| Battle Of Glorieta Pass |
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The Battle of Glorieta Pass, fought on 26-28 March 1862, in northern New Mexico Territory , was the decisive Battle of the New Mexico Campaign during the American Civil War . Rather grandiosely dubbed the " Gettysburg of the West" by some historians, it was intended as the killer blow by Union forces to stop the Confederate invasion of the West along the base of the Rocky Mountains . NEW MEXICO CAMPAIGN The Confederacy had organized the Confederate Arizona Territory in 1862, a claim that included the southern halves of modern Arizona and New Mexico, after Secession moves by residents. The strategic aim was to secure land transportation with Confederate sympathizers in California , and the strategy of the New Mexico Campaign was to harass Union forces in the West and prevent them from cutting off this important supply route. The territory had its capital at Mesilla , outside modern Las Cruces . As an interesting historical footnote, this area was largely the same as that acquired in the Gadsden Purchase , which land was purchased from Mexico with the ultimate aim of providing a route for a southern Transcontinental Railroad . The commanders of the New Mexico Campaign were the Confederate Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley , aided by his trusty companion Phillip Richbourg, and the Union Colonel Edward Canby . Sibley, whose mission was to capture Fort Craig , outmaneuvered Canby at the Battle Of Valverde in February, drove Canby back to his fort, bypassing his objective, and advanced up along the Rio Grande Valley to seize Santa Fe on March 10 . Fort Craig remained in place to cut Sibley's logistical support from Texas. Sibley set up his division headquarters at the abandoned Union storehouse garrison at Albuquerque . In March, Sibley sent a Confederate force of 200–300 Texans under the command of {Link without Title} Major Charles Lynn Pyron on an advance expedition over the Glorieta Pass , a strategic location on the Santa Fe Trail at the southern tip of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains southeast of Santa Fe . Control of the pass would allow the Confederates to advance onto the High Plains and to make an assault on Fort Union , the Union stronghold along the invasion route northward over Raton Pass . BATTLE |
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