THE CALIFORNIA COLUMN AND THE WASHINGTON PRESSAuthor(s): Douglas MartinSource: Arizoniana, Vol. 1, No. 4 (WINTER 1960), pp. 10-11Published by: Arizona Historical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41700504 .

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IO ARIZONIANA

On June 28, Mowry wrote a lengthy letter through channels and unquestionably in- tended for Carleton, which stated :

If Captain Hunter or the devil would have helped me fight the Apaches, I would have asked his help, at any price except my soul Any man who would not, after the desertion of the country by the United States troops last July, ask and take protection against the Indians and Mexicans from any source, would be an idiot or a madman. It is hardly necessary for me to call your attention to the fact that this Territory was conquered more than a year ago, without any attempt, until now, to recover it, held by an army numerically three times as large as yours, and that the country was under Martial law: a very important feature in this case Mowry's pleas were fruitless.

On July 2, Carleton confirmed the finding of the officers' board, which read like a phono- graph recording of the charges: that said "Sylvester Mowry is an enemy of the Gov- ernment of the United States, and that he has been in treasonable correspondence and col- lusion with well-known secessionists, and has afforded them aid and comfort, etcetra." Mowry was taken to Fort Yuma, which he had commanded only a half dozen years be- fore, and was detained there until November 4. At that time an officers' commission was convened to try him on the charge of treason. But he was released at the request of the Adjutant General of the United States, with

the declaration that "there was no evidence either oral or documentary against him." As Mowry had predicted, his high-placed friends had brought their influence to bear upon the authorities. Neither the proceedings nor the conditions of his release had much to recom- mend them.

It has been suggested that the confiscation of the Mowry Mine was one of the prizes of the war inspired by greedy men who were misleading and influencing Carleton. Mowry said profit from the mine would reach $ 1 ,000 a week. Other estimates were that it produced as much as $4,500 a week in silver, less neces- sary expenses. After his release and return to Arizona, but before he was expelled a second time on orders of General Carleton, Mowry indignantly charged that he was robbed. He brought suit against General Carleton and others in California for damages of $1,029,- 000, but like his efforts to seek redress from Congress, nothing came of this action.

Following his banishment from Arizona in 1864, the Territorial Legislature, elected by the people of the Union-constituted Terri- tory and in an action confirmed by President Lincoln's appointee as governor, sided with Mowry against General Carleton. Even though he had been considered a traitor by the military liberators of Arizona, his pioneer peers held him blameless. They too, had suffered at Apache hands.

THE CALIFORNIA COLUMN AND THE WASHINGTON PRESS* By Douglas Martin

Except for the fact that the printers in thé ranks of the California Column (en- camped in Tucson in May 1862) didn't know how to operate a Washington hand press, General James H. Carleton would undoubt- edly have been editor of a Tucson newspaper. In the archives of the Arizona Pioneers' His- torical Society where valuable acquisitions are housed, there is a story on the early days of Arizona by William S. Oury, first president of the Society, which was written for, and printed in the Arizona Daily Star, November 29, 1879, which makes clear this fact. Writers of early journalism, beginning with Estelle Lutrell whose University of Arizona Bulletin No. 15 is a newspaper bibliographical master- piece, have overlooked this outline repeatedly. Now the full truth about the fate of the Tubac press, the first in the Southwest, can be told.

Oury began by describing the duel between Lieutenant Sylvester B. Mowry and Edward Cross, editor of the Arizonian. As will be

remembered both duelists missed their tar- gets although firing with Burnside rifles at 40 paces. Oury related that following the blood- less affair, "I suggested to [Cross and Mowry} that to avoid future unpleasantness, Mowry and myself would purchase the press which had caused the difficulty at a fair price agreed upon and remove the paper to Tucson." Be- hind this suggestion was Oury's desire to dis- pose of an annoying Republican journal and launch a Democratic organ.

"This being accepted by all parties in inter- est," Oury writes, "and the price arranged at $2,500, the press was taken down the same day and taken to Tucson, it's final destination on August 4, 1859. From its first issue in Tucson, I nailed the Democratic flag to its masthead and I can proudly say that from that date early [sic] in 1859, down to the present date, through all its vissitudes and tribulations, it has never displayed the Repub- lican colors."

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ARIZONIANA II

"Clouds began to rise over the political horizon and government patronage was with- drawn, and although the paper struggled on for some time, sustained almost entirely from the private purse of the writer of this sketch, in the month of May 1861, the Editor, Thomas J. Turner, announced the last issue of the Weekly Arizonian on account of the ap- proach of civil war and advertised the sale of his pocket derringers to any hero desirous of seeking the bubble of fame at the Cannon's mouth. The material of the printing office was now carefully packed away, and the press taken down and stored by its owner who expected it to rest peacefully until the civil strife was over. Alas, how vain are all human calculations for in the summer of 1862, when the California column arrived in Tucson com- manded by the super-zealous General Carton, [sic] everything in the land was considered disloyal even down to the press and type out of which the old Weekly Arizonian had been formerly produced, and it was ruthlessly torn from its secluded resting place and paraded as a great trophy of war, and finally put up as the organ of 'the great I am' James H. Carlton [sic], but in spite of all the efforts of all the

soldier printers of the command, in a few days the old press, true to its democratic in- stincts, refused to perform service for the republican cause, and after considerable pounding, and the destruction of a great part of the material and furniture, was given over to contumacy.

After the departure of 'the great I am' for New Mexico I gathered together the shattered fragments of furniture, etcetra, and sadly stored them away to indefinite rest, from which they were not to be dragged fourth [sic] until 1866 when Sidney [sic] R. DeLong, an enterprising citizen of Tucson, thinking to advance the interests of the place by starting a newspaper, again brought the old press and what material was left free of charge for the purpose of having a paper started in the town."

*This Washington hand press, brought to Tubac via the Horn in 18 58, is now on exhibit in the Society Museum Hall. It was the 25th press made by the Cincinnati foundry. The Historical Society also has in its archives the entire original run of the Weekly Arizonian issued at Tubac from March 3, 1859 to August 11, 1859.

CIVIL-WAR BIBLIOGRAPHY For those students and interested readers there follows a bibliography of publications relating to the Civil War in the Southwest.

BOOKS George H. Pettis, The California Column.

Its Campaigns and Services in New Mex- ico, Arizona and Texas, ( New Mexico His- torical Society, Santa Fe, 1908 ) .

Margaret M. Fisher, Utah and the Civil War, (The Desert Book Company, Salt Lake City, 1929) .

Ovando J. Hollister, History of the First Regiment of Colorado Volunteers, (Thos. Gibson and Co., Denver, 1863). Reprinted as Boldly They Rode , (The Golden Press, Lakewood, Colo., 1949).

Aurora Hunt, The Army of the Pacific, (The Arthur H. Clark Co., 195 1 ) .

William A. Keleher, Turmoil in New Mexico , 1846-1868, (Rydal Press, Santa Fe, 1952).

Robert Lee Kerby, The Confederate Invasion of New Mexico and Arizona, 1861-1862, (Westernlore Press, Los Angeles, 1958).

Ray C. Colton, The Civil War in the Western Territories, (University of Oklahoma Press, 1959).

Martin Hardwick Hall, Sibley's New Mexico Campaign, (University of Texas Press, 1960) .

ARTICLES Fred J. Rippy, "Mexican Projects of the Con-

federates," Southwestern Historical Quar- terly, XXII (April, 1 9 1 9 ) , pp. 291-317.

William J. Hunsaker, "Lansford W. Hast- ings' Project for the Invasion and Con- quest of Arizona and New Mexico for the Southern Confederacy," Arizona Historical Review, IV ( July, 1931 ), pp. 5-12.

Chas. S. Walker, Jr., "Causes of the Confed- erate Invasion of New Mexico," New Mexico Historical Review, VII (April, i933),Pp.76-97.

W. H. Watford, "Confederate Western Am- bitions," Southwestern Historical Quar- terly, XLIV ( October, 1 940 ) , pp. 1 6 1 -87 .

F. S. Donnell, "The Confederate Territory of Arizona, from Official Sources," New Mex- ico Historical Review, XVII (April, 1942), pp. 148-63.

W. H. Watford, "The Far- Western Wing of the Rebellion," California Historical Quar- terly, XXXIV (June, 1955) > pp. 125-48.

Martin Hardwick Hall, "The Skirmish of Picacho," Civil War History, IV (March, 1958), pp. 27-36

Martin Hardwick Hall, "The Skirmish at Mesilla," Arizona and the West, I (Winter, 1959), PP- 343-51.

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