Fort Union, New Mexico National Monument

Fort Union - Protecting the Santa Fe Trail

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The heavy concentration of troops in New Mexico and Arizona were scattered at far flung posts. The land was not rich enough to feed this army, and almost all provisions had to be hauled over the Santa Fe Trail from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The need for a depot in eastern New Mexico to receive and distribute supplies and ordnance was clear.

The wagon freighting traffic grew so heavy that Fort Union became a freight destination rivaling if not exceeding Santa Fe in importance. Civilian companies performed under contract virtually all military freighting on the trail. The freight was unloaded at Fort Union, repacked, and assigned as needed to other posts. When wagons or entire trains contained shipments for one fort only, they often continued directly to their destination.

Fort Union today, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and

downloads HERE!

Large scale military freighting, dominated by Russell, Majors, and Waddell, continued until 1866, when the railroad moved west into Kansas. Each railhead town thereafter served briefly as the port of embarkation for freight wagons. After the rails reached Denver in 1870, wagons continued to move supplies over the Mountain Branch of the trail between Pueblo and Fort Union. The Santa Fe Railway crossed the Mora Valley in 1879 and ended the era of military freighting on the trail.

Protection of the Santa Fe Trail and logistical support of troops in the region were indirectly related to the Indian wars, but the fort was also directly involved in them. When the U.S. acquired the Southwest in the Mexican War, it also inherited the Indian problems that had plagued its people since the earliest times. The nomadic tribes of New Mexico had long fought the Spaniards and Mexicans. Now they fought the Americans, who were overrunning their lands, killing off their game, or passing over transcontinental trails on their way to the California goldfields.

From 1851 until 1875, in major offensives or patrol-type actions, sometimes meeting the enemy and sometimes not, Fort Union troops were usually in the field, skirmishing with Indians. Notable campaigns in which the garrison took part before the Civil War were those against the Jicarilla Apaches, in 1854; the Utes, in 1855, in southern Colorado, then part of New Mexico Territory; and in 1860 the Kiowas and Comanches menacing the eastern borders of New Mexico. The Indians were especially troublesome during the Civil War, when General James H. Carleton, head of the California Column of Volunteers, directed Army operations in New Mexico. The tribes seized the opportunity offered by the Confederate attack on New Mexico to step up their raiding. New Mexico and California Volunteers under Colonel Kit Carson, an experienced Indian fighter, conducted three major campaigns: against the Mescalero Apaches (1862-63), Navajos (1863-64), and Kiowas and Comanches (1864-65).

Fort Union Regulars, who replaced the Volunteers after the Civil War, along with troops from other New Mexico posts, took part in the final wars against the southern Plains tribes: General Sheridan's 1868-69 campaign, and the Red River War of 1874-75. These campaigns ended the fort's participation in the Indian wars. In 1879 the arrival of the Santa Fe Railway largely ended its usefulness as a supply depot, but it was not abandoned until 1891.

The military prison held both soldiers and civilians accused

of serious crimes including murder, desertion, and selling

guns to Indians. They were temporarily held in these dimly

lit cubicles until they could be moved to a regular

Federal penitentiary.

This image available for photographic prints and

downloads HERE!

Rising sharply and starkly from the plains, the history-shrouded adobe ruins of Fort Union, stabilized to arrest erosion, are reminders of a vanished frontier. Sprawling north nearly half a mile from the visitor center are a few chimneys and the outlines of melted walls of corrals, stables, hospital, barracks, officers' quarters, and large warehouses that made up Fort Union in the years 1863-91. Adjacent to this post was the massive star fort (1861-62). Ruins of the arsenal from the 1863-91 complex lie across the valley to the west, on the same site as the original log fort (1851-62), most traces of which have long since disappeared. Exceptional trail ruts of the Santa Fe Trail are readily identifiable in the vicinity and may be followed for miles. A museum and a visitor center interpret the history of the fort, and a self-guiding tour leads through the remains.

Fort Union is located about 8 miles north of Watrous, New Mexico on NM Highway161.

Contact Information:

Fort Union National Monument

P.O. Box 127
Watrous, New Mexico 87753
505-425-8025

Source: National Park Service

Added: July, 2007

Fort Union today, June, 2006, Kathy Weiser.

This image available for photographic prints and

downloads HERE!

Also See:

Forts Across the American West

The Death Waltz - A Fort Union Legend

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