New Mexico Campaign
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The New Mexico Campaign was a military operation of the American Civil War in February-March 1862 in which the Confederate Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded the northern New Mexico Territory in an attempt to gain control of the southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of California. The victorious Union forces were led by Colonel Edward Canby, whose command included Major John Chivington of the 1st Colorado Volunteers, later notorious during the Colorado War for his role in the Sand Creek Massacre. The campaign is regarded by historians as the most ambitious attempt by the Confederates to establish control of the West, and to open an additional theater in the war.
[edit] History
In the summer of 1861, John Baylor led of a force of Texans into the southern territory, seizing Mesilla and establishing the Confederate Territory of Arizona. The invasion was part of a larger Confederate strategy of attempting to seize all or part of California, but the Confederates were unable to cross the desert towards Los Angeles. The 1862 campaign was a continuation of the overall strategy, using a much longer invasion route that, if successful, would have severed California and the West completely from the Union. The new strategy called for an invasion along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, seizing the Colorado Territory (then at the height of the Colorado Gold Rush) and Fort Laramie (the most important United States Army garrison along the Oregon Trail) before turning westward to attack the mineral-rich states of Nevada and California.
In February 1862, Sibley advanced northward up the valley of the Rio Grande, toward the territorial capital of Santa Fe and the Union storehouses at Fort Union. The Confederate advance followed the west bank of the river via Fort Craig, which was garrisoned by a 3,800-man Union force under Canby. Canby's command at the fort included the 1st New Mexico Volunteers under Kit Carson. Knowing he could not leave such a large Union force behind him as he advanced, Sibley attempted to lure the Union forces out into battle on favorable terms. On February 19 Sibley camped at the sandhills east of the fort with the intention of cutting the Union lines of communications with Santa Fe. On February 20, the Union forces advanced from the fort but were hit with heavy Confederate artillery and were forced to retreat. The next day the Confederates marched to Valverde Ford, six miles north of the fort. Canby attacked, but the Union forces were driven back by the Confederates under Colonel Thomas Green, who took command after Sibley was indisposed. Canby's forces retreated to Fort Craig but refused to surrender.
Sibley chose to disengage from the fort and continued northward towards Santa Fe, occupying it on March 10. The advance was stopped decisively by the Union counteroffensive at the Battle of Glorieta Pass, from March 26 to March 28.
The campaign is part of the backdrop for the fictional battle in the 1967 motion picture The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
