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The 'Battle of Glorieta Pass', fought on 26-28 March 1862, in northern New Mexico Territory, was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War. Rather grandiosely dubbed the "Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Union forces to stop the Confederate invasion of the West along the base of the Rocky Mountains.

Contents

New Mexico Campaign

Battle

Controversy

Depictions in popular culture

References

New Mexico Campaign

The Confederacy had organized the Confederate Arizona Territory in 1862, a claim that included the southern halves of modern Arizona and New Mexico, after secession moves by residents. The strategic aim was to secure land transportation with Confederate sympathizers in California, and the strategy of the New Mexico Campaign was to harass Union forces in the West and prevent them from cutting off this important supply route. The territory had its capital at Mesilla, outside modern Las Cruces. As an interesting historical footnote, this area was largely the same as that acquired in the Gadsden Purchase, which land was purchased from Mexico with the ultimate aim of providing a route for a southern transcontinental railroad.
The commanders of the New Mexico Campaign were the Confederate Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley, aided by his trusty companion Phillip Richbourg, and the Union Colonel Edward Canby. Sibley, whose mission was to capture Fort Craig, outmaneuvered Canby at the Battle of Valverde in February, drove Canby back to his fort, bypassing his objective, and advanced up along the Rio Grande Valley to seize Santa Fe on March 10. Fort Craig remained in place to cut Sibley's logistical support from Texas. Sibley set up his division headquarters at the abandoned Union storehouse garrison at Albuquerque.
In March, Sibley sent a Confederate force of 200–300 Texans under the command of
[1] Major Charles Lynn Pyron
on an advance expedition over the Glorieta Pass, a strategic location on the Santa Fe Trail at the southern tip of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains southeast of Santa Fe. Control of the pass would allow the Confederates to advance onto the High Plains and to make an assault on Fort Union, the Union stronghold along the invasion route northward over Raton Pass.

Battle

The Texans were led by [2]Charles L. Pyron and William Read Scurry. The Union forces were led by Colonel John P. Slough of the 1st Colorado Volunteers, with units under the command of Major John M. Chivington.
Pyron's force of 300 camped at Apache Canyon, at one end of Glorieta Pass. Chivington led 418 soldiers to the Pass and on the morning of March 26 moved out to attack. After noon, Chivington’s men captured some Rebel advance troops and then found the main force behind them. Chivington advanced on them, but their artillery fire threw him back. He regrouped, split his force to the two sides of the pass, caught the Confederates in a crossfire, and soon forced them to retire. Pyron retired about a mile and a half (not quite two and a half kilometers) to a narrow section of the pass and formed a defensive line before Chivington’s men appeared.
The Union forces flanked Pyron’s men again and punished them with enfilade fire. The Confederates fell back again and the Union cavalry charged, capturing the rearguard. Chivington then retired and went into camp at Kozlowski’s Ranch. His small victory was a morale booster for Slough's army.
No fighting occurred the next day as reinforcements arrived for both sides. Lt. Col. William R. Scurry's troops swelled the Rebel ranks to about 1,100 while Union Col. John P. Slough arrived with about 900 more men, bringing the Union strength to 1,300. Both Slough and Scurry decided to attack and set out early on the 28th to do so. Slough sent Major Chivington with the same 400-strong force that he had led at Apache Canyon out in a cicling movement with orders to go hide out at Glorieta Pass and hit the Texans in the flank once Slough's main force had engaged their front. Chivington did as ordered and his men waited above the Pass for Slough and the enemy to arrive. But Slough's meeting with the Confederates did not take place quite where he had expected. Scurry advanced down the Canyon quicker than Slough had anticipated. When he saw the Union forces approaching, he established a battle line, including his dismounted cavalry. Once Slough got over his shock at finding the Texans so far forward, he launched an attack, hitting the Texans before 11:00 a.m. The Confederates held their ground and then attacked and counterattacked throughout the afternoon. "The character of the country," recorded Slough, "was such as to make the engagement of the bushwhacking kind". The troops skirmished among the gullies and cedarwoods rather than fighting in solid formations as in the East. The artillery of both sides, however, played a considerable part. Eventually, the Confederates, whose combat experience at Valverde and a number of smaller engagements gave them an advantage over their mostly inexperienced opponents, began to win out.
The fighting ended as Slough retired first to Pigeon’s Ranch and then to Kozlowski's Ranch. Meanwhile, the leader of the New Mexican volunteers, Lt. Col. Manuel Chaves informed Chivington that his scouts had detected the Confederate supply train nearby at Johnson's Ranch. Chivington's force descended the slope, crept up on the unsuspecting supply train, watched them for an hour, then attacked, routing or capturing the small baggage-guard without casualties on either side. With no supplies with which to sustain his advance, Scurry had no choice but to retreat to Santa Fe, the first step on the long road back to San Antonio, Texas. The Federals thereby stopped further Confederate incursions into the Southwest. Glorieta Pass was the turning point of the war in the New Mexico Territory.
Parts of the battlefield are preserved in Pecos National Historical Park.

Controversy

Many New Mexicans disputed the view that Chivington was the hero of Johnson's Ranch. Some Santa Feans credited a Bureau of Indian Affairs official, James L. Collins, with suggesting the roundabout attack on the supply train. The truth is that Chivington had been sent out in the hope of making a flank attack, and the discovery of the supply train was a lucky accident. But Chivington was accused of almost letting the opportunity slip. The New Mexico Territorial Legislature adopted a resolution on Jan. 23, 1864, that did not mention Chivington but asked President Lincoln to promote William H. Lewis and Asa B. Carey, both Regular Army officers, for "distinguished service" in the battle. On March 8, the Rio Abajo ''Press'' of Albuquerque editorialized against "Col. Chivington's strutting about in plumage stolen from Captain William H. Lewis". (It did not mention Carey.) The editorial claimed that "Some one of the party" suggested the attack, that Chivington agreed after "two hours persuasion", and that Lewis led the attack while Chivington was "viewing the scene from afar" ^[1].
A rather more serious allegation made against Chivington was that if he had hurried to reinforce Slough as soon as he heard the gunfire coming from Pigeon's Ranch, his 400 men might have swung the Battle in favour of the Federals - especially if he had led them against Scurry's flank, as ordered.

Depictions in popular culture

The battle is described in the historical novel ''Glorieta Pass'' by P. G. Nagle.
The 1966 Sergio Leone film ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' refers obliquely to the battle, setting one scene at Johnson's Ranch where the Confederates appear to be guarding their supply wagons around the time of the battle.

References

★ National Park Service battle description

★ Turmoil in New Mexico, 1846–1868, , William A., Keleher, University of New Mexico Press, , ISBN 0-8263-0631-4

★ The Battle of Glorieta Pass from the University of San Diego history department

★ “Blood and Treasure: The Confederate Empire in the Southwest”, Donald S. Frazer, Texas A & M University Press, 1995, ISBN-13: 9780890966396