California Column

The command marched over 900 miles (1,400 km) from California through Arizona and New Mexico Territory to the Rio Grande and as far east as El Paso, Texas, between April and August 1862.

Later on, Lieutenant Colonel George W. Bowie's 5th California Infantry was added, bringing the total strength of the Column to 2350 men.

[2][3] Arizona Confederate volunteers, of the Company A, Arizona Rangers, under Captain Sherod Hunter, arrested the Union Army agent, Ammi White, destroyed White's flour mill at Casa Blanca and supplies of food and fodder being gathered there and at other stage stations along the Column's route between Fort Yuma and Tucson.

It was not until late June that a scout named John W. Jones was able to outrun pursuing Apaches and get a message to Canby: "The Column from California is really coming."

[1] Part of their service after occupying West Texas would be as garrisons to prevent the return of the Confederates into the Union reorganized Territories of New Mexico and Arizona.