By John Langellier

In 1866, the United States Congress passed an Act to reorganize the United States Army.  This legislation authorized six regiments (two of cavalry and four of infantry) to be manned by African Americans.

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

Previous articles in this series about early Prescott history have told of the discovery of gold on the Hassayampa by a group led by frontiersman Joseph R. Walker, and the establishment of central Arizona’s first mining district.  This article examines some activities that followed soon after.

By Jim Pool

This past week the City of Prescott proclaimed that the date of June 11 would henceforth be celebrated as “Sharlot Hall Museum Day.”  The city’s action was in recognition of the 85th anniversary of the opening of the Sharlot Hall Museum—the day the first visitor signed the Museum’s register and the day a schoolgirl’s dream was fulfilled.   As Miss Hall wrote:

By Andrew Wallace 

(Last Sunday, in Part 1, the author discussed the early military background of Gen. Kautz and his appointment as the commanding officer of the military department of Arizona in 1875.)

Though not the complete failure in command of Arizona as some writers have implied, Gen. August Kautz took charge of a military department beset by more insoluble problems than most.  The fiercest Apache warriors had taken refuge in Mexico whence they could raid at pleasure and where U.S. forces could not touch them without permission of the Mexican government.  Half the department was some of the most severe hotdesert in the world, including the Mojave in California, part of the command.  With no railroads in Arizona until 1883, all troops and supplies had to move on foot or with animal transport—Colorado River steamers being the only exception.  Kautz took over in 1875 in the shadow of Gen. George Crook’s success.  Any failure would draw an odious comparison.

By Andrew Wallace

By 1875 the federal government had brought nearly all hostile Indians in Arizona Territory onto federal reservations, and that year Gen. George Crook, who had directed their pacification, departed for the Northern Plains to help subdue the Sioux.  His successor was already at Fort Whipple: Col. August Valentine Kautz took over the Arizona military department with his Civil War rank of major general.

By Mick Woodcock

Some time in the late 1890s, Prescott photographer Erwin Baer journeyed a mile out of town to Fort Whipple to capture some military images on glass plates.  A surviving picture in the Sharlot Hall Museum was taken on a late winter’s day and shows that day’s guard detail in front of the fort’s guardhouse.

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

Before arrival of the Walker Exploratory Party to the Prescott Basin in the spring of 1863, Central Arizona was unknown territory, thus all maps of the time show just an empty space where the Prescott area now is.  In fact, an important reason for Captain Walker to come here was a desire to see, in his words, “the only unknown section of the United States and its territories.”

By Al Bates

This article is one of a series that will appear in this space during this year and the next on historic events relating to the Arizona Territory’s Sesquicentennial.

On May 10, 1863, the first recorded event in Prescott history occurred. At a spot some six miles south of today’s courthouse plaza, a band of 25 men approved a document that created the first mining district in the Central Arizona Highlands.

By Nancy Burgess

Once the Bashfords had remodeled the house to their tastes and to reflect their status in the community, the Bashford House became a meeting place for the well-to-do high society of Prescott’s business and professional elite.  Wealthy businessmen, financiers, mine owners, soldiers and politicians met at the Bashford’s elegant house.   Mrs. Bashford’s soirees, to which the ladies of society wore their elegant outfits, were a popular pastime for the wives and daughters of the prominent men of the community. These elaborate dresses, with bows and layers of flounces and pleats and “princess trains” were only worn once, as being seen in the same dress twice would shatter the important statement made by the wearer that the family was wealthy enough to afford such opulent costumes.  Mrs. Bashford’s gracious hospitality helped take the edge off the raw frontier that was just beyond the borders of the city.

By Nancy Burgess

Prescott was established as the capital of the newly created Arizona Territory in the spring of 1864.  At the time, it could not even be characterized as a settlement, just a few camps of miners and the beginnings of Fort Whipple a few miles from town. Prescott’s earliest buildings consisted of tents or brush shelters.  However, with a plentiful source of timber, log buildings soon began to appear and, by 1865, Prescott was described as a town built entirely of wood.