Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley, invading Union territory from Texas, had established the Confederate Arizona Territory at Mesilla in February. “Sibley’s Brigade” of Texas Rangers had defeated the Federals at the Battle of Valverde later that month and then occupied Santa Fe. His next objective was to take the principal Federal supply base in the territory, Fort Union.
To reach his final goal, Sibley set out to cross the Sangre de Cristo Mountains via Glorieta Pass, southwest of the fort. The Union forces, led by Colonel Edward Canby, sent a detachment of the 1st Colorado volunteers, under Major John Chivington, to the eastern mouth of the pass to block Sibley’s move.
Apache Canyon
On March 26, both sides established temporary bases at each end of Glorieta pass - the Confederates at Apache Canyon to the west and the Federals at Pigeon’s Ranch to the east. The two forces then briefly clashed near the Confederate base at Apache Canyon before retiring to their respective camps. This minor engagement was the beginning of what some historians have called “The Gettysburg of the West.”
On the 27th both sides feared being attacked and established defensive positions while reinforcements arrived. By the end of the day the Confederates had been strengthened to 1,100 from their initial 300, and the Federals swelled to about 1,300 from 400. The two armies were closely matched, each containing roughly equal numbers of infantry, cavalry and light field artillery.
Johnson's Ranch
Hostilities resumed on the morning of the 28th, with both sides advancing into Glorieta Pass. The Confederates threw almost their entire force into the attack, leaving a small body of troops to guard the supply train far in the rear of Apache Canyon at Johnson’s Ranch. The Federals committed a comparatively small force to the pass, having dispatched 400 of Chivington’s Colorado Volunteers on a circuitous flanking maneuver to the south of the pass early that morning.
Led by a local Native American guide, Chivington’s men descended from the steep mountains late in the day and surprised the outnumbered Confederate rearguard at Johnson‘s Ranch. The Federals quickly overwhelmed the rebels, burned all 85 wagons in the Confederate supply train and slaughtered or drove off more than 500 horses and pack mules - effectively crippling the Confederate force fighting in the pass.
Glorieta Pass
Meanwhile, the rebels were having success in the main action at Glorieta. Their advantage in numbers was telling, and they continuously pushed the Federals back toward the eastern edge of the pass, at one point shelling the Federal camp at Pigeon’s Ranch. But when word of the disaster that befell their supply wagons reached the front, the Confederates had no choice but to retire from the field.
The Battle of Glorieta Pass was the high water mark of the Confederate adventure into the New Mexico Territory. After a string of victories over Federal forces that placed a large part of the territory under rebel control, the battle decisively destroyed Sibley’s Brigade as an offensive force. Despite being a tactical success, the Battle of Glorieta Pass proved to be a pyrrhic victory for Sibley and the Confederacy. Without the supplies necessary to press the attack, the Confederates had no choice but to withdraw to Santa Fe, and eventually pull out of the New Mexico Territory entirely - thus ending the Confederate menace to the Southwestern United States for good.
Source:
Whitford, William C.,Colorado Volunteers in the Civil War: the New Mexico Campaign in 1862. Denver, Colorado: The State Historical and Natural History Society, 1906. Reprinted by Rio Grande Press, 1989.
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