From the Spanish cuadrilla that founded Santa Fe to the Native bands that led the Pueblo Revolt, from the Presidio cavalry to the Great War foot soldiers, Santa Fe residents have responded when called to armed service. The following are among those who made their marks as front-line fighters or unsung heroes.

Col. Kit Carson

At 16, Kit Carson followed the Santa Fe Trail to escape the humdrum life as an apprentice saddle maker in Franklin, Mo. Carson became famous as a trapper, trader, military guide and Army officer. He rode with U.S. Army commanders John C. Fremont, Stephen Watts Kearny and James Carleton. Under orders, Carson waged a military campaign against the Navajos, executing the brutal scorched-earth policy of 1863. He later served in Colorado, where he died at 58. He was buried in Taos alongside his wife, Maria Josefa Jaramillo Carson.

SOURCE: BLOOD AND THUNDER BY HAMPTON SIDES



Maj. Albert Myer

Modern battlefield communications started in Santa Fe. Trained as a doctor and inspired to develop a communication system for the deaf, Albert Myer joined the U.S. Army and worked out a system of flag signals that allowed one unit to talk with another at a distance. Myer perfected his system while assigned to Santa Fe in 1860. The Union Army used the signaling system to help win the Civil War. Myer, who was reassigned from Santa Fe to Washington, D.C., became the father of the Signal Corps for his system known as aerial telegraphy. After the war, Santa Fe became the Southwestern headquarters for the Signal Corps, operator of the latest advance in communications, the telegraph system.

SOURCE: GETTING THE MESSAGE THROUGH BY REBECCA ROBBINS RAINES



Maj. Jose Sena

During the battle of Valverde, while other U.S. companies refused to cross the Rio Grande, Jose D. Sena led the men of his Union company across the river through a shower of bullets. The charge didn't prevent a Confederate victory that day in 1862, but it did earn him respect as a U.S. Army officer. After the war, he was in charge of the rebuilding of Fort Marcy. Later he served as Santa Fe County sheriff, became a trusted court interpreter and practiced law. He was an inspiring speaker and pro-statehood spokesman until his 1892 death. In 1865, he brought his patriotism and skills as an orator together to deliver on the Plaza a stirring eulogy for the fallen President Lincoln.



Louisa Canby

U.S. troops under Henry Canby were the heroes of Glorieta, while down the trail it was the colonel's wife, Louisa, who became the "angel of Santa Fe." In a series of battles ending at Glorieta Pass in 1862, U.S. troops stopped Confederate expansion from Texas into the Southwest. On March 29, fighting a late-season snow as well as the enemy, the Texans retreated to Santa Fe in need of blankets for the sick and wounded. Louisa Canby organized Army wives on the Union side to give the Confederates badly needed medical attention, earning her a place in history for her humanitarian efforts.

SOURCE: WOMEN OF THE NEW MEXICO FRONTIER BY CHERYL J. FOOTE



Sgt. Thomas Ledgwidge

When the Spanish-American War broke out and Teddy Roosevelt mustered his famous Rough Riders, New Mexicans were eager to prove their loyalty to the United States. Santa Fe names filled the roster of 150 men who made up Troop E. One of the sergeants was Thomas Ledgwidge. Of the decisive charge up San Juan Hill in 1898, he recounted, "We went up with a whoop and a yell, and sent the Spaniards running for their second line of entrenchments." The misery of war, however, took much of the bravado out of men like Ledgwidge, who afterward observed humbly, "We had brave men and we had cowards."

SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES



Theodore Rouault

Although he never wore a military uniform and never went to Europe, Theodore Rouault was part of the Great War. He fought the battle of Santa Fe, the battle for respect. Rouault was the state game warden during World War I, when a Kansas City writer published a letter in a national magazine questioning whether New Mexicans possessed the will to guard America's border. Rouault declared open season on the writer of the "scurrilous letter." Rouault, a descendant of Hispanic settlers, saw the letter as a racist attack. His response to the letter offered a virtual report on New Mexico's eager patriotism in time of war. He said: "Our young men, to the number of some 15,000, are serving with the colors ... , and you will find their names among the list of killed or wounded on the battle fields of France."



Dorothy McKibben

In the lofty, hierarchical world of the Manhattan Project, Dorothy McKibben stuck up for the scientists and soldiers who didn't quite conform to the Army way. McKibben guarded the project's secrecy as she managed the tucked-away office in Santa Fe and the oversized egos on the Hill. Her job was to sign in new arrivals, arrange transportation and housing, and plan leisure time for the bosses. She was the versatile administrator who relieved the everyday pressures so Los Alamos scientists could concentrate on developing the atomic bomb. McKibben, a young widow who had moved with her son to Santa Fe for her health, stayed after the war and died in 1985 at 88.

SOURCE: 109 EAST PALACE BY JENNET CONANT