Battle of the Glorieta Pass

Battle of Glorieta Pass: Confederates attacking Pigeon's ranch; Drawing by Roy Anderson; Courtesy of Pecos National Historical Park

date	26.-28. March 1862
place	New Mexico Territory (today: Santa Fe County and San Miguel County , New Mexico ), USA
output	Union victory

Parties to the conflict
United States 34 United States	States of America Confederate 1861-4 Confederate States of America
Commander
John P. Slough, John M. Chivington	Charles L. Pyron William R. Scurry
Troop strength
just over 1,300	around 1,200
losses
Apache Canyon 5 dead 14 wounded Glorieta Pass 48 dead 70 wounded 21 prisoners	Apache Canyon 4 dead 20 wounded 70 prisoners Glorieta Pass 48 dead 60–70 wounded 25 prisoners

The Battle of Glorieta Pass was fought from March 26th to 28th, 1862 and was the decisive battle of the New Mexico Campaign , a Confederate military operation carried out as part of the American Civil War . With this battle, Union forces successfully stopped the invasion of the Confederate forces into the New Mexico Territory .

procedure

On March 25, 1862, a Confederate vanguard under the command of Major Charles L. Pyron had camped at Johnson's Ranch (Cañoncito) at the end of the Glorieta Pass, which is at the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Range , southeast of Santa Fe on historic Santa Fe Trail and was a strategically important location. The 300 to 400 southerners left their camp early on the morning of the 26th and encountered Slough's vanguard, some 420 men under the command of John M. Chivington , who had already overpowered a small Confederate vanguard by 12:00 noon. The Confederates formed a battle line across the street, but were outmaneuvered by Chivington's men, who had initially been driven back by the southern artillery, by circumventing their enemy on the flanks. The Confederates had to withdraw and took up a new defensive position in Apache Canyon, a narrow valley with a few cultivated fields, a little west of their position. Chivington repeated his flanking maneuver in connection with a massive cavalry attack, which caused the Confederates to retreat to the previously occupied camp in nearby Cañoncito. Numerous Confederate soldiers were captured. Chivington now stopped his attacks and withdrew to the main Union Forces camp at Kozlowski's Ranch, a station on the Santa Fe Trail. From his camp, Pyron sent a message requesting urgent reinforcements to the main Confederate force not far away.

The course of the battle on March 28, 1862

There was no fighting the next day. However, both sides received reinforcements. Lt. Col. William R. Scurry's Confederate troops reached a strength of 1,100 men, while for the Northern States Colonel John P. Slough arrived with 900 fresh men from Fort Union as reinforcement . Both sides decided to attack and by the early morning of March 28th they carried out their plan. The battle that followed was marked by attacks and counter-attacks on the defensive lines quickly formed by each side, with the opponents trying to outmaneuver each other and gain an advantage by flanking attacks. The scene of the battle, which had started around 11:00 a.m., shifted from the place of the first meeting in the vicinity of Pigeon's Ranch, where the Union troops formed a new line of defense around 2:00 p.m. after Scurry's men had succeeded to force them to retreat through flank attacks. This position, too, became untenable for the Union troops after Scurry's men had succeeded in gaining elevated terrain on their flanks, so that they retreated again and formed a third line of defense, about half a mile further east at Pigeon's Ranch.

The fighting ended when Slough's troops had to give up this position in the face of the heavy attack by the Confederates and withdrew to the Kozlowski Ranch, where they had their camp. Now Scurry and his people left the battlefield too. They believed they had won the battle. However, some of Chivington's men had - after laboriously convincing their commander of their plan - bypassed the battlefield during the fighting and destroyed the entire supply of Scurrys (80 wagons with provisions and ammunition) at the Johnson ranch, as well as the approximately 500 found there Horses and transport mules killed or driven away - an irreplaceable loss, as it turned out, in an operation area that was so barren and dry that Scurry's men and animals had previously been unable to feed themselves adequately.

consequences

The battle at Glorieta Pass was ultimately the turning point of the campaign in the New Mexico Territory. Without ammunition, mounts, but above all without the provisions absolutely necessary in the hostile area of operations, it was completely impossible for the armed forces of the southern states to continue their campaign. Given the presence of strong Union troops supported by equally strong and well-stocked fortifications - the forts Craig and Union - withdrawal was the only option if the Southern military leadership did not want the capture or destruction of the entire force take risk. The first step was followed by more back to San Antonio , Texas . It is also telling that the Southern Army suffered many times the losses on the extremely hard and difficult journey back around 700 miles that the previous battles had caused. Only around 2,000 of the originally around 3,700 members of the Southern Army finally made it back to their starting points alive. During the march back there had been no more fighting, as the commanders of the Union initially kept their troops at a distance in order to avoid unnecessary losses and finally let the enemy go. They preferred to leave the final annihilation of the defeated southerners to the hostile terrain, which in the event of persecution could have been dangerous for them too.

literature

Roy Sullivan: Civil War in Texas and the Southwest . AuthorHouse, Bloomington 2007, ISBN 978-1434304599 .

Web links

Commons : Battle of the Glorieta Pass - collection of images, videos and audio files

Battle of Glorieta Pass (information from the Pecos National Historical Park, New Mexico website)
Don E. Alberts, GLORIETA, BATTLE OF . In: Handbook of Texas Online. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
Glorieta Pass (information on the website CWSAC Battle Summaries. The American Battlefield Protection Program).

References and comments

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f As almost always in connection with battles, various publications contain differing information on the strength of the opposing armies and the number of victims. The information given here is based on Sullivan (2007), pp. 51 and 60, and the information provided by Albert in the Handbook of Texas Online . The losses of the attack on the Confederate train are not included.

35.572183 -105.753908Coordinates: 35 ° 34 '19.9 " N , 105 ° 45' 14.1" W.

[Sullivan-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f As almost always in connection with battles, various publications contain differing information on the strength of the opposing armies and the number of victims. The information given here is based on Sullivan (2007), pp. 51 and 60, and the information provided by Albert in the Handbook of Texas Online . The losses of the attack on the Confederate train are not included.