495:(1808–1845), a prominent ally of Armijo, distantly related to him and to Chaves (who lived with him at times in the late 1830s). Franklin Combs, a young observer with the expedition, wrote in his journal that the negotiator was "the nephew and secretary of the governor" (quoted by Simmons, pp. 231–232, also the source of the other direct quotations in this note). Although Chaves and Armijo were first cousins, they called each other nephew and uncle because of their roughly 25-year age difference (pp. 228–229). (Chaves also called Mariano uncle.) Also, Amado Chaves assigned his father an important role in this incident, though his version was "much garbled in detail". In view of that statement and Mariano's "certainly not" being Armijo's nephew, Simmons considers that Manuel Chaves was the negotiator.
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398:, Chaves led some 15 civilians on muleback against over 100 Navajos. The Navajos attacked Chaves's group at a spring called Ojo de la MĂłnica, immediately killing all the mules with rifle shots and forcing their pursuers to take cover. As Chaves was the best marksman, he fired his own rifle and also some of the others' while they reloaded his. By nightfall, only Chaves, Contreras, and one other man remained alive. At dawn they found that the Navajos had retreated, not knowing that Chaves had only three bullets left. (Contreras ransomed his son some months later.)
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In 1863, the Long Walk ended the Indian wars in most of New Mexico. Chaves spent the rest of his life ranching in the San Mateo
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before it began. In 1847 Chaves (after having spent some time in jail on suspicion of helping an abortive uprising in Santa Fe) swore an oath of allegiance to the United States. He declined a commission as an officer and enlisted as a private in the U.S. force that put down the
338:) and an armistice had been made with the Navajos, allegations of cheating in a horse race led to a fight between his men and visiting Navajos in which a number of Navajos were killed. This event was crucial in the resumption of hostilities that led to the forced
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chose Chaves to guide
Chivington's force to the Confederate supply train. The regular Union soldiers and New Mexico militia destroyed the supplies, which forced the Confederates to retreat to Texas. Although official military records barely mentioned Chaves
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Chaves during a dispute over the property line between a chapel and Chaves's house in Santa Fe. Chaves, his half-brother Román Baca, and a servant brought loaded rifles to the next Mass, and the priest did not read the order of excommunication.
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Chaves was honorably discharged in 1863 (after the dismissal of allegations that he had sold Army wagons for his profit). In that year he engaged in what he later called his greatest fight. A group of
Navajos were raiding the
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among others), and Indian fighter. In 1860 he became a lieutenant-colonel in a militia unit, the Second New Mexico
Mounted Volunteers, that had just been formed to fight the Navajos and
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The historian Marc
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and made himself governor of New Mexico, by then a province of an independent Mexico. At any rate, in 1839 Chaves was commissioned as an ensign (
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1960, cited in
Simmons 1973), other contemporary accounts described his actions (Whitford 1906, Hays n.d., cited in Simmons).
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identified the main negotiator as Don M. Chaves. The question is whether this was Manuel or, as some historians have stated,
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country. His party of approximately fifty ran into a ceremonial gathering of thousands of
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History of the Military Occupation of the Territory of New Mexico from 1846 to 1851
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Chaves spent the following decade as a rancher, businessman (trading with
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Colorado
Volunteers in the Civil War: the New Mexico Campaign in 1862
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soldier he probably negotiated the surrender of a large part of the
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Union Army Operations in the Southwest, From the Official Records
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The Little Lion of the Southwest: a life of Manuel Antonio Chaves
526:. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. p. 258.
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