The New Mexico campaign was a military operation of the trans-Mississippi theater of the American Civil War from February to April 1862 in which the Confederate general Henry Hopkins Sibley launched a failed invasion of the Union-controlled New Mexico Territory in an attempt to conquer the American Southwest and cut off the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of California from the rest of the United States. While the Confederates were initially able to capture Santa Fe and other major settlements, and claimed the field at all of the major battles of the invasion, their victory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass was rendered pyrrhic by the loss of their supplies, which ultimately forced them to retreat. The arrival of the Union's "California Column" reconquered Confederate Arizona, enabling the Union Army in the American West to focus on fighting the Indian tribes of the Great Plains and Rockies.
Background[]
The US extended its lands westward after victory in the war with Mexico. This confirmed the annexation of Texas and added California, New Mexico, and Utah. California achieved statehood in 1850, while Utah and New Mexico were absorbed into the United States as territories. These thinly populated areas took on economic importance after the discovery of their precious metals. The California Gold Rush had begun in 1848. The discover of silver and gold at the Comstock Lode in western Utah and at sites in western Kansas in the late 1850s was followed by the organization of these areas into the territories of Nevada and Colorado in early 1861.
The creation of new states and territories was a fraught political issue, affecting the balance between "slave" and "free" states. In 1861, Texas was among the original states that formed the Confederacy, while California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado all stayed within the Union.
History[]
The first Confederate thrust westward from Texas took place early in the war on the initiative of an aggressive battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor. A one-time politician and Indian fighter, Baylor was sent with a 250-strong detachment of mounted Texan volunteers to seize undefended forts along the state's western frontier with New Mexico. He interpreted his orders as license to enter New Mexico on the grounds of preempting a potential Union counterattack. Deciding that a US Army garrison at Fort Fillmore constituted a threat, Baylor set out to attack it on 23 July 1861. The garrison commander, Major Isaac Lynde, left the fort with his troops to confront Baylor. On 25 July Baylor's Texans and their allies repulsed Union infantry and cavalry assaults, driving them back to Fort Fillmore. During the night the Union commander Lynde led a withdrawal from Fort Fillmore but was pursued to San Augustin Springs where he and his men all surrendered. Baylor declared the south of New Mexico as the Confederate Arizona territory.
Baylor had scant resources to fight hostile Apaches and resist a Northern counterattack. But when another Southern force was sent into Confederate Arizona in early 1862, it was dispatched with offensive rather than defensive intentions.
The Confederate push west[]
Map of the New Mexico campaign
Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley had devised an ambitious plan to use Confederate Arizona as a launch pad for a drive into the gold- and silver-rich states of Colorado and California. With three regiments of cavalry from Texas, he advanced up the Rio Grande River as far as Fort Craig, absorbing most of Baylor's troops along the way. The fort, a Union stronghold, was under the command of Colonel Edward Canby, whose regulars were supported by New Mexican volunteers. Sibley's force was too weak to seize the fort and tried to bypass it, but Canby marched out to block his path at a ford near Valverde. The two forces joined battle on 21 February. In the end, Canby and his men had to retreat back into the fort. Sibley continued to push northward, reaching Santa Fe on 10 March.
Ahead of Sibley, Union forces from Colorado under Colonel John Slough joined a Northern garrison at Fort Union. The campaign's crucial battle occurred at Glorieta Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. On 26 March, forward units of Northern soldiers pushing south from Fort Union met the foremost contingent of Confederate cavalry advancing north from Santa Fe. After an initial skirmish, both sides moved up reinforcements and were ready to fight on 28 March. Both moved to attack because each assumed the other would stand on the defensive. Despite suffering as many casualties as their enemies, the Confederates held the field after a fierce engagement. But a Union detachment dispatched to carry out a flanking attack found itself behind the Confederates, surprising their almost undefended supply train. The Southern wagons and supplies were destroyed, and their horses and mules driven off.
California retaliates[]
Unable to sustain an advance without supplies, Sibley pulled back first to Albuquerque and then began a grueling retreat to Texas in mid-April. By then another Union force was in play. Colonel James H. Carleton's California volunteers were marching eastward to intervene in the fighting in Arizona and New Mexico. In March 1862, the Californians met the Confederates at Stanwix Station - a skirmish that impelled the much weaker Confederates to fall back to Tucson. The Californians then won a clash at Picacho Pass before driving the Rebels out of Tucson in May. They withdrew into Texas, and Carleton, now brigadier general, was put in charge of the Department of New Mexico. The Confederate Arizona Territory ceased to exist in all but name.
Aftermath[]
Many Native American tribes took advantage of the war to try to reassert their freedom. In the southwest, the Apache Wars flared up once again.
In New Mexico Union general James H. Carleton found Native Americans tougher opponents than the Confederates. At the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864, a Union force led by Colonel Kit Carson narrowly avoided defeat at the hands of the Plains Apache, Kiowa, and Comanche tribes. The legendary Apache leader Geronimo managed to maintain resistance until 1886, when he and a small group of followers finally surrendered.
Much of the West came under firm Union control in the latter half of the war. Nevada became a state in October 1864. Later arrivals were Colorado in 1876, Utah in 1896, and Arizona and New Mexico in 1912.