Old Fort Garland

(Author’s note: This is a brief history of Fort Garland, Colorado, as it might have been told by a soldier present during most of the fort’s active years. The soldier and his journal never existed, but the facts contained in the journal are basically true. The information in this story is a product of research through most of the available documents concerning Fort Garland. In places, fiction has been introduced to give the journal color, but all important events or facts occurred as described.) J.T.F.

Fort Garland, July 29th, 1860. Arrived here yesterday with my company, Company F of the U. S. 10th Infantry. Our outfit just limped in from a 640 mile march from Camp Floyd, Utah Territory. Took us most a month. Our commander’s name is Major (E.R.S.) Canby. It’s good to bunk down some place indoors for a change and to wash some of the dust out of my throat and off my trail-weary feet. Too tired to look around new post today.

Fort Garland, August 10th, 1860. Getting settled. Guess my company will be here awhile. Major Canby and Company A left a few days ago to quiet some outlaw Indians (Navajos) somewhere southwest of here. Companies F and H of the 10th remained.

Looked into the past of this fort. Named for Brevet Brigadier General John Garland, commanding the Department of New Mexico. It was built in 1858 by Captain Tom Duncan and his Mounted Riflemen, with a company (Company A) of the 3rd Infantry. Seems Fort Massachusetts, north of here some six miles, was built in 1852 to protect this area from the Indians. After a few years on this frontier with bands of Ute Indians all around they decided the old fort was too close under the mountains to be safe against surprise attack, so the command was moved down here on the open plain. Guess if the wind doesn’t blow us all away, the post will stick it out here until the last Indian is dead or put off somewhere on the desert to eat sand and yucca.

September 12, 1860. Got a promotion today. We all fell out for first call at 5 a.m. and lined up to be read off. “Here,” we called out, hardly more’n awake. “All present or accounted for,” said the sergeant to the Lieutenant, “All except those on wood pile or water detail in Company F will fall out for company drill immediately after morning mess.” The sergeant paused and looked down the line until he spotted me. “Special order,” he continued. “Private O’Connor, Timothy, will report to the orderly room to serve as chief clerk. O’Connor!” “Yo,” I answered. “O’Connor, you’re now a corporal. Get those stripes sewed on.”

September 14, 1860. Discovered why I was made clerk. Seems I’m one of the few in my company who can write so’s anybody can read what’s been writ. That schooling back in Indiana might have been some good after all. Thing about being clerk is that I get to know most of what’s going to happen afore it happens. Company H clerk told me yesterday that he put himself in for a promotion last week.

The post is getting to seem like home to most of us by now. Pretty fair place. The buildings are made of mud, or what people around here call adobe. The adobes are made of brown clay and baked in the sun, then stuck together with the same mud after they’re baked hard. The two barracks face the parade ground from the east and from the west. They are both about 119 feet long and 33 feet wide; the roofs are nearly flat, with a slight slope toward the parade. The inside of each barrack is divided into several rooms, including: company office, store room, two squad-rooms and a kitchen. The latter is used also for mess. The walls are the same adobe, white-washed. Each barrack was built to house one company. The squad rooms are heated by open fireplaces—looks like we’ll freeze come winter, except when we’re backed up to the fire burning our pants.

The officer’s quarters are also of adobe, as is everything around these parts, and are built along the north end of the parade. There are quarters for seven officers and their families, but a man’d have to be pretty brave to bring his family out here. The officer’s rooms are ceiled with boards and plastered with mud, then whitewashed. Even have board floor in these quarters, with bear skin and Indian blankets scattered here and there. Some of the quarters have furniture brought from the East, but most of the things are like the benches and tables and bunks we soldiers have—made right here at the fort of cottonwood or pine.

On the south end of the parade are two long buildings used for offices and store rooms. The guard house is in one of these two, but I don’t care to learn of the interior of that place. I’m told that it’s poorly ventilated, having no windows. In winter there’s no heat in the cells. The guards have a fireplace in their area, but the men in the cells have to wear their blankets like Indians from morning ’til night to keep warm. At night there’s no sleeping, it’s that cold. Not many men getting in trouble during the cold months, I’m told.

The stables are located some 120 paces due east of the east barrack and are strong smelling quarters, consisting of three long corrals built of the same old adobe. The corrals contain sheds for the common horses and enclosed stables for the officers’ mounts.

The post gets its water from the Ute Creek and water from this stream flows in a ditch completely around the parade. The water is cold and fresh the entire year, maybe because it comes from the snows of Mount Blanca to the north.

The post has a garden of about six acres, in which all of us must take a tour of duty. In this plot the men try to grow about everything, but only those vegetables or grains which will ripen or mature in our short season are successful.

I discovered only today that this fort is on a reservation covering about six square miles, with the post buildings smack in the center. Back in Indiana that would be a considerable piece of land, but out here that’s no more’n enough to feed one good-sized jack rabbit.

December 26, 1860. Christmas come and gone for another year. I’ve never seen such a feast as we had here yesterday. The weather was tough outside, with wind and snow, but inside there was nothing but cheer. The dinner consisted of every kind of meat that can be had in this part of the Territory. We had smoked bear, roast deer, elk and antelope; we had trout, wild duck, and every breed of bird that walks or flys within fifty miles of this place. One of the favorite pastimes of men at our post is hunting—everything from bear to wild cats and coyotes. Our Indian friends tell us we’re driving off the game, but that seems unlikely, at least not for the next hundred years. Christmas was not all eating; those who didn’t get sick from eating too much got into even worse shape from too much whiskey. We all figured we might as well celebrate, seeing that we’re soon to have a new president, Abe Lincoln. Some say that the South is so opposed to Abe and the North in general that they’ll pack up and leave the Union. Some say they won’t. I figure we got enough troubles out here just trying to keep these Indians from running loose.

May 3, 1861. Whole series of Indian uprisings in Territory. A number of chiefs, including Chief Uray[1] of the Tabequache Utes, stopped off here to pow wow with our commander. Indians not happy with rations issued by Indian Agent at Conejos. A band of them left here and marched toward Denver City.

June 1, 1861. Word just reached Garland that Lincoln has called for 75,000 volunteers to serve three months until trouble with the South can be settled. Southerners here say it won’t be over that soon, unless the South wins. Some of the boys from the Southern States have deserted—struck out for Texas.

August 4, 1861. Back East it seems the North and South had a big battle at a place called “Bull Run.” Most of the two outfits here at Garland are preparing to leave for New Mexico, some say Fort Craig. We’ve been getting squad and company drill every day since the war started. Last month we had two sham battles. Seems us Indian fighters have got to learn all over again how to fight Rebs. All the non-coms and the officers have been staying up nights studying Hardee’s Tactics and the book of Army Regulations. Somehow or other I got promoted to sergeant.

October 20, 1861. Most of F and H Companies have left for Fort Craig to join Major Canby. Re-enforcements, in the form of volunteers, are expected soon. The old soldiers left here don’t think much of the idea of fighting with a bunch of recruits, but Governor Gilpin is looking under every stone for troops. Most of Colorado’s too busy looking for gold to worry about the war.

December 29, 1861. Captain (T. R.) Dodd and Captain (J. H.) Ford arrived with troops this month. Dodd’s company left Canon City on December 7th and marched to Fort Garland by way of the Sangre de Cristo Pass. His company was provisionally designated Company A of the Second Colorado Infantry. Ford’s group came struggling into camp on December 21st, having also marched from Canon City. This latter unit was provisionally designated Company B of the Second Colorado Infantry. Captain Dodd and his “foot Volunteers” didn’t stay long, moving on to Santa Fe, eventually bound for Fort Craig. Rumor has come north that a Major (H. H.) Sibley, late of the United States Army, has come out to New Mexico to win that territory for the South. He’s got quite a crew assembled at Fort Bliss; the last report listed “Sibley’s Brigade” at over 3000 strong. There’s not that many fighting men in the whole Colorado Territory!

The volunteers are roosting around this fort like chickens. And sad birds they are too. There’s not a complete uniform in the whole lot and not a man knows his right foot from his left. But they don’t complain—and that’s something for soldiers, citizen or old army. The other evening Company A had their men on guard duty around the buildings and in one cold and windy spot the guard had on an old grey overcoat. The overcoat was the only one the company had and every night it was given to the guard at this post. The company commander was making his rounds as usual when he spotted the familiar coat. He turned to his orderly and said, “Sergeant Ford, is the same man in that same d—— coat always on guard here?” “No, be jabers,” said Pat Ford, “but the same coat kivers the whole company now.”[2]

March 17, 1862. Word received here that Garland is to be destroyed if it is menaced by the enemy. Fort Union is to be defended at all cost. Another detachment moves out of here tomorrow. I have asked to go. The big battle seems to be shaping up in the south. Canby has been made a colonel.

La Glorieta Pass, New Mexico, March 27, 1862. Arrived here about time shooting was over. The Rebs have been turned back, some 280 killed in two battles here. Our side was luckier. The heroes of this battle are many, but Major (J. M.) Chivington and the Colorado Volunteers deserve a big chunk of the credit. I guess we start the long march back, now that Sibley’s on the run.

Fort Garland, October 5, 1862. Was sent with a small detachment back to Garland. Fort about the same. Commander now is Colonel Sam Tappan. Pretty good man. More people coming into the San Luis Valley every day. Either they’re looking for gold or they’re getting away from the war—maybe both.