Chronology of American Indian History

slaughter, the War Department gives Connor the

title of brigadier general.

Spring

Kit Carson’s troops battle the Mescalero

Apache.

To stop the raids of Mescalero Apache, Brigadier

General James H. Carleton assigns former Indian

agent and trader Christopher “Kit” Carson to lead

a campaign against them. Exhausted by Carson’s

constant attacks, the Mescalero surrender and

agree to resettle on Bosque Redondo, an area in

what is now east-central New Mexico that Car-

leton has reserved as a place to confine renegade

Apache and Navajo (Dineh). (See also entry for

NOVEMBER 1865.)

Summer

Union troops make a second expedition

into Indian Territory.

With the aid of pro-Union Indians, federal troops

invade Indian Territory from the north for a second

time (see entry for SUMMER 1862). They drive off

Confederate-allied Indians, who scatter to the south

and west. The invading army pushes through the

Cherokee and Creek Nations to the Canadian River

before the soldiers are called back East following the

Union’s decisive victory at Gettysburg.

The hanging of 38 Dakota Sioux convicted of participating in the Minnesota Uprising of 1862. The event was the
largest public execution in the history of the United States. (Library of Congress, USZ62-37940)