There is a 20 Feb 1865 letter (Letter 61) in the Watts Hays Letters by Elizabeth Watts in CA to Margaret Hays in MO which mentions Mexico. "My Dear Dauter wonce more will try to write you a few lines, i have not recieved a letter for some time & have not wrote but i feel like i cant give up hope you will get this & that we may get leters regular, it is the greatest sattisfaction that i see on this earth is when i get a letter & hear you are alive & well, you & your little Children & all of friends & that are so kind to you I thank them a thousand times & hope tha will bee one of the great deeds that tha will bee rewarded for when thare will bee no more hard deaths, nor turning wimen and Children out of doors, i cant say what i want to say for i am greived at the Situation of the Cuntry evry where it apeares that there is treble & distrefs everywhare & everyone almost redy to moove, tha dont seem to apreciate thare homes like tha uste to do. thare is a greatet talk about Mexico(1) & a greate meny agoing, thare is but one family from our neighborhood but a greate meny men & if tha like there will bee a greate many next fall. i have just learn of the death of our frend, one that or boys thought as much of as eney neare connection that tha had owing to his kind friendly treatment to them, it is Vann Hays(2), he Died neare the Colorado, he was sick some time, he was forty mile from the Settlement, one of old man Bryants(3) sons waited on him untill he died."
A group of pro-Confederates did establish a colony in western Mexico, not associated with the Gen. Price's colony as far as I know. Van Hays, a cousin of Col. Upton Hays was a cattleman who had moved from MO to CA before the Civil War. He and his brother Wade Hays lived in Contra Costa Co., CA where the people were strong Confederate supporters. That Van was on the Colorado suggests that he may have been in Arizona and brings up the possibility that the recruiting efforts of Younger were successful and that Van may have been one of the men recruited. One of Van's brothers had died fighting fot the Confederacy. Old man Bryant was William Bryant of Cass Co., MO who had been killed by Jayhawkers in 1861 and his sons were George W. Bryant, a former parter of Upton Hays, and Alexander Chapman "Chap" Bryant, both of Westport, Jackson Co. MO.