Jennifer Bohnhoff's Blog, page 26

The Civil War Battle of Albuquerque

La Glorieta today. It was originally built sometime before 1803. John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons The Battle of Albuquerque was one of the least significant battles of the American Civil War. It was so small that it is more appropriately called a skirmish. 

General H.H. Sibley’s Army of New Mexico had begun with great intentions. Its leader had planned to take the California and Colorado goldfields at little cost to the Confederacy, fulfilling a Southern version of Manifest Destiny. But things went wrong from the start, and they soon discovered that New Mexicans were not as happy to see them nor willing to feed and shelter an army made up of Texans. After its supply train was destroyed while they were fighting the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Sibley’s army retreated to Santa Fe and began straggling into Albuquerque, where they commandeered La Glorieta, the already old hacienda that was owned by German entrepreneur Franz Huning and its accompanying grist mill. 

Col. E.R.S. Canby Meanwhile, Col. Canby, whose troops had been bottled up in Fort Craig and living on half rations, moved his men north, leaving Kit Carson and his New Mexico Volunteers to defend the fort. On April 8 Canby arrived at the small farming settlement of Barelas, south of Albuquerque. Scouting reports informed him that the main Rebel force had not yet arrived from Santa Fe and only a small group of Confederates held the town. ​ Canby decided to use his four pieces of artillery  to make what he called a “noisy demonstration.” Rebel cannons returned fire from the mill, which was located near what is now the intersection of Laguna and Central. The artillery duel lasted for several hours until a delegation of concerned citizens approached Canby under a white flag. They explained that  Sibley had refused to allow the town’s women and children to evacuate, and the Union shelling was endangering them. Rather than risk public opinion in a territory that wasn’t wholly supportive of American rule, Canby ordered his men to stop firing, ending the Battle of Albuquerque.​ The townspeople and the Confederates didn’t know it was over, however. They waited anxiously as the sunset glowed red, orange and pink. In the fading light, the yellow glow of Canyby’s campfires dotted the horizon. Union buglers, drummers and fifers played “Tattoo” marking the end of the day, then continued with more music as, gradually, the campfires died out. It wasn’t until morning that it became apparent that Canby and his troops had slipped away in the darkness, leaving the musicians and the campfires to cover their movement. 
Unwilling to face Sibley’s entire army, which might reach Albuquerque at any moment, Canby had moved his men eastward into the Sandia Mountains. A few days later  in the little village of San Antonio, he met up with the Colorado volunteers now under the command of John Chivington, and finally felt that his troops were large enough to resume the attack on Gen. Sibley.​ The howitzer replicas, Old Town Albuquerque But Sibley’s forces had left Albuquerque, ending a possible second act of the Battle of Albuquerque. The General had arrived in Albuquerque soon after the artillery exchange and  explained to his officers that, with only enough food for 15 days and no more than 40 rounds of ammunition per man,  the best course of action would be to retreat down the Rio Grande valley and return to Texas.  So that they couldn’t be used against his retreating troops, he had eight brass howitzers buried in a corral behind San Felipe Neri Church. On the morning of April 12, Sibley abandoned his wounded and proceeded south. The two armies would not encounter each other until two days later, at the Battle of Peralta.
​
Although hardly a battle,  the artillery duel is the only battle ever to be fought within the city limits of Albuquerque. The eight brass howitzers were later recovered, and two are preserved in The Albuquerque Museum and replicas of the guns stand around the edges of Albuquerque's Old Town Plaza..  ​ Jennifer Bohnhoff teaches New Mexico history at Edgewood Middle School, in central New Mexico. She is the author of two novels set in the Civil War in New Mexico, Valverde and Glorieta, and is at work on Peralta, the third and final book in the trilogy. The Battle of Albuquerque will be depicted in that book. 

American Mothers and Authors

May is the month in which we celebrate Mother's Days, so it seems appropriate to recognize some American mothers who were also authors. Anne Bradstreet (March 20, 1612 – September 16, 1672) was the wife of the  governor of the Massachusetts Colony and the mother of eight children, but she was also a poet who wrote about marriage, family and the natural world. Her first book of poetry, The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, was published in London in 1650, making her the first American woman to be published in Europe and the New World.  Illustration from a 1770 edition of Rowlandson's book. Mary Rowlandson (c. 1637 – January 5, 1711) was the wife of a minister and mother of four children, one of whom died in infancy. The family lived in Lancaster, Massachusetts, a town that was on the edge of the wilderness at that time. In 1676, during King Philip's War, Lancaster was raided by Narragansett, Wampanoag, and Nipmuc Indians, and Mary and her her three children were taken. One of her daughters died of wounds after a week of captivity, but Mary and her remaining two children were ransomed after eleven weeks. Six years later, Rowlandson published  The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, which many consider to be America's first best-seller. Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) may be best know as the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” but it is just one of many poems she wrote. In addition, she was the author of plays, and books, and the publisher of literary magazines. She was also the mother of six children, active in advocating for world peace, women’s education, and women's right to vote. Julia wrote extensively over the course of her life and was also active as a speaker who championed morality and Christianity. 

In 1872, Howe asked for June 2 to become a "Mother's Day for Peace." Although she was unsuccessful, Anna Jarvis, the women who managed to establish the modern Mother's Day 36 years later reportedly was inspired by her own mother's work with Howe.
Vanilla Wafers Surely you've bought a box of vanilla wafers before. Why not make them yourself? These not too sweet cookies are perfect for accompanying a bowl of strawberries or a fruit salad, or as the base in banana pudding. If you are having a mother's day celebration, be sure to include them.  1/2 cup butter
1.2 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp salt 
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour Cream butter, shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Add vanilla and salt. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in flour. 

Scoop up dough with a teaspoon, roll into a ball, then set on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, 2" apart. Flatten with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in flour so it doesn't stick. 

Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes, until browned on the edges. Let cook on a rack. 
Jennifer Bohnhoff is the mother of three fine sons, the mother-in-law of three wonderful daughters in law, and the grandmother of three granddaughters and one grandson. She lives in New Mexico, where she teaches New Mexico History and writes. You can find out more about her at her website.

Welsh Border Castles

Motte and bailey design The Welsh border with England was the most heavily fortified frontier in Europe during the Middle Ages. Between 1066 and 1200, hundreds of castles were built there, at least 250 in Herefordshire and Shropshire alone..

The first of these castles were motte and baileys. The motte, an earthen mound with a tower on it that was the home of the local lord, was surrounded by a bailey, an enclosed area that usually had the stables, areas for storage, a chapel, and a well. The walls and buildings were made of wood initially.. After William successfully led the Normans in the 1066 invasion, he had to work quickly to secure his borders, and building with wood was the quickest was to build a fortification. ​The Normans struggled to maintain their grip against sporadic Welsh raids along the border. Their kings granted great powers to the border lordships so they would act as a buffer zone. Powerful feudal families, such as the Mortimers, dug in, building bigger and stronger castles such as the one at Ludlow. 

By the end of the 12th century, these border lords began replacing their wooden structures with more permanent stone ones. Stone keeps, some with bed chambers that had fireplaces and windows with dramatic views, replaced the wooden towers. Wooden palisades were replaced with stone curtain walls, which often had stone towers in their corners to improve their defenses.  But this transformation was expensive, and where it was not needed, it was not pursued. By the end of the 13th century, Edward I had subdued the Welsh and the need for fortified castles declined.  Many of the early motte and baileys were abandoned. Their timber defenses rotted away, leaving only the earthwork mounds. The remaining castles became more comfortable homes with the addition of pleasure gardens and larger doorways and windows on the lower floors.  Jennifer Bohnhoff is a middle school history teacher and author who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. She has written one book set in Medieval Europe. You can read more about it here. 

A Tribute to Philip, Warrior Prince

Prince Philip was born into war. When Princess Alice of Battenberg gave birth to him on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921, the Greco-Turkish War had already been raging for two years. His father, Prince Andrew of Greece, commanded a Greek Army division and his uncle, King Constantine I, was the high commander of the Greek expeditionary force.  The only son and fifth child, Philip’s parents had him baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church. As a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, he was in line of succession to both the Greek and the Danish thrones.

But the war was going badly, and when Philip was just 18 months old, Greeks revolted against their King. Constantine was forced to abdicate, and Prince Andrew, his wife, four daughters, and infant son were banished. The family escaped on the British naval vessel HMS Calypso, where the infant Philip slept in a cot made from a fruit box. In Paris, an aunt took them in.
The HMS Wallace. It had the nickname "One round Wallace", as the very first shot it fired in the war brought down a German airplane The family spiraled down after that. Philip was shuffled from school to school, beginning in Paris, then moved first to a British school, then a German one. As the Nazi party grew, his school moved to Scotland, and from there he moved to the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. As he shuffled from school to school, his four sisters married German princes and joined the Nazi party, his mother was committed to an asylum for schizophrenia, and his father moved to Monte Carlo. The young prince was left in the care of his uncle and guardian, Lord Milford Haven. When Haven died of cancer, his brother Louis Mountbatten, took over Philip’s guardianship, and Philip took the name Mountbatten as his own.
​
While he was at Dartmouth, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited, and Philip was asked to escort the King's two daughters, who were his third cousins through Queen Victoria. The king’s older daughter, Elizabeth, who was only 13, began exchanging letter with Philip soon after that.

In 1940, Philip graduated from Dartmouth as the best cadet in his class. He was appointed as a midshipman and served in the Indian Ocean aboard the battleship HMS Ramillies,the HMS Kent, and the HMS Shropshire. After Italy invaded Greece in October, he transferred to the battleship HMS Valiant, which was sailing in the Mediterranean. He fought in the Battle of Crete, and the March, 1941 Battle of Cape Matapan, where the 19-year-old sub-lieutenant was in charge of manning the searchlights used to spot enemy ships. He found two different targets, which his battleship was able to sink, earning himself the Greek War Cross. 

By July 1943, Philip was a first lieutenant serving on the destroyer HMS Wallace. During the Allied Invasion of Sicily, the Wallace was targeted by a Luftwaffe bomber who repeatedly attacked. Philip came up with the idea of assembling a wooden raft, which they loaded with smoke pots and launched. Apparently, the German pilot mistook the smoking, flaming raft for the Wallace, which was able to slip away in the dark of night.  The 1945 picture of Philip that Elizabeth kept on her dressing table throughout the last year of the war. In 1944, Prince Philip was transferred to the Pacific, where he served aboard the HMS Whelp. Two rescued British airmen whose bomber was shot down by the Japanese over the ocean discovered who he was only after they saw Princess Elizabeth's photo in his cabin, where he had left them as he collected hot food and dry clothes for them. Elizabeth had a picture of the bearded lieutenant on her dressing table, but no down pilots sat on her bed while awaiting supplies.

After the war ended, Philip asked the King for his daughter's hand in marriage. The King asked that a formal engagement be delayed until Elizabeth's 21st birthday, in April of 1947.

​Philip had to relinquish his Greek and Danish royal titles, but he did not give up his position in the Navy. After his marriage on November 20, 1947, he continued to serve, first at the Admiralty, and then at the Navel Staff College in Greenwich. He eventually was promoted to commander, and commanded the frigate HMS Magpie. In 1952, Elizabeth’s father, King George VI died and Elizabeth ascended the throne. Philip then gave up his military career to support his wife, but he continued to  hold many honorary titles in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. He also received pilot training with the RAF, and continued flying until the late 1990s. He remained a warrior at heart throughout his life.  Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and writer who lives far from the sea, in the mountains of central New Mexico. When she was a young girl attending Oxford University in the late 1970s, it was rumored that Philip might just become her father in law. You can read more about that here.  For more about her books, visit her website. 

Fimbulwinter and The Promise of Spring

Spring is so full of promise. The emergence of the first, green shoots and the twitter of nesting birds inspires hope in our hearts. But what if, one spring, that didn't happen? How would it affect us?  In Children of Ash and Elm, Neil Price suggests that the Viking's concept of Ragnarok, the cataclysmic final battle at the end of the world, might have been formed when volcanic eruptions threw so much ash into the atmosphere that spring seemed not to come. In 536, 539, and 547, major volcanic eruptions, probably in El Salvador at what is now Lake Ilopango, caused world wide ecological consequences that are documented in written sources as far divergent as China, India, the Mediterranean, and the Goths of central Europe.

Fimbulwinter, or Mighty Winter of Scandinavian lore may have been inspired by this. Snorri, in his Edda, says that when Fimbulwinter comes, "there will be great frosts and keen winds. The sun will do no good. There will be three of these winters together, and no summer between."

​Dendrochronological records from this period show that trees withered, their growth rings stunted. The failed harvests created riots and famine. In Scandinavia, tens of thousands starved to death, and the population suffered losses of an estimated 50%. Price says that this devastation led to a dissolution of  the sociopolitical structures in Scandinavia, and the beginning of what is called the Viking age. What they feared to be the end of civilization proved to be the beginning of a new era.

The Vikings were in no way responsible for the destruction of the ecology in the 6th century. Those volcanic eruptions were a natural occurrence. And while natural disasters continue to happen, it seems that many others are not natural at all, but human made. ​ In her 1962 book Silent Spring, biologist Rachel Carson warned that the heightened use of DDT and other pesticides after World War II was going to lead to a human-created Fimbulwinter.  In our attempt to choose what species were to live and what were to die because we had deemed them pests, humans were going to destroy the food chain, leading to the death of far more species than we intended. As birds' shells became thinner, their chicks would die. The springtime sound of birds would be no more. Fortunately for us, politicians listened and the crisis was averted. Out of her warnings, a new ecological consciousness developed and a new era of environmentalism was born.  The jury is still out on whether COVID-19 was a man made or natural disaster. We still don't know whether this virus developed on its own or in a lab. But for many, the year-long quarantine has felt like fimbulwinter. Once again, society has had to react to imminent disaster. It will be interesting to see how this, too, will lead to a new era.  Bird Nest Cookies Celebrate the promise of spring with these not too sweet cookies.  1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup softened butter
2 eggs, separated (you will need 2 yolks and 1 egg white for this recipe)
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
candy coated chocolate eggs or small jelly beans

Heat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment. 

In large bowl, beat brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add egg yoks and vanilla and blend well. 
Add flour and salt and blend well. 

Shape dough into 1 inch balls.

In small bowl, slightly beat 1 egg white (use the other egg white for another purpose)

In another small bowl, mix coconut and pecans. 

Dip the tops of cookie dough balls into the egg white, then into the coconut and nut mixture. Set on the parchment-lined cookie sheet, coconut side up, 1" apart. 
Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each cookie. 

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned. As soon as they are out of the oven press a chocolate egg or jelly bean into the dent in the dent in the middle of each cookie before moving to a cooling rack. 

Buffalo Soldiers

In 1866, right after the close of the Civil War, Congress created six (later consolidated to four) regiments of African-American soldiers. These units, the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th Infantry, quickly became known as “The Buffalo Soldiers.” There are at least three different stories concerning how these units came by their nickname.

The most plausible in my mind is that the Plains Indians, who fought the Buffalo Soldiers, thought that their dark skin and black curly hair looked much like the coloring and fur of the buffalo.

A second theory is that they were named after the thick buffalo-hide coats the troops wore during the winter.

​A third theory is that they were awarded the name because of the ferocity and bravery of their actions. ​ Regardless of how the name came to be, the soldiers themselves were proud of it and considered it high praise since buffalo were deeply respected by the Native peoples of the Great Plains. Eventually, the buffalo became the image on the 10th Cavalry's regimental crest.
At first, regiments of Buffalo Soldiers faced a lot of racial prejudice. Because many whites didn't want to see armed black soldiers in or near their communities, the Buffalo Soldiers were assigned to forts west of the Mississippi River, where they supported the nation's westward expansion by protecting settlers, building roads and other infrastructure, and guarding the U.S. mail. They were also involved in many of the military campaigns of the Indian Wars. They served with distinction, earning an impressive 18 Medals of Honor during this period. ​​ Since there were no African American officers, the units were commanded by whites. Some officers, like George Armstrong Custer, were so opposed to allowing blacks into the Army that they refused to command black regiments even when it cost them promotions. Others, like John Pershing, accepted the command but were branded for it. Pershing got the nickname “Black Jack” for his time commanding the 10th Cavalry. At first, it was given to him derisively, but he managed to turn it into a badge of honor.

George Jordan, of  K Troop, 9th Cavalry Regiment, earned his prestigious medal for repulsing a force of more than 100 Indians while he and his detachment of 25 men were stationed at Fort Tularosa, N. M., and then for holding his ground in an exposed position so that a larger force of Indians could not surround his command in Carrizo Canyon. Eventually, the exceptional performance of the Buffalo soldiers led to their advancement into positions of authority. The first black officer to command soldiers in the regular U.S. Army, Henry O. Flipper, was born a slave in Georgia but graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1877, commissioned as a second lieutenant, and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment. He faced intense resentment from some white officers and became the target of a smear campaign that culminated in a court martial and his dismissal from the Army in 1882. He was posthumously pardoned by President Clinton in 1999.
Buffalo Soldiers continued to serve their country, both in the west and abroad. They helped in the 1892 Johnson County War in Wyoming, which pitted small farmers against wealthy ranchers and a band of hired gunmen. They also fought in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, and served along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Expedition to find Pancho Villa.  However, they continued to suffer racism.  Woodrow Wilson excluded black regiments from the American Expeditionary Force and placed them under French command. During World War II, most of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments were moved into service roles. The two exceptions were the 92nd Infantry Division, which saw combat during the invasion of Italy, and the 25th Infantry Regiment, which fought in the Pacific. During the Korean War, the last of the segregated U.S. Army regiments were disbanded and their troops integrated into other units.

Important Irish-American Women

America has welcomed people from all over the world. During the nineteenth century, a large proportion of these people were from Ireland. In the 1840s, when the Potato Famine was ravaging the Emerald Isle, nearly half of the immigrants to America were Irish, and half of those Irish immigrants were single women.
Many of those newcomers to America entered domestic professions, where working as a maid, cook, nanny, or housekeeper helped them assimilate into American culture. A generation later, Irish women were entering professions at higher rates than any other immigrant group. They became teachers, bookkeepers, typists, journalists, social workers, and nurses. Irish American women represented the majority of public elementary school teachers in Providence, Boston, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco by 1910.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau. about 32 million Americans, or 9.7% of the total population, identifies as being Irish.  In honor of Women’s History Month and St. Patrick’s Day, here are four Irish American Women who have made significant contributions, plus a recipe for cookies that will put you into the spirit of the day.. Mother Jones, Labor Agitator Mother Jones, whose real name was Mary Harris Jones, was a tireless advocate for worker’s rights, the end of child labor, and for improved working conditions for miners. She was born in Cork, Ireland in 1837, but was still a child when the Harris family emigrated first to Canada and then to the United States.
Mary Harris married an iron molder named George E Jones in 1861. Six years later, he and all four of their children died in a yellow-fever epidemic. The trade union he had belonged to helped the new widow, leaving a lasting impression on her.
When the great Chicago fire of 1871 destroyed her home and all of her belongings, Mrs. Jones left behind her job as a dressmaker to enter political activism. She joined the Knights of Labor and the Socialist Labor Party and became a full-time union organizer, travelling constantly around Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia and Colorado as she organized marches, made speeches in the plain language of the working man, and deploying “broom and mop” brigades of workers’ wives to wage war against scabs and strike breakers.
 
Interestingly, although she believed in racial equality, she did not believe in equality of the sexes and opposed female suffrage. She believed in the traditional family, with a breadwinner husband and a wife who supported him.
 
Jones cultivated a grandmotherly persona, even lying about her age to appear older than she was. She made a lot of enemies.  One district attorney called her the most dangerous woman in the United States. The writer Upton Sinclair called the left-wing firebrand the walking wrath of God. But while she angered many people, she secured valuable nationwide press attention for the causes she championed.
Kay McNulty, Computer Programmer
On February 12, 1921, important events happened to the McNultys of Donegal County, Ireland: Their daughter Kay was born, and the father was arrested for IRA membership. Two years later, when he was finally released from prison, the family left their farm and emigrated to Pennsylvania. The move turned out to be lifechanging for Kay, whose mother encouraged her to do her best “to prove that Irish immigrants could be as good, if not better, than anybody.” While only 37% of girls in Ireland were enrolled in school in 1929, Kay was able earn a scholarship while in High School that allowed her to attend Chestnut Hill College for Women. She graduated with a mathematics degree.
 
When World War II began, the US Army hired Kay as a “computer”, calculating missile trajectories. In 1945, she and five other women were moved to Aberdeen military base in Maryland to developing the processor for a top-secret 30-ton machine called the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC). Later, she worked at another programming job, which she only discovered later was testing the feasibility of the H-bomb.
 
In 1948 Kay married a computer developer named John Mauchly. As was usual at the time, she stopped her career. But throughout the time when she raised seven children,
Kay continued, unpaid and unnoticed, to program the new computers that her husband was developing.
 
It wasn’t until decades later, in 1997, that McNulty and the other five ENIAC women were inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame.
Ella Fitzgerald, Singer
Ella Fitzgerald may not look Irish, but when she acknowledged her heritage, the people of Ireland were happy to have her. The First Lady of Song was born to a woman who was African American/Cherokee Indian. Her father, who was Irish enough to have a family crest, never married her mother, and abandoned the family when Ella was quite young. During a singing tour of Ireland in the 1960s, Fitzgerald told reporters that she had the family crest in her home, and the authorities used a special stamp on her passport to acknowledge her heritage.
 
Fitzgerald has a voice that continues to amaze and entertain listeners years after her death. She remains famous for her scat singing and her associations with other jazz greats such as Louie Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Her musical career spanned six decades and several genres, though she remained a jazz singer at heart.
 
Ella could be considered a symbol of the mixing of cultures that is distinctly American
Eileen Marie Collins, AstronauT
Eileen Marie Collins was the daughter of Irish immigrants. She became interested in space flight at a young age. She began to pursue her dream by joining the air force and becoming a test pilot. In 1990, she was selected for astronaut training. Collins was able to pilot several space shuttle missions and was the first woman to serve as a commander on a space shuttle mission. She reached the rank of colonel in the United States Air Force. 

​
Irish American women have come a long way since their days of domestic service. Some, like Collins are reaching for the stars. Others, like Fitzgerald, are stars. Some continue Mother Jones’ fight for the rights of the downtrodden, giving voice and hope to millions, and many are involved in STEM careers that they do not have to pursue in privacy in their own homes. These and many others have proven McNulty’s mother right in her assertion that Irish immigrants could be as good, if not better, than anybody. Chocolate Mint Shamrock Cookies
These festive cookies can be adapted to different holidays. Change the color of the topping, pipe it out in a different shape, and vary the flavor of the extract to serve any time of year.
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening
½ tsp. mint extract
3 TBS cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 ¾ cup flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
 
Sugar to roll cookies in
 
Topping
¼ cup flour
¼ cup butter, softened
1-1 ½ tsp warm water
2 drops green food coloring
 
Preheat oven to 375°
In large bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add extract, cocoa and eggs and blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
Shape into 1” balls and roll in sugar. Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. If the glass sticks to the cookies, dip it in sugar.
To make topping, combine flour and butter until smooth. Add warm water until the paste is soft enough to extrude easily from a pastry bag with a small round tip. (If you don’t have a pastry bag, put mixture in a zip lock sandwich bag and snip a small hole in one corner.) Pipe shamrock design on top of each cookie.
Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes or until set. Makes 6 dozen cookies. Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer and educator who lives in central New Mexico. She claims a wee bit of Irish in her heritage, in additions to French, Norwegian, English, Swedish, and German. No one would argue that she isn't full of blarney. 

Starvation Peak

A few weeks ago I got an email from a woman whose father had read my Civil War Novels Valverde and Glorieta and was anxious to know when Peralta, the third and final book in the series, would be out. 

I had to admit to her that teaching was taking up far too much of my time these days, and that my work on Peralta has stalled. I have written through Chapter 8, and outlined the rest of the novel, but it’s not going to be finished until the end of summer at the earliest.  

She then asked me if I knew of any other stories set in the Starvation Peak area, or near Bernal. I was flummoxed. Although I knew where Bernal was, I’d never heard of Starvation Peak. The name intrigued me, and I began digging for answers.  Juan Bautista de Anza, Governor of New Mexico 1777-1787 The village of Bernal is one of many created after Governor Juan Bautista Anza forced marauding Comanches to sign the Comanche Peace Treaty in 1786. Prior to this, the area around Pecos Pueblo had been too vulnerable, a reason the inhabitants of Pecos Pueblo abandoned their home in the 1830s to live with their cousins in Jemez.
 
In November 1794, Lorenzo Marquez asked Spanish Governor Fernando Chacón to make a land grant for him and 51 other families from Santa Fe. Marquez said in the petition that the families were large, but had only small parcels of land in Santa Fe, and not enough water.

He noted that thirteen of the fifty-two petitioners were Indians, probably from the Pecos Pueblo.  Since most of the outlying grants were given, according to Fray Angélico Chávez, to “Spanish military personnel and the genízaro colony of Santa Fe [1] , it is likely that most of the other families in the group were either Genízaros or mestizos. Historians speculate that Marquez had been a presidio soldier stationed around Pecos Pueblo and was therefore familiar with the area. Genízaros are Indigenous people who had assimilated into Spanish culture. They included Puebloans from Pecos, San José and San Miguel, plus converts from the Comanche and other Plains tribes. More than fourteen percent of the population of Santa Fe was made up of Genízaros.
 
The 315,000-acre grant, which became known as San Miguel del Vado Land Grant, was approved. Soon a number of new communities, including Bernal, were established in the Pecos River Valley.
 
Towering over the village of Bernal is a 7,031-foot flat-topped butte that is named Starvation Peak. The legend is that, during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, 36 Spanish colonists took shelter at the top of this mesa. Some accounts say they eventually tried to leave and were slaughtered and buried at the foot of the mesa. Other accounts say the colonists died of thirst and starvation while still atop. The story is documented in an 1884 edition of the Detroit Free Press, but has grown.  the years.  When writers from the Works Progress Administration were documenting the region in 1939, they recorded 120 colonists had died.  
Starvation Peak became a way-finder point along the Santa Fe Trail when it opened in 1821. It was distinctive enough to help guide travelers. Major William Anderson Thornton, a member of an 1855 military expedition that passed through reposted that General Kearny had wanted to place a flag atop the peak when he marched through the area during the Mexican American war, but after walking around its base, declared the task impossible.  
​
At the base of the peak lies Bernal Springs, which became a campsite and stage stop along the trail. There is little doubt that Bernal profited from trading with travelers. When the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad laid its tracks through the Pecos Valley in the early 1880s, it bypassed the town, which has become a sleepy little village set in a spectacularly beautiful land. 

[1] Fray Angelico Chavez, Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, 1678-1900 (Academy of American Franciscan History: Washington D.C., 1951), 205.
 
https://www.legendsofahttps://newmexicohistory.org/2012/06/29/san-miguel-del-bado-grant/merica.com/bernal-new-mexico/
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8213241/pretty-good-starvation-peak/

Jennifer Bohnhoff teaches New Mexico History in a rural New Mexico Middle School. She is the author of Valverde and Glorieta, novels about the Civil War battles in New Mexico. The third in the series, Peralta, will come out when she finds the time to write it. You can read more about Mrs. Bohnhoff and her books at her website, where you can also sign up to receive emails about her work and upcoming sales and giveaways.

Two Famous McAdams

Last week I wrote about American Presidents of Scots descent. This week, I’ll share some information on two more Scotsmen. One had a tenuous tie with the United States, the other had no connection to America, but they’re both interesting men, whose name has lived beyond them.

John Loudon McAdam was the inventor of “macadamisation,” an effective and economical method of constructing roads. Born in Ayr, Scotland in 1756, McAdam made his fortune working in his Uncle’s counting house in New York during the American Revolution. When he returned home in 1783, he bought an estate and began operating a colliery, some kilns, and an ironworks. These businesses gave him the technical knowledge to suggest that roads should be raised above the surrounding ground and constructed of systematically layered rocks and gravel. He wrote his conclusions in two treatises, Remarks on the Present System of Roadmaking (1816) and Practical Essay on the Scientific Repair and Preservation of Roads (1819).  By Peetlesnumber1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index... In time, road builders began adding hot tar to bond the rocks and gravel together. This is what I’ve always called asphalt but depending on where you live it can be called macadam, blacktop, or tarmac, a mixture of the words tar and “macadam.
 
The first macadam road in North America was the National Road, also known as the Cumberland Road. Construction began in 1811, in Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. The road stretches 620 miles and connects the Potomac to the Ohio River. It was macadamized in the 1830s and became the main road for thousands of settlers moving west. The road ended in Vandalia, Illinois, 63 miles east of St. Louis, It would have gone further had not an 1837 financial panic led Congress to cut off funding. The other McAdam whose name has outlived him is Dr. John Macadam, who was born outside of Glasgow, Scotland in 1827. He taught university-level chemistry, first in Glasgow and then in Melbourne, Australia. He was also a medical doctor, a health official for the city of Melbourne and a member of the agricultural board. As a politician, he fought to make parliament enact food purity laws.  The macadamia nut, a native plant of Australia, was named in his honor by the botanist Ferdinand von Mueller.
Here’s one of my favorite uses for macadamia nuts. I think Dr. John would have enjoyed them, and I hope you do, too. 
​Chocolate Macadamia Cookies
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
1 cup softened butter
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
¼ cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 cup white chocolate chips
½ cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped
 
Preheat oven to 375°.
Beat sugars and butter until light and fluffy.
Add extract and egg and blend well.
Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt and mix well.
Stir in chips and nuts.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2” apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375° for 8-12 minutes, or until set.
Cool 1 minute before removing from sheet to cooling rack.
Makes 2 ½ cookies.

Shortbread and Scots-American Presidents

Since February has Presidents Day, I'd intended to write a piece on George Washington and include a recipe that had something to do with him. Martha Washington was a famous cook in her day; surely I could find a recipe for cookies that she made for her husband. 

But as I began planning, I remembered this shortbread pan that I've had a long time. (It might have been a wedding gift, but as I've been married over 40 years, I can't remember.)

Although I usually make shortbread at Christmas, the lovely hearts on the pan make it very appropriate for Valentines Day, and that led me on a search to find a connection between shortbread and February. Turns out I didn't have to search very hard at all, and my search led me right back to George Washington.  George Washington may have been our first president with ties to Scotland, but he wasn't our last. 
​ Scotland.org states that 34 of our 44 presidents have been of either Scottish or Ulster-Scots descent. This includes George Washington, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Ronald Regan, and Bill Clinton.  Even Barack Obama, our first African-American president, has some Scots blood. Genealogists have found that his ancestry can be traced back to William the Lion who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214.

So this President's Day, enjoy a bit of shortbread and think about what Scotland has contributed to the United States. 

My recipe for shortbread has a secret added ingredient: corn starch. While it is unusual, I've found that it leads to a tighter crumb. These cookies won't shatter when you bite down on them, but they are still rich and not too sweet.  Shortbread 1/2 lb.(2 sticks)  butter

1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup corn starch

Preheat oven to 325  If you have a shortbread pan, place it in the over and let it preheat.

Melt butter. 

Mix sugar, flour and cornstarch together. Pour melted butter over and blend together. Pat into preheated mold. 

Back at 325 for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake another 20 minutes, or until edges are slightly brown. Turn out shortbread onto a plate as soon as they come out of the oven. Use a large knife to slice the wedges apart when the shortbread is still warm.  Variations If you don't own a shortbread pan, you can use any of these four variations. 

Wedges: pat into two 8" circles. Cut into 8-12 wedges, but don't separate them. Back at 325 for 30 minutes. Recut while warm 

Thumbprints: roll into 1: balls, Place 2" apart on a cookie sheet and press thumb into the center of each to make a deep indentation. Back at 325 for 18 minutes. Immediately after removing from over, fill each indentation with 1/2 tsp preserves. Cool before removing from cookie sheet. 

Pecan spice: Substitute brown sugar for white and add 1 tsp of pumpkin spice to the original recipe. Pat into a 9x13" pan. Cut into 1x1/12" rectangles. Place a pecan half on each rectangle. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Recut while warm and let cook in the pan before sprinkling with powdered sugar. 

Shortbread triangles:  Substitute brown sugar for white and add 1 tsp of pumpkin spice to the original recipe. Pat into a 9x13" pan. Sprinkle dough with 1/4 cup chopped pecans; press them into the dough. Cut into 16 squares, then divide each square crosswise to make triangles. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Recut while warm. When cool, drizzle with vanilla icing. 

Vanilla icing: 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 2-3 tsp milk, stirred until smooth.  Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and writer who lives in central New Mexico. You can learn more about her books here.