Outlaw Navajos (called ladrones, Spanish for thieves),…

Outlaw Navajos (called ladrones, Spanish for thieves), as well as other natives, and their neighboring New Mexicans, have raided, killed and enslaved each other since they had lived side by side during Spanish rule.

A lull had taken place in the 1850s under the jurisdiction of Captain Henry Kendrick, commandant of Fort Defiance in northeast Arizona, and Henry Dodge, the government agent, but after Dodge disappeared in late 1856, and Kendrick was transferred to another post, the raids resumed.

With the withdrawal of many troops at the start of the Civil War, New Mexicans have become more outspoken and demanded that something be done.

Overall command of Union forces in the Department of New Mexico falls to Colonel Edward R. S. Canby of the Regular Army’s 19th Infantry, headquartered at Ft. Marcy in Santa Fe.

Christopher "Kit" Carson, an experienced Indian fighter, with the rank of Colonel of Volunteers, commands the third of five columns in Canby’s force.

Colonel Canby has devised a plan for the removal of the Navajo to a distant reservation and sent his plans to his superiors in Washington D.C., but he had been promoted to general and recalled east for other duties.

His replacement, Brigadier General James H. Carleton, believes there is gold in the Navajo country, and that the Navajo and the Apache should be driven out to allow its development. (Sides, Hampton, Blood and Thunder, Doubleday, 2006. pp. 329-331) The immediate prelude to Carleton's Navajo campaign had been to force the Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo.

Carleton’s orders to Colonel, on October 12, 1862, concerning the Mescalero Apaches: "All Indian men of that tribe are to be killed whenever and wherever you can find them: the women and children will not be harmed, but you will take them prisoners and feed them at Ft. Stanton until you receive other instructions". (Kelly, Lawrence, Navajo Roundup, Pruett Publications, 1970; p. 11)

Carson had been appalled by this brutal attitude and refused to obey it, accepting the surrender of more than a hundred Mescalero warriors who sought refuge with him.

Nonetheless, he had completed his campaign in a month.

When Carson learned that Carleton intended him to pursue the Navajo, he had sent Carleton a letter of resignation dated February 3, 1863.

Carleton refused to accept this and used the force of his personality to maintain Carson's cooperation.

In language similar to his description of the Mescalero Apache, Carleton had ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo, and to say to them, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject." (Sides, p. 344.)

However, it is largely Canby's proposed plan, written from a position of relative neutrality and created in hopes of defusing the situation, that Carleton and Carson ultimately carry out.

Under Carleton's direction, Carson institutes a scorched earth policy, which coerces the Navajo to surrender.

Most corn fields are used to feed his horses, and some fields are destroyed.

Carleton had insisted that livestock is not to be used for personal use.

To carry out his orders, Carson had asked that the government recruit Utes to assist him.

He did not personally cut down the orchards; he was aided by other Native American tribes with long-standing enmity toward the Navajos.

Carson was pleased with the work the Utes did for him, but they went home early in the campaign when told they could not confiscate Navajo booty.

Carson has difficulty with New Mexico volunteers as well.

Troopers desert and officers resign.

There are no pitched battles and only a few skirmishes in the Navajo campaign.

Carson rounds up and takes prisoner every Navajo he can find, to force them to go to Bosque Redondo, also called Fort Sumner.