CARSON, CHRISTOPHER | "KIT" Manuscript document signed ("C Carson"), being a "Special Requisition" for supplies at Fort Garland, Colorado Territory, 1866

CARSON, CHRISTOPHER "KIT"

Manuscript document signed ("C Carson"), being a "Special Requisition" for supplies at Fort Garland, Colorado Territory, 1866

1 page (9 7/8 x 7 7/8 in.; 252 x 202 mm) on blue-ruled paper, grid in red, signed by Christopher "Kit" Carson ("C Carson") and Captain W.H. Barlow ("W H Barlow"); minor spotting. Rustically framed with a stalk of wheat and a portrait of Carson. Not examined out of frame.

A unique document signed by a legend of the American frontier

During the American Civil War, Union Colonel Christopher "Kit" Carson led a regiment of volunteers from New Mexico at the Battle of Valverde in 1862. In 1865, Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, elevated Colonel Carson to the rank of brigadier general of New Mexico's volunteers. In the spring of 1866, and after the Civil War hand ended, Carson was given command of Fort Garland in the Colorado Territory.

The fort, located thirty miles north of the New Mexico border, had been established in 1858, but when Carson arrived there, he found only a sparse assemblage of adobe and log buildings, which surrounded a central plaza. Carson, respected by Indians and knowledgeable of their customs, had been assigned to the outpost because of the perceived threat to the increasing numbers of white settlers in the area by the neighboring Utes and Apaches. While in command of the fort, Carson managed to maintain peace, despite numerous and varied threats. 

In order to supply Fort Garland with much needed flour, Carson signed the present supply requisition "For Subsistence Stores for the use of Officers at Fort Garland C. T. for 365 days, commencing the 1st day of August 1866 and ending the 1st day of September 1867." The document includes the number of officers to be supplied, the number of days, and the number of rations. When the document was drafted, 4,000 "Rations of Flour" were "Present at the Post", with a further 6,000 "Expected at the Post before September 1866 (including off.[icers] families)."

Kit Carson was stationed at Fort Garland only briefly.  Poor health forced him to retire from a vibrant military career. In general, Carson's life was a riveting one. In 1809, he was born near Richmond, Kentucky, and he moved with his family to the Missouri frontier before his fourth birthday. The family settled on a tract of land owned by the sons of Daniel Boone, who had purchased the land from the Spanish. When he was just seven-years-old, Carson's father died, and he was forced to leave school and begin working, and was soon apprenticed to a saddle maker, but in 1826, he ran away with a caravan and ended up in Taos, New Mexico. From Taos, he made his living as a cook, miner, trapper, and teamster, until 1842, when he met John C. Frémont on a Missouri River steamboat. Frémont soon employed Carson as a guide for his Western expeditions, and reports of Carson's bravery soon garnered much attention. Indeed, his exploits became the subjects of dime novels.