Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West

by Hampton Sides

  “he who actually governs you is ready to sacrifice…” Great River, Horgan, p. 720.

  Chapter 16 A Perfect Butchery

  “For the moment…I threw all other considerations aside…” Frémont, Memoirs, p. 492.

  “I thought they should be chastised…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 101.

  It was…“a beautiful sight.” Ibid., p. 100.

  Fremont and Carson…probably chose the wrong tribe. David Roberts, A Newer World, pp. 161–62.

  “I owe my life to them two…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 102.

  “he had placed himself on the wrong path.” Ibid., p. 104.

  “It will be long…before we see Washington…” Frémont, Memoirs, p. 495.

  Chapter 17 The Fire of Montezuma

  “It was so bad that one who drank it…” DeVoto, The Year of Decision, p. 272.

  “sagacious officer well-fitted for command…” Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 105.

  Oh, what a joy to fight the dons and wallop fat Armij-O! Marc Simmons, New Mexico: An Interpretive History, p. 124.

  Chapter 18 Your Duty, Mr. Carson

  “very much sunburnt and the most un-uniform…” Chaffin, Pathfinder, p. 331.

  “high and holy”…“so high a degree of civilization.” Royce, California, pp. 51–52.

  “something they called a bear.” Ibid., p. 48.

  “gave to my movements the national character…” Frémont, Memoirs, p. 520.

  “I have no use for prisoners…” Dunlay, Kit Carson and the Indians, p. 120.

  “a cold hearted crime.” Ibid., p. 121.

  “My word is at present the law of the land…” Chaffin, Pathfinder, p. 354.

  “as well known there as the Duke of Wellington…” Dunlay, Kit Carson and the Indians, pp. 121–22.

  “I’d rather ride on a grizzly…” Roberts, A Newer World, p. 172.

  “Our entry…had more the effect of a parade…” Chaffin, Pathfinder, p. 354.

  “departed to any part of the country…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 108.

  Chapter 19 Daggers in Every Look

  “a gateway which, in the hands of a skillful engineer…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 55.

  “possessed the slightest qualifications…” Ibid., p. 58.

  “We marched rapidly on…for we were all anxious…” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 204.

  “Their horses almost gave out…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 56.

  “Our first view of this place was very discouraging…” Frank Edwards, A Campaign in New Mexico, p. 45.

  “nothing to pay us for our long march.” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 205.

  “an extensive brickyard.” John Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 91.

  “drawn sabres and daggers in every look.” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 205fn.

  VITA FUGIT SICUT UMBRA…Horgan, Great River, p. 728.

  “I, Stephen W. Kearny,…” Keleher, Turmoil in New Mexico, p. 15.

  “I swear obedience to the Northern Republic…” Ibid., p. 16.

  “No, let him remain…Heaven knows the oppressions…” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 86.

  “We were too thirsty to judge of its merits…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 56.

  “Their pent-up emotions could be suppressed no longer…” Lieutenant Elliot in the Weekly Reveille, September 28, 1846. Quoted in Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 205fn.

  Chapter 20 Men with Ears Down to Their Ankles

  “A certain people are going to come to us…” Edward Sapir, Navajo Texts, p. 331.

  Some Navajos believed white men lacked anuses… Ibid.

  “Our country…is about to be taken away from us.” Ibid.

  “outfit”—an extended family…living within shouting distance… For a concise description of Navajo living arrangements, see Locke, The Book of the Navajo, pp. 16–19; and Kluckhohn and Leighton, The Navajo, p. 109.

  “Winter was the time for conversation, between first frost and first lightning…” Locke, The Book of the Navajo, p. 49.

  Chapter 21 The Hall of Final Ruin

  The Santa Feans loved their bells. Nearly all the soldier journals mention the incessant clanging of the bells, including Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 64. See also Horgan, Great River, p. 730; and Magoffin, Diary, p. 103.

  “ladies were all dressed in silks,…” Magoffin, Diary, p. 124.

  a “dark-eyed senora”…who had brought along a “human foot-stool.” Ibid., p. 123.

  “They slap about with their arms and necks bare,…” Ibid., p. 95.

  “stand off with crossed arms,…” Ibid., p. 150.

  “that shrewd sense and fascinating manner…” Ibid., p. 120.

  “lustrous, beaming eyes…” Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 93.

  “remarkable for smallness of hands…” Philip St. George Cooke, Conquest of New Mexico and California, pp. 49–50.

  “The women are the boldest walkers…” Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 52.

  “As a general thing their forms are much better…” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 224.

  “an infinity of petticoats.” Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 52.

  “a man of implacable drive.” Lavender, Bent’s Fort, p. 131.

  “gargantuan freight caravans that came to sinew the West.” Ibid., p. 136.

  “a mighty man whose will was prairie law,…” DeVoto, The Year of Decision, p. 267.

  “The colonel is in the habit of interlarding…” Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 76.

  “Such familiarity of position…would be repugnant…” John Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 94.

  “a gentleman of extensive information,…” Magoffin, Diary, p. 125.

  “candid and plain-spoken, very agreeable…” Ibid., p. 106.

  “the belle of the occupation.” DeVoto, The Year of Decision, p. 330.

  “What an everlasting noise these soldiers keep up…” Magoffin, Diary, p. 114.

  “The U.S. and Mexico—they are now united,…” DeVoto, The Year of Decision, p. 332.

  “an instrument of writing is not legal…” Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 98.

  “The people are civil and well disposed,…” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 210.

  “It is the sole master of the entire plain below…” Magoffin, Diary, p. 140.

  “desist from all robberies and crimes…” John Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 128.

  “and carried off some twenty families.” Magoffin, Diary, p. 110.

  “as the Navajos deem the general almost superhuman…” Ibid., p. 111.

  Chapter 22 The New Men

  “Many Native Americans…irrational fear of artillery.” See Kupke, The Indian and the Thunderwagon.

  He called them…“the New Men.” McNitt, Navajo Wars, p. 110.

  BOOK TWO: A BROKEN COUNTRY

  Chapter 23 The Grim Metronome

  “We were sorry to part with General Kearny…” Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 70.

  the “universal presence of vermin…” Ibid., p. 51.

  “singularly mild, equable, and salubrious…” Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 260.

  “The weather continues delightful,…” Ibid., p. 230.

  “The air is fine and healthy…” Magoffin, Diary, p. 115.

  “The Navajos are an industrious, intelligent, and warlike tribe…” Charles Bent, quoted in Keleher, Turmoil in New Mexico, p. 71.

  There was also a phenomenon known as the “New Mexican Bachelor Party,”… See Locke, The Book of the Navajo, p. 182.

  “On arriving home after a slaving expedition,…” Simmons, The Little Lion of the Southwest, p. 35.

  “This created considerable sensation in our party…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 169.

  “He turned his face to the west again,…” Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 273.

  “We put out, with merry hearts…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 170.

>   “Kearny ordered me to join him…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 109.

  Chapter 24 Lords of the Mountains

  “amazed at the temerity of Capt. Reid’s proceeding…” John T. Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 169.

  “all well-mounted on beautiful horses…” Robinson, Sketches of the Great West, p. 36.

  “dressed in splendid Indian attire…” Ibid., p. 35.

  “To have showed any thing like suspicion…” John T. Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 175.

  “held in great reverence by this tribe…” See McNitt, Navajo Wars, p. 108.

  “Seven hundred winters ago…” Robinson, Sketches of the Great West, pp. 36–37.

  Why not…kill every one of them? Hoffman, Navajo Biographies, p. 29. See also Locke, The Book of the Navajo, p. 205.

  “truly romantic…mingling in the throng!” John T. Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 170.

  “It is astonishing…how soon our confidence…” Robinson, Sketches of the Great West, p. 38.

  “They are entirely pastoral…” Captain Reid’s report, quoted in John T. Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, pp. 170–72.

  Chapter 25 The Devil’s Turnpike

  “in a tongue resembling more the bark of a mastiff…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 114.

  The competitor in Carson had also been intrigued… See Lavender, Bent’s Fort, p. 289.

  “blossomed like a crown fire…” Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 522.

  “beautiful in the extreme…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 98.

  marching over this desert landscape “was a strange existence…” Clarke, The Original Journals, pp. 90–91.

  “It surprised me…to see so much land…” Clarke, Soldier of the West, p. 185.

  “The metallic clinks of spurs,…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 108.

  “How little do those who sit in their easy chairs…” Clarke, The Original Journals, p. 106.

  “No one who has ever visited this country…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 155.

  “Invalids may live here…” Clarke, The Original Journals, p. 90.

  “a good harmless people and more industrious…” Ibid., p. 108.

  “It was a source of much merriment…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 138.

  “anxiety increased my determination…” Ibid., p. 151.

  “sabres would be rusted in their scabbards…” Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 526.

  “Oh this sterile country,…when shall I say goodbye to you?” Clarke, The Original Journals, pp. 96–97.

  “They are a sorry-looking set,…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 189

  “The general decided we must be the aggressive party,…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 148.

  “All the other generals had been shooting…” Vestal, Happy Warrior, p. 234.

  “Our object was to get the…animals.” Carson, Autobiography, p. 111.

  “The Indians were very inimical…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 200.

  “Remember,…one point of the saber…” Ibid., p. 202.

  Chapter 26 Our Red Children

  “The United States…has taken military possession…” John T. Hughes, Doniphan’s Expedition, p. 177.

  “very bold and intellectual.” Ibid., p. 178.

  “Americans!”…“while you do the same thing on the east.” McNitt, Navajo Wars, p. 118.

  “Spears and Stewart were the first American soldiers…” Ibid., p. 122.

  Chapter 27 Cold Steel

  My account of the Battle of San Pasqual is drawn from the following sources: The Battle of San Pasqual by Jonreed Lauritzen, The Battle of San Pasqual Dec. 6, 1846 & the Struggle for California by Peter Price, Emory’s Lieutenant Emory Reports, Clarke’s The Original Journals, Marti’s Messenger of Destiny, Clarke’s Stephen Watts Kearny, and Carson’s Autobiography.

  “Heavens, I did not mean that!” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 203.

  “I came very near being trodden to death…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 112.

  “much as they might encircle a herd of cattle.” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 208.

  “A Californian can throw the lasso as well with his foot…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 153.

  “There is hardly one not fit for the circus.” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 208.

  “Rally, men! For God’s sake,…” Marti, Messenger of Destiny, p. 97.

  entirely by cold steel. Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 531.

  “First, go and dress the wounds of the soldiers…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 216.

  a “community of hardships”…“band of brave men.” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 170.

  “Kearny concluded to march on,…” Carson, Autobiography, p. 115.

  “The ambulances grated on the ground…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 171.

  “quadruple our strength”…“the moment we descended into the plain.” Clarke, The Original Journals, p. 130.

  “an expedition of some peril.” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 172.

  “Se escapara el lobo.” Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 537.

  “Been in worse places before…” Ibid., p. 538.

  “midnight crawl”…“high among the exploits…” DeVoto, The Year of Decision, p. 370.

  “Never has there been a man like Kit Carson…” Noel Gerson, Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man, pp. 139–40.

  “Got to San Diego the next night.” Carson, Autobiography, p. 116.

  “One of the most agreeable little offices…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 173.

  “the last mournful shot of disappointment…” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 228.

  “The Pacific opened for the first time…” Emory, Lieutenant Emory Reports, p. 175.

  “Take good care of yourself…like rumbling thunder.” Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny, p. 235.

  Chapter 28 El Crepusculo

  Nearly every day Santa Fe held another juvenile funeral… For vivid descriptions of these doleful processionals, see Gibson, Journal of a Soldier, p. 242; and Edwards, Campaign in New Mexico, p. 48.

  an erudite and somewhat Machiavellian man… For further reading on the intriguing and influential Padre Martinez, see David J. Weber, On the Edge of Empire: The Taos Hacienda of Los Martinez; and also Fray Angelico Chavez, But Time and Change: The Story of Padre Martinez of Taos, 1793–1867.

  These were the “crypto-Jews.” For a thorough, scholarly look at this fascinating phenomenon, see Stanley Hordes, To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico.

  penitentes—pious men who went out into the countryside…” There are several excellent works on the New Mexico penitentes. See Marta Weigle, The Penitentes of the Southwest; Alice Henderson, Brothers of Light: The Penitentes of the Southwest; and Thomas Steele and Rowena Rivera, Penitente Self-Government: Brotherhoods and Councils, 1797–1947.

  el gallo, an old blood sport… See Lavender, Bent’s Fort, p. 107.

  “for having blown an evil breath on their children,…” Lavender, Bent’s Fort, p. 298.

  My account of the Taos Massacre is drawn from multiple sources, but among the best are James Crutchfield, Tragedy at Taos: The Revolt of 1847; John Durand, The Taos Massacres; Michael McNierney, Taos 1847: The Revolt in Contemporary Accounts.

  “cut as cleanly with the tight cord…” Unpublished reminiscences of Teresina Bent, a copy of which I obtained at the Bent home bookstore in Taos.

  “They ordered that no one should feed us,…” Ibid.

  “convivial figure with a glossy black beard…” Lavender, Bent’s Fort, p. 64.

  “We were tiger-like in our craving for revenge.” McNierney, Taos 1847, p. 58.

  Taos Pueblo…one of the oldest continually inhabited… For a good general source on the background and culture of the extraordinary Taos Pueblo, see John Bodine, Taos Pueblo: A Walk through Time.

  “a place of great strength,…” Colonel Price, quoted in Mc
Nierney, Taos 1847, p. 50.

  “like creatures in burrows listening…” Paul Horgan, Great River, p. 767.

  “The mingled noise of bursting shells…” McNierney, Taos 1847, p. 67.

  “A few half scared Pueblos walked listlessly…” Lewis Garrard, Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail, p. 187.

  “trembling wretches…miserable in dress…” Ibid., p. 194.

  “Mi madre, mi padre…” Ibid., p. 197.

  “The muscles would relax and again contract…” Ibid., p. 198.

  Chapter 29 American Mercury

  “poured upon my fevered lips”…“I’ll blow your heart out.” Sabin, Kit Carson Days, p. 557.

  “I always see folks out in the road.” Ibid., p. 567.

  In the years leading up to her stroke… Chaffin, Pathfinder, p. 139.

  “Although he did not enter the army through…military academy…” Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years View: A History of the Working of the American Government, 1820 to 1850, p. 718.

  “He is a man…whose word will stand wherever he is known.” Ibid.

  a private errand…to pay a visit to his daughter. See Dunlay, Kit Carson and the Indians, pp. 60–61; and Marc Simmons, Kit Carson and His Three Wives, p. 77.

  Chapter 30 Time at Last Sets All Things Even

  “so much fresh breeze, and so much sunlight.” Pamela Herr and Mary Lee Spence, The Letters of Jessie Benton Fremont, p. xviii.

  his “most confirmed worshiper…” Ibid., p. 25.

  “She belongs to him body & soul…” Ibid., p. xxiii.

  “the better man of the two.” Ibid., p. xviii.

  “picked at his fish and fowl…” Noel Gerson, Kit Carson: Folk Hero and Man, p. 143.

  “A bon vivant who jerked with odd…” My descriptions of Beale are primarily drawn from Gerald Thompson, Edward F. Beale and the American West.

  “one of those noble characters that have…sprung up on our frontier.” From the Washington Union, June 15, 1847, a copy of which I viewed at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.