From New Mexico.
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From New Mexico.

From New Mexico.
_____

    From our friend, Jacobs, of Central City, who has just returned from New Mexico, we glean the following items relative to the late skirmish near Fort Craig, and other matters of interest there. On the morning of the 20th ult., about ninety Texans appeared before Paraca, where Captain Tilford was quartered with his cavalry company, and demanded him to surrender. The messenger who took the demand into town found the captain in bed, but he made his way out, and sent word to the Texans, that if they had sufficient force, they could come and take him. He then started for them and chased them some three or four miles, and during the skirmishing one of his men was killed. Ascertaining that it was but an advance guard of the enemy, who were in strong force below, probably at Lune's, he was obliged to retire and cross the Rio del Norte. In doing so, on account of high water and difficulty of transportation, four of his men were drowned. An exaggerated report reached Fort Craig early in the morning that an advance guard of three-hundred Texans were fighting Tilford's company and the Mexicans who were assisting him, and the following force was immediately dispatched to his assitance: [sic] Capt. Bristol, with five companies of the 5th infantry, two pieces of artillery from the fort, and five companies of the Colorado First Regiment. In the evening, all the infantry and artillery returned to the fort, leaving with Capt. Tilford's company, of about sixty men, Capts. Howland's and Cook's (1st Col. Vols.) cavalry companies. It was also reported that about 11 o'clock a. m., the same day, from twenty-five to thirty horseman, supposed to be Texans, passed above Fort Craig, on the other side of the river.
    We also received from C. S. Hinckley, the following, which confirms what Mr. Jacobs informed us, though there is some difference in the estimate of forces:

                                                                FORT UNION, May 27th, 1862.
    EDS. NEWS:--I wrote yesterday that in the engagement below, Captain Tilford had a full company, and that the Texans fell back.
    From a lieutenant, who arrived this morning, I learn that Capt. Tilford had about 40 men; the Texans some 200; that Tilford was obliged to fall back, with a loss of one man killed and four drowned in crossing the river.             Yours,     C.S.H.

    Capt. Cupwood was in command of the Texans whose total number was 200, as near as can be ascertained, of which four were killed and many wounded before they were driven across the Jornada. At one time Tilford placed his men behind some adobe walls, and a spirited engagement took place.
    Gen. Sibley, Col. Scurry, and other notable Texans, have returned to Texas, disgusted at their ineffectual attempt to plant the stars and bars on New Mexican soil, and it is very probable that the Texans whom Tilford so much astonished, were but a guerilla band, who hoped to capture horses enough to leave in comparative comfort. The suffering by starvation and otherwise, of the invaders, after meeting Uncle Sam's boys at Valverde, Apache Canon and Pigeon's Ranch, will probabably [sic] never become historical; but it is well known, and testified to by those who followed their trail, that it was great, and undoubtedly has few parallels during the war.


Source:

Unknown, "From New Mexico," Daily Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, Saturday, 7 June, 1862, page 2.

Created March 27, 2007; Revised March 27, 2007
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