By Al Bates

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

As Arizona Territory's first governor and his official party were slowly crossing northern New Mexico Territory (see Days Past, Dec. 15), they were following in the wake of another combined military and civilian expedition headed to the central Arizona "diggings."

The military part of the expedition - to establish a military presence for the area - numbered about 180 officers and men. Their transport required mule teams, ox-drawn wagons and three ambulances - tended by civilian teamsters and drovers - to carry their equipment and supplies. They were joined on the way by a number of New Mexican merchants with wagons loaded with goods to sell at the new diggings, and also driving 500 head of beef and 1,500 head of sheep for hungry miners.

Major Edward B. Willis of the California Volunteers led the expedition, which completed its assembly at Fort Wingate on Nov. 7, 1863. The Army's force included two infantry companies, commanded by Captains Benson and Hargrave, plus Captain Nathaniel Pishon and a portion of his cavalry company. Captain Pishon then guided the force along the route he and Robert Groom had pioneered the previous summer (see Days Past, Aug. 18), which followed the Beale wagon road west to Antelope Springs where they turned more southerly.

General James Carleton's instructions to Major Willis were to establish a military post near the gold fields to be known as Fort Whipple in honor of Gen. Amiel W. Whipple, who had recently been killed in the Civil War Battle of Chancellorsville, and who earlier in his career had explored and mapped a route across northern Arizona. There they would "preserve order and give security to life and property in that region until the civil officers of Arizona now en route from the east shall arrive within that Territory and shall establish and set in motion the machinery of civil government."

Other than the military officers, few names of those on the expedition are known. Army contract surgeon Dr. Charles Lieb and his wife Mary Catherine were the only married couple known to be with the Army contingent, although there may well have been some women with the New Mexican merchants.

Albert Franklin Banta was one of the civilian "bullwackers" driving the oxen. He later became a newspaperman and many times public servant in the territory. His boast was that he had held more public offices than anyone else in the territory.

Two members of the Roman Catholic clergy of New Mexico also joined the expedition, Bishop J. B. Lamy, whose diocese included both New Mexico and Arizona, and an assistant, Father J. M. Coudert. Bishop Lamy was making his first visit to the western portion of his spiritual domain, and while at the diggings would offer Christmas Day Mass 1863 for 20 to 25 men kneeling on the snow-covered earth along Granite Creek.

Fort Whipple was formally established Dec. 23, 1863, at Del Rio Springs in Little Chino Valley, a spot suggested by Captain Pishon for its abundance of water and grass. However, it was not an ideal spot, as it lacked timber and was situated some thirty miles from the diggings at Lynx Creek.

The journey there had not been without incident. Weather across the 35th parallel was exceedingly cold and stormy, and by the time Willis's command reached the base of the San Francisco Peaks the oxen were failing to such an extent that it became necessary to cache some of the stores at the head of Sycamore Canyon, leaving behind 11 soldiers (Fred G. Hughes, as NCO in charge) to guard them. It was nearly a month before a relief party commanded by Lieutenant Pomeroy arrived with 40 mules - all the mule teams of the command. That night, in Hughes words, "The herd was stampeded, every hoof taken, and one of our herders shot." Three weeks later a second relief party arrived at the cache, bringing oxen to haul the stored materials to Ft. Whipple, reaching there in late January, shortly before arrival of the Governor's Party.

Next week: The Governor's Party enters Arizona and takes control of the Territory in a formal ceremony.

Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are available at www.sharlothallmuseum.org/library-archives/days-past. The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Contact 445-3122, ext. 14, or archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.