Fort Cummings is a former

U. S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

post located near Cooke's Springs, in

Luna County, New Mexico Luna County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 25,095. Its county seat is Deming. This county abuts the Mexican border. Luna County comprises the Deming, NM Micropolitan Statistical ...

. It is located 20 miles northeast of

Deming, New Mexico Deming (, ''DEM-ing'') is a city in Luna County, New Mexico, Luna County, New Mexico, United States, west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Las Cruces and north of the Mexico–United States border, Mexican border. The population was 14,855 as of the ...

Cooke's Spring

Cooke's Spring () was named for

Philip St. George Cooke Philip St. George Cooke (June 13, 1809 – March 20, 1895) was a career United States Army cavalry officer who served as a Union General in the American Civil War. He is noted for his authorship of an Army cavalry manual, and is sometimes called ...

2nd U.S. Dragoons the former commander of the

Mormon Battalion The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in United States military history in federal service, recruited solely from one religious body and having a religious title as the unit designation. The volunteers served from July 1846 to July ...

, that was exploring this area of New Mexico in 1853. It was the only large supply of fresh water between Mesilla and the

Mimbres River The Mimbres is a river in southwestern New Mexico. Course The Mimbres forms from snowpack and runoff on the southwestern slopes of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness in the Black Range at in Grant County. The river ends in the Guzmán Basin, a smal ...

for wagons heading to California on the

Southern Emigrant Trail :''The Southern Emigrant Trail should not be confused with the Applegate Trail, which is part of the Northern Emigrant Trails.'' Southern Emigrant Trail, also known as the Gila Trail, the Kearny Trail, Southern Trail and the Butterfield Stage ...

as well as the later

Butterfield Overland Mail Butterfield Overland Mail (officially the Overland Mail Company)Waterman L. Ormsby, edited by Lyle H. Wright and Josephine M. Bynum, "The Butterfield Overland Mail", The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1991. was a stagecoach service i ...

stagecoach route. The

Cooke's Spring Station Cooke's Spring Station, located near Cooke's Spring, New Mexico was a stage station of the Butterfield Overland Mail stage route from 1858 to 1861 and of subsequent stage lines until made obsolete by the arrival of the transcontinental railroad in ...

of the Butterfield Overland Mail was located near Cooke's Spring from 1858 to 1861. Cookes Springs were located at the eastern mouth of the upper part of

Cooke%27s Canyon Cooke's Canyon or Cookes Canyon, a valley and ephemeral stream, located on the eastern slope of the Cooke's Range in Luna County, New Mexico. It has its source at north of Massacre Peak. The mouth of Cooke's Canyon is at its confluence with Fo ...

which led to

Cooke's Pass Cooke's Pass, also known as Massacre Canyon, is a narrow gap running east and west through the Cookes Range In Luna County, New Mexico. Its apex is a saddle, at an elevation of about 5100 feet between Fryingpan Canyon on the west and the narrow ...

a narrow gap in the

Cooke's Range The Cookes Range (Cooke's Range, Cooks Range or Cook's Range) is a small, 17-mi (27 km) long mountain range in northern Luna County, New Mexico, which extends slightly north into southeastern Grant County. The range is a southern continuat ...

(). Between 1848 and 1861 the pass was a dangerous place for travelers, who were often ambushed and killed by the Apache as they passed through it. Following the Bascom Affair things were even worse as the Apache, formerly friendly to the stage company, destroyed most of the stations and destroyed many coaches and killed their passengers and for over a decade later hundreds of other travelers. Cooke's Pass was a favored location for ambushes, and it acquired the name Massacre Canyon after incidents like the

Battle of Cookes Canyon The Battle of Cookes Canyon was a military engagement fought between settlers from Confederate Arizona and Chiricahua Apaches in August 1861. It occurred about northwest of Mesilla, in Cookes Canyon. The exact date of the battle is unknown ...

. The fort was first established nearby the stage station on October 2, 1863, by Captain Valentine Dresher, Company B, 1st California Infantry, of the

California Column The California Column was a force of Union volunteers sent to Arizona and New Mexico during the American Civil War. The command marched over from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, ...

. Fort Cummings was established to control the Apache Indians, and to protect the Butterfield – Overland stage route and the southern overland road to California where it passed through Cooke's Pass. The fort was built up over the next ten years as an adobe walled fort, surrounded by a 10-foot-high wall that enclosed a parade ground, corral and several single-story adobe buildings around the wall. The fort was evacuated and entered a caretaker status in 1870 and abandoned in 1873. However it was reoccupied later when Apache under

Victorio Victorio (Bidu-ya, Beduiat; ca. 1825–October 14, 1880) was a warrior and chief of the Warm Springs band of the Tchihendeh (or Chihenne, often called Mimbreño) division of the central Apaches in what is now the American states of Texas, New ...

, launched a campaign against the white American settlers in 1880. It was known as "Camp at Fort Cummings" from 1880 to 1884 and in 1886 during later Apache troubles. Again abandoned it only remains as some eroding adobe walls, and along with the nearby site of the stage station and post graveyard to the south.

Garrisons

* Company B, 1st California Infantry Regiment, October 2, 1863 – June, 1864 * Company I, 5th California Infantry Regiment, June, 1864 – October, 1864 * Company F, 5th California Infantry Regiment, 1864 – November 1864 * Company F, 1st California Veteran Infantry Battalion, January 1865 – Disbanded at Fort Cummings, March 16, 1865. * Company B, 1st California Veteran Infantry Battalion, April 1865 – August 1866. Scout from Fort Cummings April 28 – May 13, 1865 * Company D, 125th Infantry Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, August 12, 1866 – October 2, 1867 * Company A, 38th Infantry Regiment, October 1867 – June 6, 1868 * Company F, 38th Infantry Regiment, June 4, 1868 - March 15, 1869 * 24th Infantry Regiment, March 15, 1869 – 1870. Fort evacuated * 3rd Cavalry Regiment, 1866–1870. Detachments assigned to fort * Company E, 15th Infantry Regiment, August 1870 *

4th Cavalry Regiment The 4th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment, whose lineage is traced back to the mid-19th century. It was one of the most effective units of the Army against American Indians on the Texas frontier. Today, the regiment exis ...

, 1880–1882. Periodically used the fort site as a camp during operations against the Apache *

8th Cavalry Regiment The 8th Cavalry Regiment is a regiment of the United States Army formed in 1866 during the American Indian Wars. The 8th Cavalry continued to serve under a number of designations, fighting in every other major U.S. conflict since, except Worl ...

, 1882–1886. Periodically used the fort site as a camp during operations against the Apache

References

{{reflist

Sources

William Thornton Parker, Annals of old Fort Cummings, New Mexico, 1867-8, Published by Author, Northampton, Mass., 1916.

Records of California men in the war of the rebellion 1861 to 1867, By California. Adjutant General's Office, SACRAMENTO: State Office, J. D. Young, Supt. State Printing. 1890.

External links

Map of location showing sites of Fort, stage station and graveyard. Headquarters Records of Fort Cummings, New Mexico, 1863-1873 and 1880-1884
Cummings Buildings and structures in Luna County, New Mexico Closed installations of the United States Army History of Luna County, New Mexico New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties New Mexico Territory Ruins in the United States 1863 establishments in New Mexico Territory 1886 disestablishments in New Mexico Territory Military installations established in 1863 Military installations closed in 1886