CONFEDERATE FRONTIERSMEN The Story of Company A, Baylor’s Regiment of Arizona Rangers

 Via Miss Emma

The Confederate Territory of Arizona was beset by numerous threats, with Yankee forces to the north, Mexican bandits to the south, and Apache marauders everywhere in between. To meet these threats, Governor John Robert Baylor immediately mustered into Confederate service the various local militia companies which existed within the Territory. The best of these were the Arizona Guards of Pinos Altos (a town on the Mimbres River near present-day Deming, New Mexico), commanded by Captain Thomas Mastin, and the Arizona Rangers of La Mesilla (not to be confused with Company A, Baylor's Regiment of Arizona Rangers, who form the main subject of this article), commanded by Captain George Frazier.1

These local militia units proved a valuable addition to the Confederate forces defending Arizona, but Governor Baylor recognized the need to raise yet more troops for its defense. Taking a page from the history of his native State, Baylor decided to raise a regiment of Rangers for frontier defense. Like the famous Texas Rangers with which he was familiar, this regiment of Arizona Rangers would consist of several companies of cavalry which would patrol and defend the frontier areas of Confederate Arizona from the various threats the Territory faced. The plan never came to fruition, however, and only one of these companies was ever raised. This was, of course, Company A.2 

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