Arizona’s Confederate Governor

Col. John Baylor learned that fame and power are fleeting.

In 1861, he led Confederate troops to victory at the First Battle of Mesilla (New Mexico). Baylor used the situation to declare himself the military governor of the Arizona Territory, Confederate States of America (a region west of Texas including NM and AZ).

But a few months later, maybe a bit big for his britches, he killed a local newspaper editor who had been critical of some of his decisions and then ordered the extermination of Apaches. Confederate President Jefferson Davis fired Baylor and pulled his military commission.