In early January, 1847 (5 months after General S. W. Kearney annexed the Territory of New Mexico to the United States,) citizens of Taos and Taos Pueblo brutally murdered Territorial Governor Charles Bent.  The local New Mexicans had decided that they did not want to be governed by the Americanos, whom they felt were arrogant, immoral and without any appreciation of their way of life and culture.  Upon hearing of the events in Taos, on January 23, 1847 Col. Sterling Price left Ft. Marcy for Taos with four mountain howitzers, five companies of Missouri soldiers and a company of New Mexico Volunteers.  On January 24, they engaged the rebels at Santa Cruz de la Cañada, resulting in the deaths of 8 soldiers and 36 rebels.  On January 26, they again engaged the rebels at Embudo, losing 2 soldiers while killing 20 and wounding 60 rebels.

Sometime after the rebellion ended, a descanso memorializing the engagement was done in Embudo canyon.  There are 18 crosses indicating the rebels who were killed.

Photo courtesy of Allan MacGillivray III

--Mike Lord