Kit Carson

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Kit Carson
Kit Carson

Kit Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868), born Christopher Houston Carson, was an American frontiersman.

Contents

Early life

Born in Madison County, Kentucky near the city of Richmond, Carson was raised in Franklin, Missouri, where his family moved before his second birthday. At fifteen, Carson left an apprenticeship to a saddle maker and traveled west to New Mexico. There, he established himself as a trader and trapper in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana and Utah.

In addition to his work as a trapper, Carson served as a guide, military scout, Indian agent, shepherd, farmer, soldier (rising to the rank of brigadier general), and rancher during his time in the southwest. His reputation grew when he guided John C. Fremont on an expedition to map the western trails to the Pacific Ocean. In 1842, Fremont described Carson with the following words: "I was pleased with him and his manner of address at this first meeting. He was a man of medium height, broad-shouldered and deep chested, with a clear steady blue eye and frank speech and address; quiet and unassuming." (Fremont's Memoirs, p. 74) Descriptions in Fremont's popular report of his expeditions made Kit Carson famous.

After ending his career as a trapper, Carson became a hunter for Bent's Fort. While taking his daughter back to Missouri to receive an education, he again met John C. Fremont and agreed to serve as his guide on three major expeditions in 1842, 1843 and 1845. In the meantime, Carson re-settled in Taos, New Mexico. After receiving instruction from Padre Antonio Jose Martinez, he was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1842. When he was 34, he married 14-year-old Josefa Jaramillo, his third wife, on February 6, 1843. They raised fifteen children. Many of his decendents remain in the Taos area, particularly in San Luis, Colorado.

Military service

Carson was active in military service, reaching the brevet rank of brigadier-general. He fought against the Mexicans in California in the 1840s alongside John C. Fremont. Carson also fought in the Battle of San Pascual, where General S. W. Kearny and a small force of Americans were surrounded. He and Lieutenant Beale crawled two miles (3 km) through prickly pear and rocks and finally reached San Diego to report the siege to Commodore Stockton who immediately sent a relief force.

Civil War

When the American Civil War began in April 1861, Kit Carson resigned his post as federal Indian agent for northern New Mexico and joined the New Mexico volunteer infantry which was being organized by Ceran St. Vrain. Although New Mexico Territory officially allowed slavery, geography and economics made the institution so impractical that there were only a handful of slaves within its boundaries. The territorial government and the leaders of opinion all threw their support to the Union.

Overall command of Union forces in the Department of New Mexico fell to Colonel Edward R. S. Canby of the Regular Army's 19th Infantry, headquartered at Ft. Marcy in Santa Fe. Carson, with the rank of Colonel of Volunteers, commanded the third of five columns in Canby's force. Carson's command was divided into two battalions each made up of four companies of the First New Mexico Volunteers, in all some 500 men.

Early in 1862, Confederate forces in Texas under General Henry Hopkins Sibley undertook an invasion of New Mexico Territory. The goal of this expedition was to conquer the rich Colorado gold fields and redirect this valuable resource from the North to the South.

Advancing up the Rio Grande, Sibley's command clashed with Canby's Union force at Valverde on February 21, 1862. The day-long Battle of Valverde ended when the Confederates captured a Union battery of six guns and forced the rest of Canby's troops back across the river with losses of 68 killed and 160 wounded. Colonel Carson's column spent the morning on the west side of the river out of the action, but at 1 p.m., Canby ordered them to cross, and Carson's battalions fought until ordered to retreat. Carson lost one man killed and one wounded.

Colonel Canby had little or no confidence in the hastily recruited, untrained New Mexico volunteers, "who would not obey orders or obeyed them too late to be of any service." In his battle report, however, he did commend Carson, among other volunteer officers, for his "zeal and energy".

After the battle at Valverde, Colonel Canby and most of the regular troops were ordered to the eastern front, but Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers were fully occupied by "Indian troubles".

Navajo campaign

Brigadier General James H. Carleton, the new commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo Indians who continued to raid Pueblo Indians and European newcomers throughout the Rio Grande Valley. The Navajos should be told, Carleton instructed Carson, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject."

Under Carleton's direction, Carson instituted a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes, and confiscating or killing their livestock. He was aided by other Indian tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos, chiefly the Utes. Carson was pleased with the work the Utes did for him, but they went home early in the campaign when told they could not confiscate Navajo booty.

Carson also had difficulty with his New Mexico volunteers. Troopers deserted and officers resigned. Carson urged Carleton to accept two resignations he was forwarding, "as I do not wish to have any officer in my command who is not contented or willing to put up with as much inconvenience and privations for the success of the expedition as I undergo myself."

There were no pitched battles and only a few skirmishes in the Navajo campaign. Carson rounded up and took prisoner every Navajo he could find. In January 1864, Carson sent a company into Canyon de Chelly to attack the last Navajo stronghold under the leadership of Manuelito. The Navajo were forced to surrender because of the destruction of their livestock and food supplies. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march or ride in wagons 300 miles (480 km) to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Navajos call this "The Long Walk". Many died along the way or during the next four years of imprisonment. In 1868, after signing a treaty with the U.S. government, remaining Navajos were allowed to return to a reduced area of their homeland, where the Navajo Reservation exists today. Thousands of other Navajo who had been living in the wilderness returned to the Navajo homeland centered around Canyon de Chelly.

Southern Plains campaign

In November 1864, Carson was sent by General Carleton to deal with the Natives in western Texas. Carson and his troopers met a combined force of Kiowa, Comanche, and Cheyenne numbering over 1,500 at the ruins of Adobe Walls. In what is known as the Battle of Adobe Walls, the Native force led by Dohäsan made several assaults on Carson's forces which were supported by ten mountain howitzers. Carson inflicted heavy losses on the attacking warriors before burning the Indians' camp and lodges and returning to Fort Bascom.

A few days later, Colonel John M. Chivington led U.S. troops in a massacre at Sand Creek. Chivington boasted that he had surpassed Carson and would soon be known as the great Indian killer. Carson was outraged at the massacre and openly denounced Chivington's actions.

The Southern Plains campaign led the Comanches to sign the Little Rock Treaty of 1865. In October 1865, General Carleton recommended that Carson be awarded the brevet rank of brigadier-general, "for gallantry in the battle of Valverde, and for distinguished conduct and gallantry in the wars against the Mescalero Apaches and against the Navajo Indians of New Mexico."

Colorado

When the Civil War ended, and with the Indian campaigns successfully concluded, Carson left the army and took up ranching, finally settling in Fraksvill, Colorado.

Carson died at age 59 from an aneurysm in the surgeon's quarters in Fort Lyon, Colorado, located east of Las Animas. He is buried in Taos, New Mexico, alongside his wife, Josefa ("Josephine"), who died a month earlier of complications following child birth. His headstone inscription reads: "Kit Carson / Died May 23 1868 / Aged 59 Years."

Reputation

Many of the early images and recollections of Carson by his peers and early writers portray him in a positive light. Albert Richardson, who knew him personally in the 1850s, wrote that Kit Carson was "a gentleman by instinct, upright, pure, and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans" (Richardson, p. 261).

Oscar Lipps also presented a positive image of Carson: "The name of Kit Carson is to this day held in reverence by all the old members of the Navajo tribe. They say he knew how to be just and considerate as well as how to fight the Indians" (Lipps, p. 59).

Carson's contributions to western history have been reexamined by historians, journalists and Native American activists since the 1960s. In 1968, Carson biographer Harvey L. Carter stated:

In respect to his actual exploits and his actual character, however, Carson was not overrated. If history has to single out one person from among the Mountain Men to receive the admiration of later generations, Carson is the best choice. He had far more of the good qualities and fewer of the bad qualities than anyone else in that varied lot of individuals. (Carter, p. 210)

Tom Dunlay wrote in 2000 that Carson was directly responsible for less than fifty Indian deaths and that, as Carson was not there at the time, Indian deaths on the Long Walk or at Ft. Sumner were the responsibility of the U.S. Army and General James Carleton. (Dunlay, chapter 8)

Contemporary journalists are far more critical, see Criticism of Kit Carson

Popular culture

The legend of Kit Carson began before he died, and has continued to grow through the years through dime novels, poems, movies, television, and comic books. These fictional tales tend to portray Carson as a heroic figure slaughtering two bears and a dozen Indians before breakfast, and when mixed with a few real historic events, the result is that Kit Carson becomes larger than life.

Museum and place names

The Kit Carson Home and Museum in Taos, New Mexico, is open to the public for a small entry fee. [1]

A partial list of places named after Carson:

See also

References

  • Carter, Harvey L. Dear Old Kit University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.
  • Dunlay, Tom. Kit Carson and the Indians. University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
  • Gordon-McCutchan, R. C. (Editor) Kit Carson: Indian Fighter or Indian Killer? University Press of Colorado, 1996. ISBN 0-87081-393-5
  • Kelly, Lawrence. Navajo Roundup. Pruett Publications, 1970.
  • Lipps, Oscar. A Little History of the Navajo, Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, 1909.
  • Richardson, Albert. Beyond the Mississippi, Hartford, Conn.; American Publishing Co., 1867.
  • (anon., Introduction by Martin A. Link) The Navajo Treaty - 1868. KC Publications, Las Vegas, Nevada, 1968.

External links

References

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