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This equestrian statue of Christopher "Kit" Carson is located within Kit Carson Park - Kansas Ave and San Pedro in Trinidad, Colorado. The park is in the northwest part of the city of Trinidad.
Information on "Kit" Carson:
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"Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson (December 24, 1809[1] – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married into the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes. He was hired by John C. Fremont as a guide, and led 'the Pathfinder' through much of California, Oregon and the Great Basin area. He achieved national fame through Fremont's accounts of his expeditions. He became the hero of many dime novels.
Carson was a courier and scout during the Mexican-American war from 1846 to 1848, celebrated for his rescue mission after the Battle of San Pasqual and his coast-to-coast journey from California to deliver news of the war to the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.. In the 1850s, he was the Agent to the Ute and Jicarilla Apaches. In the Civil War he led a regiment of mostly Hispanic volunteers at the Battle of Valverde in 1862. He led armies to pacify the Navajo, Mescalero Apache, and the Kiowa and Comanche Indians. He is vilified for his conquest of the Navajo and their forced transfer to Bosque Redondo where many of them died. Breveted a general, he is probably the only American to reach such a high military rank without being able to read or write, although he could sign his name.
Kit Carson's alliterative name, adventurous life, and participation in a large number of historical events has made him a favorite subject of novelists, historians, and biographers.
Battle of Valverde
Advancing up the Rio Grande, Sibley’s command clashed with Canby’s Union force at Valverde on February 21, 1862. The day-long Battle of Valverde ended when the Confederates captured a Union battery of six guns and forced the rest of Canby’s troops across the river. The Union lost 68 killed and 160 wounded. Colonel Carson’s column spent the morning on the west side of the river out of the action, but at 1 p.m., Canby ordered them to cross. Carson’s battalions fought until ordered to retreat. Carson lost one man killed and one wounded. Colonel Canby had little or no confidence in the hastily recruited, untrained New Mexico volunteers, “who would not obey orders or obeyed them too late to be of any service.” However, Canby did remark about Carson and his volunteer’s “zeal and energy”.
After the battle at Valverde, Colonel Canby and most of the regular troops were ordered to the eastern front. Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers were fully occupied by “Indian troubles”.
Second Navajo campaign
Outlaw Navajos (called ladrones, Spanish for thieves), as well as other Native Americans, and their neighboring New Mexicans, had raided, killed and enslaved each other since they had lived side by side during Spanish rule. A lull had taken place in the 1850s under the jurisdiction of Captain Henry Kendrick, commandant of Fort Defiance in northeast Arizona, and Henry Dodge, the government agent. But after Dodge disappeared in late 1856, and Kendrick was transferred to another post, the raids resumed. With the withdrawal of many troops at the start of the Civil War, New Mexicans became more outspoken and demanded that something be done.
Carleton believed there was gold in the Navajo country, and that they should be driven out to allow its development. The immediate prelude to Carleton's Navajo campaign was to force the Mescalero Apache to Bosque Redondo. Carleton ordered Carson to kill all the men of that tribe, and say that he (Carson) had been sent to "punish them for their treachery and crimes."
Carson was appalled by this brutal attitude and refused to obey it. He accepted the surrender of more than a hundred Mescalero warriors who sought refuge with him. Nonetheless, he completed his campaign in a month.
When Carson learned that Carleton intended him to pursue the Navajo, he sent Carleton a letter of resignation dated February 3, 1863. Carleton refused to accept this and used the force of his personality to maintain Carson's cooperation. In language similar to his description of the Mescalero Apache, Carleton ordered Carson to lead an expedition against the Navajo, and to say to them, "You have deceived us too often, and robbed and murdered our people too long, to trust you again at large in your own country. This war shall be pursued against you if it takes years, now that we have begun, until you cease to exist or move. There can be no other talk on the subject." However, it was largely Canby's proposed plan, written from a position of relative neutrality and created in hopes of defusing the situation, that Carleton and Carson ultimately carried out.
Southern Plains campaign
In November 1864, Carson was sent by General Carleton to deal with the Indians in western Texas. Carson and his 400 troopers and Indian scouts met a combined force of Kiowa, Comanche, and Plains Apache numbering as much as 1,500 at the ruins of Adobe Walls, Texas. In the Battle of Adobe Walls, the Indian force led by Dohäsan made several assaults on Carson's forces which were supported by two mountain howitzers. Carson retreated after burning a Kiowa village. Carson lost the battle, but most authorities give him credit for a skillful defense and a wise decision to withdraw when confronted by numerically superior Indian army.
The Southern Plains campaign led the Comanches to sign the Little Rock Treaty of 1865. In October 1865, General Carleton recommended that Carson be awarded the brevet rank of brigadier general, "for gallantry in the battle of Valverde, and for distinguished conduct and gallantry in the wars against the Mescalero Apaches and against the Navajo natives of New Mexico"."
From SIRIS:
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"Bronze equestrian portrait of hunter and scout Kit Carson, seen wearing frontiersman garb, including a wide-brimmed hat and buckskin coat. His proper right hand is outstretched, and his proper left arm cradles a rifle and holds the reins. The horse appears in mid-strut, with its proper right front leg raised. The sculpture is mounted upon a multitiered, polished granite base, and enclosed by a picket fence.
The monument commemorates Christopher "Kit" Carson (1809-1868) and is sited in the park named after him. The sculpture cost was $13,380, funded through subscription, with a donation from Daniel L. Taylor. Taylor was a former Mayor of Trinidad and a friend of Carson's, donating the land for Kit Carson Park on Dec. 8, 1903. The Park and the monument were dedicated together in 1913. The contract for the monument was let on Feb. 14, 1911. The figure of Carson was sculpted by Augustus Lukeman, who worked from photographs of Carson. The figure of the horse was sculpted by Frederick Roth. The base was fabricated by the Milford Granite Company, and the stone set by the Pople Brothers. The dedication, originally scheduled for May 30, 1913, took place on June 1, 1913, because of rain. The site where the sculpture is installed was originally site of a marker for the Sante Fe Trail, but marker was relocated in order to give the monument the most prominent location in the Park. The monument was repaired in June 1987, by Bill Tcherneshoff, Santa Fe Bronze."