
ent available. They were readily accepted in Colorado in payment for
supplies and services, and many of them had more or less circulation as
currency, no one for the moment doubting their validity or that they
would be duly honored when they reached Washington. But instead of
being paid upon their appearance at the Federal Treasury, they were re-
fused any recognition and thrown back to the holders, as so much waste-
paper. The effect of this was exasperating and to a serious extent disas-
trous to merchants and others who had accepted the drafts in payment
of their just dues. Of other consequences of their issue, and of the sub-
sequent liquidation by the Federal Government of the indebtedness that
they represented, I shall give some account upon later pages of this
chapter.

Nevertheless, it is probable that but for the Governor's financial ex-
pedient no Colorado organization of troops would have been formed in
that critical autumn. It enabled him to organize the Territory's volun-
teers and to hold them together until their maintenance was assumed,
toward the end of that season, by the Federal War Department.

Beside the First Regiment and the two companies that were intended
to be the nucleus of another, and which were enlisted for a period of three
years, "or during the war", two companies of "Home Guards", designated
as "Company No. 1" and "Company No. 2", were organized in Denver
City in September and the early part of October, for six months of service.
The Governor appointed Joseph Ziegelmuller as Captain of the first, and
James W. Iddlngs as Captain of the second. These troops, which per-
formed provost and guard duty in Denver and at Camp Weld, were rec-
ognized by the Federal War Department, duly mustered in as volunteers,
and were mustered out in the spring of the next year.

The two companies recruited by Ford and Dodd remained at Caiion
City until well into the month of December (1861), waiting to lie mus-



HISTORY OF COLOEADO 385

tered in and equipped for service. Late in N^ovember, three companies of
the First Eegiment, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Tappan,
were marched from Camp Weld to Fort AVise, where they tarried during
the following winter. That post then was commanded by Lieutenant
James M. Warner, of the Regular Army, and who was by no means pleased
by the indifference to many of the forms of military etiquette and by the
off-hand manners of his volunteer reenforcements. Nor did the latter re-
gard the Lieutenant's personal bearing and his conceptions of discipline
with any semblance of cordial approval.

Ere the first Union volunteer had enlisted in Colorado, the rim of a
portentious war-cloud was rising above the southern horizon of the Terri-
tory. After the Te.xas ordinance of secession became effective, early in
March, 1861, Confederate leaders in that State immediately began to pre-
pare for seizing and occupying the Federal military posts that stood upon
Texas soil, and also for taking possession of the Territory of Xew Mexico,
which then embraced the area of the present Territory of Arizona. Within
a few months thereafter, all Federal troops that had been stationed in
Texas, including the garrison of Fort Bliss, on the Eio Grande and a short
distance below the Mexican town of El Paso, were withdrawn, the bulk of
the materials of war with which the evacuated posts had been supplied
falling into the hands of the Texans.

President Buchanan's Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, in his sys-
tematic distribution of military equipment and supplies throughout the
South, in anticipation of the rise of the Southern Confederacy, had not
overlooked Texas and New Mexico. The Federal posts in these divisions
had been well stocked by him with munitions of war: and at Fort Union,
some fifty miles northeasterly from Santa Fe, exceptionally generous
quantities of such materials were stored. Moreover, the provident Secre-
tary had stationed an undue proportion of army officers from the Southern
States and an unusually large number of Federal troops at the military
posts in New Mexico; evidently in expectation that these officers, after the
threatened secession of the States of the South had come to pass, would
resign to join the Southern Army and also persuade many of the soldiers
at these posts to go with them. But, as may be mentioned here, while
nearly all the southem-born officers on duty in New Mexico in 1861 re-
signed their commissions and entered the Confederate service, the deser-
tions from the ranks were few.

On March 33d, Colonel William W. Loring, a native of North Caro-
lina, and who had an excellent record as an officer, was placed in command
of the Federal forces in New Mexico, with headquarters at Santa Fe.
After about three months of service there, during which time he gave great
aid and comfort to the Confederate plans for invading that Territory, he
resigned and went over to the Southern Army. Loring was succeeded by
Colonel Edward R. S. Canby, a loyal officer, born in Kentucky, but whose
home from boyhood had been in Indiana. Later in the year he established
his headquarters at Fort Craig, a Federal post on the Eio Grande, about
150 miles above El Paso.

The greater part of the people of New Mexico at that time dwelt in
the valley of the Rio Grande, and it is probable that a majority of them
were not in sympathy with the secession movement, though not generally
disposed to be aggressive in opposition to it. But the thin poimlation of

Vol. 1—25



38t) HISTORY OF COLORADO

what is now the Territory of Arizona was so largely in favor of the South-
ern Cause that in a convention held at Tucson, late in the spring of 18(31,
the western half of Xew Mexico was declared to be an appendage to the
Confederacy, and a Delegate to serve in tlie Confederate Congress was
elected by the gathering.

Early in July, John R. Baylor, a Confederate Lieutenant-Colonel, with
several Texan companies of mounted infantiT and some artillerymen, oc-
cupied Fort Bliss. Shortly afterward, leaving a small detachment of his
men in charge of that post, Baylor started up the Rio Grande with the