The Texans
One Snively, styling
himself a Colonel, organized, in North Texas, early in May, 1843, a force
of about one hundred and seventy-five men for the purpose of preying on
the Mexicans engaged in the Santa Fe trade. Texas and Mexico were then at
war, and the purpose of Snively would have been justified had he molested
only the Mexicans. He arrived on the Arkansas in May, and was soon joined
by Warfield and his company, who had recently lost their horses to the
Mexicans by a stampede. Snively came upon a party of Mexicans south of the
Arkansas sand hills, and in the skirmish which ensued eighteen Mexicans
were killed; and five of the wounded died later. The force of Snively
sustained no casualties. The surviving Mexicans fled in the direction of
their own country, finding their scalawag Governor, Armijo, encamped with
a strong force at Cold Spring. That ferocious sheep thief waited for
nothing, but broke into a mad rout for Santa Fe.
After his encounter with the Mexicans, the force of Snively fell off,
seventy-five men leaving for Texas in a body. Soon after this the caravan
of traders from Missouri appeared upon the Trail. But they were under
escort of Captain P. St. George Cooke, who had a command of two hundred
United States Dragoons. Snively was on the south side of the Arkansas
about ten miles below the "Caches." Upon the arrival of Captain Cooke
Snively crossed the river to meet him, and was informed that he must
surrender his arms. This he avoided by a trick, turning over the
antiquated and harmless fusils taken from the Mexicans in the recent
skirmish.
The action of Captain Cooke demoralized Snively's forces. Many of his men
returned directly to Texas. And when Captain Cooke retraced his steps to
Fort Leavenworth he carried about forty of the Texans with him as
captives. Something like sixty of Snively's force soon elected Warfield as
their commander and pursued the caravan of traders, then well on their way
beyond the Cimarron. At the Point of Rocks, twenty miles east of the
Canadian, they abandoned the pursuit, and went back to Texas. And the
interference of the Texans with the Santa Fe trade was at an end. Santa
Anna, then President of Mexico, issued a decree on the 7th of August,
1843, closing the port of New Mexico to all commerce. That decree was
superseded by the order of March 31, 1844. And ninety wagons carrying
goods valued at two hundred thousand dollars, taken out by nearly two
hundred men, found their way from Missouri to Santa Fe the following
summer.
