On 26 March 1862, in a snowy canyon on the Santa Fe Trail east of Santa Fe, Colorado volunteers under Major John M. Chivington attacked a Texan advance guard and drove it back with dozens of prisoners. It was the first day of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought over three days in the mountains of New Mexico Territory. The Confederates won the main fight two days later, then lost the campaign when a Union column burned their supply train. It was the high point of the only serious Confederate attempt to conquer the Far West.
A Confederate dream in the West
Early in the war, Confederate Brigadier General Henry H. Sibley led a brigade of Texans up the Rio Grande into New Mexico Territory. The National Park Service describes the larger aim: to take Fort Union, the main Federal supply base in the territory, and then push on toward the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of Southern California.1
Sibley beat a Union force at Valverde on 20 and 21 February 1862 and occupied Albuquerque and Santa Fe in March. His next objective was Fort Union, and the road to it ran through Glorieta Pass on the Santa Fe Trail. Coming the other way was a Union force from Colorado under Colonel John P. Slough, with Major John M. Chivington leading the advance.2
26 March: Apache Canyon
A Confederate vanguard of a few hundred Texans under Major Charles L. Pyron marched east along the trail. Chivington, with about 400 men, crossed the summit of the pass and met them in Apache Canyon. The National Park Service notes the conditions: an elevation above 7,000 feet, forest, rock, cold and snow. Chivington's infantry outflanked the Texan line twice, first on an open shelf in the canyon and then at a second position by a small bridge.3
The Texans fell back to their camp at Johnson's Ranch. The American Battlefield Trust counts 71 Texans captured, the largest loss of Confederate prisoners in the campaign; the Park Service speaks of scores. The Trust adds that losses in killed and wounded were about equal on both sides. On 27 March nobody fought: both sides called up their main bodies, and Lieutenant Colonel William R. Scurry concentrated the Confederates for a renewed battle.4
28 March: victory and ruin
On 28 March Slough moved west intending to attack, while sending Chivington with about 500 men over Glorieta Mesa to strike the Texans from the flank. Scurry, however, had also moved forward, and the two main forces collided near Pigeon's Ranch. The American Battlefield Trust puts the Texans at about 1,300 against some 800 Federals. The fighting lasted from late morning until near dark. Scurry's men outflanked the Union line again and again and finally drove Slough back down the trail, leaving the Confederates in possession of the field.5
Behind them, Chivington's column had found the Confederate supply train at Johnson's Ranch. A 2018 memorial of the New Mexico House of Representatives credits Lieutenant Colonel Manuel Chaves of the 2nd New Mexico Mounted Volunteers with guiding the column there. The Union troops climbed down the steep mesa, scattered the small guard, burned some 80 wagons and killed or drove off the draft animals. Scurry had won the battle and lost his army's food, ammunition and transport.6
The end of the campaign
Without supplies, the Texans could not go on to Fort Union. They fell back, and within months Sibley's army had withdrawn from the territory. The Park Service concludes that the Union kept control of the American Southwest for the rest of the war. Casualties for the three days were modest by eastern standards: the Park Service gives about 375 in all, and the American Battlefield Trust 369, 147 Union and 222 Confederate.7
Some call the battle the Gettysburg of the West because of its significance for the war. Part of the battlefield, including the surviving building of Pigeon's Ranch, is now preserved in Pecos National Historical Park. For the war's larger clashes, see our guide to the greatest battles of the Civil War.8
Also on this day
- 1943: Battle of the Komandorski Islands. South of the Komandorski Islands in the North Pacific, an American cruiser and destroyer force met a stronger Japanese squadron escorting a supply convoy to the Aleutians.
