Battle of Dragoon Springs

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Battle of Dragoon Springs may refer to two battles occurring in the Dragoon Mountains of New Mexico Territory (US)/Confederate Arizona (CS), modern-day Cochise County, Arizona:

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cochise</span> Apache tribe chief (c. 1805–1874)

Cochise was the leader of the Chiricahui local group of the Chokonen and principal nantan of the Chokonen band of a Chiricahua Apache. A key war leader during the Apache Wars, he led an uprising that began in 1861 and persisted until a peace treaty was negotiated in 1872. Cochise County is named after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Confederate Arizona</span> Territory of the Confederate States of America

Arizona Territory, colloquially referred to as Confederate Arizona, was an organized incorporated territory of the Confederate States of America that existed from August 1, 1861, to May 26, 1865, when the Confederate States Army Trans-Mississippi Department, commanded by General Edmund Kirby Smith, surrendered at Shreveport, Louisiana. However, after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the Confederates had to retreat from the territory, and by July 1862, effective Confederate control of the territory had ended. Delegates to the secession convention had voted in March 1861 to secede from the New Mexico Territory and the Union, and seek to join the Confederacy. It consisted of the portion of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel, including parts of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. The capital was Mesilla, along the southern border. The breakaway region overlapped Arizona Territory, established by the Union government in February 1863.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Apache Pass</span> 1862 battle of the Apache Wars in Arizona, United States

The Battle of Apache Pass was fought in 1862 at Apache Pass, Arizona, in the United States, between Apache warriors and the Union volunteers of the California Column as it marched from California to capture Confederate Arizona and to reinforce New Mexico's Union army. It was one of the largest battles between the Americans and the Chiricahua during the Apache Wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Picacho Pass</span> Battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Picacho Pass, also known as the Battle of Picacho Peak, was an engagement of the American Civil War on April 15, 1862. The action occurred around Picacho Peak, 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Tucson, Arizona. It was fought between a Union cavalry patrol from California and a party of Confederate pickets from Tucson, and marks the westernmost battle of the American Civil War involving fatalities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st Cavalry Regiment (United States)</span> Military unit

The 1st Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army regiment that has its antecedents in the early 19th century in the formation of the United States Regiment of Dragoons. To this day, the unit's special designation is "First Regiment of Dragoons". While they were the First Regiment of Dragoons another unit designated the 1st Cavalry Regiment was formed in 1855 and in 1861 was re-designated as the 4th Cavalry Regiment. The First Dragoons became the 1st Cavalry Regiment since they were the oldest mounted regiment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apache Pass</span> Landform in Cochise County, Arizona

Apache Pass, also known by its earlier Spanish name Puerto del Dado, is a historic mountain pass in the U.S. state of Arizona between the Dos Cabezas Mountains and Chiricahua Mountains at an elevation of 5,110 feet (1,560 m). It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) east-southeast of Willcox, Arizona, in Cochise County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragoon Mountains</span> Landform in Cochise County, Arizona

The Dragoon Mountains are a range of mountains located in Cochise County, Arizona. The range is about 25 mi (40 km) long, running on an axis extending south-south east through Willcox. The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the Chiricahua, including Cochise, during the Apache Wars. The Dragoons established posts around 1856 after the Gadsden Purchase made it a U.S. territory.

The trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War was the scene of the major military operations west of the Mississippi River. The area is often thought of as excluding the states and territories bordering the Pacific Ocean, which formed the Pacific coast theater of the American Civil War (1861–1865).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Stanwix Station</span> Westernmost skirmish of the American Civil War

Stanwix Station, in western Arizona, was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail Stagecoach line built in the later 1850s near the Gila River about 80 miles (130 km) east of Yuma, Arizona. Originally the station was called Flap Jack Ranch later Grinnell's Ranch or Grinnell's Station. In 1862, Grinnell's was listed on the itinerary of the California Column in the same place as Stanwix Ranch which became the site of the westernmost skirmish of the American Civil War. A traveler in 1864, John Ross Browne, wrote Grinnell's was six miles southwest of the hot springs of Agua Caliente, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Battle of Dragoon Springs</span> Part of the Apache Wars (1862)

The First Battle of Dragoon Springs was a minor skirmish between a small troop of Confederate dragoons of Governor John R. Baylor's Arizona Rangers, and a band of Apache warriors during the American Civil War. It was fought on May 5, 1862, near the present-day town of Benson, Arizona, in Confederate Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traditional Arizona</span> Aspect of state history

Prior to the adoption of its name for a U.S. state, Arizona was traditionally defined as the region south of the Gila River to the present-day Mexican border, and between the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. It encompasses present-day Southern Arizona and the New Mexico Bootheel plus adjacent parts of Southwestern New Mexico. This area was transferred from Mexico to the United States in the Gadsden Purchase of 1853. Mining and ranching were the primary occupations of traditional Arizona's inhabitants, though growing citrus fruits had long been occurring in Tucson.

The Company A, Arizona Rangers was a cavalry formation of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capture of Tucson (1862)</span> 1862 Union capture of Tucson during the American Civil War

Union forces entered Tucson on May 20, 1862, with a force of 2,000 men without firing a shot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Battle of Dragoon Springs</span> Part of the Apache Wars (1862)

The Second Battle of Dragoon Springs was one of two skirmishes involving Apache warriors and Confederate soldiers in Arizona. It was fought during the American Civil War on May 9, 1862, and was a response to the First Battle of Dragoon Springs in which Confederate forces were defeated. Four men were killed in the first skirmish and several heads of livestock were captured. The rebel commander Captain Sherod Hunter, ordered his foraging squad to take back the livestock from Cochise's warriors, during which five Apaches were killed. There were no Confederate casualties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragoon, Arizona</span> Unincorporated community in the state of Arizona, United States

Dragoon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 209. Dragoon is 17 miles (27 km) east-northeast of the city of Benson. Dragoon has the ZIP code of 85609.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Henry Carleton</span> American Civil War Union army general (1814–1873)

James Henry Carleton was an officer in the US Army and a Union general during the American Civil War. Carleton is best known as an Indian fighter in the Southwestern United States.

Sherod Hunter was the commander of the Confederate unit operating against Union Army forces in present-day Arizona during the American Civil War. He later commanded various Confederate cavalry units elsewhere in the Trans-Mississippi Theater.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dragoon Springs Stage Station Site</span> United States historic place

Dragoon Springs is an historic site in what is now Cochise County, Arizona, at an elevation of 4,925 feet (1,501 m). The name comes from a nearby natural spring, Dragoon Spring, to the south in the Dragoon Mountains at 5,148 feet (1,569 m). The name originates from the 3rd U.S. Cavalry Dragoons who battled the Chiricahua, including Cochise, during the Apache Wars. The Dragoons established posts around 1856 after the Gadsden Purchase made the area a U.S. territory.

Ewell Station is a later station of the Butterfield Overland Mail located 24.4 miles (39.3 km) east of Dragoon Springs, Arizona and 12.22 miles (19.67 km) west of Apache Pass Station. This station shortened the route between Dragoon Springs and Apache Pass Stations and provided a water stop not previously available. The station was probably started in late 1858 as it is not listed in Oct., 1858 but appears in an account from 1862, after Butterfield had ceased operation. Water at the station was hauled from a spring, located 4 miles (6.4 km) north of the station in the Dos Cabezas Mountains and stored in a cistern.

Four cavalry regiments of the British Army have been called the 20th Regiment of Light Dragoons: