May 9, 1863: Back East, the Union was reeling from Lee’s victory at Chancellorsville and Lee was reeling at the loss of Stonewall Jackson. Out West, with the Confederates already driven out of the Territories, Kit Carson was preparing to follow his orders from General Carleton to round up the Navajo. One of his right arm officers, Major Joseph Cummings, also U.S. Marshall of Santa Fe, would not return. But not for the reason Carson would report in the U.S. Army Archives.

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