Gathering 2011

Cowboys in Blue (February 11-13, 2011)

By Hank Cramer

When Mexico and the United States signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, the size of our nation grew exponentially with the addition of present-day California, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, a corner of Wyoming and the western slope of Colorado. And all for $15 million dollars! In 1851, with the conclusion of the Gadsden Purchase, the United States obtained the last piece of territory from Mexico, which added the lower half of Arizona and New Mexico.

The tasks of outposting, mapping, and defending this vast territory now fell to the United States Army. A small force by any reckoning , the frontier Army was a cross-section of America: adventurous volunteers from "back east"; veterans of the Mexican and Civil Wars who found military life to their liking; and immigrants fresh from Europe, taking the first job they could find. These "cowboys in blue" learned to ride, scout, work, and fight in a strange and wondrous new land far from their homes. They brought with them instruments, songs, and stories from home, and soon created a frontier culture of their very own. Around their campfires, one might hear a Civil War veteran singing "Lorena" or "Tenting Tonight", an Irish fiddler playing "The Girl I Left Behind Me", or a Scotsman leading a nostalgic chorus of "Annie Laurie". In the saddle, they’d poke fun at Army life with a recitation of "Forty miles a day on beans and hay, in the Regular Army - O". But the ballad "Over The Hills and Far Away" offered a sober reminder: "When duty calls then we must go, to face and fight another foe…"

Duty called them to southern Arizona in March, 1877. The foe was the fearsome Chiricahua Apache tribe, who viewed settlers’ incursions into Apacheria as a hostile invasion. Captain Samuel Marmaduke Whitside, commanding two companies of the 6th Cavalry, selected a site at the base of the Huachuca ("Thunder") Mountains for a new military outpost. Perfectly positioned to block Apache raids along and across the border, Fort Huachuca played a key role the Army’s campaign to corral Geronimo and his renegade warriors, and later in protecting American citizens during the "border troubles" of 1911-1914.

As enlistments expired and the frontier grew more peaceful, many soldiers left military service to homestead the Arizona Territory, or work for local ranchers as cowboys. These "cowboys in blue" left their stamp on Southern Arizona, and began a legacy that’s honored still today by the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering.