1846 - 1848 - The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the American Intervention in Mexico, was an armed conflict between the United States of America and the Second Federal Republic of Mexico. It followed in the wake of the 1845 American annexation of the independent Republic of Texas. When President James K. Polk offered to purchase the disputed lands and was rejected by Mexico, he instigated a fight by moving 3,550 troops under General Zachary Taylor into the disputed zone between the Rio Grande and Nueces River that both countries had previously recognized as part of the Mexican state of Coahuila. After Mexican forces ambushed and attacked sixty-three American forces killing eleven soldiers, wounding six and capturing a dragoon force of sixty-three. Polk cited this in his request that Congress declare war.

1846 - (Brig. General) Colonel Stephen Watts Kearny (Kar-nee) and his Army of the West with nearly 1,700 soldiers and Missouri volunteers in 1,556 wagons, with 12 cannons and 4 howitzers arived in Las Vegas, NM. from Levenworth, Kansas. The Mormon Battalion was mustered into volunteer service on July 16, 1846 as part of the Army of the West under General Kearny. When he reached Las Vegas, New Mexico he informed them that they were no longer under Mexican sovereignty and that he had replaced Armijo as their governor. He also pledged to respect their Catholic religion. General Kearny was told that there were 600 Mexican soldiers under the leadership of Governor Manuel Armijo were waiting for him outside of Santa Fe in Apache Canyon. (Some accounts state that there were as many as four thousand armed Mexicans and Indians.) As it turned out the Governor turned around and fled to Chihuahua, Mexico. (Kearny had sent James Magoffin, a Santa Fe trader who was fluent in Spanish and Captain Phillip Saint George Cooke to Santa Fe to secretly negotiate the surrender of the town. Magoffin was married to Dona Maria Gertrudes Valdez de Beremendes, Armijo's cousin.) The American army peacefully entered Santa Fe on August 22. Kearney named the newly established fort Fort Marcy after William L. Marcy the secretary of war at the time (who later became Secretary of State).

1846, Sept. 22 - Charles Bent was appointed governor of the New Mexico Territory by Kearny.

1847, Jan. 19 - The Taos revolt. Charles Bent was killed and scalped at his home in Taos by Mexicans and Taos Indians. His wife, Maria Ignacia Jaramillo, her sister Kit Carson's wife, Maria Josefa Jaramillo and their children escaped into the courtyard by cutting a hole in the wall of the house. (The Mexicans and Taos Indians also killed and mutilated five more Americans and Mexicans who sympathized with the Americans.)

1847, Jan. 19 - Battle at Turley's Mill - 500 or more Mexicans and Taos Indians demanded the surrender of his nine mountain man friends that were visiting him at his mill. Turley would not surrender his friends, so a battle began lasting for two days. Two of his friends were killed. The second night of the siege the defenders made a break; only three men escsaped alive including Turley. Turley was shot dead later by several Mexican raiders. Thomas Tobin and John Albert escaped and later joined the destruction of the rebels in Taos.

1847, Jan. 23 - Colonel Sterling Price, was left in charge of Santa Fe when Kearny left for California. In retaliation for the killing of Charles Bent, Price led more than 300 U.S. troops from Santa Fe to Taos, together with 65 volunteers. Along the way the combined forces beat back a force of some 1,500 Hispanos and Puebloans at Santa Cruz de la Cañada and Embudo Pass. The insurgents retreated to Taos Pueblo, where they took refuge in the thick-walled adobe church. During the ensuing battle, the US breached a wall of the church and directed cannon fire into the interior, inflicting many casualties and killing about 150 rebels. They captured 400 more men after close hand-to-hand fighting. Seven U.S. troops died in the battle. On April 9, the US forces hanged six of the convicted insurgents in the Taos plaza; all but one were convicted of murder, and he of treason. Two weeks later, the US forces executed five more. In all, the US hanged at least 28 men in Taos in response to the revolt.

1847, Jan. 24 - First Battle of Mora - Capt. John Hendley and the Second Missouri Volunteers, marched to Mora from Las Vegas, NM with eighty men where they engaged one hundred and fifty Mexican and Taos Indian rebels. He was killed and several soldiers were wounded. They withdrew, and marched back to Las Vegas with fifteen prisoners; he reported fifteen to twenty of the enemy slain.

1847, Feb. 1 - Second Battle of Mora - Approximately 200 United States troops led by Captain Jesse I. Morinmarched to Mora armed with one or possibly two howitzer cannons. They initiated a short but devastating barrage on the old fort protecting the town. No American casualties were reported, but the Mexicans and their indigenous allies suffered several dead or wounded. Seventeen Hispanic men were captured for trial as traitors.

Afterwards American soldiers were directed by Morin to pursue the fleeing New Mexicans and he ordered the complete destruction of Mora. Federal troops killed stragglers, looted and burned the villages, the nearby ranches, and the wheat fields and other crops surrounding the settlements. Others chased after the New Mexicans through the Mora Valley, as the surviving insurgents and other inhabitants fled up and over the surrounding mountains to other villages of northern New Mexico. They stayed in these other villages for some time due to crop and livestock destruction by Morin's men leaving them no food source. The New Mexican civilians eventually returned to Mora and rebuilt.

1848, Feb. 2 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits and Settlement between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic) was signed in the Villa de Guadalupe Hidalgo (now a neighborhood of Mexico City) between the United States and Mexico that ended the Mexican–American War(1846–1848). The treaty came into force on July 4, 1848.

1848 - Of those coming to Santa Fe on the Santa Fe Trail was Soloman Jacob Spielberg. He was the first Jewish immigrant to come to Santa Fe. Later his brothers Levi, Elias, Emanuel, Lehman and Willi joined him. In 1852 when Archbishop Lamy was en route to New Mexico he tended the dysentery-stricken Levi on the Santa Fe Trail. The Spielberg family later donated $500 to the construction of the St. Francis cathedral. In return for the monetary assistance from the Jewish families of the Spielbergs and the Staabs, Lamy placed a triangle above the main entrance with the inscription of the Hebrew letters for Yahweh, a form of the Hebrew name of God used in the Bible too sacred to be spoken.

Soloman and Levi, the first to come, formed the partnership of Spiegelberg Brothers offering groceries and dry goods for sale. They served as sutlers to the American military and as Indian traders. Later they established and were major stockholders in the Second National Bank of Santa Fe investing in mining operations, insurance and real estate.

1850, summer - The Constitutional Convention of New Mexico adopted a plan for statehood which was not paid attention to by the U.S. Congress. Other attempts in 1867 and during the 1870's also failed.

1850, July 1 - The first four-year contract for carrying mail monthly from Independence, MO to Santa Fe went into effect. New water-tight, beautifully painted stages were used using six-mule carriages with elliptical springs and iron axles.

1850, Sept. 9 - Territory of New Mexico was organized as an incorporated territory of the United States under President Millard Fillmore. Texas was paid $10,000,000 to relinquish its claim to the region east of the Rio Grande. James S. Calhoun, who had been serving as Indian Superintendent, was appointed the first territorial governor. (13 years later the territory was split to form Arizona)

1851 - Bishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, a Frenchman, was the first bishop and archbishop of the Diocese of Santa Fe. He arrived in New Mexico over the Santa Fe Trail and established schools, hospitals and orphanages throughout the territory.

1853, December 30 - The Gadsden Purchase (U.S. President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden, the new U.S. Minister to Mexico, to negotiate with Santa Anna) added 45,000 square miles south of the New Mexico territory (including Arizona) that was not included in Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo because of a surveying error that placed El Paso thirty-four miles north and one hundred miles east of its true location. It was purchased from Mexico for $10,0000,000. The purchase led to the expansion of cattle ranching, mining and eventually to the development for a southern transcontinental railroad.

1850's - Additional army troops were stationed to guard the lines of communication from raids of Navajos and Apaches. Forts were established along well-travelled routes for protection: Ft.Union, Ft. Filmore, Ft. Craig, Ft. Stanton, Ft. Fauntleroy and Ft. Wingate. The monthly overland mail route was begun over the Santa Fe trail on July 1, 1850 from Independence, MO. The cost was $250 and one could only bring 40 pounds of luggage. A stage was started at each end at the same time taking about two weeks to make the trip.

1858, Sept. - John Butterfield began the Overland Mail Company which carried mail and passangers from St. Louis, Missouri to San Francisco, California in about 24 days. One coach leaving San Francisco and the other leaving St. Louis at about the same time. One of the passengers on the first route west was a New York Herald special correspondent named Waterman Ormsby. The route passed through southern New Mexico. There were other stagecoach lines in the U.S. as well.

Synopsis of the Butterfield Overland Mail Route

1860 - Boarding schools (Indian Residential Schools) for Native American children began when the Bureau of Indian Affairs established the first Indian boarding school on the Yakima Indian Reservation in the state of Washington. The primary objective was to assimilate Native American children and youth into the Euro-American culture. Pennsylvania's Carlisle Indian School was the first opening in 1878 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Many other schools were opened in the hopes that the schools would quickly be able to assimilate Indian youth into the American culture by replacing their language, name, religion and identity. (Tom Tosilino was a Navajo student in the Carlisle Indian School) The Albuquerque Indian School was established in 1881 eventually closing in 1982. The Santa Fe Indian School was established in 1890. In 2001, with the passing of the All Indian Pueblo Council (AIPC) Act, the school took ownership of the land. In 2008, the SFIS razed eighteen of the standing buildings. The Santa Fe Indian School is still in operation with a different emphasis.

1860 - New boundries for New Mexico and Arizona during the American Civil War.

1861, Spring - Civil War in the United States began. Territorial soldiers chose to fight for either the United States or the Confederate States of America.

1861, July - Confederate forces from Texas under Lt. Col. John R. Baylor led his forces out of Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) and invaded New Mexico. Mesilla was occupied on July 24th & 25th paving the way for a later invasion of New Mexico. Confederate Arizona was established below the 34th parallel which included the modern states of both New Mexico and Arizona with its capital in Mesilla. This division lasted until the Civil War was over.

1862, Jan. - Confederate President  Jefferson Davis commissioned General Henry Hopkins Sibley to raise three full regiments (900 men in each regiment) in West Texas, which eventually became the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Texas Volunteer Cavalry. By late Fall 1861, there were 3,500 men prepared to invade New Mexico. Brigadier-General H.H. Sibley (he suffered from kidney stones & alcoholism) led his Texas forces out of Fort Bliss (El Paso, TX) and up the Rio Grande. His goal was to secure the gold fields of Colorado and California for the Confederacy. On February 21-22 he defeated Army regulars and the territorial volunteers of Colonel E. R. S. Canby at the Battle of Valverde, by-passing Ft. Craig. He marched through Albuquerque and occupied Santa Fe on March 23rd.

1862, March 26-28 - At the Battle of Glorieta Pass or "Gettysburg of the West" a Confederate force of 200-300 Texans under the command of Maj. Charles L. Pyron were sent to control Glorieta Pass up the Santa Fe Trail before advancing to take Ft. Union. Union soldier Maj. John M. Chivington led more than 400 soldiers to the Pass and on the morning of March 26 moved out to attack. Lt. Col. William R. Scurry’s troops swelled the Rebel ranks to about 1,100 while Union Col. John P. Slough arrived with about 900 men. A small group of Confederate troops met U.S. troops from Kozlowski's Trading Post who were on an advance expedition on the 26th. Neither side moved on the 27th. preparing their defenses.

On the 28th the Union detached a third of their force to Glorieta Mesa to bypass the Santa Fe trail, guided by Manuel Antonio Chaves (El Leoncito or Little Lion) who was part of the New Mexico militia and the 2nd New Mexico volunteers. Meanwhile the main armies fought near Pigeon's Ranch, near the top of Glorieta Pass. Meanwhile the flanking Union troops discovered the Confederate's had left all their supplies at Johnson's Ranch. The Union soldiers drove off the few Confederate guards, burning 90 wagons and killing 800 animals with their suppies and retreated back over the mesa. When word arrived that their supplies had been lost they fell back to Santa Fe eventually retreating back to Texas.

Summary of the Civil War in New Mexico

1861, Feb. 28 - The Colorado Territory was incorporated from Utah, Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico territories. Colorado became a state in August, 1876.

1862, October - Congress authorized the construction of Ft. Sumner. The Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation was created there to reloate the Mescalero Apaches and Navajos who were raiding white settlements. General James Henry Carleton ordered Col. Christopher "Kit" Carson to do whatever necessary to bring first the Mescalero and then the Navajo there. All of the Mescalero Apaches had been relocated by the end of 1862, but the Navajo were not resettled in large numbers until early 1864. The Navajo refer to the journey from Navajo land to the Bosque Redondo as the Long Walk. More than 300 Navajos died making the journey. The 1865 and 1866 corn production was sufficient, but in 1867 it was a total failure.

Some of the Navajos resisted for another year. Manuelito and a small band finally surrendered at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona.

1863 - New Mexico was partitioned in half. The Territory of Arizona was created.

1865 - "Uncle Dick" Wooton leased land from Lucien Maxwell, owner of the Maxwell Land Grant, and obtained franchises from the territorial legislatures of Colorado and New Mexico to build a 27-mile toll road over Raton Pass in New Mexico. He charged $1.50 for a team and wagon; 25 cents for a horse and rider; a nickel a head for livestock; posses and Indians were free.

1866 - Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving brought many herds of Texas cattle (Longhorns) up the Goodnight-Loving Trail to Horsehead Crossing of the Pecos River (south of present-day Carlsbad) up the valley to the Ft. Sumner area to feed the inhabitants of Bosque Redondo.

1868 - The Treaty of Bosque Redondo was negotiated with the Navajo and they were allowed to return to their homeland, to a "new reservation." Barboncito , a Navajo political and spiritual leader, helped to pursuade General William Tecumseh Sherman to agree to allow them to return to their homelands. They were joined by thousands of Navajo who had been hiding out in the Arizona Territory. Some of the Navajos only went as far as Ramah, NM where they were given a reservation by the US Government.

1869, May 10 - First transcontinental railroad completion of at Promontory Point, Utah between the Central Pacific RR and the Union Pacific RR connecting Council Bluffs, Iowa with Sacramento, California

1870's - Sheep raising as well as farming under the 1862 Homestead Act became popular in the New Mexican Territory. The "Lincoln County War" involving "Billy the Kid" was the result of the conflict between two rivals companies that competed for government contracts to provide them with cattle and needed supplies.

Synopsis of the Lincoln County War and "Billy the Kid"

1872 - Painting of "American Progress" by John Gast on commission for George Crofutt, the publisher of a popular series of western travel guides. The painting serves as an allegory for the Manifest Destiny and American westward expansion. It is now held by the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, California.

1873 - The Colfax County War was a range war that occurred from 1873 to 1888 between settlers and the new owners of the Maxwell Land Grant in Colfax County. The war started when the new landowners tried to remove the local settlers from the land they had just bought. The locals refused to leave, as they had settled much of their livelihood in the grant, which resulted in conflict and violence in 1875.

1876 - Fred Harvey, an English immigrant, founded the Fred Harvey Company with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad to provide visitors with fine dining, luxury lodgings and eventually guided tours to visit craftspeople, pueblos and exotic landscapes. Part of his success was the hiring of the Harvey Girls. Many Harvey Houses were built in New Mexico to serve those riding the railroad.

1878 - Governor Lew Wallace, New Mexico governor from 1878–1881 is best known for his historical adventure story, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1880), a bestselling novel that has been called "the most influential Christian book of the nineteenth century." Wallace's military career included service in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. He was highly involved with the "Lincoln County War."

1878, Feb. - Construction crews of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (AT&SF) and the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG) narrow gauge confronted each other at Raton Pass for the right-of-way through New Mexico. The AT&SF men won the battle and continued on through the state to meet the Southern Pacific Railroad in Deming in 1881. The Santa Fe Branch of the D&RG railroad finally reached Santa Fe in February, 1880 from Espanola, but came no further. Jurisdiction conflict with the AT&SF meant that the D&RG railroad could only build as far south as Espanola, 35 miles from Santa Fe. The Texas, Santa Fe & Northern Railroad Company was created to build a narrow gauge line to fill the gap. (Later purchased by the D&RG railroad)

It was called the Chili Line and it eventually terminated at what is now Tomasitas Restaurant in the Santa Fe railyard. Branches of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RG) can still be ridden on the tourist lines of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico and the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad from Durangoto Silverton, CO.

AT&SF reached Albuquerque in 1880; Santa Fe, the original destination of the railroad, found itself on a short branch from Lamy, New Mexico to downtown Santa Fe. The grade from Lamy to Santa Fe was too great so that the AT&SF had to build a spur track from Lamy. There was a Fred Harvey hotel, the El Ortiz (1896), located in Lamy next to the tracks for the convience of the railroad passengers. Later in 1992 a group of businesspeople purchased the track to continued freight service in the area naming the railroad the Santa Fe Southern. Passenger service was added later on and it eventually evolved into a "tourist excursion railroad." It ceased operation in 2014.

1879, March - The Cerrillos Mining District was formed after miners from Leadville, CO found deposits of gold. Later silver, lead, copper, zinc and turquoise were mined in the area. In 1889, George F. Kunz, Tiffany & Co.’s renowned gemologist, won an award in Paris for a collection that contained a sample of New Mexico turquoise. In 1892, Kunz announced that certain colors of turquoise had come to be considered “gem quality” – namely, the Tiffany Blue color.

1880 - Adolph F. Bandelier, a historian and anthropologist excavated pueblo ruins at both Pecos pueblo and Tyuonyi in Frijoles Canyon in the Jemez Mountains.

1880's - Land claims and speculation in the public domain reached the point of national scandal. The "Santa Fe Ring" involved a group of powerful attorneys and land speculators in the United States during the late 19th century and into the early 20th century. Many New Mexicans considered Thomas B. Catron to be its unofficial head. Members of the "Ring" amassed a fortune through political corruption and fraudulent land deals. Govenor Samuel Beach Axtel, territorial governor at the time also helped the "Ring" accomplish their dealings.

1880, April - The Apache leader, Victorio, a guerilla fighter, trapped 71 troopers of the 9th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers in Hembrillo Canyon. The troopers held off the Apaches for 18 hours until they were saved by reinforcements of the 9th Cavalry.

1886 - Geronimo surrendered; this caused Indian hostilities cease in the Southwest.

1890's - The Las Gorras Blancas (The White Caps) a secret society of Hispanics in San Miguel and nearby counties waged war with cattlemen and land speculators by cutting fences on communal land, destroying railroad ties and bridges and driving off cattle and horses.

1889 - A state constitution was drawn up but was decisively defeated by the voters.

1906 - The people of New Mexico and Arizona voted on the issue of joint statehood, New Mexico voted in favor and Arizona against. (Each state would join separately - New Mexico #47, Jan. 6, 1912; Arizona #48, Feb. 14, 1912)

1908 - George McJunkin an ex-slave cowboy found Clovis lithics in the Wild Horse Arroyo on the Crowfoot Ranch where 23 bison were killed and butchered about 9000 B.C. He took some of the bones home. Later on Carl Schwachheim, an acquaintance of George, who was a blacksmith in Raton and amateur "bone hunter" found a small piece of stone that looked like a tip of a spear. In 1926, archaeologist Jesse Figgins from the Denver Museum (now the Denver Museum of Nature and Science) arrived at the site to begin excavations. Figgins discovered a light, fluted projectile point (Folsom point) buried between two of the bison's ribs, thus establishing a clear association of the point with the species of bison that had been extinct for approximately 10,000 years.

The date of early human habitation in New Mexico was later discovered in the Tularosa Basin beside an extinct giant body of water, Lake Otero in what is now the White Sands National Park. The footprints were dated at 22,860 and 21,130 years ago by radiocarbon dating of ancient grass seeds (Ruppia cirrhosa) directly under the footprints.

1911 - January 21 - The New Mexico Constitution was drafted in preparation for statehood.

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