The Thiepval Memorial

 

Back in 2019, when I was researching World War I for A Blaze of Poppies, I had the honor of touring battlefields and memorials in Belgium and France. It was a sobering experience, and one of the most sobering was the memorial outside the little town of Thiepval, in Picardy, France.  The Thiepval Memorial is dedicated to the men of the British Commonwealth who went missing in the Battles that occurred in the Somme between 1915 and 1918 and whose bodies have not been found. Designed by Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, one of the most famous architects of the time, it is the only memorial that Edward VIII ever dedicated, since he abdicated soon after.  Inside the memorial, a large inscription on an internal surface of the memorial reads: Here are recorded names of officers and men of the British Armies who fell on the Somme battlefields July 1915 February 1918 but to whom the fortune of war denied the known and honoured burial given to their comrades in death. Piers of Portland stone are engraved with over 72,000 names. 90 per cent of these soldiers died in the first Battle of the Somme, between 1 July and 18 November 1916.  Because the monument is reserved for those missing or unidentified soldiers who have no known grave, a soldier’s name is excised from the wall by filling in the inscription with cement when his body is found and identified. The remains are then given a funeral with full military honors at a cemetery close to the location at which they were discovered. This practice has resulted in numerous gaps in the lists of names. 80 names came off the monument 2018.  Just behind the Thiepval Memorial lies two cemeteries that commemorate the joint nature of the 1916 offensive. One side of the cemetery holds 300 soldiers of the British Commonwealth under rectangular, white stone headstones inscribed with "A Soldier of the Great War / Known unto God". The other side holds the graves of 300 French soldiers under grey stone crosses that bear the single word "Inconnu" ('unknown'). Most of the soldiers buried here – 239 of the British Commonwealth and 253 of the French – are unidentified. Their bodies were found on the battlefields of the Somme and as far north as Loos and as far south as Le Quesnel, then reburied here between December 1931 and March 1932. I'm not a numbers person, but over 72,000! Even if I can't really conceive a number that large, I know it is huge. And that's not the number of men who died in the area: it's the number of men who died and whose bodies were never recovered. It's astounding and beyond comprehension.   World War I was supposed to be the Great War: the War to End All Wars. Yet here we are, over a hundred years later and wars rage throughout the globe. Clearly, we have not yet learned the lesson such carnage should have taught us.  Jennifer Bohnhoff is the author of a number of historical novels for middle grade through adult readers. A Blaze of Poppies is set in New Mexico and the French Battlefields in the time leading up to and including the American involvement in World War I. Her intent in writing the book was not to glorify war, but to give readers a taste of what life might have been like during that tumultuous period.

The New Mexico National Guard In A Blaze of Poppies

 

 

A Blaze of Poppies takes place in Southern New Mexico and France during the tumultuous 1910s. Its main character, Agnes Day, is a ranching woman who is determined to keep her family’s ranch, the Sunset, within the family who’s held it for three generations.

The family’s brand is the lazy D, a capital D laid over on its side. The D not only stands for the Days, who’ve owned the ranch since before the Civil War, but on its side it looks like a sunrise. 

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The man who quietly supports Agnes through difficult times is Will Bowers, a member of the National Guard who is serving border patrol at Camp Columbus.
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New Mexico’s National Guard began serving its country before New Mexico was even a state. In 1898, when the Spanish American War broke out, New Mexico Guardsmen helped form the 2nd Squadron, 1st United States Cavalry. This unit was part of Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders and were among those who charged up San Juan Hill.

Teddy (center) and some of his Rough Riders.

In 1916, when Pancho Villa raided the southern New Mexican town of Columbus, New Mexico’s National Guard, under the command of Black Jack Pershing, pursued the outlaw into Mexico. The Guard spent the next year on this border duty. 

Pershing was so impressed with the Guards’ performance in the rough field conditions of the desert southwest that he insisted they join the mobilization efforts when the United States entered World War I. New Mexico National Guardsmen were among some of the first to arrive in France. They didn’t, however, go over as a single unit. The First Infantry Regiment was activated into Federal Service and assigned to the 40th Infantry Division. A Battery of Field Artillery was assigned to the 41st Division and became part of the 146th Field Artillery Regiment, which took part in the actions at Champagne-Marne, Alsne-Marne, and Meuse-Argonne.

Because the 41st Division was largely made up of soldiers from Oregon and other northwest states that bordered the Pacific Ocean, it was named the "Sunset Division." Its semicircular shoulder patch featured a red background, with a yellow sun setting into a blue sea.

When Agnes first sees Will’s patch, she thinks it is a sunrise instead of a sunset. To her, it looks like a fancier version of the lazy D that is the family brand. They are, after all, the Day family, and the ranch is The Sunrise Ranch. She muses that perhaps she should add rays to the lazy D so it will look even more like the image on Will’s patch. 

Agnes wants to keep the ranch, and she wants Will to be there with her. But Will has a hidden past that makes him afraid to commit, even to the woman he loves. Read A Blaze of Poppies to find out whether the story ends in sunshine or shadow. 

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A Blaze of Poppies is an historical novel set in southern New Mexico at the time of the Pancho Villa Raid and World War I. If you'd like to see pictures that correspond with the story, go to Jennifer's Pinterest page. To buy the novel as an ebook, go to Amazon. A paperback version can be bought at many online booksellers, including Amazon and Bookshop, Signed copies can be bought directly from the author.

The Mysterious Medallion Trees of the Sandia Mountains

 

I love having the Sandia Mountains right out my back door. There are lots of trails: some challenging, some of them a leisurely walk in the woods. Like all forested areas, we have beautiful trees and wildflowers, lots of birds and deer and the occasional bear. But one of the things that makes the Sandias unique are the Medallion trees.  Medallion trees are trees that are marked with silver dollar-sized metal disks. Some are coppery or brassy, while others look to be made from stainless steel or aluminum. Each carries a historical event that took place the same year that the tree was likely germinated. Many also number the tree. I’ve seen numbers as high  as #123, indicating that there are well over 100 trees, although the only list I’ve ever found tops out in the 80s.  The trees are not numbered in chronological order. Tree #1, which germinated sometime around 1652, marks the invention of the frankfurter.  The oldest tree is #19, which commemorates the crowning of Robert II of Scotland in1371.  The youngest, marking Alaska becoming the 49th state, sprouted in 1959. #47, the George Washington Birthday Tree, has fallen and the medal is on the lower side, making it difficult to see.  No one knows who began marking the Medallion trees. Sources suggest that the effort began in the last 1920s, and that perhaps Civilian Conservation Corps workers might have started it.  Whoever it was drilled core samples into some of the largest trees in the Sandias and counted the rings before they fabricated the medallions, then hiked back to install the disks over the core sample holes. It was definitely a labor of love. ​ Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer and former educator who loves getting lost in the mountains on long rambles. To learn more about her and her books, go to her website.

Johnson's Ranch, the Third in Glorieta: The Battle of Three Ranches

 

Johnson Ranch, 1917 Three ranches figure prominently in the action surrounding the March 26-28, 1862 Battle of Glorieta Pass. The first was Martin Kozlowski’s ranch. Situated at the eastern entrance of this narrow pass in the mountains east of Santa Fe, this location served as headquarters for the Union Army. The second, Pigeon’s Ranch, sits near the top of the pass and is where the main battle took place. The third site, Johnson’s Ranch, is located at the western end of Glorieta Pass, and was where the Confederate camp was located. All three ranches were also waypoints along the Santa Fe trail, which wended through Glorieta pass before dropping out of the mountains to its western terminus in Santa Fe. Like the other two ranches, the owner of Johnson’s Ranch, a Missouri native named Anthony D. Johnson, was known to be strong Union supporter.  At the first appearance of the Southern Army, Johnson took his New Mexican-born wife, Cruz, and their five children, and fled into the hills, where they camped in the frigid weather until it was safe to return home.    Pyron   On March 28, the second day of the battle, Confederate Major Charles L. Pyron and Colonel William Scurry thought their camp, far to rear, was safe. Thinking no Union forces could get by them through the narrow pass, they left their 80 supply wagons lightly defended with just one canon and a small contingent of soldiers. Most of the remaining men in camp were either injured or ailing. It never occurred to the Confederates that the Union Army could attack their supply train, but that is exactly what Colonel John M. Chivington did. Guided by the legendary Manuel Antonio Chaves, a New Mexico Volunteer nicknamed El Leoncito due to his small stature and outsized courage, he led a flanking party over Glorieta Mesa, on the south side of the pass. Chivington's intention was to outflank the Confederate Army so that he could attack its rear while Colonel John Slough attacked from the front. However, he overshot his objective.When he looked down on the supply wagons, Chivington realized that he had a unique opportunity. Changing his plans, he had his men then climb down the steep bluff and capture the Confederate guard. They spiked the cannon and burned the Texan supply train. He also ordered that all the Confederate’s draft mules and horses be bayoneted. An etching of the burning of the Confederate supply train, with Confederates fleeing toward Santa Fe. If you look closely, you can see a line of Union Soldiers on the left, climbing away from the flames. ​When the Confederate Army, fighting at Pigeon's Ranch, learned the fate of their supply train, the battle ceased. The Confederates began the slow process of withdrawing, first to Santa Fe, then down the Rio Grande to Texas. Johnson later testified that after the battle, he was forced to transport sick and wounded Texans back to Santa Fe. For the Johnson family, the invasion proved an economic disaster. They returned to find that Confederate soldiers had looted the house and ranch. They had taken a barrel of whiskey, ten bags of flour, 20 bushels of corn, sugar, molasses, soap, his clothing, and even his canned oysters. They had burned his furniture and fences as firewood. His house and the stagecoach station had nothing left to them but their bare walls. Johnson filed a claim against the U.S. government for $4,075, but there is no record that his claim was ever paid. Luckily, he had the foresight to drive his cattle into the hills, so he had not lost everything. Eventually, the Johnsons recovered and got back to the business of operating their stage stop and cantina on the old Santa Fe Trail. He acquired wagons and ran a freight service that hauled goods to and from Fort Union on the edge of the plains. In late 1869, he moved his family to Trinidad, Colorado, just north of Raton Pass. Soon, Johnson hauled ties for the advancing Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. In early 1879, Johnson was attacked and killed by highwaymen at a river crossing just east of Springer. His body was never found, and although the culprits were captured and brought before a federal judge in Santa Fe, the trial record has been lost and it is unknown what happened to the highwaymen. ​ The historic Johnson’s Ranch building lasted nearly 90 years longer than its owner. The building which had been a stage station on the historic Santa Fe trail and sheltered a Confederate Army for a few days was bulldozed in 1967 to make room for Interstate 25, that connects Denver to El Paso. Johnson's Ranch is one of the settings for Jennifer Bohnhoff's historical novel The Worst Enemy, which is book 3 in Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of Civil War Novels published by Kinkajou Press, a division of Artemesia Publishing. The first is Where Duty Calls.  ​Mrs. Bohnhoff lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. From her north-facing windows she can see Santa Fe and the mountains through which Glorieta Pass travels.

Pigeon's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

 

 

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The Battle of Glorieta Pass ranged through a narrow mountain divide in the Sangre de Cristo mountains just east of Santa Fe on March 26-28, 1862. The pass was part of the Santa Fe trail that had connected Old Santa Fe to Franklin, Missouri for nearly half a century. The three ranches involved in the battle were also used as way stops along the trail. Three very different characters owned and operated the ranches.

Union troops were headquartered at a ranch on the eastern end of the pass that was owned by a Polish immigrant named Kozlowski. You can read more about him and his ranch here.

The Confederate base was at Johnson's ranch, located at the western mouth of the canyon. 

Pigeon's Ranch in the 1880s.

Between Kozlowski's and Johnson's place sat Pigeon's ranch, which operated a hotel and saloon and was a popular watering hole along the trail. Pigeon's Ranch was the frequent venue for fandangos, the local dances.

Pigeon's ranch was owed by a French immigrant whose very name is a matter of speculation. Some records list him as Alexander Pigeon. Some sources, however, say that Pigeon was a nickname he received because he strutted and flapped his elbows when he danced, making him look rather like a pigeon. On some documents, he is named Alexander Valle. Some historians suggest that Valle is less a surname as a placename given to him because his establishment was in the center of the valley. Both Pigeon and Valle are names that can be found in France, so either may be the man's actual name.

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An old postcard showing Pigeon's Ranch.

Early in the morning of March 26, a Union scouting party led by Lt. George Nelson encountered and captured a Confederate scouting party near Pigeon's Ranch. The two armies clashed west of the ranch later that day. By nightfall, Union Forces had fallen back to Pigeon's ranch, which had become a hospital for wounded and dying men on both sides. Two days later, the ranch was the center of the battle, its short adobe walls shielding Union soldiers from the oncoming Confederates. In 1986, a mass grave with the skeletons of 31 Confederate soldiers was discovered on the property. 

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Pigeon's Ranch continued to be a waystop along the Santa Fe trail for years after the battle, as evidenced by the photo and old post card shown above. The ranch's fortune began to dim when the railroad came through in 1879, when the New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a railroad through the pass, effectively reducing the need for wagon trains. The automobile made the journey to Santa Fe a much faster proposition, eliminating the need for overnight stays. Today, all that is left of Pigeon's Ranch is one building abutting state road 50 as it makes its way to Pecos, New Mexico. 

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In this depiction of The Battle of Glorieta Pass by Roy Anderson, Pigeon's Ranch is depicted in the background.

The Battle of Glorieta Pass is sometimes called 'The Gettysburg of the West" because it is the battle that marks the farthest north the Confederate Army got during the New Mexico Campaign. Had H.H. Sibley's forces not been turned back here, they might have taken the Colorado gold fields, then turned west and taken the gold and harbors of California, and the Civil War might have ended very differently.  But this battle could easily have been called The Battle of Three Ranches because of where it was fought.

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and author who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. The view from her backyard includes the Sangre de Cristo mountains. Part of her novel The Worst Enemy, book 2 of Rebels Along the Rio Grande Series, takes place at Pigeon Ranch. 

The Worst Enemy i is scheduled to be published by Kinkajou Press on August 15, 2023 but can be preordered at Bookshop.org. 

Kozlowski's Ranch: Important Site in the Battle of Glorieta

 

 

The decisive battle in the Confederacy's attempt to take New Mexico during the Civil War took place on March 26-28, 1862. Called the Battle of Glorieta, or the Battle of Glorieta Pass, it ranged through a narrow mountain pass that was the last leg of the Old Santa Fe Trail before it reached Santa Fe. Three ranches, owned by three very different characters, were settings for this battle. 

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Martin Kozlowski came to the area by a circuitous route. He was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1827 and fought in the 1848 revolution against the  Prussians. He was a refugee for two years in England, during which time he met and married an Irish woman named Ellene. The two immigrated to American in 1853, and Martin enlisted in the First Dragoons, who were fighting Apaches in the Southwest.

Martin must have fallen in  love with New Mexico during his Army years. In 1858 he mustered out and used his 160-acre government bounty land warrant to purchase the land on the far eastern edge of Glorieta Pass. Here, the Pecos River meets Glorieta Stream in a wide, flat area that is well watered and has fertile soil. Kozlowski's 600 acre spread included 50 improved acres, which consisted of a home for the family, a trading post, a tavern, and rooms for travelers. It had a spring for fresh water, and lots of forage for horses and mules. The 1860 agriculture census shows that Kozlowski grew corn and raised livestock, but a lot of his livelihood came from accommodating for travelers on the Santa Fe trail.

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The Spanish mission church at Pecos Pueblo. The entrance to a kiva is in the foreground

This area had been settled long before the Santa Fe Trail opened. Perhaps the first settlers in the area were the people who founded Pecos Pueblo sometime around AD 1100. Historically known as Cicuye (sometimes spelled Ciquique), which mean the "village of 500 warriors," the Pueblo was visited by the Spanish explorer  Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1540. The Spanish mission church was built in 1619 and the kiva in 1680, after a revolt that caused the Spanish to abandon the area. In 1838, attacks by Comanches compelled the inhabitants to abandon the area and move in with their relatives at the Walatowa Pueblo in Jemez. Twenty years later, Kozlowski moved to the area and used some of the timbers and bricks from the abandoned pueblo to build his buildings.

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Martin Kozlowski in front of his trading post.

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​Kozlowski's ranch became site of Camp Lewis, the headquarters for the Union Army during the Battle of Glorieta. The troops were mostly men from Colorado, who had come from Camp Wells in Denver, through Raton Pass, and stopped in Fort Union. Their leader, John Slough, intended to engage the Confederates in Santa Fe and was surprised to encounter Confederate troops in the pass. 

The Union Army continued to maintain a hospital in Kozlowski's tavern for another two months after the battle was over.

After the war, Kozlowski complimented them, saying “When they camped on my place, they never robbed me of anything, not even a chicken.” Perhaps their good behavior was because Kozlowski was former military himself.

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The early 1870s appear to be the high point for the Kozlowski family's enterprises. In 1873, U.S. Attorney T.B. Catron sued him for violating a federal law that prevented non-Indians from settling on pueblo land grants. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, but ultimately Martin paid  $1,000 and was able to keep his land. In 1880 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad ran its line through the canyon, effectively ending the lucrative Santa Fe Trail traffic. Soon thereafter, Kozlowski moved to Albuquerque, where he died in 1905. 

Kozlowski's ranch traded hands several times after he left it. Sometimes, it was a working ranch. At other times, It became a dude ranch where tourists could live like pampered cowboys. In 1939, a Texas oilman and rancher named  Buddy Fogelson bought the property and renamed it The Forked Lightning Ranch. Fogelson's widow, the actress Greer Garson, donated the ranch to the National Park Service in 1991. It is now part of Pecos National Park.  

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Kozlowski's Ranch is one of the major settings for The Worst Enemy, which will be published  August 15, 2023 and is available for preorder at Bookshop.org.

The Worst Enemy is book 2 of Rebels Along the Rio Grande, a trilogy of middle grade historical novels about New Mexico during the Civil War.

​Book 1: Where Duty Calls, is available in ebook and paperback.  It was a finalist for both the NM Women's Press Zia award and the Western Writer's of America spur award in 2023.

Horse Theft: not just in the Old West

 

 

This drawing appears on all membership certificates of the Society in Dedham (Massachusetts) for Apprehending Horse Thieves.

No one likes a horse thief. The term ‘horse thief’ is used not only for people who literally steal horses, but as an insult, implying that the person has no moral decency whatsoever. This may have come about because horses were central to life in the west during the 19th century. Without a horse, travel, farming, and ranching were virtually impossible. A person who stole a horse left his victim unable to support himself and unable to move on. In the Old West, the saying was that if you stole a man's horse, you had condemned him to death.

Horse theft was such a problem that organizations were founded just to address the issue. The Anti Horse Thief Association, first organized in Missouri in 1854, grew to over 40,000 members spread across nine central and western US states. Between 1899 and 1909, they recovered $83,000 worth of livestock and saw the conviction of over 250 thieves in Oklahoma alone.  

Because horse theft was such a serious crime, the punishments were also serious. In 1780,  Pennsylvania passed "An Act to Increase the Punishments of Horse Stealing," which had a tiered system for dealing with offenders.  First time offenders were given 39 lashes, then had their ears cut off and nailed to the pillory, where they had to stand for an hour. A second offense added branding of the forehead with an ‘H” and a ‘T.” This law was repealed in 1860. Horse theft was a hanging offense in many western states and territories. Often, the aggrieved would take justice into their own hands. These days, while punishments are not so severe, they can still be stiff. In 2011, one Arkansas woman was sentenced to 60 years in prison for stealing five horses and their equipment. 

While horses are no longer as important to life and well being as they once were, their theft is still relatively common. Horse Illustrated Magazine estimates that approximately 55,000 horses a year are taken from their lawful owners by strangers or opponents in civil or legal disputes. Organized groups of thieves often work one area or state, moving on when the law becomes aware of them. Other thieves move into areas that have suffered natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes, stealing animals that have escaped during the chaos and preying on vulnerable victims. Some stolen horses are killed for their meat. Others become the focus of ransom attempts. Many are resold with false papers at auction, or end up as riding mounts.

In my novel Summer of the Bombers, it is a wildfire that leads to the theft of a girl's horse. Punkin Davis has to ride her horse into the fictional town of Alamitos when a Forest Service Controlled burn jumps its lines because of high winds. In the parking lot of the high school that is organizing assistance for those affected by the fire, Punkin meets a woman who says she is from the Equine Assistance League, and will keep her horse in a safe place. Unfortunately, there is no Equine Assistance League, and woman and horse disappear. It takes Punkin quite a bit of time to get on her feet and figure out what she needs to do to get her horse back, but she finally gets the help she needs from Stolen Horse Internaational..

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While Summer of the Bombers might be a work of fiction, Stolen Horse International is not. The organization works diligently to recover stolen horses. Also known as NetPosse or SHI, it has been assisting horse owners with recovering their horses for over twenty-five years. It was founded by Debi and Harold Metcalfe after their own horse, Idaho, was stolen on September 26, 1997. Idaho was recovered after almost a year of searching. The non-profit organization relies on thousands of volunteers, who distribute fliers, usually by e-mail. In addition for helping in the search and recovery of horses, the organization works closely with law enforcement personnel to aid in the apprehension of the thieves.   

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Debi Metcalfe's book, Horse Theft. Been There—Done That, explains how horse owners can protect their horses from theft, and what can be done to recover stolen horses. There are chapters on identification methods and prevention information that can stop theft from ever happening, and lots of resources to help if it does. 

This book was a fantastic resource for me as I wrote Summer of the Bombers. It's been a tremendous resource for many who've lost their horses. It is worth reading if you have a horse or know someone who does. 
Now that my novel is complete, I would like to give my copy of this book away to someone who would benefit from it. Comment on this blog if you would like to be considered for it.

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Jennifer Bohnhoff is a novelist who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. An avid horsewoman in her youth, her novel Summer of the Bombers was inspired by the Cerro Grande Fire, which swept through Los Alamos during the summer of 2000.