In March 1862 Confederate General Henry Sibley marched his 2,500-man Texas contingent toward Albuquerque intent on capturing the Union depot and resupplying his troops.
Little did he know, he would soon flee New Mexico for good.
For not quite a year, Yankees and Rebels back east had fought the Civil War. In July 1861, John Baylor had taken Mesilla and established the Confederate Territory of Arizona. That was the launching point for Sibley’s army. Sibley’s mission was to capture Fort Union in Northern New Mexico, giving him military control of the Southwest as well as access to California gold and Pacific ports.
Battle Of Valverde
To succeed, Sibley first had to defeat Colonel Edward Canby at Fort Craig on El Camino Real 30 miles south of Socorro. Sibley set up a siege and demanded Canby’s surrender. Canby refused and the two armies engaged on the Rio Grande at Valverde, just to the north. The battle ended in a draw and, since Canby still refused to give up, Sibley decided to bypass the fort and head for his main objective. That’s what took him to Albuquerque.
The small contingent of Union troops in the Duke City was in no mood to cooperate. Instead of leaving the stores, ammunition, and supplies for easy picking, they burned the depot. A tall, black column of smoke must have hung over the city. Not deterred, Sibley continued north.
Southeast of Santa Fe is Glorieta Pass, through which the Santa Fe Trail ran. A day’s wagon ride north — about 80 miles — was Fort Union, set on the grasslands where the Cimarron Cutoff rejoined the main track of the Santa Fe Trail. Even then the swales caused by wheels from hundreds of wagons were deep and wide. They remain so today, just as if they had been painted in a bright, florescent orange.
Fort Union
Fort Union was the post that Colonel John Slough was ordered to defend. It was the second one built on the land. The site had been selected by the army to protect and defend Santa Fe from raiders and to keep troopers from drunken brawls and trouble — because the army considered Santa Fe a “sink of vice and extravagance.”
There was a star fort built of logs in 1859 but it was so infested with vermin, it was unlivable. The one Slough defended was an earthwork. Its parapets soon eroded into its moat, and its rooms were damp and unventilated. Troops preferred to live outside in tents.
Glorieta Pass
Instead of establishing a defensive perimeter around Fort Union, Slough disobeyed orders and moved to Glorieta Pass to stop the Confederates.
The Santa Fe Trail ran through the pass, alongside Glorieta Creek. At a narrow point, Alexander Pigeon had built a wall across the valley and a bridge across the creek — the only means of crossing. He earned his living by charging a toll. Slough established his defense across the valley bottom at Pigeon’s Ranch. It wasn’t impregnable, but it was formidable.
Before they were fully organized, the Union troops were attacked by the Confederates at the west entrance to the pass — a point known as Apache Canyon. The Yankees retreated toward Pigeon’s Ranch and backed by artillery, held off the Rebels. The next day, they fought to a draw. Slough knew he would be unable to stop them if the battle continued.
Chivington’s Lucky Find
Then, he got an idea. He sent Major John Chivington and a company of soldiers onto a high ridge with orders to drop in behind the Confederates and encircle them. But Chivington got lost. When he finally located the Rebels, it wasn’t the combat troops but the Confederate supply train they’d left in the rear. Chivington’s men attacked the weakly defended wagons and burned them.
They burned all of Sibley’s food and stores. They burned his extra ammunition and weapons. They burned his troops’ personal gear — tents, sleeping blankets, extra clothing, etc. There is some doubt whether Chivington killed all the train’s mules or simply turned them loose. And while the Rebels were walloping the Yankees at Pigeon’s Ranch, Chivington’s misdirected counterassault proved devastating to the Confederates. With no means of continuing the fight, Sibley and his men had no choice but to withdraw.
The Confederates Retreat
They bypassed Albuquerque, knowing they’d face angry Union soldiers who had regrouped. They bypassed Fort Craig with its two thousand troops. They simply headed south to Texas and never attempted to capture any part of New Mexico again.
The battle in Glorieta Pass has been called the Gettysburg of the West, for it stopped the Confederates short of their objectives: gold and deep-water ports on the Pacific. With their Atlantic ports blockaded and money short, the Confederacy was left to fight a war of attrition that it could never win.
Fort Union’s Reinvention
Following the Civil War, Fort Union was reinvented one more time. It became the principal quartermaster depot for the military department of New Mexico.
Teamsters drove wagons through heavy gates kept locked at night to protect the goods. Materials were stored in warehouses until they were needed by forts throughout the Southwest. Nearby were the transportation corrals where thousands of draft animals were kept for hauling the wagon trains.
There were quarters for the quartermaster and his troops as well as the post commander and his cavalry. Instead of logs and earthworks, the newest Fort Union was comprised of buildings made of brick, stone, and adobe. The fort was in service until 1891.
Visiting Today
You can take a ranger-guided tour of the Glorieta battlefield. It begins at the Pecos National Historical Park at the east end of the pass. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit the ruins of the Pecos Pueblo that dates to 1100 CE. You can also walk the grounds of Fort Union National Monument and even stand in the swale of the Santa Fe Trail. These are but two of New Mexico’s many historic sites. There are no fees at either of these national parks.
Follow Albuquerque.com on Social Media
