New Mexico in the Civil War
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As the main route to California, the New Mexico Territory was disputed territory during the American Civil War, resulting in settlers in the region carved out by the Gadsden Purchase willingly joining the Confederate States of America, while much of the rest of the present day state of New Mexico remained loyal to the Union.
Confederate troops from Texas briefly occupied southern New Mexico Territory. Union troops re-captured the territory in early 1862. As the war lengthened and Union troops were withdrawn to fight elsewhere, famed explorer and frontiersman Kit Carson helped organize and command the 1st New Mexican Volunteers, a militia unit, to engage in campaigns against the Apache, Navajo, and Comanche in New Mexico and Texas, as well as participating in the Battle of Valverde against the Confederates. Confederate troops withdrew after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, where Union regulars, 1st Colorado Volunteers ("The Pikes Peakers"), and New Mexican Volunteers defeated them in a battle dubbed as the "Gettysburg of the West."
Confederate Arizona Territory, split off from New Mexico Territory in 1863, was the first American incarnation of Arizona.
