The afterwork of Farragut and Porter paralyzed the Southern line
of advance; and on the Peninsula, at Fredericksburg, at Resaca
and Chancellorsville, Major-General Daniel Butterfield met in arms
many of the men who listened to Hardin's gibes as to the outwitted
Yankee mail contractors.
Hardin, complacent, and with no vision of the awful fields to come,
secure in his well-laid plans, resumes:
"Thus aided through Arizona we will admit a strong column of Texan
dragoons. We shall take Fort Yuma, Fort Mojave, and the forts in
Arizona, as well as Forts Union and Craig in New Mexico. We will
then be able to control the northern overland road. We will hold
the southern line, and our forces will patrol Arizona. Mexico will
furnish us ports and supplies.
"Should the Northerners attempt to push troops over the plains,
we will attack them, in flank, from New Mexico. We can hold, thus,
New Mexico, Arizona, southern Utah, and all of California, by our
short line from El Paso to San Diego. We are covered on one flank
by Mexico."
The able brethren are ready with many suggestions. Friendly spies
in the Department at Washington have announced the intended drawing
East of the regular garrisons. It is suggested that the forts, and
in fact the whole State, be seized while the troops are in transit.
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