Nuevo México was less reliant on its civilian militia between 1714 and 1733 than it had been in years immediately after the Reconquest. Military requirements changed from assaults on established settlements that defied colonial authority to defenses against raids by highly mobile native bands.
The one had required massive forces for short periods in discrete locations. Expeditions to the frontiers took men away for weeks in summer and fall. People dependent on their crops to eat could not afford that time.
When Juan Páez Hurtado led an expedition against the Faraón Apache in 1715, he took 21 settlers with 36 soldiers and 149 auxiliaries. Everyone, military and civilian, reported fully armed with horses or mules. It took more than two weeks during harvest season, August 30 to September 14, to reach their destination, and probably less time to return.
The following year, Félix Martínez prepared a campaign against the Moqui. He apparently had trouble raising troops to go so far west. He offered pardons to any Español or Pueblo man under sentence if he enlisted. Only three took his offer: Antonio López, Marcos Montoya, and Felix Martines. In addition, he took ten men from San Juan and four from Santa Clara.
Three years later, in 1719, Antonio Valverde led an expedition against the Utes and Comanches that included 60 men from the presidio with "45 settlers and volunteers." In addition there were "30 natives of [torn out] prepared for war with their arms."
They left Taos on September 20, at the end of harvest season, and agreed to return a month later, on October 22. Again, they probably didn’t take as long getting home, though they took a different route.
The changed attitude towards service was reflected in the lack of supplies the volunteers brought. Valverde had to provide them with ammunition and leather jackets. He also contributed 75 horses and mules. They must have come from a poorer segment of society that did those who rode with Páez.
Pedro Villasur led troops on a search for the French in 1720. He took 42 men from the presidio with 60 auxiliaries from the pueblos. Except for the priest, the others were all retired military men or civilian capitánes: José López Naranjo of Santa Cruz, Cristóbal de la Serna of Embudo, and Jean l’Archevêque of Santa Fé.
They left Santa Fé on June 16, and were ambushed two months later, on August 13th or 14th. The dead included 31 from the presidio, at least 11 from the pueblos, and all the non-presidio men.
Each expedition took twice as long as the previous one, growing from a one way trip of two weeks to one for a month to one for two months. Apart from the increasing time commitments, established men may have felt different loyalties to a leader of the Reconquest like Diego de Vargas, who was tasked with protecting them, and to one of the later political appointees who obeyed orders governed by Spain’s fractious relations with France. Participation in the one was ennobling. Involvement with the other was not.
The rank of capitán was still prestigious, but bivouacs were not. Santa Cruz diligencias matrimoniales in these years indicated the capitánes were all fathers of participants or witnesses, not grooms. All but one were alive before the Reconquest when military valor was expected. The post-Reconquest generation hadn’t assumed that role.
At the same time settlers were less inclined to join military campaigns, men in the presidios were withdrawing into their private world. They began to see civilians as little more than elevated servants to be given the most distasteful tasks like sentry duty.
There was probably no great turnover in forces, and in the years after the Reconquest, many have been local recruits. Veterans had found ways to supplement their income. They could afford to marry and dabble in real estate. Their sons enlisted. They and their daughters married others whose fathers were soldiers.
Before 1720, most of the soldiers who married women in Santa Cruz were widowers and their second wives were related to local capitánes or other military men. Felipe Pacheco married the daughter of Capitán Sebastían Martín, Bernardo Fernández married Sebastían niece, and Melchor de Herrera married the widow of Matías Martín. He was the son of Sebastían’s cousin Domingo Martín Serrano and Josefa de Herrera.
The other widowers who married in Santa Cruz were Roque de Madrid and Juan Trujillo, who married Roque’s granddaughter. María Madrid’s mother was Antonia de la Serna, Cristobal’s niece.
Joaquin de Anaya was a widower who married Domingo Martín Serrano’s daughter. There’s no indication he was in the presidio. The two soldiers who witnessed his marriage probably knew his deceased father, Sargento Mayor Francisco de Anaya.
Antonio García de Perea was a soldier, but not a widower when he married the daughter of the one-time alférez of Chama. Diego Gonzales was dead when two soldiers confirmed their right to marry.
After the Villasur disaster, few presidio men married women in Santa Cruz. Julian Madrid, the son of Roque, married the daughter of one of Sebastían Martín’s nephews. Antonio de Armenta married a soldier’s widow.
Two men who married local women were sons of soldiers who had acquired land in Santa Cruz. Pablo Manuel Trujillo, the son of Capitán Baltasar Trujillo, married the daughter of Capitán Diego Márquez. Antonio de Santisteban, the son of Ayudante Salvador de Santisteban, married Francisca Fernández Valerio, whose father was probably somehow related through Bernardo Fernández’s first wife, an unknown Valerio.
In ten years, from 1720 to 1730, there were only four alliances between Santa Cruz and the presidio. It was clear that settlers in the north were beginning to want a professional soldiery, and the men in the presidio were becoming a self-sufficient community thirty miles away.
Notes:
Athearn, Frederic J. A Forgotten Kingdom, 1978; has details on Martínez campaign against the Moqui.
Chávez, Angélico. New Mexico Roots, Ltd, 1982, contains the diligencias matrimoniales.
_____. Origins of New Mexico Families, 1992 revised edition.
Páez Hurtado, Juan. Lists of soldiers, settlers, and Pueblo auxiliaries, in Thomas.
Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935; also contains details on Villasur expedition.
Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche, 1719, reprinted by Thomas.
Capitánes named in diligencias matrimoniales between 1714 and 1730
Alive at time of 1680 revolt. Dates of birth at left were calculated from ages and may be inaccurate: the ages may be guesses, and the calculations may be off a year since no months are given.
Juan de Archuleta, deceased in 1714, father of groom
José López Naranjo, father of groom
Cristóbal de la Serna, father of bride
1631 Luís Martín, deceased in 1716, father of groom, bride
1668 Cristóbal de Torres, father of bride
1668 José Trujillo, father of bride, groom
1670 Baltasar Trujillo, father of groom
1671 Sebastían Martín, father of bride
1671 Miguel Tenorio de Alba, witness, married
1672 Ignacio de Roybal, notary
1674 Diego de Medina, deceased in 1717, father of bride, groom
Alive at time of Reconquest
1681 Diego Márquez, father of bride
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