Born in Kentucky on Christmas Eve 1809, Christopher "Kit" Carson was reared in Missouri "in the small family group which surrounded the death-bed of Daniel Boone." Unschooled--he eventually was able to sign his name--he was learning the saddler's trade when his name appeared in a newspaper for the first time:
To whom it may concern: That Christopher Carson, a boy about 16 years old, small of his age, but thick-set, light hair, ran away from the subscriber...All persons are notified not to harbor, support or subsist said boy under penalty of the law. One cent reward will be given to any person who will bring back said boy.
The boy ran far, making his way to New Mexico, where he begged for food and odd jobs. He was often hungry, and always on the move. Over the next 40 years the shy, diminutive ("five and one half feet tall, with blue eyes and sandy hair") Carson became one of the most enduring, and endearing, men of the rising west. From kitchen boy to trapper, tracker, hunter, trader, mountain man, to Indian fighter, Indian friend, Indian agent, interpreter and negotiator, to mule driver, livestock raiser, and businessman, he more than made his mark.
The legend of Kit Carson, larger than he was, sometimes eclipses the astute, concerned, extraordinary accomplishments of the man.
He rode and tramped the west and southwest with other memorable mountain men, American explorers, and traders, such as the Bent Brothers, who were among his closest friends.
Carson was explorer John Charles Frémont's favorite guide. Without him the Lieutenant got into trouble.
When the U.S. Army sent Carson for help to rescue besieged Army troops, he returned with Marines and sailors, much to the embarrassment of the Army brass. Carson began his military life as a Lieutenant and ended it as a Brigadier General, one who rode beside his men, sang Indian medicine chants over his rifle in battle, and "ordered" his troops to call him "Kit." (His quite ordinary military deeds were embellished by fellow officers writing reports for the illiterate Carson.) He was the commander at Fort Union, and at Fort Garland, where he kept "this Indian Pot from boiling in these parts by his will alone." (Carson worked with Chief Ouray, and he wrote the 1868 U.S. Treaty with the Utes. In 1861, Lt. Col. Carson managed the "extraordinary, almost bloodless campaigns that outmaneuvered and forced the surrender of the Mescalero Apaches and Navajos--the greatest feat of Indian warfare, it is said, ever accomplished by an American soldier.")
Drawing of Fort Garland, 1868
Carson married three times: to Waa-nibe ("Singing Wind"), an Arapaho girl, who bore him a daughter; to Making Out Road, a southern Cheyenne "belle" who left him; and Josefa Jaramillo, who came from a prominent New Mexico family, and was the sister of Charles Bent's wife. Carson had seven children by her.
The face of Kit Carson (1809-1868) as seen on the statue on the Legislative Mall. Nevada's capital, Carson City, was named in honor of this legendary frontiersman.
New York newspaperman A. D. Richardson rode with Carson from Santa Fe to Taos in 1859, and described him:
[Carson was] a stout middle-aged man, with straight brown hair, mild eye and kindly face. He wore a suit of gray, and looked like an Illinois farmer; but when he took off his hat the face and head indicated character....Kit's special delight was to dash down steep hills at full gallop...he sits a horse splendidly and rides with rare grace and skill....He is a gentleman by instinct; upright, pure and simple-hearted, beloved alike by Indians, Mexicans, and Americans. He speaks fluently English, French, Spanish, and several Indian tongues, all acquired orally. As if figuring fancifully in romances numerous and yellow-covered were not misfortune enough, he is also the victim of a biographer.
Kit Carson could have been the action figure of his day. He was a favorite subject for newspaper feature articles and penny-dreadfuls, though given a chance to "edit" one book he took out all the exciting parts, fictional or not, complained the author.
In 1867 Carson escorted a delegation of Utes, on whose behalf he was working, to Washington. Returning west to his Purgatory River ranch, the continual chest pains he had been having, which he attributed to a horseback accident, worsened. Adding to his suffering, Josefa died. Carson was grief-stricken. Taken to the army surgeon at Fort Lyon, Kit Carson died at the Fort, May 23, 1868, "between the hours of four and five o'clock, afternoon, this day, from disease of the heart...."
A long-time friend said, "Kit wasn't afraid of hell or high water, in private life he was clean as a hound's tooth, his word was as sure as the sun's coming up, and he never cussed more'n necessary. We shall not see his like again."
In addition to a county, the name Kit Carson is honored by a town in Cheyenne County, and countless streets, parks, buildings, and monuments in Colorado and New Mexico.
In 1861 the United States was at war with itself. In April, Carson became a Union lieutenant colonel with the 1st New Mexico Volunteer Infantry. He moved his family to Albuquerque, where he was charged with training the New Mexico recruits. In October, he was promoted to colonel.
Carson took part in the February 21, 1862, Battle of Valverde, the first major Civil War engagement on New Mexico soil, but he spent most of the war dealing with Indians. Major General James H. Carleton, who had been given command of the Department of New Mexico in September 1862, was intent on pacifying the Navajos and Mescalero Apaches. Carson was ordered to subdue both tribes as soon as possible and then take them to their new reservation at the Bosque Redondo in eastern New Mexico Territory.
While Carson's campaign of 1863-64 was considered a success, it took a tremendous toll on the Indians. In recent years he has been accused of actions that were not his own. Carleton masterminded the command, and any atrocities committed against the Navajo prisoners were done against Carson's direct orders. Although he did his best to keep order within his ranks, the fact was that his best soldiers were back East fighting the war. Many of his volunteers drank heavily and were disreputable. It can be argued that he failed to maintain military discipline.
Kit Carson's most glorious moment came in late November 1864, in Texas, when he led some 325 soldiers and 75 Ute scouts against at least 1,500 Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas and Arapahos in the Battle of Adobe Walls. Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer would face similar bad odds at the Battle of the Little Bighorn a decade later. Unlike Custer, however, Carson, with the help of 10 mountain howitzers, successfully fought off the enemy. Carson eventually headed back to New Mexico with most of his force intact. Carson's performance at Adobe Walls particularly impressed General Carleton. "This brilliant affair adds another green leaf to the laurel wreath which you have so nobly won in the service of your country," Carleton wrote to Carson. Carleton also forwarded a copy of his letter to the adjutant general, who was constantly receiving glowing reports of Carson's exploits.
William T. Ranney
Kit Carson
1854
oil on canvas
A few days after the Battle of Adobe Walls, Colonel John M. Chivington led the infamous massacre of Cheyennes at Sand Creek in Colorado Territory (see story in December 1998 Wild West). Chivington gloated, "I have eclipsed Carson and posterity will shortly speak of me as the great Indian killer." Carson was livid: "To think of that dog Chivington, and his hounds, up thar at Sand Creek! Whoever heerd of sich doins among christians! Them pore Injuns had our flag flyin' over 'em....Well, here come along that durned Chivington and his cusses. They'd bin out huntin' hostile Injuns, and couldn't find non....So they just pitched into these friendlies, and massa-creed them...in cold blood....And ye call these civilized men Christians and the Injuns savages, du, ye?...I never yit draw a bead on a squaw or papoose, and I loath and hate the man who would. 'Taint natural for brave men to kill women and little children."
In March 1866, Kit Carson was brevetted a brigadier general, but by then, his health was rapidly failing. He was pale, haggard and obviously in pain. He tried to leave the military, but wasn't allowed to do so. On April 21 he was given command of Fort Garland, north of Taos in Colorado Territory. There was another Indian problem. Major General John Pope wrote General Sherman: "Carson is the best man in the country to control these Indians and prevent war....He is personally known and liked by every Indian...no man is so certain to insure it as Kit Carson."
Carson was mustered out of the army in November 1867. By then, it was apparent that he was quite ill. He moved his family to Boggsville (near present-day Las Animas, Colo.). In January 1868, General Kit Carson, frontiersman, was appointed superintendent of Indian Affairs for Colorado Territory, and he soon traveled to Washington with a group of Ute chiefs to negotiate a treaty. He also consulted with a number of doctors on the East Coast about chest pains and other health problems.
Kit Carson returned home in time for the birth of his seventh child, Josefita, in April 1868. It was a difficult birth, however, and his beloved Josefa died within two weeks. The general lost the will to live. He made arrangements for his children, wrote his will and then died at Fort Lyon, Colorado Territory, on May 23, one month to the day after his wife's death. Theirs had been one of the great love stories of the American frontier, and their final resting place was near their old home in Taos.
S.J. Reidhead
Additional Sources: campuspress.colorado.edu
www.historynet.com
www.museumtrail.org
www.nexusgames.com
216.74.109.125
klesinger.com
www.slvdweller.com
www.leg.state.nv.us
www.sfmuseum.org
www.mrsedivy.com
www.historichwy49.com
www.cozine.com
www2.worldbook.com
www.artnet.com
www.lbbcarson.com
www.rmpbs.org
personal.readysoft.es
www.niulib.niu.edu
www.koolpages.com
www.longcamp.com
home.earthlink.net/ ~travel180
www.tias.com
hex.oucs.ox.ac.uk
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on August 16:
1397 Albrecht II von Habsburg, king of Bohemia/Hungary/Germany
1828 Joseph Bradford Carr, Bvt Major General (Union volunteers)
1831 Edward Payson Chapin, Brig General (Union volunteers), died in 1863
1862 Amos Alonzo Stagg football pioneer, (developed wing back principle, quick kick, onside kick, double flankers, pass-run option play, man in motion)
1868 Bernard MacFadden publisher (Physical Culture, True Romances)
1874 Arthur Meighen Canada, PM of Canada (1920,1,6)
1884 Hugo Gernsback sci-fi writer (1960 Hugo)
1892 Harold Foster cartoonist (created "Prince Valiant")
1894 George Meany NYC, labor leader (headed AFL-CIO)
1897 Robert Ringling circus master
1899 Glenn Strange Weed NM, actor (Sam the Bartender-Gunsmoke)
1902 Georgette Heyer England, novelist (Friday's Child)
1904 Wendell Stanley biochemist, 1st to crystallize a virus (Nobel '46)
1910 Mae Clarke Phila, actress (Frankenstein, Nana, Parole Girl)
1913 Menachem Begin Israeli PM (1977-83, Nobel 1978)
1925 Fess Parker Fort Worth Texas, actor (Davy Crockett, Old Yeller)
1928 Ann Blyth Mt Kisko NY, actress (Kismet, Mildred Pierce)
1929 Bill Evans, US jazz pianist
1930 Frank Gifford Calif, NFL halfback (NY Giants)/ABC sportscaster
1930 Robert Culp Berkley Calif, actor (I Spy, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
1930 Ted Hughes England, poet laureate (1984- )
1932 Edie Gorme Bronx NY, singer (Tonight Show, Bossa Nova)
1933 Stuart A "Smokey" Roosa Durango Colo, Col USAF/astronaut (Apollo 14)
1935 Julie Newmar Hollywood Calif, actress (Catwoman-Batman, Living Doll)
1938 Ketty Lester Hope Ark, actress (Hester-Little House on the Prairie)
1939 Valeri V Ryumin cosmonaut (Soyuz 25, 32)
1940 Bruce Beresford, Australian film director whose films include Breaker Morant, Tender Mercies, Driving Miss Daisy.
1946 Lesley Ann Warren NYC, actress (Cinderella, Mission Impossible)
1947 Carol Moseley-Braun, (EX-Sen-D Illinois)
1953 James Taylor rocker (Kool & The Gang-Joanna)
1953 Kathie Lee Gifford Paris Fla, hostess (Live with Regis & Kathie Lee)
1958 Madonna (Ciccone) Bay City Mich, singer/actress (Like a Virgin)
1960 Timothy Hutton actor (Turk 182, Ordinary People)
1969 Ben Coates, NFL tight end (NE Patriots)
Deaths which occurred on August 16:
1675 Bogdan Chmilnicki, cosack leader/murderer of 300,000 Jews, dies
1705 Jean/Jacobus Bernouilli, Swiss mathematician, dies at 50
1854 Duncan Phyfe furniture maker, dies
1864 John Randolph Chambliss Jr, planter/Confederate, dies in battle at 31
1920 Norman Lockyer editor of NATURE, discoverer of helium in Sun, dies
1938 Robert Johnson, US Delta-blues singer/guitarist, poisoned at 27
1940 Billy Fiske, US RAF-pilot/2nd lieutenant, dies of injuries
1940 Henri Desgrange, French cyclist/founder (Tour de France), dies at 75
1948 Babe Ruth Baseball legend, dies in NY at 53
1956 Bela Lugosi, actor (Dracula), dies of heart attack at 73
1959 William "Bull" F Halsey, US vice-admiral
1977 Elvis Presley dies of heart ailment at Graceland at 42
1989 Amanda Blake actress (Gunsmoke), dies at 60
1991 Shamu the Whale dies at 16, from respiratory failure
1995 John Cameron Swayze, news anchor (NBC), dies at 89
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 BLEVINS LURAL LEE III PHILADELPHIA PA.
[06/69 REMAINS RECOVERED]
1968 ELBERT FRED BRENTWOOD NY.
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG
1968 MC ELHANON MICHAEL O. FORT WORTH TX.
1968 OVERLOCK JOHN F. SPRINGFIELD MA.
1971 KENNEDY JOHN W. ARLINGTON VA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1992/1993 ID'D 06/25/96]
1975 SIMMONS WILLIE E.
[RELEASED 10/01/75]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
1513 Henry VIII of England and Emperor Maximilian defeat the French at Guinegatte, France, in the Battle of the Spurs.
1691 Yorktown Va founded
1743 Earliest boxing code of rules formulated in England (Jack Broughton)
1777 Americans defeat British in Battle of Bennington, Vt
1777 France declares a state of bankruptcy.
1780 British decisively defeat Americans in Battle of Camden, SC
1812 Gen Hull surrenders Detroit & Michigan territory to England
1819 Manchester Massacre; English police charge unemployed demonstrators
1829 Siamese twins Chang & Eng Bunker arrive in Boston to be exhibited
1858 U.S. President James Buchanan and Britain's Queen Victoria exchange messages inaugurating the first transatlantic telegraph line.
1861 Pres Lincoln prohibits Union states from trading with Confederacy
1863 Emancipation Proclamation signed
1864 4th day of battle at Deep Bottom Run Virginia, Federal assault
1864 Battle of Front Royal VA (Guard Hill)
1870 Fred Goldsmith demonstrates curve ball isn't an optical illusion
1876 The opera "Siegfried" is produced (Bayreuth)
1890 Alexander Clark, journalist/lawyer, named minister to Liberia
1896 Gold discovered in the Klondike, found at Bonanza Creek, Alaska
1898 Roller coaster patented
1920 Ray Chapman, of the Indians is hit in the head by Yanks' Carl Mays pitch; he dies next day, only major league fatality
1934 US ends occupation of Haiti (been there since 1915)
1934 US explorer William Beebe descends 3,028' (1922 m) in Bathysphere
1936 11th Olympic games close in Berlin
1946 Great Calcutta blood bath - Moslem/Hindu riot (3-4,000 die)
1948 Arabs blow up Latrun pumping station in Jerusalem
1948 The Israeli pound becomes legal tender
1954 Sports Illustrated publishes it's 1st issue
1955 Fiat Motors orders 1st private atomic reactor
1956 Adlai E Stevenson nominated as Democratic presidential candidate
1959 USSR introduces installment buying
1960 Britain grants independence to crown colony of Cyprus
1960 Joseph Kittinger parachutes from balloon at 31,330 m (84,700')
1960 Republic of the Congo (Zaire) forms
1962 Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatle drummer
1963 Independence is restored to Dominican Republic
1965 AFL awards its 1st expansion franchise (Miami Dolphins)
1984 LA federal jury acquits auto maker John Z DeLorean on cocaine charges
1984 Largest harness racing purse ($2,161,000-Nihilator wins $1,080,500)
1985 The last episode of the tv show Dukes of Hazard aired
1986 Madonna's "True Blue," album goes #1 for 5 weeks & her single "Papa Don't Preach," goes #1 for 2 weeks
1987 156 die as Northwest Flight 255 crashes at take off in Detroit
1987 Astrological Harmonic Convergence-Dawn of New Age
1988 IBM introduces software for artificial intelligence
1988 Jailed black nationalist Nelson Mandela struck with tuberculosis
1988 Mayor Koch says he plans to wipe out street-corner windshield washers
1989 Roger Kingdom of USA sets the 110m hurdle record (12.92) in Zurich
1990 Iraq orders 4000 Britons & 2500 Americans in Kuwait to Iraq
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
National Aviation Week Begins
Weird Contest Week Begins
Elvis International Tribute Week Ends
Cyprus : Independence Day (1960)
Dominican Republic : Restoration Day (1963)
Liechtenstein : Prince Franz-Josef II Day
Vermont : Bennington Battle Day (1777)
Hawaii : Admission Day (1959) ( Friday )
Mich : Montrose-Blueberry Festival ( Friday )
Yukon : Klondike Gold Day (1896) ( Friday )
Don't Wait...Celebrate Week Ends
National Parks Month
Religious Observances
old RC : Feast of St Joachim, father of Mary, confessor
RC : Memorial of St Stephen, apostle of Hungary (opt)
Religious History
1815 Birth of St. John Bosco, Italian educator. Poverty among the children in the city of Turin led him in 1859 to establish the Society of St. Francis of Sales (the Salesians). Bosco was canonized by Pius XI in 1934.
1852 Birth of Adolf von Schlatter, Swiss Protestant New Testament scholar. His 1921 History of Christ maintained that the success of any systematic theology had to be based on a foundation of solid biblical exegesis.
1875 Death of early 19th century Presbyterian revivalist Charles G. Finney, 82. Converted at 29, he led revivals for several years before affiliating with Oberlin College in 1835, where he spent the rest of his professional life.
1942 Birth of Don Wyrtzen, contemporary Christian songwriter. Among his most enduring sacred compositions are "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" and "Worthy is the Lamb."
1972 African-American Methodist clergyman from Dominica, West Indies, Philip A. Potter, 51, was named general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Serving until 1984, Potter gave strong spiritual guidance to the work of the WCC.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Fame is proof that people are gullible."
Excuses For Missing Work...
I set half the clocks in my house ahead an hour and the other half back an hour Saturday, and spent 18 hours in some kind of space-time continuum loop, reliving Sunday (right up until the explosion). I was able to exit the loop only by reversing the polarity of the power source exactly e*log(pi) clocks in the house while simultaneously rapping my dog on the snout with a rolled up Times. Accordingly, I will be in late, or early.
You Might Be An Engineer If...
The term "sanitation engineer" actually bothers you
Doggie Dictionary...
BATH: This is a process by which the humans drench the floor, walls and themselves.
You can help by shaking vigorously and frequently.
Dumb Laws...
Hawaii:
Coins are not allowed to be placed in one's ears.
