Albuquerque's Old Town

Albuquerque was founded in 1706 by the governor of New Mexico, Francisco Cuervo y Valdés. Although he claimed the town was a properly laid out settlement, investigation by the Mexican government found it was only a few farms along the Rio Grande. Nevertheless, a legitimate town did grow up in the spot, with the typical Spanish colonial central plaza where citizens would gather for business and fellowship. The central plaza was surrounded by offices, homes and the beautiful San Felipe de Neri Church, built in 1793. In 1821, along with the rest of New Mexico, Albuquerque passed from Spanish to Mexican hands following the Mexican War of Independence.

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The land changed hands again in September 1846, American officer Stephen Kearny marched his troops into ALbuquerque and annexed the land for the U.S. without resistance. An Army post was soon up and running adjacent to the plaza. near the plaza, which brought an influx of goods and people over the next twenty years. The 1860 Census showed a population of 1,608, of which the army garrison made up about a third. By the start of the Civil War, the town had a population of over 1500 residents, and was becoming a somewhat significant hub for trade in the region. Albuquerque was actually briefly captured and held by Henry Hopkins Sibley and his Confederates, but a defeat at Glorieta Pass left them in short supply and the troops abandoned their conquest for the Texas border. There was a brief skirmish in town as the Confederates fled, known as the Battle of Albuquerque, in 1862.

At one end of the plaza stand two replica cannons on display from this retreat, M1835 mountain howitzers. Before they left town, the Confederates buried eight howitzers on the outskirts of the plaza so the Union forces couldn't use them. Almost 3 decades later, the former artillery commander returned to Albuquerque as a guest, where the hatchet was buried with the un-burying of the cannons. He revealed the guns' location and they were promptly dug up and put on display in a prominent location on the east end of the plaza. Eventually they were moved to the nearby museum, due to their great value. These days two realistic replicas take their place.

Bernard Gagnon