Pvt, Company A, Baylor's Regiment, Arizona Rangers, Confederate States of America
Died in action between Chiricahua Apaches and the unit, shortly after action between Union Soliders near Picacho Pass. Battle was near Dragoon Springs Butterfield Stage Station. Buried where they died.
Ricardo (last name unknown) was born in Sonora, México, about 1848. He became a U.S. citizen following the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. When Texas Confederates briefly occupied Tucson (February 28 - May 14, 1862) they pressed several Mexican residents into service as cooks, laundresses, valets, stewards and stock herders, among the latter was the young Ricardo. When Captain Sherrod Hunter left Tucson to escort some Union prisoners and confiscated Tucson livestock back to Texas, Ricardo was taken along. Hunter's small command was ambushed by Apaches at Dragoon Springs May 5, 1862, and Ricardo was killed, along with three Confederate soldiers. All four casualties were buried at the old Dragoon Springs stage station near the graves of three Butterfield Overland Mail employees who had been killed there September 9, 1858. The Union prisoner who carved his headstone inscribed it simply "Ricardo", since the Confederates did not know the boy's last name. Since Ricardo's death in 1862 he has been mustered posthumously into the Confederate Army and brevetted a private. Coincidentally, Ricardo was killed the very day ("el Cinco de Mayo") that President Benito Juarez's republican forces defeated the Confederacy's French monarchist allies at the Battle of Puebla.
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"Near the stage station are the graves of Hunter's men, killed by the Apaches. On the graves were these inscriptions, neatly cut in rough stone, executed by one of the Union prisoners: 'S. Ford, May 5th, 1862,' and 'Ricardo.' Ford was a sergeant, and Ricardo was a poor Mexican boy the Texans had forced into service at Tucson."
(Daily Alta [San Francisco], August 10, 1862. The Alta article quotes passages from a diary and is reprinted in its entirety in The Civil War in Arizona by Andrew E. Masich, 223-35. See also: Finch, "Sherod Hunter," 190; and Confederate Pathway to the Pacific, 152-53.)
Died in action between Chiricahua Apaches and the unit, shortly after action between Union Soliders near Picacho Pass. Battle was near Dragoon Springs Butterfield Stage Station. Buried where they died.
Ricardo (last name unknown) was born in Sonora, México, about 1848. He became a U.S. citizen following the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. When Texas Confederates briefly occupied Tucson (February 28 - May 14, 1862) they pressed several Mexican residents into service as cooks, laundresses, valets, stewards and stock herders, among the latter was the young Ricardo. When Captain Sherrod Hunter left Tucson to escort some Union prisoners and confiscated Tucson livestock back to Texas, Ricardo was taken along. Hunter's small command was ambushed by Apaches at Dragoon Springs May 5, 1862, and Ricardo was killed, along with three Confederate soldiers. All four casualties were buried at the old Dragoon Springs stage station near the graves of three Butterfield Overland Mail employees who had been killed there September 9, 1858. The Union prisoner who carved his headstone inscribed it simply "Ricardo", since the Confederates did not know the boy's last name. Since Ricardo's death in 1862 he has been mustered posthumously into the Confederate Army and brevetted a private. Coincidentally, Ricardo was killed the very day ("el Cinco de Mayo") that President Benito Juarez's republican forces defeated the Confederacy's French monarchist allies at the Battle of Puebla.
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"Near the stage station are the graves of Hunter's men, killed by the Apaches. On the graves were these inscriptions, neatly cut in rough stone, executed by one of the Union prisoners: 'S. Ford, May 5th, 1862,' and 'Ricardo.' Ford was a sergeant, and Ricardo was a poor Mexican boy the Texans had forced into service at Tucson."
(Daily Alta [San Francisco], August 10, 1862. The Alta article quotes passages from a diary and is reprinted in its entirety in The Civil War in Arizona by Andrew E. Masich, 223-35. See also: Finch, "Sherod Hunter," 190; and Confederate Pathway to the Pacific, 152-53.)
Pvt, Company A, Baylor's Regiment, Arizona Rangers, Confederate States of America
Died in action between Chiricahua Apaches and the unit, shortly after action between Union Soliders near Picacho Pass. Battle was near Dragoon Springs Butterfield Stage Station. Buried where they died.
Ricardo (last name unknown) was born in Sonora, México, about 1848. He became a U.S. citizen following the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. When Texas Confederates briefly occupied Tucson (February 28 - May 14, 1862) they pressed several Mexican residents into service as cooks, laundresses, valets, stewards and stock herders, among the latter was the young Ricardo. When Captain Sherrod Hunter left Tucson to escort some Union prisoners and confiscated Tucson livestock back to Texas, Ricardo was taken along. Hunter's small command was ambushed by Apaches at Dragoon Springs May 5, 1862, and Ricardo was killed, along with three Confederate soldiers. All four casualties were buried at the old Dragoon Springs stage station near the graves of three Butterfield Overland Mail employees who had been killed there September 9, 1858. The Union prisoner who carved his headstone inscribed it simply "Ricardo", since the Confederates did not know the boy's last name. Since Ricardo's death in 1862 he has been mustered posthumously into the Confederate Army and brevetted a private. Coincidentally, Ricardo was killed the very day ("el Cinco de Mayo") that President Benito Juarez's republican forces defeated the Confederacy's French monarchist allies at the Battle of Puebla.
----
"Near the stage station are the graves of Hunter's men, killed by the Apaches. On the graves were these inscriptions, neatly cut in rough stone, executed by one of the Union prisoners: 'S. Ford, May 5th, 1862,' and 'Ricardo.' Ford was a sergeant, and Ricardo was a poor Mexican boy the Texans had forced into service at Tucson."
(Daily Alta [San Francisco], August 10, 1862. The Alta article quotes passages from a diary and is reprinted in its entirety in The Civil War in Arizona by Andrew E. Masich, 223-35. See also: Finch, "Sherod Hunter," 190; and Confederate Pathway to the Pacific, 152-53.)
Died in action between Chiricahua Apaches and the unit, shortly after action between Union Soliders near Picacho Pass. Battle was near Dragoon Springs Butterfield Stage Station. Buried where they died.
Ricardo (last name unknown) was born in Sonora, México, about 1848. He became a U.S. citizen following the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. When Texas Confederates briefly occupied Tucson (February 28 - May 14, 1862) they pressed several Mexican residents into service as cooks, laundresses, valets, stewards and stock herders, among the latter was the young Ricardo. When Captain Sherrod Hunter left Tucson to escort some Union prisoners and confiscated Tucson livestock back to Texas, Ricardo was taken along. Hunter's small command was ambushed by Apaches at Dragoon Springs May 5, 1862, and Ricardo was killed, along with three Confederate soldiers. All four casualties were buried at the old Dragoon Springs stage station near the graves of three Butterfield Overland Mail employees who had been killed there September 9, 1858. The Union prisoner who carved his headstone inscribed it simply "Ricardo", since the Confederates did not know the boy's last name. Since Ricardo's death in 1862 he has been mustered posthumously into the Confederate Army and brevetted a private. Coincidentally, Ricardo was killed the very day ("el Cinco de Mayo") that President Benito Juarez's republican forces defeated the Confederacy's French monarchist allies at the Battle of Puebla.
----
"Near the stage station are the graves of Hunter's men, killed by the Apaches. On the graves were these inscriptions, neatly cut in rough stone, executed by one of the Union prisoners: 'S. Ford, May 5th, 1862,' and 'Ricardo.' Ford was a sergeant, and Ricardo was a poor Mexican boy the Texans had forced into service at Tucson."
(Daily Alta [San Francisco], August 10, 1862. The Alta article quotes passages from a diary and is reprinted in its entirety in The Civil War in Arizona by Andrew E. Masich, 223-35. See also: Finch, "Sherod Hunter," 190; and Confederate Pathway to the Pacific, 152-53.)
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