1864 Dufour Map of the United States, Mexico, West Indies

This is an 1864 Adolphe Hippolyte Dufour Civil War Era map of the United States - one of the few maps to name Colona, the ephemeral proto-state predating Colorado, Shoshone (pre-Idaho), the unincorporated territory of Dacotah, and the secessionist Confederate Arizona.

A Closer Look

The map depicts the continental United States, Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and northern South America. Countries are outlined in broad hand color, while thinner borders illustrate states within the United States and Mexico. Colored borders in the West Indies indicate the colonial possessions of Denmark (gray), Spain (yellow), France (blue), Great Britain (red), the Netherlands (brown), and Sweden (green). Within the United States, Native American tribes are identified near their traditional ranges. Railroads are highlighted by thin black lines.

Colona and Shoshone: Proposed Territories

Two early regional names appear: Colona, roughly corresponding to Colorado, and Shoshone, which would soon become Idaho Territory. Colona was a proposed territory roughly corresponding to modern-day Colorado.  A proposal for 'Colona,' occupying the mountainous western parts of what was then Nebraska and Kansas, was put forth in 1859. The hope was for territorial status to enable self-governance, regulation, and administration of what was quickly becoming one of America's greatest gold and silver mining centers. Congress, focused on the struggle between slave and free states in the fractious lead-up to the American Civil War (1861 - 1865), found it easier to ignore the petition. Nonetheless, Colorado was recognized as a territory two years later in 1861. The Colona petition was largely forgotten.

Shoshone was a proposed new territory roughly corresponding to modern-day Idaho. The Shoshone are a group of Native American tribes that live in the northwest United States. 'Shoshone' was used generically to refer to their ranging lands and was proposed as an official territory name. Modern-day Dakota and Idaho are believed to be derived from Shoshone words. Idaho Territory was incorporated in 1863, Shoshone Territory was forgotten.

Dacotah and Minnesota

During the nearly 3-year period between Minnesota's statehood on May 11, 1858, and the creation of the Dakota Territory on March 2, 1861, the Pembina Region between the Missouri River and Red River (Minnesota's newly-created western border) was unattached to any territory. Following Minnesota's statehood, a provisional government was established in the Pembina to lobby for territorial self-governance. The Federal government ignored the proposal until the Dakota Territory was formed in 1861, which, upon its creation, included most of present-day Montana, Wyoming, and both North and South Dakota.

Confederate Arizona

Although the Confederate States of America are not illustrated here, Confederate Arizona occupies the lower third of the New Mexico Territory. Confederate Arizona was a territory claimed by the Confederate States of America from 1861 until 1865. The idea for an Arizona Territory appeared as early as 1856 when the government of the Territory of New Mexico began to express concerns about being able to effectively govern the southern part of the territory, as it was separated from Santa Fe by the Jornada del Muerto, a particularly unforgiving stretch of desert. The New Mexico territorial legislature acted on these concerns in February 1858, approving a resolution to create an Arizona Territory, with a north-south border to be defined along the 32nd parallel. Impatiently waiting for Congress to approve the creation of the new territory, 31 delegates met at a convention in Tucson in April 1860 and drafted a constitution for the 'Territory of Arizona,' which was to be organized out of the New Mexico Territory below 34th parallel. The convention even elected a territorial governor and a delegate to Congress. Congress, however, was reluctant to act. Anti-slavery Representatives knew that the proposed territory was located below the line of demarcation set forth by the Missouri Compromise for the creation of new slave and free states, and they were not inclined to create yet another slave state. Thus, Congress never ratified the proceedings of the Tucson convention, and the Provisional Territory was never considered a legal entity.

Further Historical Context

At the beginning of the Civil War, support for the Confederacy ran high in the southern parts of the New Mexico Territory. Local concerns drove this sentiment, including a belief that the war would lead to an insufficient number of Federal troops to protect the citizens from the Apache, while others simply felt neglected by Washington. Also, the Butterfield Overland Mail Route (an overland mail and stagecoach route from Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco) was closed in 1861, depriving the people of Arizona of their connection to California and the East Coast.

All of these factors led the people of the southern New Mexico Territory, or the Arizona Territory, to formally call for secession. A convention adopted a secession ordinance on March 16, 1861, with a subsequent ordinance ratified on March 28, establishing the provisional territorial government of the Confederate 'Territory of Arizona.' The Confederate Arizona Territory was officially proclaimed on August 1, 1861, following Texan Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Baylor's victory over Union forces in the First Battle of Mesilla, and the government of the Confederacy officially recognized the territory on February 14, 1862. However, by July 1862, Union forces from California, known as the 'California Column,' were marching on the territorial capital of Mesilla. Sent to protect California from a possible Confederate incursion, the 'California Column' drove Confederate forces out of the city, allowing them to retreat to Franklin, Texas. The territorial government also fled and spent the rest of the war in 'exile.' First, they retreated to Franklin, then (after Confederate forces abandoned Franklin and all of West Texas) to San Antonio, where the 'government-in-exile' would spend the rest of the war. Confederate Arizona units would fight for the remainder of the war, and delegates from Arizona attended both the First and Second Confederate Congresses.

Publication History and census

This map was created by Adolphe Hippolyte Dufour, engraved by Charles Dyonnet, and published by Armand Le Chevalier in the 1865 edition of Dufour's Atlas Universel, Physique, Historique et Politique de Geographie Ancienne et Moderne. The separate map is not cataloged in OCLC, and examples of the atlas are scarce in public and private collections.