Christmas expedition met rough weather

In early 1863, the U.S. Congress passed the Arizona Organic Act, thereby detaching the western half of New Mexico and from it creating the Arizona Territory. As provided by law, President Abraham Lincoln appointed the new territorial officials. Among them were John N. Goodwin, governor, and the justices of the Arizona high court. One of the latter was a Connecticut lawyer Joseph Pratt Allyn, named by Lincoln as an Arizona associate justice. He wrote up details of the trip that the party of officials made from Fort Leavenworth across the plains to Santa Fe and on westward to Arizona. Allyn, being a New Englander, was not impressed with Santa Fe's "undistinguished" adobe architecture. But in a letter published in his hometown newspaper at Hartford, he spoke approvingly of New Mexican women seen at a baile. In his words, they danced discreetly and did not flirt. The march westward by way of Albuquerque and Fort Wingate began with pleasant weather in early December, 1863. The government officials traveled in three army ambulances and were followed by a caravan of 66 baggage and supply wagons. By the time this slow-moving cavalcade reached Western New Mexico, the weather changed ,and Christmas was drawing near....