Manuel Antonio Chaves
Encyclopedia
Manuel Antonio Chaves or Chávez (October 18, 1818? – January, 1889), known as El Leoncito (the little lion), was a soldier in the Mexican Army
and then became a rancher who lived in New Mexico
. His life was full of incident, and his courage and marksmanship became literally legendary in his own time. In documented history, as an American
soldier he helped win the American Civil War
Battle of Glorieta Pass
and was in command during an important fight in the Navajo Wars
. As a Mexican
soldier he probably negotiated the surrender of a large part of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition
.
, was born in the village of Atrisco, just west of Alburquerque
, then part of the Spanish Empire
. At the age of about sixteen, he participated in a trading expedition or slave-taking raid to the Navajo
country. His party of approximately fifty ran into a ceremonial gathering of thousands of Navajos, probably at Canyon de Chelly, and was overwhelmed. Chaves, severely wounded by arrows and the only survivor, made his way home alone and without provisions, a journey of almost 200 miles.
The historian Marc Simmons speculates that Chaves's first formal military experience may have been in August, 1837, under the command of his cousin Manuel Armijo
, who put down an uprising
in Santa Fe
and made himself governor of New Mexico, by then a province of an independent Mexico. At any rate, in 1839 Chaves was commissioned as a sublieutenant (alférez) in the rural mounted militia. In 1841, he probably negotiated the surrender of about half of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition
. According to Twitchell (1909), Chaves received the cross of honor from the Mexican government for that service.
officer, but Armijo's surrender ended the Battle of Santa Fe
before it began. In 1847 Chaves (after having spent some time in jail on suspicion of helping an abortive uprising in Santa Fe) swore an oath of allegiance to the United States. He declined a commission as an officer and enlisted as a private in the U.S. force that put down the Taos Revolt
. At the Siege of Pueblo de Taos
he saved his captain, Ceran St. Vrain
, by clubbing with his rifle a Pueblo with whom St. Vrain was struggling.
Chaves spent the following decade as a rancher, businessman (trading with Indians
among others), and Indian fighter. In 1860 he became a lieutenant-colonel in a militia unit, the Second New Mexico Mounted Volunteers, that had just been formed to fight the Navajos and Apache
s. The following year, when he was commander of Fort Fauntleroy (later Fort Wingate
) and an armistice had been made with the Navajos, allegations of cheating in a horse race led to a fight between his men and visiting Navajos in which a number of Navajos were killed. This event was crucial in the resumption of hostilities that led to the forced Long Walk of the Navajo
in 1863 (Dunlay 2000). Kit Carson
arrested Chaves after the fight, but with the circumstances of the killings unclear and the Civil War underway, Colonel Edward Canby
suspended the house arrest after two months.
In 1862 General Henry Sibley
led a force of Texans
in an attempt to capture New Mexico for the Confederacy
. Chaves, who had declared for the Union, fought with his militia at the Union defeat at Valverde
. Then at the Battle of Glorieta Pass
, Canby and Major John Chivington
chose Chaves to guide Chivington's force to the Confederate supply train. The regular Union soldiers and New Mexico militia destroyed the supplies, which forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas. Although official military records barely mentioned Chaves (Union Army Operations 1960, cited in Simmons 1973), other contemporary accounts described his actions (Whitford 1906, Hays n.d., cited in Simmons).
Chaves was honorably discharged in 1863 (after the dismissal of allegations that he had sold Army wagons for his profit). In that year he engaged in what he later called his greatest fight. A group of Navajos were raiding the Rio Grande
valley near Socorro
, killing many people and driving off herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. They took captive a son of Matías Contreras, a prominent local citizen. As Contreras would not wait for troops from Fort Craig
, Chaves led some 15 civilians on muleback against over 100 Navajos. The Navajos attacked Chaves's group at a spring called Ojo de la Mónica, immediately killing all the mules with rifle shots and forcing their pursuers to take cover. As Chaves was the best marksman, he fired his own rifle and also some of the others' while they reloaded his. By nightfall, only Chaves, Contreras, and one other man remained alive. At dawn they found that the Navajos had retreated, not knowing that Chaves had only three bullets left. (Contreras ransomed his son some months later.)
In 1863, the Long Walk ended the Indian wars in most of New Mexico. Chaves spent the rest of his life ranching in the San Mateo Mountains, building his home within a hundred feet of oak trees where he had rested in his flight from Canyon de Chelly as a teenager. Immediately behind those trees he built a family chapel, where he was buried along with his wife and children.
by Willa Cather
, who consulted with Chaves's son Amado. Chaves is depicted as a friend of Archbishop "Latour" (Jean Baptiste Lamy
). However, the only interaction between Chaves and Lamy known to history is that, probably during the late 1850s, Lamy excommunicated
Chaves during a dispute over the property line between a chapel and Chaves's house in Santa Fe. Chaves, his half-brother Román Baca, and a servant brought loaded rifles to the next Mass, and the priest did not read the order of excommunication.
Mexican Army
The Mexican Army is the combined land and air branch and largest of the Mexican Military services; it also is known as the National Defense Army. It is famous for having been the first army to adopt and use an automatic rifle, , in 1899, and the first to issue automatic weapons as standard issue...
and then became a rancher who lived in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. His life was full of incident, and his courage and marksmanship became literally legendary in his own time. In documented history, as an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
soldier he helped win the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Battle of Glorieta Pass
Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Confederate forces to break...
and was in command during an important fight in the Navajo Wars
Navajo Wars
The Navajo Wars were a series of battles and other conflicts, often separated with treaties that involved raids by different Navajo bands on the rancheras along the Rio Grande and the counter campaigns by the Spanish, Mexican, and United States governments, and sometimes their civilian elements....
. As a Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
soldier he probably negotiated the surrender of a large part of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition
Texas Santa Fe Expedition
The Texas Santa Fe Expedition was a commercial and military expedition to secure the Republic of Texas's claims to parts of Northern New Mexico for Texas in 1841. The expedition was unofficially initiated by the then President of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar, in an attempt to gain control over the...
.
Biography
Chaves, a lineal descendent of one of the Spanish conquistadores led by Don Juan de OñateJuan de Oñate
Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar was a Spanish explorer, colonial governor of the New Spain province of New Mexico, and founder of various settlements in the present day Southwest of the United States.-Biography:...
, was born in the village of Atrisco, just west of Alburquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, then part of the Spanish Empire
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
. At the age of about sixteen, he participated in a trading expedition or slave-taking raid to the Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
country. His party of approximately fifty ran into a ceremonial gathering of thousands of Navajos, probably at Canyon de Chelly, and was overwhelmed. Chaves, severely wounded by arrows and the only survivor, made his way home alone and without provisions, a journey of almost 200 miles.
The historian Marc Simmons speculates that Chaves's first formal military experience may have been in August, 1837, under the command of his cousin Manuel Armijo
Manuel Armijo
Manuel Armijo was a New Mexican soldier and statesman who served three times as governor of New Mexico. He was instrumental in putting down the Revolt of 1837, he led the force that captured the Texan Santa Fe Expedition and he surrendered to the United States in the Mexican-American War.-Early...
, who put down an uprising
Revolt of 1837 (New Mexico)
The Revolt of 1837, also known as the Chimayó Rebellion, was a popular insurrection in New Mexico against Albino Pérez, the Mexican governor at the time.-Background:Governor Pérez had arrived from central Mexico in 1835...
in Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
and made himself governor of New Mexico, by then a province of an independent Mexico. At any rate, in 1839 Chaves was commissioned as a sublieutenant (alférez) in the rural mounted militia. In 1841, he probably negotiated the surrender of about half of the Texas Santa Fe Expedition
Texas Santa Fe Expedition
The Texas Santa Fe Expedition was a commercial and military expedition to secure the Republic of Texas's claims to parts of Northern New Mexico for Texas in 1841. The expedition was unofficially initiated by the then President of Texas, Mirabeau B. Lamar, in an attempt to gain control over the...
. According to Twitchell (1909), Chaves received the cross of honor from the Mexican government for that service.
U.S.Invasion and afterwards
When the United States invaded in 1846, Chaves again went to fight for Armijo as a militiaMilitia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
officer, but Armijo's surrender ended the Battle of Santa Fe
Battle of Santa Fe
The Capture of Santa Fe, also known as the Battle of Santa Fe or the Battle of Cañoncito, took place near Santa Fe, New Mexico, the capital of the Mexican Province of New Mexico, during the Mexican-American War on 8 August through 14 August 1846. No shots were fired.-Background:United States Army...
before it began. In 1847 Chaves (after having spent some time in jail on suspicion of helping an abortive uprising in Santa Fe) swore an oath of allegiance to the United States. He declined a commission as an officer and enlisted as a private in the U.S. force that put down the Taos Revolt
Taos Revolt
The Taos Revolt was a popular insurrection in January 1847 by Mexicans and Pueblo allies against the United States' occupation of present-day northern New Mexico during the Mexican–American War. In two short campaigns, United States troops and militia crushed the rebellion of the Mexicans and...
. At the Siege of Pueblo de Taos
Siege of Pueblo de Taos
The Siege of Pueblo de Taos was the final battle during the main phase of the Taos Revolt, an insurrection against the United States during the Mexican-American War. It was also the final major engagement between American forces and insurgent forces in New Mexico during the war...
he saved his captain, Ceran St. Vrain
Ceran St. Vrain
Ceran St. Vrain , also known as Ceran de Hault de Lassus de St. Vrain, was a major fur trader near Taos, New Mexico, where he and his partner William Bent established the trading post of Bent's Fort. St...
, by clubbing with his rifle a Pueblo with whom St. Vrain was struggling.
Chaves spent the following decade as a rancher, businessman (trading with Indians
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
among others), and Indian fighter. In 1860 he became a lieutenant-colonel in a militia unit, the Second New Mexico Mounted Volunteers, that had just been formed to fight the Navajos and Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
s. The following year, when he was commander of Fort Fauntleroy (later Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate
Fort Wingate is near Gallup, New Mexico. There were two locations in New Mexico that had this name. The first one was located near San Rafael. The current fort was established on the southern edge of the Navajo territory in 1862. The initial purpose of the fort was to control the large Navajo...
) and an armistice had been made with the Navajos, allegations of cheating in a horse race led to a fight between his men and visiting Navajos in which a number of Navajos were killed. This event was crucial in the resumption of hostilities that led to the forced Long Walk of the Navajo
Long Walk of the Navajo
The Long Walk of the Navajo, also called the Long Walk to Bosque Redondo , refers to the 1864 deportation of the Navajo people by the U.S. Government. Navajos were forced to walk at gunpoint from their reservation in what is now Arizona to eastern New Mexico. The trip lasted about 18 days...
in 1863 (Dunlay 2000). Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
arrested Chaves after the fight, but with the circumstances of the killings unclear and the Civil War underway, Colonel Edward Canby
Edward Canby
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War, Reconstruction era, and the Indian Wars...
suspended the house arrest after two months.
In 1862 General Henry Sibley
Henry Hopkins Sibley
Henry Hopkins Sibley was a brigadier general during the American Civil War, leading the Confederate States Army in the New Mexico Territory. His attempt to gain control of trails to California was defeated at the Battle of Glorieta Pass...
led a force of Texans
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in an attempt to capture New Mexico for the Confederacy
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. Chaves, who had declared for the Union, fought with his militia at the Union defeat at Valverde
Battle of Valverde
The Battle of Valverde, or the Battle of Valverde Ford from February 20 to February 21, 1862, was fought near the town of Valverde at a ford of Valverde Creek in Confederate Arizona, in what is today the state of New Mexico. It was a major Confederate success in the New Mexico Campaign of the...
. Then at the Battle of Glorieta Pass
Battle of Glorieta Pass
The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought from March 26 to 28, 1862 in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Confederate forces to break...
, Canby and Major John Chivington
John Chivington
John Milton Chivington was a colonel in the United States Army who served in the American Indian Wars during the Colorado War and the New Mexico Campaigns of the American Civil War...
chose Chaves to guide Chivington's force to the Confederate supply train. The regular Union soldiers and New Mexico militia destroyed the supplies, which forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas. Although official military records barely mentioned Chaves (Union Army Operations 1960, cited in Simmons 1973), other contemporary accounts described his actions (Whitford 1906, Hays n.d., cited in Simmons).
Chaves was honorably discharged in 1863 (after the dismissal of allegations that he had sold Army wagons for his profit). In that year he engaged in what he later called his greatest fight. A group of Navajos were raiding the Rio Grande
Rio Grande
The Rio Grande is a river that flows from southwestern Colorado in the United States to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way it forms part of the Mexico – United States border. Its length varies as its course changes...
valley near Socorro
Socorro, New Mexico
Socorro is a city in Socorro County in the U.S. state of New Mexico. It stands in the Rio Grande Valley at an elevation of . The population was 9,051 at the 2010 census...
, killing many people and driving off herds of cattle, horses, and sheep. They took captive a son of Matías Contreras, a prominent local citizen. As Contreras would not wait for troops from Fort Craig
Fort Craig
Fort Craig was a U.S. Army fort located along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant Butte Lake State Park and the Rio Grande in Socorro County, New Mexico....
, Chaves led some 15 civilians on muleback against over 100 Navajos. The Navajos attacked Chaves's group at a spring called Ojo de la Mónica, immediately killing all the mules with rifle shots and forcing their pursuers to take cover. As Chaves was the best marksman, he fired his own rifle and also some of the others' while they reloaded his. By nightfall, only Chaves, Contreras, and one other man remained alive. At dawn they found that the Navajos had retreated, not knowing that Chaves had only three bullets left. (Contreras ransomed his son some months later.)
In 1863, the Long Walk ended the Indian wars in most of New Mexico. Chaves spent the rest of his life ranching in the San Mateo Mountains, building his home within a hundred feet of oak trees where he had rested in his flight from Canyon de Chelly as a teenager. Immediately behind those trees he built a family chapel, where he was buried along with his wife and children.
Depiction in Fiction
Chaves appears as a minor character in Death Comes for the ArchbishopDeath Comes for the Archbishop
Death Comes for the Archbishop is a 1927 novel by Willa Cather. It concerns the attempts of a Catholic bishop and a priest to establish a diocese in New Mexico Territory.The novel was included on Time's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005...
by Willa Cather
Willa Cather
Willa Seibert Cather was an American author who achieved recognition for her novels of frontier life on the Great Plains, in works such as O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, and The Song of the Lark. In 1923 she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours , a novel set during World War I...
, who consulted with Chaves's son Amado. Chaves is depicted as a friend of Archbishop "Latour" (Jean Baptiste Lamy
Jean Baptiste Lamy
Jean-Baptiste Lamy , was a French Roman Catholic clergyman and the first Archbishop of Santa Fe , United States. American writer Willa Cather's novel Death Comes for the Archbishop is based on his life and career.-Ordination as a priest:Lamy was born in Lempdes, Puy de Dôme, in the Auvergne region...
). However, the only interaction between Chaves and Lamy known to history is that, probably during the late 1850s, Lamy excommunicated
Excommunication
Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation of the member or group...
Chaves during a dispute over the property line between a chapel and Chaves's house in Santa Fe. Chaves, his half-brother Román Baca, and a servant brought loaded rifles to the next Mass, and the priest did not read the order of excommunication.
See also
- Hispanics in the American Civil WarHispanics in the American Civil WarHispanics in the American Civil War fought on both the Union and Confederate sides of the conflict. It is estimated that approximately 3,500 Hispanics, mostly Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans living in the United States joined the war: 2500 for the Confederacy and 1000 for the Union...