Stanwix Station, in western
Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...
, was a stop on the
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
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
line built in the later 1850s near the
Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
about east of
Yuma, Arizona
Yuma ( coc, Yuum) is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 93,064 at the 2010 census, up from the 2000 census population of 77,515.
Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, M ...
. Originally the station was called
Flap Jack Ranch later Grinnell's Ranch or Grinnell's Station. In 1862, Grinnell's was listed on the itinerary of the
California Column in the same place as Stanwix Ranch (or Stanwix Station) which became the site of the westernmost skirmish of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...
. A traveler in 1864,
John Ross Browne
John Ross Browne (February 11, 1821 in Beggars Bush, Dublin, Ireland – December 9, 1875 in Oakland, California), often called J. Ross Browne, date of birth sometimes given as 1817, was an Irish-born American traveler, artist, writer and govern ...
, wrote Grinnell's was six miles southwest of the hot springs of
Agua Caliente, Arizona.
John Ross Browne, Adventures in the Apache country: a tour through Arizona and Sonora, with notes on the silver regions of Nevada, New York, Harper & Brothers, 1869, pp.82–83
/ref>
Skirmish at Stanwix Station
The westernmost skirmish of the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...
, which occurred at Stanwix Station, took place on March 29, 1862, when Capt. William P. Calloway
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conques ...
and a vanguard of 272 troops from the California Column discovered a small detachment of Confederate Arizona Volunteers led by 2nd Lt. John W. Swilling
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Seco ...
burning hay, which had been placed at Stanwix Station for the California Column's animals. After a brief exchange of gun fire with the much larger Union force, the Confederates retreated to Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, the capital of the western district of the Confederate Territory of Arizona. The skirmish resulted in the wounding of a German-born Union private, William Frank Semmelrogge (Semmilrogge), who subsequently recovered. There appear to have been no other casualties.
The significance of the incident was twofold. First, the burning of hay, not only at Stanwix but at five other former stagecoach stations along the Gila River
The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...
east of Fort Yuma, delayed the California Column's advance to Tucson and Mesilla, the territorial capital of Confederate Arizona. Before the Confederates evacuated Tucson, they also removed or destroyed the supplies gathered for the Union advance by Ammi S. White Ammi may refer to:
* ''Ammi'' (plant), a plant genus in the family Apiaceae
* Ahmed Ammi (born 1981), Moroccan footballer
* Ammi Hondo (born 1997), Japanese para-alpine skier
* Rabbi Ammi, a sage mentioned in the Mishnah and Talmud
* 1-Aminometh ...
at the Maricopa Villages. Secondly, and of more immediate importance, Swilling was able to reach Tucson and warn Capt. Sherod Hunter
Sherod Hunter (March 5, 1834 – ?) was the commander of the Confederate unit operating against Union Army forces in present-day Arizona during the American Civil War. He later commanded various Confederate cavalry units elsewhere in the Trans- ...
, district military commander of western Confederate Arizona, of the approaching California Column. This led Hunter to place pickets at strategic locations, leading to the Battle of Picacho Pass
The Battle of Picacho Pass, also known as the Battle of Picacho Peak, was an engagement of the American Civil War on April 15, 1862. The action occurred around Picacho Peak, northwest of Tucson, Arizona. It was fought between a Union cavalry p ...
, where ten Confederate pickets were attacked by a Union cavalry detachment of about twelve. This "battle" was also only a skirmish, distinguished from the Stanwix Station fight simply by the comparatively more severe casualties; three dead and three wounded Union soldiers, and three Confederates taken prisoner.
Stanwix Station
The stagecoach lines were abandoned in the 1880s when the Southern Pacific Railroad
The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was ...
(SPRR) completed laying track to Tucson from Yuma. The SPRR built a station just to the east of the Maricopa County
Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about ...
line on Stanwix Flats, and called it "Stanwix Station."
See also
* La Paz Incident
* St. Albans Raid
The St. Albans Raid was the northernmost land action of the American Civil War. It was a raid from the Province of Canada by 21 Confederate soldiers. They had recently failed in engagements with the Union Army and evaded subsequent capture in th ...
References
Sources
''The Confederate Arizona Campaign of 1862''
Col. Sherrod Hunter Camp 1525, SCV, Phoenix, Arizona.
* Hunt, Aurora, ''James Henry Carleton, 1814–1873, Frontier Dragoon'', Frontier Military Series II, Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958. (Hunt states that John Swilling led the Confederates at Picacho Pass, but this is persuasively contradicted by the other source above, who show that Swilling was actually elsewhere guarding Union prisoners at the time.)
* Masich, Andrew E., ''The Civil War in Arizona; the Story of the California Volunteers, 1861–65'' Nornan: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
*
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Stagecoach stations in Arizona
History of Yuma County, Arizona
March 1862 events