Little Known Civil War Battle

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[darthtrudeau]

The Good The Bad and The Ugly takes place during this period. General Sibley can also be seen on a wagon during one shot and is mentioned by name.

[brucewilson]

They tried to take three separate passes, San Augustin, Valverde, and Glorietta.

Went equally terrible.

[venderstrat]

Someone added the Union to the group chat.

[hanssoloever]

No supplies, no logistics, no wins, same results every time.

[frankrives]

The force Slough sent to flank the Confederates and ended up capturing the Confederate troop train (thus helping save the day) was led by Major John Chivington, the man responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre about two years later. Had Chivington not massacred Native Americans at Sand Creek, he likely would be remembered as a minor military hero. Instead, he is remembered as the monster he was at Sand Creek.

[freehugs]

I actually lived on part of the battle in my little mobile home when we started finding cannonballs and stuff in the ground so it's so cool to finally know what really happened where I lived

[scottboyer]

Glorieta Pass is located along Interstate 25, between Santa Fe and Pecos. Growing up in Santa Fe, I remember school field trips to the site being an annual tradition. The area features a few monuments and a pleasant—though relatively short—hiking trail. If you’re in the area, it’s definitely worth a visit.

[Subversion_dnb]

I grew up about 2 hours from Santa Fe in a small town in Northeastern New Mexico. I have driven through Glorieta Pass many times. Beautiful area and a rich history.

[julianfell]

Something similar happened in Arizona. A group of Rebs in Tucson banded together and decided to take Prescott which was then the capital of Arizona (Phoenix did not really exist then). Getting wind of this a bunch of miners in Prescott formed a small army and headed off toward Tucson. The two forces met in what today is Picacho Pass (todays Interstate 10). The shooting lasted about an hour. The wannabe confederates retreated back to Tucson and Arizona remained with the Union.

[frederickbeuttler]

On April 1st you should cover the battle of Schrute Farms

[moonspots]

This history event provides the background epic of the movie The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

[EricDaMAJ]

It always amazes me that so much of 19th century and earlier American warfare often involved such tiny armies marching through and fighting to conquer such vast territories . Like a pair of kittens fighting to control a football stadium.

[laserbeam]

Sibley and Glorieta are mentioned in clint eastwoods movie the good the bad and the ugly.

[richardtroell]

Thank you for this one. I had a great great great great grandfather who immigrated to Texas in 1859 as an 18 year-old. Caught up in the era, he ended up volunteering for the 4th Texas Mounted Rifles (Company C) in 1861. He was with Sibley's Brigade. The campaign was supposed to stop at what is now Ft. Bliss. However, the Union garrisons at every fort from San Antonio to El Paso either surrendered without a fight or abandoned and withdrew. By the time they reached the New Mexico border Sibley made the decision to advance and "strike a decisive blow" for the Confederacy hoping to capture New Mexico from which the Confederacy could in theory take Arizona and Southern California. They fought multiple skirmishes as they traveled up the Rio Grande and by all accounts effectively dispatched the largely New Mexican volunteer troops. Moving north the Union forces at Ft. Craig attacked Sibley by targeting the Confederate horses, firing chains and chain shot to intentionally kill, cripple and main the animals before retreating toward Ft. Union allowing Sibley to quickly take both Albuquerque and Santa Fe EASILY. Ft. Craig was supposed to guard the Rio Grande but the Union forces utterly failed except most of the 4th Texas Mounted Rifles were dismounted and left Sibley headed back to El Paso as Sibley continued North. Only the 4th Texas artillery continued with Sibley and so did my ancestor who was with the artillery units. Once in Santa Fe, Sibley knew in advance that forces from Ft. Union (an old rehabilitated and expanded abandoned Spanish mission fort on the east side of the Elks Mountains) were mobilized so he swung into the Glorieta Pass to await them. By all objective analysis, the Union forces were stopped cold in Glorieta Pass and they withdrew and reteated back to Ft. Union to await Sibley. What they did not know was a column of Union reinforcements had taken a wrong turn and swung south, around and over Mesa Top and ultimately flanked Sibley by accident. The lost unit came upon Sibley's lightly guarded supply wagons near present day Valencia and even though they too were repelled, they heavily damaged Sibley's supplies and the supply wagons forcing Sibley to make the decision to withdraw to El Paso as he know longer had supplies or a supply chain. The Union troops at Ft. Union had gotten about the business of hurriedly shoring up the largely unfinished fort by installing Gabions in the openings while waiting on Sibley. By the time they found out Sibley was withdrawing south the troops at Ft. Union could only send mounted troops to carry out a harassing campaign as Sibley withdrew back to Texas along with my great great great great grandfather.

[randyrobertson]

The remains of Fort Union are still there. There are ruts from wagons that traveled the Santa Fe trail there too.

[nomadmarauder-dwre]

Sibley designed a tent used by both sides. And adopted by foreign militaries.

[wendychavez]

I'm very familiar with Glorieta Pass. We used to visit my mom's parents in northern New Mexico several times a year (we loved in central NM), and every time we'd drive through that pass we'd take note of the "leaning tower of Glorieta." Years later, while doing temp work in Albuquerque, I was assigned to do housekeeping in Glorieta one day for a convention--I think in the same building we called the leaning tower of Glorieta. It paid well, and they compensated me well for mileage.

[healyburnham]

A beautiful woman convinced me to cross Glorietta Pass in a blizzard on my 1962 BMW. Unforgettable woman, and unforgettable ride!I laid it down several times.

[austntexas]

Another civil war battle just south of that was San Agustin pass next to Las Cruces in 1861. This battle though, was one of the deciding battles for the west.

[Wehavenevermet]

Intel is always the most important aspect of battle.