Blackmore Collection Photographs of Native Americans

studio portrait of Wah-tian-kah, an Osage chief, seated wearing a cloth shirt, decorated leggings, and ear ornaments; his hair is partially shaved and he is holding a pipe

studio portrait of Smutty Bear (Ma-to-sa-bi-tshi-a), a Chief of the Yankton-Yanktonai, sitting on a chair, wearing a feather headdress, a piece of cloth tied around his neck, a shell necklace, a warrior shirt with shell(?) embroidery, a blanket covering his legs, and a pair of leggings

Interview on My Addiction Books

YANKEE GOLD - ELIZABETH ROGERS

 Elizabeth or Beth Rogers is the author of the new – very exciting, triple P novel – Yankee Gold. Yankee Gold has an interesting story that unfolds in fiction behind a reality that sprung from research.

Beth, Welcome to the MA blog, where we are very honoured to interview you on your new novel Yankee Gold. 

Starting right off the block here, while we were introducing ourselves you mentioned that there is a story that you would like to get out that is quite a revelation during your research you did for your novel. Would you like to share that with our readers?

Yes. The revelation I discovered in my research for YANKEE GOLD is related to its ending. I think it’s interesting that the financial crisis of today is most often compared with the “Panic of 1873” which closes my YANKEE GOLD story. In 1862 the U. S. Army began several mining operations in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Nevada which would eventually yield $326,000,000 to relieve the country’s war debt and finance the Union Army until the war’s end. In January 1868 Congress offered a bill to sell western land to the English for a needed half billion dollars. Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase rejected the bill. It appears the Civil War debt was never paid in full although other means were pursued in the interim.

So how does your novel Yankee Gold tie into this entire revelation?

YANKEE GOLD is a story about a territory that strove to become a state. It tells how a majority fraction of the people who lived in New Mexico resisted the terms of statehood. However, they wanted all the advantages. Mining of precious ores was a nascent industry in New Mexico. The Civil War complicated the development of this business. Martial law was in effect when my character, Steve Elkins, arrived. The Army was doing a certain amount of mining itself. It was also being paid to protect private mining businesses. Elkins came to New Mexico to write contracts on several mines where the Army, or U. S. Government, had an agreement with some prominent investors such as Samuel Colt and the Bernard’s of Kansas City.

What makes Yankee Gold unique for you? How long did it take to write?

How is YANKEE GOLD unique? Perhaps the most unique aspect of this story is that no one else has tried to tell it. I still marvel at how little research has been done to tie together the threads of this decade in the southwest. Twenty years is much longer than most authors are willing to spend on a single book.

How did you decide on your main character? What made him so interesting?

I didn’t choose my main character. Elkins was given to me at a very young and impressionable time of my life. Our family moved to the town of Elkins, West Virginia at the end of World War II when I was eight. My father chose the place as a location for his first venture into a new small business. He wanted me to find out more about Steve Elkins’ background.

Was it easy to write from a male point of view?

Yes. It was difficult until I began to understand the male dominated society.

From the little exposure you have had up to know on releasing the novel, how has readers accepted the novel which is filled with, Passion, Power and Politics?

People seem to be responding well to YANKEE GOLD. It’s very new, having been launched in print form only February 14. I’ve had limited feedback from anyone who has clearly read the whole story.

On a more personal note, when did you decide to become an author?

I decided to become an author when my father gave me the mission of research into Steve Elkins’ past. As I read novels I began to shape what I found about Elkins so that it would synchronize with the peaks and valleys of the stories I read.

Did you know from the start that this was the novel you were going to write?

I knew as soon as I began to unravel the mystery of Elkins’ past that it would likely be a life’s work.

At the end of your novel you provide an article which gives evidence Steve Elkins, your protagonist, was a Civil War Spy. Novels don’t typically feature real characters, what made you decide to use his real name?

So much of this story explores new ground and integrates fascinating events of the frontier not generally known by the public that I wanted to both validate fact and create a “whole” story. Many European stories are told in this manner and I believe that enough time has passed that I can freely do so as well.

Apart from writing, what other things do you do that has made publishing Yankee Gold become a life that had gone full circle for you?

Publishing YANKEE GOLD has required me to learn so many skills and made my entrée into places I never dreamed of. Sheer nerve and determination have changed much of my own character. I’m an intuitive and can be very impulsive. I’ve learned to discipline that part of myself. I’ve also learned to accept the importance of record keeping and time management. These are all things I would never have done independently. I had to see the necessity and create my own version of organization and arrangement. I understand sculpture and I feel I’ve chipped away a great deal of the extraneous matter for a more balanced self.

Where to from here?

There are several avenues open to me and I’m not certain of the next one to take. If I would pursue Steve Elkins’ life further, I’d have to deal with a lot of the “hidden” which takes time consuming research. I know something of a story which is more current and might take less time. I’m undecided about future projects.

Where can fans stay in contact with you or buy your novel from?

Fans can stay in touch with me through :

Blog: www.yankeegold-anovel.com

Website: www.beth-rogers.com ;

Face Book page: Yankee Gold

Amazon for $15.99 : Yankee Gold

Elizabeth Rogers was born in New York City and lived in West Virginia for over twenty years. She has been published in the New Mexico Historical review and is a member of the Virginia Historical Society. She is also active in several Virginia Writers Clubs. 

by Nadine Maritz

Blackmore Collection Photographs of Native Americans

photo available at the British Museum
William Blackmore collection

Photograph (black and white) from an album; portrait of (from left to right) Fast Bear, Shotted Tail, John, Long Hair, and Palladay (sitting in the front); Fast Bear is standing on the far left, wearing a hat, and wrapped in a blanket with tassels; Shotted Tail, stands second from the left, wearing a piece of cloth tied around his neck, a shirt, and a blanket wrapped around himself; John is standing on the far right, wearing a hat with a feather and a section of his hair wrapped in cloth and wearing a shirt, and wrapped in a blanket; Long Hair, sits on the far right, with his hair in two section wrapped in cloth, wearing a piece of cloth tied around his neck, a shirt, and a blanket wrapped around himself, whilst holding a pipe(?); Pallasay, sits in the foreground in the centre, wearing a hat, a shirt, and a pair of trousers; in the background on the left, is a western-style building; directly behind the men, is a pile of tree logs;

William Henry Blackmore

William Blackmore (1827-1878) remains a little known millionaire mid-Victorian polymath. He was a successful lawyer based in Liverpool and subsequently London. An international financier involved in numerous North American land grants, he was also principal financier of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad. His reputation by the mid 1870s within London financial circles was that he ‘has means of obtaining information in the City such as very few men possess.’

Blackmore was acknowledged by contemporaries to have so effectively exploited photography to document North American Indians that his photographic collection was copied to form the basis of the holdings of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

U. S. Civil War Debt 5

  Red Cloud photographed in 1872 shaking hands with William Henry Blackmore, an Englishman clearly impressed to meet an Indian leader who had by this time become a national celebrity.

(Courtesy Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Univeristy [Zc16D1 +872ga])

In 1863 English financier William Blackmore met U. S. government officials in Washington as well as Union generals in order to assure British industrialists the Union would prevail in the Civil War. He had a plan to invest in U. S. lands. Once assured, Blackmore conferred with Kansas Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy, another railroad and land promoter. As a result of this conference, a bill was drafted and introduced to Congress on January 18, 1864. The bill proposed to incorporate the North American Land & Emigration Company with power to buy and sell land in various states and territories. A loan of half a billion dollars would be made based on appropriation of public lands. The time span for repayment was thirty years. The plan was not approved by Treasury Secretary Chase and eventually dropped. However, on a tour of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868, Blackmore’s interest in western lands was renewed.

While the eastern war raged, and once the Confederate invasion of New Mexico was put down, the California Column soldiers mined $325,455,375 of which five-sixths was gold. In 1867 the U. S. Treasury was not depleted by the war, but it was not yet strong and the transcontinental railroad was incomplete. Furthermore, personal taxes on individual incomes would not be assessed in all states and territories until 1868. All mining by soldiers apparently ended by the beginning of 1868.

The arrangement to sell western lands to the English was made in 1868. See William Blackmore: The Spanish Mexican Land Grants, Vol. 1; Herbert O. Brayer; Bradford Robinson; pp. 29-40. The second source is The Army of the Pacific: 1860 – 1866; Aurora Hunt; Stackpole books; 2004; p. 329; fn. 413. This latter source, on page 135, details one specific mining operation carried out by Company D, First Cavalry, U. S. Army near Prescott in the Arizona district.

A final source explains further the method used to provide the Union with income from gold and silver mines. See Rocks to Riches: The Story of Arizona Mines & Mining by Charles H. Dunning with Edward H. Peplow, Jr. (Published by Southwest Publishing Co.; 1959; pp. 59-60.) Dunning was a Yale graduate (1909) and mining engineer. A mine operator and mining consultant in Arizona for 50 years, he was also Director of the Arizona Department of Mineral Resources. “General Carleton seems to have been genuinely interested in opening up Arizona and in obtaining gold to help the Federal war effort . . . . Unfortunately, he also advocated the nationalization of the mines, or a high royalty, or seigniorage to the government, or the requirement that when any mining claim was located, an adjoining claim on the vein be located for the government.”

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The attack of the Confederate lancers from the 5th Texas Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of Valverde Ford.

It was February 21, 1862 when NM Volunteers and Colorado Infantry clashed with the Confederate Army in the Battle of Valverde, each with equal forces. The Rebels won the fight, but the loss of men was nearly the same. Still short of provisions the Rebels pushed on. On March 10 Sibley’s men reached Santa Fe and raised their flag. Hostile citizens met them and Sibley soon chose to press on toward Fort Union.

Denver’s Fort Wise officers prepared to support New Mexico as soon as February when the size of the Rebel army was reported. Nearly 1400 men marched 400 miles from Denver to Fort Union and arrived there in 13 days. Only one or two companies were mounted and they took the Confederates by surprise in two battles just north of Santa Fe at Apache and Glorieta Passes. Supported by the Colorado troops under Colonel John Slough and Major John Chivington, the Confederates were sufficiently dispersed to meet defeat. A Confederate supply train was cut off and burned, leaving the Rebel forces nearly helpless.
   
Although the Union officers were at odds over reports of the killed and wounded, two years later the Albuquerque newspaper attributed to Major Chivington and his detachment the ultimate victory.

U. S. Civil War Debt 3

So few people know of New Mexico’s part in the Civil War it’s crucial to tell of it in the context of my story, Yankee Gold.

It was July 23, 1861 in NM, the same month President Lincoln authorized a Union Naval blockade of the Confederate coast. Unbeknownst to the Union, 400 Confederates of the Second TX regiment, Mounted Rifles, led by Lieutenant John Baylor marched up the Rio Grande. They camped by night just outside Fort Fillmore, a Union garrison in southern NM 40 miles above El Paso. Still dark, Union troops learned of an intended attack. They abandoned the fort and escaped. The Rebels then crossed the river and occupied Mesilla, the 2nd largest town in NM.

New Mexicans were pressed to gather troops to meet the invasion. However, no major attack would be launched with only 400 soldiers. It was mid-December before 3,500 Confederate troops arrived under General Henry Sibley. The Rebel soldiers were mounted and well armed, but poorly provisioned. Sibley determined to push on north, up the Rio Grande. The attackers would challenge a major Union garrison, but not until they added provisions, seizing food and stores at Albuquerque. Sibley would not attack Fort Craig, a walled fort with heavy guns, but force a confrontation in the open field.

Meanwhile, 4000 New Mexican Volunteers and the 2nd Colorado Volunteer Infantry gathered and hastily trained for defense. When Sibley’s troops advanced, newly provisioned, toward Fort Craig, they crossed the Rio Grande to side-step a major battle and push on to the capital at Santa Fe. Sibley, in keeping with his objective, sent Captain Sherod Hunter and a cavalry to Tucson. Hunter was to establish a post and control the gold fields of the Arizona territory. However, 100 miles short of Fort Craig, Sibley and his men skirmished briefly with a Union detachment from Fort Union. They escaped serious danger, but lost a valuable provision wagon in the process. While their advance was blunted, the Union quartermaster at Santa Fe sent a train of 120 wagons valued at $250,000 to Fort Union, the federal arsenal in eastern NM. The entire Union force at Santa Fe accompanied the wagon train. At the same time, Governor Connelly and territorial government was removed to Las Vegas, NM. All remaining supplies and stores were set afire.

U. S. Civil War Debt 2

Gen. Zachary Taylor pictured on a white horse at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War; coloured engraving, 19th century.

Credit: The Granger Collection, New York

Anticipating an invasion of U. S. territory by Mexico, General Zachary Taylor moved his forces to the Rio Grande River. On April 25, 1846 the Mexican Army crossed the Rio Grande and clashed with the Americans. Congress declared war on Mexico in May 1846. By then, General Taylor’s forces (15,000 men) had already attacked Monterrey. Meanwhile, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his 15,000 troops attacked Taylor’s forces at Buena Vista. A two-day battle began and the confrontation ended with a conclusive victory by the Americans. Taylor and his men then went on to several other provinces and declared them American ground.

At the same time these forces confronted each other in New Mexico, once the northernmost province of Mexico, the presence of the “Army of the West” led by General Stephen Watts Kearny maneuvered to peacefully overtake the new land. Provincial Governor, Manuel Armijo, realized the outcome of the war to the south and quietly surrendered the territory. A Missouri merchant, James McGoffin, was married to Susan Shelby, a cousin of Armijo. McGoffin, his wife, and a trading caravan had followed Kearny’s army into New Mexico and helped negotiate the peace. Favorable trade relations were restored while Kearny proclaimed the New Mexico territory part of the United States. The general established a civil government, appointed territorial officials, and began constructing Fort Marcy at Santa Fe to secure the presence of American troops.

The 15,000 American troops which accompanied Taylor and served in the Mexican War included many of the officers who would later serve in the Civil War. All were aware of the gold and silver mines of northern Mexico and New Mexico. These mines beckoned to new settlers who would dare face bitter tribes like the Apaches who dominated southern New Mexico and its Arizona province. At that time Arizona was the western district of New Mexico.

New Mexico was not formally created as a territory until 1850 when the Compromise of that year divided the area east of California into the territories of New Mexico and Utah. New Mexico was split into Arizona and New Mexico some fourteen years later. Early in 1864 officials arrived in Arizona and set up government there. It was with these officials that Steve Elkins first entered New Mexico.

U. S. Civil War Debt Payment 1

"Arrival of the caravan at Santa Fe" -- Copy of original lithograph ca. 1844

 
U. S. trade with Mexico began in the 1820s and was largely confined to Missouri merchants whose original object was to trade horses and mules.

Missouri was admitted to the Union in 1821. As profitable trade between the U. S. and Mexico was realized by 1825, the need for a road to Mexico grew. President John Q. Adams appointed a commission to mark the highway between the U. S. and Mexico. At that time, San Miguel, Taos, and Santa Fe were familiar villages and destinations for trading parties.  

The Santa Fe Trail began at Franklin, Missouri just east of the present Kansas City. Because of frequent flooding of the Missouri River, the road was soon moved to Independence. As trade increased with Mexico, it became apparent that the Mexican government was imposing high taxes on this trade. By 1846 the resistance to the Mexican government’s interference in trade led to war.

When emigrant trains increased on the western prairies, Colonel Stephen W. Kearny and 280 mounted and equipped First U. S. Dragoons were dispatched to protect and accompany around 3000 people and their caravan traveling west in 1845. That year President Polk proclaimed Texas the 28th state. Mexico had warned the U. S. that the annexation would prompt Mexico to call the move an act of war. When the Mexican minister resigned his post and left Washington, President Polk ordered Brigadier General Zachary Taylor to take troops from Louisiana to southern Texas. At the same time, he sent an emissary to Mexico to settle the U. S. differences with that country. The mission failed.

More Unknown New Mexico History: Secrets" of the Union's part in NM during the Civil War.

6) There were only ten counties in NM until the end of the Civil War. (NM is about 4th or 5th in land size in the U. S.)

7) Indians did not have the vote in NM.

8) Territorial law differed from the law practiced in the states.

9) Yankee Gold is a myth buster, tearing down the theory of the Santa Fe Ring as a conspiracy to steal land grants & resell them at inflated prices. After Elkins left NM he left his law partner, Tom Catron in charge. However, Catron did not control the bank, although he borrowed from it when he could - and liberally. Catron knew the most about land grants and was a canny lawyer in court. The law partnership was shared with Elkins' other best friend whom he recruited from Missouri, Henry Waldo. Waldo, at Elkins' recommendation, became Supreme Court Chief Justice in 1878 (I believe.) Waldo was a Democrat and Elkins and Catron Republicans. Elkins was the only one who had served the Union.

10) Elkins never admitted that he was a Union soldier and officer in the Civil War during the time he was in NM. As far as I know, only Tom Catron, Indian Superintendent Michael Steck, and Territorial Secretary William F. M. Arny knew it. Arny was the highest ranking Republican in office, except for Elkins' enemy, Congressman Chaves, in NM until Elkins became Congressman. Steck and Arny, like Elkins, were abolitionists or Radicals as they were called in that day.

Unknown New Mexico History: Secrets" of the Union's part in NM during the Civil War.

1) NM was invaded by Confederates in 1861 - the rebels came from TX into Mesilla (now Las Cruces.) The Rebels sought access to the gold and silver fields.

2) AZ was split off from NM in 1863 when Elkins arrived with the new AZ territorial officials.

3) Union soldiers mined for gold from 1862 to 1867 to pay off the Civil War debt. This occurred in NM, AZ, NV, and Utah. They mined on public land once controlled by Indians, mostly Apaches.

4) NM government was conducted in Spanish as was the court system until the turn of the century (I believe.) The courts and the legislature used translators for Americans who didn't speak enough Spanish to understand. Grand juries were made up of the well-to-do Spanish speaking Mexican-Americans. Petit juries were made up of the common people. The income from jury duty was important to the average Mexican worker.

5) Slavery, called peonage, was practiced in semi-secrecy until about 1890. It consisted of holding hostages in payment for Indian raids on settlers' farms. These hostages worked the farm's and household's labor and was given a little adobe hovel and a pittance to survive on as a means of subsistence.

Kit Carson

An American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a mountain man and trapper in the West.[2] Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. He was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He achieved national fame through Fremont's accounts of his expeditions. He became the hero of many dime novels.

Carson was a courier and scout during the Mexican-American war from 1846 to 1848, celebrated for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and his coast-to-coast journey from California to deliver news of the war to the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.. In the 1850s, he was the Agent to the Ute and Jicarilla Apaches. In the Civil War he led a regiment of mostly Hispanic volunteers on the side of the Union at the Battle of Valverde in 1862.

He encountered and became fast friends with Lucien Maxwell, who was almost nine years younger. Both were to sign up with John C. Frémont in 1841 for western expeditions, with Carson serving as guide, and Maxwell as chief hunter.