Fame is Fleeting

John Robert Baylor was an ambitious man, one who wanted position and power and recognition. He had shown that many times over between his move to Texas around 1835 and the start of the Civil War. The war gave him a chance to further his ambition. In 1861, Baylor became a Confederate lieutenant colonel and took over the Second Texas Mounted Rifles. On July 24, three days before his 39th birthday, he led roughly 300 men from Fort Bliss in an effort to take Fort Fillmore, just outside Mesilla, Ne