The High Water Mark Of The West

On the Santa Fe Trail on March 28th 1862 the end of the Confederate push happened at the Glorieta Pass.

The Glorieta Pass is to the southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico on the southern tip of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. On the morning of March 26th 1862 Union Major John M Chivington led about 400 troops to the pass. At about noon they captured some advanced Confederate soldiers. This was when they learned about the 300 Texans under Confederate Major Charles Pyron. The Union force moved on the Confederates, but were pushed back by artillery fire. Chivington than split his men in half and caught the Confederates in a crossfire. Pyron pulled his men back to a narrow part of the pass and prepared a defensive line. Again the Union caught them in a crossfire, this time forcing the Confederates into a camp at Kozlowski’s Ranch.

The next day, March 27th 1862,  there was no fighting. Lieutenant Colonel William R Scurry reinforced the confederates with about 1000 troops, while the Union line saw an increase of about 900 men arriving with Colonel John P Slough. Both sides decided to attack early on March 28th 1862, and they met in the canyon at about eleven. The Confederate held their ground through out the afternoon. When the fighting ended Slough retired to the Ranch with Scurry following him thinking he had won the battle.

Chivington’s Union soldiers however had destroyed all of Scurry’s animals and supplies. This forced the Confederates to have to retreat to Santa Fe, and on back to San Antonio Texas, making this the Confederate high water mark in the west. The Battle at Glorieta Pass became the turning point of the Civil War in the New Mexico territory.

Confederate Victory In The West

An early Confederate success, was in the New Mexico campaign on February 21, 1862 during the Battle of Val Verde. The Confederates under Brigadier General Henry H Sibley hoped to take Fort Craig, capturing supplies and doing away with the Union garrison stationed there.

Sibley’s brigade of about 2,500 were within 15 miles of the Fort on the evening of February 13. He judged the it to be to strong to take by frontal attack, so he had his troops deploy with hopes of getting the Union soldiers out in the open. However Colonel E R S Canby didn’t have much faith in his volunteer Union troops, and refused to be lured out into the open. Seeing that his tack wasn’t working General Sibley moved his men near Val Verde, north of Fort Craig, to cut off the Federals communications between to Fort and Santa Fe.

On the morning of February 21, 1862 four companies of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles under Major Charles Pyron, along with the 4th Texas Mounted Rifles went ahead as an advanced scouting party. Union scouts informed Colonel Canby of the movements of the Rebels. He sent the 5th New Mexico Infantry under Colonel Benjamin S Roberts out to secure the ford on the Rio Grande. The two armies met on opposite sides of the river. The guns the of the Confederates were mostly short range and wouldn’t reach the Union soldiers. In the late afternoon the Confederates attacked at the Union center taking six artillery pieces and breaking the Union line. Canby ordered a retreat back into the Fort.

As the Confederates held the battle field they claimed the victory. General Sibley still felt that the fort was to strong, and so abandoned it and moved on towards Albuquerque and Santa Fe in search of supplies. The Confederates lost 230 men and 475 Union men were killed or wounded.

Some really good extra reading
Battle of Val Verde

Bloody Valverde: A Civil War Battle on the Rio Grande, February 21, 1862

The Guns of Valverde (Civil War in the Far West)