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Major General James Henry Carleton
December 27, 1814 - January 7, 1873James Henry Carleton served in the U.S. Army for more than thirty years. His duties led him across the plains, into Mexico, and through the deserts of California and New Mexico. In the Mojave, his name is connected to the Bitter Spring campaign of 1860 and the establishment of Camp Cady. His later campaigns led to the forced removal of Navajo and Mescalero Apache people to Bosque Redondo.
Carleton was born in Lubec, Maine. He served in the Maine militia during the boundary dispute known as the Aroostook War and received a commission in the First U.S. Dragoons in 1839. He spent much of his early career at frontier posts and on military expeditions. During the Mexican War, he fought at Buena Vista in 1847 and received a brevet promotion for gallantry.
After serving in New Mexico, Carleton came to California and served at Fort Tejon. In 1859, he went to Mountain Meadows in southern Utah under orders to bury the victims' remains. He also investigated the massacre and submitted a report identifying Mormon involvement.
Into the Mojave
In April 1860, Carleton led detachments of the First Dragoons from Fort Tejon into the Mojave Desert. Travelers had been killed near the Mojave River and Bitter Springs, and the Army sent him to punish the Paiutes blamed for those deaths.He established Camp Cady on the Mojave River and used it as a base for patrols. His soldiers searched the surrounding desert and built small redoubts at Soda Springs and Bitter Springs. These camps gave the troops places to stop along roads where water determined how far men and horses could travel.
The Army wanted to secure the routes used by emigrants, freighters, and supply wagons. Native people faced soldiers entering their country, pursuing them, and carrying out attacks. During the campaign, soldiers killed Native people, including a prisoner, and displayed bodies and severed heads at Bitter Springs as warnings.
Carleton withdrew his troops in July 1860. The Army later returned to Camp Cady and used it at intervals to support operations along the Mojave Road.
The California Column
When the Civil War began, Carleton became colonel of the First California Volunteer Infantry. In 1862, he led the California Column east through Arizona toward the Rio Grande.Moving troops across that country required close attention to water and supplies. Men, horses, and wagons had to move between water sources without exhausting what each place could provide.
An advance detachment reached the Rio Grande in July 1862, followed in August by Carleton and the main body. The troops reoccupied Army posts and helped secure Union control in the Southwest.
In September 1862, Carleton replaced Edward R. S. Canby as commander of the Department of New Mexico.
Bosque Redondo
Carleton then directed campaigns against the Mescalero Apaches and Navajos. He sent troops against the Mescaleros and ordered their removal to Bosque Redondo on the Pecos River.He ordered Kit Carson and other officers to destroy Navajo crops, livestock, and homes. Without enough food or shelter, thousands surrendered. The Army forced Navajo families to march hundreds of miles to Bosque Redondo. These removals became known as the Long Walk.
Carleton expected the people confined there to become farmers under government supervision. The land and water could not support his plan. Crops failed, supplies fell short, and people suffered from hunger and disease.
Most of the Mescaleros escaped in November 1865. The Navajos remained confined until the treaty signed on June 1, 1868, allowed them to return to their homeland.
Carleton later served with the Fourth U.S. Cavalry in Texas. He died in San Antonio on January 7, 1873, at age fifty-eight.
Camp Cady remains part of his place in Mojave history. He established it to support a campaign and extend military control along the desert roads. His policies in New Mexico reached further, forcing thousands from their homes and causing families to endure the Long Walk and years of confinement at Bosque Redondo.
- Warren, Elizabeth von Till, and Ralph J. Roske. Cultural Resources of the California Desert, 1776-1880: Historic Trails and Wagon Roads. Bureau of Land Management, 1981. See the Carleton expedition entry, beginning on page II-55, for the 1860 campaign and Camp Cady. upload.wikimedia.org
- National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. “The Long Walk.” The Navajo Treaty of 1868. Covers the forced removal of Navajo people and the distances traveled to Bosque Redondo. Read online.
- National Park Service. “New Mexico: Fort Wingate Historic District.” Discusses Carleton's campaign, destruction of Navajo food supplies and homes, and conditions at Bosque Redondo. Read online.
- United States Senate. Long Walk National Historic Trail Study Act. Senate Report 107-184, 2002. Provides historical background on the removals, failed agriculture, and confinement at Bosque Redondo. Read online.
- University of New Mexico Libraries. “The Navajo Long Walk, the Bosque Redondo Reservation and the Treaty of Freedom of 1868.” June 12, 2018. Discusses the treaty and return to the Navajo homeland. libguides.unm.edu
Additional references from the biographies you supplied:
- Hunt, Aurora. Major General James Henry Carleton, 1814-1873: Western Frontier Dragoon. Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958.
- Thompson, Gerald. The Army and the Navajo: The Bosque Redondo Reservation Experiment, 1863-1868. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1976.
- Utley, Robert M. Fort Union National Monument. National Park Service Historical Handbook Series No. 35. Washington, D.C., 1962.
- Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. 2 volumes. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903.
Fort Tejon
Camp Cady
History of the Eastern Mojave
Fort Piute
Military in the Mojave Desert
Military in the Mojave
Fort Soda, Hancock's Redoubt
Kit Carson
Mountain Meadows
Special Report: Mountain Meadows Massacre