The Southern Route Suspended
On February 28, 1861, an act of Congress mandated the following:
That whenever, in the opinion of the Postmaster-General the postal service cannot be safely continued, or the post-office revenues collected, or the postal law maintained, on any post route, by reason of any cause whatsoever, the Postmaster-General is hereby authorized to discontinue the postal service on such route or any part thereof, and any post-offices thereon, till the same can be safely restored, and shall report his action to Congress.⁷³
On March 2, 1861, Texas seceded from the Union.⁷⁴ That same day Congress passed the Post-Office Department Appropriations bill for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1862. Under this bill, the Postmaster General was ordered to suspend service on the southern overland mail route as from July 1, 1861; instead, contractors were ordered to “transport the entire letter mail 6 times a week on the central route” which ran from “some point on the Missouri River” to Placerville, California. The contractors were to be allowed 20 days in which to complete the trip for eight months of the year, and 23 days for the remaining four months.⁷⁵ The variation allowed for the difficulties of traveling over this central route during the winter months, something which had not affected travel over the original southern route, and which had been a prime consideration in its selection. Very often this central route is referred to as the northern route; the terms are used interchangeably and both refer to the same route.
The Appropriations bill also included the clause that, until the overland telegraph system was completed, the contractors on the central route were:
To run a pony express in 10 days for 8 months and 12 days for 4 months, carrying for the Government, free of charge, 5 pounds of mail matter.
The public would also be able to make use of this service at a cost of $1.00 per half ounce of mail.⁷⁶
The new contract was for $1,000,000 per annum, and was to run six times a week until July 1, 1864. It was to be offered in the first instance to the Overland Mail Company. Should they refuse it then the contract already in existence between them and the Post Office Department would be annulled, and the new contract advertised for bids.⁷⁷
The Overland Mail Company must have had no hesitation in accepting the new contract and the change to the route. On March 12, E. L. Chiles, Acting Second Assistant Postmaster General, wrote to inform the postmaster at San Francisco that Butterfield’s company had been ordered to “at once proceed to move their stock up to the Central route”, and that he was now to send any mail for the Atlantic states to New York by steamer until the central route went into operation.⁷⁸
On March 21, Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, responding to a request from Senator Latham of California, issued orders to the Commanders of military posts along the southern overland mail route “from St. Louis to San Francisco, via Fort Smith and El Paso” that they were to provide “suitable escorts” to Overland Mail coaches from post to post.⁷⁹
On the same date the Adjutant-General’s office at Washington issued the following circular:
The commanding officers of military posts on that part of the present southern Overland Mail route to California, which lies between Fort Bliss, Tex., and Fort Yuma, Cal., will give to the Butterfield mail contractors, or their agents, suitable military escorts from post to post through the Indian country while the company is moving its stock, &c., from the present southern mail route to the central route from St. Joseph, Mo., to Placerville, Cal.
By order of Lieut. Gen. Winfield Scott.⁸⁰
On May 18, 1861, the Mesilla Times reported the “Departure of the Overland Mail” as follows:
A large train of men, stock and coaches of the Fort Davis and Mesilla division of the Overland Co., passed through to-day for California and the Northern Daily Overland Mail route. The train was joined at this place by a number of men and coaches. The whole outfit presented quite an imposing cortege – 100 men, some 200 animals, 21 coaches, and other vehicles.
Nine days later, on May 27, 1861, the Postmaster General, Montgomery Blair, exercised the authority given to him and ordered the suspension of all postal service in and to the states of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, to take effect on May 31st “because of the obstruction of the service by the insurgents.”⁸¹
An item in the Daily Alta California on April 5, 1861, cited the two prime factors governing the decicsion to remove to the central route : “the reckless character of the Texans”, and ” the belief that, if not already done, the temptation to seize the coaches and other property of the Company.”
The SA&SD Resumes Service to California
The May 18th , 1861, Mesilla Times article cited above also contains some further information; it goes on to say that the departing train of the Overland Mail Company was:
Accompanied by some 25 men with a herd of stock of the San Antonio & San Diego Mail Co., who will fill the place of the Overland, and conduct the division between this point [Mesilla] and Tucson.
Another item titled “Through Mail to Los Angeles, Cal” on the same page reported that:
The first through mail from San Antonio, Texas, to Los Angeles, Cal., under the control of the San Antonio & San Diego Mail Company, leaves Mesilla today.
The mail was accompanied by an armed escort of six men to protect it from any Indian attack, which would, hopefully, once again provide “Western Arizona” with a regular mail service; a service which had been lacking since the withdrawal of the Overland Mail from the southern route. It was to run twice a month. Presumably they would utilize the stations established by Butterfield.
The Overland Mail Company had begun to withdraw their men, stock and provisions from the southern route shortly after the passing of the March 2nd Appropriations bill.
We have been unable to determine the exact date on which the SA&SD Company was awarded a contract for the San Antonio to Los Angeles service, but newspaper reports suggest that this happened shortly after the suspension of Butterfield’s service over the southern route on March 12, 1861. On April 1, 1861, the Daily Alta California reported that an order had been issued to commence service between Los Angeles & San Diego and New Orleans, via El Paso.
Giddings was already a partner in a mail route which operated between New Orleans and El Paso, which was intended to connect with the Overland Mail Company at the latter place; with the removal of the Overland Mail Company from the southern route, Giddings was now contracted to extend that route to California.
The new contract with the SA&SD Company for what continued to be designated as Route No. 8076 was short-lived; on August 2, 1861, the Postmaster General ordered that it be discontinued.⁸² This was just one day after Lt. Col. John R. Baylor, Commander of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles, CSA, made his proclamation at Mesilla. By this proclamation he “officially” took possession of the “Territory of Arizona” for the Confederacy – that is, all of that region of New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel – declared himself Governor, and decreed that Mesilla would henceforth be the Capitol of that Territory; moves not officially recognized by the Confederate Congress until January of the following year.
It appears from newspaper reports that Giddings’ San Antonio – Los Angeles service was severely affected by Apache raids. The Los Angeles Star of June 15, 1861, carried a report from “Arizona” in which it was stated that “it appears that the United States mail cannot pass through the country. From here [Los Angeles] it was stopped at the Pimos villages; and coming, [from San Antonio] at the other side of Apache Pass.”⁸³
Indeed, at the end of April, James, George H. Giddings’ brother, had himself been killed by Apaches along with several other people. They were ambushed at Doubtful Canyon as they were on their way from Mesilla to Tucson with stock for the line.
The Postmaster General’s discontinuance of the San Antonio – Los Angeles route seems not to have fazed Giddings; on August 26, 1861, the Sacramento Daily Union reprinted an item from the New Orleans Picayune of August 4th. It stated that “Colonel George H. Giddings” had recently arrived in New Orleans after a trip to Richmond, Virginia. At Richmond he had:
Effected a new arrangement and contract with the Confederate Government for the transportation of the mails from New Orleans to Texas, and for the continuing of his mail service on the overland route from San Antonio to El Paso, and from thence to California.
Giddings continued to run the line under this contract with the Confederacy; on September 8, 1861, one Samuel Ames at Stanwix Ranch wrote to Ammi White at the Pima Villages, both of which places were stage stations, requesting that he complete “the monthly registers of arrivals and departures of Mails at your office since the commencement of service on Route 8076 up to the present time.” Ames also informed White that he expected to meet the Superintendent of the line at Yuma shortly, and asked White to “please make up the Mail to send to Yuma on Wednesday.”⁸⁴ This is the last reference we could find to mail operations on the southern route for the remainder of the Civil War.
For the remaining years of the Civil War it would be the military who were by far the primary, if not the only, means of mail transportation across the southwest.
✱Samuel Ames was the son of Julian Ames who had purchased Rancho Cañada de los Conches which would serve as a stop on Birch’s San Antonio – San Diego line. Known as “Ames Ranch”, it was situated about 25 miles east of San Diego. it would appear that Samuel continued the family’s association with the Mails in some capacity.
Below is a photograph of the Ames Ranch ca.1890, some years after it had been damaged by vandals. The ruins of the ranch were cleared away altogether in the early years of the 1920s. (Photograph from : ranchodeloscochesrv.com)
©2007-2023 Jim & Erica Parson
REFERENCES FOR THIS INSTALLMENT:
⁷³House Executive Document No. 4, Thirty-Seventh Congress, First Session. Postal Service In Certain States. Letter of the Postmaster-General in relation to the discontinuance of the postal service in certain states. Dated July 12, 1861. In: Annual Reports Of The Post-Office Department For The Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1898. Washington: Government Printing Office (1898). Page 221. Hereafter referred to as Annual Reports Of The Post-Office Department (1898).
⁷⁴The Rebellion Record, Edited by Frank Moore. First Volume. New York: G. P. Putnam. (1861). Documents and Narratives, Doc. 30, “The Texas Ordinance Of Secession”. Pages 27-28.
⁷⁵Titles And Abstracts Of The Public Laws Passed At The Second Session Of The 36th Congress. No. 29 – An Act making Appropriations for the Service of the Post Office Department during the Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1862. In: National Almanac And Annual Record For The Year 1863. Philadelphia: George W. Childs. Page 235.
⁷⁶Ibid.
⁷⁷Ibid.
⁷⁸Daily Alta California. April 6, 1861.
⁷⁹Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, To Senator Milton S. Latham. March 21, 1861. In: OR, Series I, Vol. L (In two parts), Chapter LXII, Part 1 – Reports, Correspondence, etc. Page 454.
⁸⁰Circular issued by L. Thomas, Adjutant General, March 21, 1861. Ibid.
⁸¹Annual Reports Of The Post-Office Department For The Year Ended June 30, 1898. Pages 221-222.
⁸²Ibid. Page 225.
⁸³Sacramento Daily Union. June 24, 1861.
⁸⁴Wilson, John P. (2001) When The Texans Came. Missing Records From The Civil War In The Southwest, 1861-1862. Albuquerque: UNM Press. Pages 176-177.
Leave a Reply