ure, dead or alive. It was reported currently that he was at last
killed in a battle with some deputy United States marshals, and that
they received the reward; but the whole thing was manufactured out of
whole cloth, and if the marshals received the money, Uncle Sam was most
outrageously swindled.

The facts are that he died of malarial fever superinduced by a wound
received in a fight with the Kaws, near the mouth of the Walnut and not
far from Fort Zarah. His "Dog-Soldiers" were whipped by the Kaws, and
his band driven off. Bent lingered for some time and died.

CHAPTER XI. LA GLORIETA.

New Mexico, at the breaking out of the Civil War, was abandoned by the
government at Washington, or at least so overlooked that the charge of
neglect was merited. In the report of the committee on the Conduct of
the War, under date of July 15, 1862, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel B.
S. Roberts of the regular army, major of the Third Cavalry, who was
stationed in the Territory in 1861, says:

It appears to me to be the determination of General Thomas[37]
not to acknowledge the service of the officers who saved
the Territory of New Mexico; and the utter neglect of the
adjutant-general's department for the last year to
communicate in any way with the commanding officer of the
department of New Mexico, or to answer his urgent appeals
for reinforcements, for money and other supplies, in
connection with his repudiation of the services of all the
army there, convinces me that he is not gratified at their
loyalty and their success in saving that Territory to
the Union.

If space could be given to the story of the carefully prepared plans of
the leaders of secession for the conquest of all the territory south of
a line drawn from Maryland directly west to the Pacific coast, in which
were California, Arizona, and New Mexico, it would reveal some startling
facts, and prove beyond question that it was the intention of Jefferson
Davis to precipitate the rebellion a decade before it actually occurred.
The basis of the scheme was to inaugurate a war between Texas--which,
when admitted into the Union, claimed all that part of New Mexico east
of the Rio Grande--and the United States, in which conflict Mississippi
and some of the other Southern States were to become participants. The
plan fell flat, because, in 1851, Mr. Davis failed