AUGUST 18:

August 18, 1854:  Captain Jesse Walker attacks the Modocs on Tule Lake. Several minor engagements continue until the peace treaty is reached on September 4, 1854.

August 18, 1863:  As part of the Canyon de Chelly Campaign, Kit Carson and General James Charlatan tried to starve the Navajo into submission.  On this date General Charlatan put a bounty on Navajo livestock:  every good horse or mule would bring $20 (quite a good sum for those days) and each sheep would bring $1.
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

Navajo Long Walk

During July of 1863, Kit Carson and seven hundred men return to Fort Defiance. Manuelito and Barboncito watched the American ride into fort. Many Navajo bands were already suffering from raids by all their enemies. Each day war parties raided the Navajo camps. Families were afraid to return to their homes. Utes had destroyed and burned the Navajo's hogans. Utes were the Navajos most dangerous enemy. Kit Carson had encouraged the Utes to raid the Navajos. He paid the Utes money for stolen livestock and allowed them to keep Navajo prisoners. Ute warriors attacked any Navajo that they saw. The headmen knew that the Americans would soon be coming to attack the Navajos. At first, the Americans didn't do much damage to the Navajo people and their property. Kit Carson's troops destroyed the abandoned Navajo homes in the valley, but only a few Navajo were killed or captured. Still, the Navajo warriors fought the Americans. They attacked a group of soldiers gathering Navajo horses and killed their officer. Navajo warriors raided the Fort Defiance corral and ran off a large herd of horses. Kit Carson could not be stopped.

In August of 1863, he led his men across Navajo country. He divided his soldiers into smaller and faster riding groups. These groups destroyed every Navajo camp they found. The soldiers were not able to capture many Navajos. So far, most of the Navajo families were able to hide from the Americans. By September, Carson's men had captured only fifty Navajos. General Carleton was mad. He ordered Kit Carson to attack Barboncito's band in Canyon de Chelly.

During the month of November, the sky of the Chuska Mountains was dark with rain clouds. The cold wind signaled that winter was coming early. Although winter was about to come, the Ute and American raiders continued their attacks on the Navajos. Some Navajo bands were running out of food, other bands had no food left. Their enemies had destroyed their crops and livestock. Barboncito's brother, Delgadito knew that his band would not survive the cold winter. Reluctantly, he decided to surrender to the soldiers at Fort Defiance. Kit Carson moved them to Fort Sumner. Barboncito swore he would never surrender to the Americans.

When Carson's men were ready to attack Canyon de Chelly, Barboncito's warriors ran off all of the army mules. The mules were needed to carry the soldier's supplies. The American soldiers ran after the raiders and the mules. A heavy snowstorm started and the soldiers had to return to the fort. Barboncito's band butchered and ate the mules. Carson's attack was delayed. On January 6, 1864, Kit Carson led almost four hundred soldiers into Canton de Chelly. Deep snow covered the mesa and valley below. A sharp cold wind froze the finger and ears of Carson's men. However the Americans didn't stop their expedition. Most of the Navajos were starving and freezing. Carson hoped the Navajos would be easy to conquer. His army traveled through the canyon and destroyed every abandoned Navajo camp that they could find. For sixteen day, the soldiers burned the hogans, tore down the corrals, destroyed food supplies, and filled up water holes with rocks and dirt. Finally, the Americans reached the Chinle area. Kit Carson made camp and waited for the Navajos to surrender.

Many Navajos realized they would not survive the winter. They had no livestock. There homes were in ashes, crops destroyed, the children wore rags, and their were so many enemies attacking them, the Navajos were afraid to light fires to keep warm. Most of the Navajos had no choice. They had to surrender to the Americans. Families and bands began to surrender to Kit Carson. Other Navajos walked into Fort Defiance and Fort Wingate to surrender. The soldiers gave the Navajos food and blankets. The Navajos were surprised at the soldiers' charity. They thought the soldiers wanted to kill them. When the news of their good treatment reached other Navajos, more people started to surrender.

Delgadito returned from Fort Sumner. He told the Navajos at Fort Defiance that there were food, blankets, and safe homes there and there were many soldiers to protect them from their enemies. He advised the Navajos to surrender. One by one, Navajo bands trickled into Fort Defiance and Fort Wingate. Soon both forts were overcrowded with thousands of Navajo prisoners. The soldiers ran out of food and blankets for the Navajos.

General Carleton was astounded. He did not know there were so many Navajos. Several Navajo bands refused to surrender. Manuelito and his people moved into the Hopi country. After Carson's attack on Canyon de Chelly was over, Manuelito's people returned to the Chuska Mountains. The Navajo warrior remained ready to fight the Americans. If the Americans attacked again, the Chuska Navajos would give them a battle their enemies would remember. Barboncito and his band did not surrender too. Three hundred of his men, women, and children were hidden safely on top of Fortress Rock in canyon de Chelly.

Fortress Rock was a giant butte with tall, steep sides. Barboncito's people used ladder poles to climb to the top. Then they pulled the ladders up behind them so their enemies could not follow them.

Carson's soldiers could not find a way up the butte. There was no water on top of the rock, but there was a water hole at the bottom of Fortress Rock. The soldiers guarded the water hole day and night. The American thought the Navajos would surrender or die of thirst. But when night came, the Navajos took empty water jugs and quietly climbed down the cliffs. They tied long yucca ropes to the jugs, lowered the pots into the water hole, filled them, and pulled them back up again. The Navajos were so quiet that the American guards did not even know the Navajos were there for the water. The Americans finally left the Fortress Rock area.

Barboncito's band came down from Fortress Rock and the traveled towards the Little Colorado River. The Navajos hoped the soldiers would not follow them. By March of 1864, more than five thousand Navajos were prisoners of the American soldiers. Groups of Navajo captives began the long trek to Fort Sumner, which was several hundred miles away. The Americans only had a few wagons and the Navajos people only had a few horses. Almost all the Navajos had to walk to Fort Sumner.

Soon the Navajo's moccasins fell apart and their clothes and blankets turned to rags. During the walk, snow fell on the Navajos. Many Navajos became sick and died. They also became sick from the different foods that the soldiers gave them. The Navajos did not how to use white flour and coffee beans. They mixed the flour with water and drank it. Then they tried boiling the hard coffee beans in stew. This combination gave the Navajos severe stomach cramps. Old people and young people fell along the trail. If they did not get up the soldiers either shot them or left them to freeze to death.

The tired and ragged Navajos struggled to get to Fort Sumner. Coyotes began to follow the Navajos and crows circled over their heads. They were waiting for somebody to die. The line of weary prisoners became so long the Army could not protect all the Navajos from enemy attacks. New Mexican raiders attacked the Navajos and took their children. The soldiers made the Navajos continue their march to the fort.

The headmen began to wonder if they should have listened to Delgadito's promises. They were suffering more on the Long Walk than they had suffered on their own land. The Navajo people were hungry, cold, ill, and sore. Over three thousand Navajos had died and the prisoners were a long way from Fort Sumner. Conditions might have been better for the Navajo people if they had not surrendered. But now it was too late. The headman hoped and prayed there would be food, clothes, homes, and safety at Fort Sumner.

>From http://www.rr.gmcs.k12.nm.us/nmnavajo.longwalk.htm
 

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Editor's Note:  As evidenced by the words of the letter below, it seems that Kit Carson, at least in December 1863, did not share the views of General Charlatan.  The following comes from the website "This Week In The Civil War"at http://www.civilweek.com/1863/dec0663.htm

HEADQUARTERS NAVAJO EXPEDITION, Fort Canby, December 6, 1863. - Capt. BENJ. C. CUTLER, Asst. Adjt. Gen., Hdqrs., Dept. of New Mexico, Santa Fe, N. Mex. - CAPTAIN: I would respectfully represent that these people, numbering some 4,000 souls, are in a most deplorable condition, from the fact that the country for several miles around their villages is quite barren and is entirely destitute of vegetation. They have no water for purposes of irrigation, and their only dependence for subsistence is on the little corn they raise when the weather is propitious, which is not always the case in this latitude. They are a peaceable people; have never robbed nor murdered the people of New Mexico, and are in every way worthy of the fostering care of the Government. Of the bounty so unsparingly bestowed by it on the other Pueblo Indians, aye even on marauding bands, they have never tasted, and I earnestly recommend that the attention of the Indian Bureau be called to this matter. I understand that a couple of years' annuities for the Navajoes, not distributed, are in the possession of the superintendent of Indian affairs at Sante Fe, and I consider that, if such an arrangement would be legal, these goods would be well bestowed on these people....I am, captain, very respectfully, your obedient servant, C. CARSON, Colonel First Cavalry, New Mexico Vols., Comdg. Expedition.