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Rare variant edition of this detailed map of the Battle of Taos, fought in January 1847.

The map shows the positions of the US Military detachment under the command of Colonel Sterling Price, which was sent from Santa Fe to Taos, New Mexico in January 1847 to respond to local resistance to American Rule, following the taking of New Mexico by the US Army during the Mexican-American War.

The plan shows the location of the various American comanding officers (Dyer, Angney, Hassendaubel, McMillen and Burgwin) arrayed around the northwest walls of the Church at Pueblo de Taos, where they had chased the local resistence.  The positions of Captain Slack and Ceran St. Vrain to the east is also shown, as are positions of unnamed soldiers.

The Battle of Taos was a conflict between American occupying forces and local Mexican resistance in Taos, following the taking of the region by the US Army under the command of Stephen Watts Kearny, at the outset of the Mexican-American War.  After Kearny departed with his forces for California, he left Colonel Sterling Price in command of U.S. forces in New Mexico and appointed Charles Bent as New Mexico's first territorial governor.  

New Mexican citizens resented the American occupation and feared that their land titles would not be recognized by the United States and that American sympathizers would prosper at their expense. After Kearny's departure, local resistance in Santa Fe plotted an uprising, which was joined by numerous Native American allies, including Puebloan peoples, who also wanted to push the Americans from the territory.

The insurrection began at Taos on January 19, 1847, led by Pablo Montoya, a Hispano, and Tomás Romero, a Taos Puebloan. Romero led a Native American force to the house of Governor Charles Bent, where they broke down the door, and wounded Bent, who would ultimately be killed and scalped. The rebel force killed and scalped several other government officials, along with others seen as related to the new US territorial government, including  Stephen Lee, acting county sheriff; Cornelio Vigil, prefect and probate judge; and J.W. Leal, circuit attorney. "It appeared," wrote Colonel Price, "to be the object of the insurrectionists to put to death every American and every Mexican who had accepted office under the American government."

Colonel Price led more than 300 US troops from Santa Fe to Taos, together with 65 volunteers, including a few New Mexicans, organized by the Bent Brothers' business partner, Ceran St. Vrain. Along the way, the combined forces beat back a force of some 1,500 Hispanos and Puebloans at Santa Cruz de la Cañada and Embudo Pass. The insurgents retreated to Taos Pueblo, where they took refuge in the thick-walled adobe church, but were ultimately captured, tried and put to death in April 1947.

Variant Edition

The present example lacks a page number and is different than the editions which were included in published reports.  The embellishment to the title is also different.