John Baylor
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John Robert Baylor (July 27, 1822–February 8, 1894) was an officer from Texas and a politician for the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
Baylor was born in Paris, Kentucky, and grew up in Mississippi. He moved to Texas at age 18, where he became a prominent citizen, state legislator, and Indian Agent.
In 1861, following his victory at the Battle of Mesilla, he established himself as the Confederacy's territorial governor for Arizona Territory—a region encompassing the southern half of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. A disagreement with articles in the Mesilla Times led to a fight with the editor, Robert P. Kelly, who died of his injuries.
At one point, his frustration with attacks from Apache tribes grew so great that he ordered their extermination:
[U]se all means to persuade the Apaches or any tribe to come in for the purpose of making peace, and when you get them together kill all the grown Indians and take the children prisoners and sell them to defray the expense of killing the adult Indians. Buy whiskey and such other goods as may be necessary for the Indians and I will order vouchers given to cover the amount expended. Leave nothing undone to insure success, and have a sufficient number of men around to allow no Indian to escape. [1]
There is no indication that his officers followed this order. When news of the order reached Confederate President Jefferson Davis, he immediately relieved Baylor of his post of governor.
Baylor later was elected to the Second Confederate Congress and enlisted in the Confederate States Army as a private. He gained a commission of colonel just before the surrender of Confederate forces. On April 6, 1865, he shot and killed General John A. Wharton in a personal quarrel at a Texas hotel.
After the war, he lived in San Antonio. In 1873, he unsuccessfully campaigned for the Democratic Party's nomination for the governorship of Texas, losing to Richard Coke. In 1876 during the height of the Black Hills War with the Lakota Sioux, he offered his services to the United States Army. In 1878, he established a sizable ranch near Montell, Texas, and prospered. However, he continued to be involved in violent confrontations and reputedly killed a man in a feud over livestock in the 1880s, although he was never charged with a crime.
Baylor died at Montell and was buried in Ascension Episcopal Cemetery.
[edit] References
- Thompson, Jerry Don, Colonel John Robert Baylor: Texas Indian Fighter and Confederate Soldier. Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1971.
[edit] External links
- John Robert Baylor: The Life and Times of Arizona's Confederate Governor
- John Robert Baylor from the Handbook of Texas Online
[edit] Notes
| Preceded by Lewis Owings (provisional) |
Governors of the Confederate Territory of Arizona August 1, 1861–March, 1862 |
Succeeded by Lewis Owings |
| Preceded by Malcolm Duncan Graham |
C.S.A. Representative from Texas's 5th Congressional District 1863–1865 |
Succeeded by none |
