Elizabethtown By F. Stanley Dumas, Texas March, 1961 Indirectly, General James H. Carleton was responsible for Elizabethtown. The soldiers at Fort Craig, Pinos Altos, Fort Stanton and Fort Union were dissatisfied with their lot as Indian fighters and voiced a desire to join the Union Army where the fighting was thickest. The California Column had volunteered to fight Confederates, not Indians. Carleton had reason to believe that the Confederates from Texas would make another attempt on New Mexico under Baird, Jackson (former territorial official, not Stonewall), Magoffin, Hart and others whose sympathies were for the South. He made every effort … Continue reading Elizabethtown