Recently Marsha and I toured the Glorieta Pass Battlefield,
the site of one of New Mexico’s two military engagements during the U.S. Civil
War.
Back in 1792
French explorer Pedro Vial blazed a trail from Independence, Missouri to
northern New Mexico. In 1828 – when
merchants from the eastern United States sought to take advantage of new trade
opportunities with Mexico, which had just won independence from Spain and taken
control of New Mexico – Vial’s way
west, soon known as the Santa Fe Tail, would become the preferred way to get
there.
At this end
of the trail lay the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains through which two
passages were established. Raton Pass,
on the border between Colorado and New Mexico, was narrow and steep and initially
proved suitable only for packhorses. A 7,432'
high, one-half mile wide crossing at Glorieta Pass between the mountains and
the red wall of Glorieta Mesa proved to be easier to negotiate and became the
path of choice. The surrounding forests
possibly inspired the name Glorieta, which translates to “bower” meaning “a
pleasant shady place under trees.” The
Spanish word also can mean a small square, or a roundabout – as in traffic
circle, which is how it is commonly used today in parts of Spain and South
America.
New Mexico had
become a U.S. Territory in 1848 when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (named for
the villa in which it was signed). ended the Mexican American War. So what was
the “War Between the States” doing in The Land of Enchantment?
According
to Charles S. Walker writing in the New Mexico Historical Review, “The
Confederate invasion of New Mexico was the initial movement of a campaign the
object of which was the seizure of the entire American Southwest and the
northern Mexican states. The cause of the invasion was the desire to see the
Confederacy a sea-to-sea power with all the advantages which a nation reaching
from the Atlantic to the Pacific between the parallels twenty-six and
thirty-six north latitude might enjoy.”
A big part
of this equation, according to H, our tour leader, was the possibility of a
coast-to-coast collection of “slave states”.
Texas, with its cotton farming economy, already was pro-slave. However, while the people of the southern
portion of the New Mexico had closer economic and cultural ties to the South,
the northern section with more voting power had strong business connections with
the Union states via Missouri and The Santa Fe Trail. As evidence of that southern discontent with
being overruled, a convention held at Mesilla New Mexico on March 16, 1861 adopted
a decree of secession, and called on the citizens of the western portion of the
New Mexico Territory to "join us in this movement".
U.S. Army
General Henry H. Sibley had been stationed in Arizona before the outbreak of
the war, and, like many other southern officers, resigned his commission. He then traveled east to inform Confederate President
Davis of the situation in New Mexico, and outlined a campaign to takeover the
entire Territory. It was the execution
of this strategy that culminated in the Battle of Glorieta Pass.
Sibley’s
plan, of which Jefferson Davis approved, was: to raise an army of three
regiments in West Texas; march up the Rio Grande River; capture Santa Fe; turn
northeast on the Santa Fe Trail; capture the supplies of equipment and food at
Fort Union; head up to Colorado and take control of the gold fields; and then
turn west to conquer California and its seaports. Fort Union (1851 – 1891) and the soon to be
mentioned Fort Craig (1853 – 1885) were among the series of forts constructed
in the wake of the U.S. – Mexico war and outlined in the 1848 Treaty of
Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Marching to
that plan Sibley and 3,500 men invaded the New Mexico Territory in February
1862 with the immediate objective of capturing Fort Craig located along El
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, near Elephant, New Mexico. They were met near the town of Valverde at a
ford of Valverde Creek on February 20, 1862 by 3,000 men led by Union Colonel
Edward Richard Sprigg Canby who had left that fortified building to prevent the
Confederates from crossing the river.
Initially
Canby’s troops drove the Rebels back, but the Texans regrouped and launched a
frontal attack that drove Canby into retreat.
After two days of fighting Canby requested a truce under a white flag in
order to remove the bodies of the dead and wounded. During the cessation Sibley decided that he
had lost too many men and supplies to take Fort Craig itself, and went north to
Albuquerque, where the Federals had stored more goods. They reached Albuquerque
on March 2nd and attacked, however the Union defenders had already left town
with all of the supplies.
Sibley
continued slowly north to Santa Fe where he dispatched a group of 600 men to
take the Capital city – which they did on March 13, however, once again, there
was no federal ammunition or supplies. They did however hoist the Confederate Battle
Flag over the plaza – then headed to Fort Union, some ninety miles to the
northeast. Meanwhile Union reinforcements
from Colorado, under the command of Colonel John Slough, reached Fort Union. Canby then ordered Slough to “harass the
enemy by partisan operations, obstruct his movements and cut off his supplies”,
which Slough chose to interpret as “advance on the enemy.” He gathered 1,342 men from Fort Union and
began the march to Santa Fe.
Both Union
and Confederate forces moved north to the Santa Fe Trail at Glorieta Pass. Sibley, who had remained in Albuquerque, sent
a Confederate force of 200-300 Texans under the command of Maj. Charles L.
Pyron on an advance expedition over the Glorieta Pass, and six companies led by
of Col. Tom Green to block the eastern end of Glorieta Pass. Meanwhile Union forces made a fourteen-day, 400-mile
forced march from Denver, over Raton Pass, to Fort Union and then to Glorieta
Pass. On March 26, 27 and 28 both sides
locked horns in what some have called the "Gettysburg of the West" – a
term that "serves the novelist better than the historian" according
to historian Thomas Edrington. To that
point– casualties at Gettysburg totaled 23,049 for the Union (3,155 dead,
14,529 wounded, 5,365 missing); Confederate casualties were 28,063 (3,903 dead,
18,735 injured, and 5,425 missing) versus at Glorieta Pass Union casualties
were (51 killed, 78 wounded, 15 captured, 3 missing); and Confederate (50
killed, 80 wounded, 92 captured.) But
while Gettysburg was the “high-water mark of the Confederacy”, Glorieta
effectively ended any possibility of Jefferson Davis’ dream of a coast-to-coast
collection of “slave states”.
The conflict
played out at and around three major stops on the Santa Fe Trail – Johnson’s
Ranch, Pigeon’s Ranch, and Kozlowski’s Ranch.
Anthony P.
Johnson established his ranch at the western end of Glorieta Pass in what today
is called Cañoncito at Apache Canyon. From St. Louis Missouri, Johnson, came west
along the Santa Fe Trail in the late 1840s and worked as a teamster at Fort
Union. He bought the land on which he built his ranch of adobe and rock in 1858.
Johnson sold the ranch around was found murdered ten years later.
Moving
north to the village of Pecos and then west on State Road 50, still following
much of the Santa Fe Trail nearly to Glorieta, New Mexico, was Pigeon’s ranch –
a small portion of which remains today.
The ranch was built by Alexander Vallé, a French-American also from St.
Louis, Missouri who followed the Santa Fe Trail westward until settling upon
this narrow spot on the trail. The 35th Congress awarded him title to a land
grant in 1857 or 1858, indicating that he had received a Mexican land grant
during that country’s occupancy of New Mexico, possibly from Governor Manuel
Armijo in the 1840s. Armijo granted tracts of land to many foreigners who
promised to settle the eastern side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and act
as a buffer between the settlements along the Rio Grande Santa Fe corridor and
the Plains Indians.
On his land
Vallé built a twenty-three-room complex with a principal structure that “formed
a kind of Asiatic caravansary”, and a double corral for enclosing and
protecting loaded wagons with attached sheds with stalls for draft horses and
mules. Initially named Rancho de la Glorieta, it popularly came to be known as
Pigeon's Ranch, according to folklore because of the way in which Vallé stuck
out his elbows while dancing at local fandangos. However at least one historian avers that
Vallé’s given name was Alexander Pigeon.
Whatever the owner’s surname, the hostelry was the largest and most
convenient stop on the trail between Las Vegas (New Mexico) and Santa Fe,
housing up to forty people and several hundred animals.
The
easternmost of the three hostels belonged to Martin Kozlowski. Born in Warsaw, he became a refugee from the
wars with Germany at the age of twenty-one and moved to England where he married.
By 1853 he and possibly his wife were in America where he enlisted in the 1st
Dragoons who were stationed at Fort Union from 1851-1856. Kozlowski mustered out in 1858 and settled
down on 600 acres of land alongside a plentiful spring on the Santa Fe Trail and
also began a business of catering to travelers – featuring a good meal prepared
by his wife, often fresh trout from the Pecos River. The hostelry, sometimes referred to as Gray's
Ranch by the soldiers, was later expanded to encompass a stage station for the
Barlow and Sanderson line.
According
to the Legends of America website, “Union
troops came into contact with a Confederate force of 200-300 Texans under the
command of Major Charles L. Pyron, who were encamped at Johnson’s Ranch, at one
end of the pass. [Under orders from Colonel Slough] Union Major John M.
Chivington led more than 400 soldiers on the morning of [March] 26th in an
attack, capturing some Confederate advance troops before finding 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 Rebels in crossfire, and soon forced them
to retire.
“Pyron and
his men retreated about a mile and a half to a narrow section of the pass and
formed a defensive line before Chivington’s men appeared. The Union troops then
flanked Pyron’s men again, firing heavily into their ranks. When the
Confederates fled again, the Union cavalry charged, capturing the Confederate
rearguard. Chivington then retired and went into camp at Kozlowski’s Ranch. No
fighting occurred the next day [March 27] as reinforcements arrived for both
sides. Lieutenant Colonel William R. Scurry’s troops swelled the Rebel ranks to
about 1,100 while Union Colonel John P. Slough arrived with about 900 men.
“Both
Slough and Scurry decided to attack early on March 28th. As Scurry advanced
down the canyon, he saw the Union forces approaching, so he established a
battle line, including his dismounted cavalry. Slough hit them before 11:00 am.
The Confederates held their ground and then attacked and counterattacked
throughout the afternoon. The fighting then ended as Slough retired first to
Pigeon’s Ranch and then to Kozlowski’s Ranch.”
Scurry left
the field believing that he had won the battle – which at that point he had. However unbeknownst to him a detachment led by
Major Chivington and guided through the unfamiliar Glorieta Pass terrain by Lt.
Col. Manuel Chaves of the New Mexico volunteers secretly rappelled down a
mountain overlooking Johnson’s Ranch wherein the remaining Confederate supplies
and animals were sequestered. Chivington’s sharpshooters picked off most of the
small number of guards. Union forces
then destroyed the entire storehouse of food and weapons (driving spikes into
the touch holes of the cannon to prevent their further use), and ran off the horses
and mules.
“Facing
defeat and starvation, Sibley and his men began their retreat to Texas. They
were pursued all of the way to Fort Craig by Canby’s troops, but, finally
slipped from the Federals by a circuitous route. Nearly dead of thirst and
starvation, 1,700 Confederate survivors eventually reached safety in El Paso,
Texas on May 4th.”
Time and
progress have replaced most of the battlefield with roads and thick pinyon
juniper woods. On our tour however we
were still able to pull off the road at the keys points of the battle –
Johnson’, Pigeon’s and Kozlowski’s Ranches – get a sense of the physical
surroundings and be able to picture the action in spite of the noise and
backdrafts of nearby semis, cars, and motorcycles. We also walked part of the Glorieta
Battlefield Trail, a 2.3 mile loop that brought us to “Artillery Hill” from
where the Union directed fire on the third day of battle, and to a vantage
point from which we could look down upon Pigeon’s Farm and “Sharpshooter’s
Hill” where Slough established his battle headquarters from which he was driven
when the Confederates attacked from the one direction the Union was not
guarding, even though its was by far the easiest way up the mountain.
Our tour
ended at the site of Johnson’s Ranch – the site of Chivington’s destruction of the Confederate supplies,
equipment, and horses, which effectively ended southern combat activities in
New Mexico. By the end of July, 1862 all
Confederate troops had left the territory, never to attempt a return visit.
Marsha and
I moved to northern New Mexico from Wethersfield, Connecticut – a place from
which most people retire to “The South” – North Carolina, Florida, etc. One of the principal reasons for our choice,
in addition to the lack of humidity and hurricanes, was the unique ambiance of
Santa Fe. Which, but for the unguarded
Confederate supplies at Johnson’s Ranch, might not have been.
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