Richard L. Miller - John P. Slough

John P. Slough

The Forgotten Civil War General

RICHARD L. MILLER

2021 by Richard L. Miller

All rights reserved. Published 2021

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-8263-6219-3 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-8263-6220-9 (electronic)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021930602

COVER ILLUSTRATION AND FRONTISPIECE

John Potts Slough. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division,

LC-DIG -cwpb-04625 (digital file from original neg.).

DESIGNED BY Mindy Basinger Hill

TO
Karin

WRITING A BOOK IS A LONG JOURNEY. MINE BEGAN IN SEPTEMBER 2007 when my wife and I saw Santa Fes plaza for the first time. After getting settled in our Southwestern-themed bed and breakfast, we strolled around the plazas perimeter, basking in the late summer sun as we admired the shops and historic buildings. I was curious about a weathered monument in the plazas center and even more curious when I read the monuments inscriptions, which memorialized the Union dead who fell in four Civil War battles in New Mexico Territory during early 1862. That curiosity led me to John Potts Slough, the Union commander at the battle of Glorieta Pass and the subject of this book.

Long journeys are made easier with company, and fortunately I have had many companionsfriends, acquaintances, archivists, historians, and writerswho accompanied and assisted me during my journey with John Slough. Terry Seip and Bill Deverell, both professors of history at the University of Southern California, helped launch my research with recommended readings in mid-nineteenth-century American and Western American history. Many years after these initial recommendations, Professor Deverell graciously read my final manuscript and suggested publishers. Gwen Fuller, a descendant of Sloughs daughter Sarah, responded to my out of the blue email with information about Slough and his wife, Arabella McLean Slough Probasco. Cheryl Nunn willingly tackled my many questions about the Slough family genealogy. I am especially grateful for the assistance provided by the librarians and archivists at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections at the Ohio University Libraries, the Kansas State Historical Society, the Chicago Historical Society, the Denver Public Library, the Colorado State Archives, the Stephen H. Hart Library and Research Center, the National Archives, the Local History Special Collections at the Alexandria Public Library, the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives, the Fray Anglico Chvez Historical Library, and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Their suggestions facilitated my search for important primary and secondary sources.

Many friends encouraged me throughout my writing. The Breakfast Boys, a group of eight men who have breakfasted with me every Thursday for the past seven years, have been especially supportive of this book. Two members of the group, Dick Baldwin and Jamie Snell, volunteered to read early chapters. Ed Malles, Gary Bloxham, Rebecca Morris, and my cousin, Jan Duvallall writersprovided thoughtful comments on draft chapters. My sister-in-law, Susan Lorch, made the type of careful observations about the manuscript that only a retired English teacher can make.