A Western Adventurer

Confederate Colonel Granville Henderson Oury took his oath of allegiance to the United States Government October 8^th 1865 at Fort Mason, Arizona.

Granville Henderson Oury was born March 12^th 1825 in Abingdon, Virginia.  The family moved in 1836 to Bowling Green, Missouri.  He studied law and was admitted to the bar 1848, the same year he moved to San Antonio, Texas.  He caught gold fever and moved in 1849 to Marysville, California to mine.  Oury gave up mining in 1856 and moved to Tucson in the New Mexico Territory, where he would be appointed district judge.  He was involved in the Crabb Massacre in April 1857, in which General Henry Crabb crossed the Mexican border and he and about 100 men with him were killed.

When the Civil War started Oury was elected to the Confederate Provisional Congress from the Arizona Territory.  At about the same time a band of Apaches attacked the town of Tubac, Arizona, and Oury raised a small party of Confederate militia, saving the people of the town.  Oury resigned his seat in the Confederate Congress in 1862 and joined Herbert’s Battalion of cavalry as a Captain.  He was promoted to Colonel and served as a staff officer for Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley in Texas and Louisiana.  When the war ended Oury took the oath allegiance at Fort Mason in Arizona on October 8^th 1865.

After the war Oury went back to his law practice in Tucson, Arizona.  He served in the Arizona Territorial Legislature, was the Speaker of the House, and in 1869 was the Attorney General of the Territory.  Moving to Phoenix, Arizona in 1871 he became the Maricopa County District Attorney.  He would serve the state as a Democrat in the United States House of Representatives from 1881 through 1885.  Oury died January 11^th 1891 in Tucson, Arizona from throat cancer.  He is buried in the Adamsville Cemetery in Florence, Arizona.

Largest Execution In American History

President Abraham Lincoln notified General Henry H Sibley on December 6th 1862 that he should execute thirty nine of the three hundred and three Santee Sioux.

In early winter of 1862 three hundred and three Santee Sioux were tried by a military tribunal, and convicted of murder and rape. They were sentenced to death by hanging. Some trials didn’t even last five minutes. President Lincoln reviewed the records of the trials distinguishing between those who committed crimes against civilians and those who warred against the United States. An Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota; Henry Whipple who worked with the Dakota Sioux urged Lincoln intervene and use leniency. On December 6th 1862 Lincoln commuted the death sentence of all but thirty nine of the Santee. One more was given a reprieve.

At about ten am on December 26th 1862 the remaining thirty-eight Sioux were executed in Mankato Minnesota. The hangings held before three thousand people, were performed on a single scaffold platform and remains the largest mass execution in the history of America.

For more information this is a good web site
Dakota War of 1862

Confederate Victory In The West

An early Confederate success, was in the New Mexico campaign on February 21, 1862 during the Battle of Val Verde. The Confederates under Brigadier General Henry H Sibley hoped to take Fort Craig, capturing supplies and doing away with the Union garrison stationed there.

Sibley’s brigade of about 2,500 were within 15 miles of the Fort on the evening of February 13. He judged the it to be to strong to take by frontal attack, so he had his troops deploy with hopes of getting the Union soldiers out in the open. However Colonel E R S Canby didn’t have much faith in his volunteer Union troops, and refused to be lured out into the open. Seeing that his tack wasn’t working General Sibley moved his men near Val Verde, north of Fort Craig, to cut off the Federals communications between to Fort and Santa Fe.

On the morning of February 21, 1862 four companies of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles under Major Charles Pyron, along with the 4th Texas Mounted Rifles went ahead as an advanced scouting party. Union scouts informed Colonel Canby of the movements of the Rebels. He sent the 5th New Mexico Infantry under Colonel Benjamin S Roberts out to secure the ford on the Rio Grande. The two armies met on opposite sides of the river. The guns the of the Confederates were mostly short range and wouldn’t reach the Union soldiers. In the late afternoon the Confederates attacked at the Union center taking six artillery pieces and breaking the Union line. Canby ordered a retreat back into the Fort.

As the Confederates held the battle field they claimed the victory. General Sibley still felt that the fort was to strong, and so abandoned it and moved on towards Albuquerque and Santa Fe in search of supplies. The Confederates lost 230 men and 475 Union men were killed or wounded.

Some really good extra reading
Battle of Val Verde

Bloody Valverde: A Civil War Battle on the Rio Grande, February 21, 1862

The Guns of Valverde (Civil War in the Far West)