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| The Confederate Territory of Arizona | ||||||||||||||||
| Think the War Between the States was an eastern thing? Far from it! As I am always quick to point out, the American Civil War started and ended in the WEST! From Bleeding Kansas to Brownsville, Texas the Civil War raged on this side of the Mississippi in battles from the Texas coast to western Arizona. All real southerners know about the Confederate invasion of New Mexico by General Sibley which culminated in the "Gettysburg of the West", the battle of Glorieta Pass. However, Arizona was Confederate ground as well. It was on March 16, 1861 that citizens of the Arizona territory met at La Mesilla and voted to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. This territory encompassed the southern half of the modern day states of Arizona and New Mexico. The next day Captain George M. Frazer led his company of Arizona Rangers into La Mesilla where they were presented with their colors and sent off on their assignment to protect the Confederate citizens of Arizona from Apache raiders. | ||||||||||||||||
| Major action in the far west started on July 25, 1861 when Texas Ranger and Confederate Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor rode in from Texas and defeated the Union garrison at Ft Fillmore, gaining control of the lower Rio Grande Valley for the south. The federals beat a hasty retreat but Colonel Baylor was hot on their heels and caught over 700 of them at San Augustine Pass two days later along with valuable weapons and supplies for the Confederate cause. On August 1, 1861 Colonel Baylor proclaimed a military government for the Territory of Arizona and named himself Governor. His actions were later endorsed by the Confederate government in Richmond. Four days later the people of Arizona elected Granville Henderson Oury to be the Arizona delegate at the Confederate Congress in Richmond and on August 8, the Arizona Rangers became a regular unit in the Confederate States Army. | ||||||||||||||||
| By the end of the year Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley was well into planning his New Mexico expedition and working so close to the Mexican border, some care had to be taken as to relations with the local Mexican authorities. Therefore, in January of 1862 Sibley dispatched Colonel James Reily to Chihuahua City to do his best to convince the Mexican government to oppose any Union incursions into their country while also to allow Confederate troops operating against the Apaches in Arizona to be allowed to enter Mexico when in pursuit of the raiders. He was also ordered to try to arrange the purchase of additional weapons and supplies from Mexico. On January 27, General Sibley dispatched Company A of the Arizona Rangers under Captain Sherod Hunter to Tucson. These men would bring the Confederate military presence to her westward extreme. | ||||||||||||||||
| On February 14, 1862 President Jefferson Davis signed the bill submitted to him by the Congress establishing the Confederate Territory of Arizona. Only a week later General Sibley led his Army of New Mexico against Ft Craig and defeated Union forces under Colonel E.R. S. Canby at the battle of Valverde. Further west, on the 28th, Captain Hunter arrived in Tucson and raised the Confederate flag over the presidio plaza. Colonel Reily had also been sent to Mexico once again, this time to see about purchasing military stores from the Governor of Sonora and to seek an agreement for the establishment of a Confederate naval base at the Mexican port of Guaymas to circumvent the Union blockade in the Atlantic. In the meantime, General Sibley pressed on with his offensive, taking Albuquerque before occupying the Union capital of the New Mexico Territory, Santa Fe, on March 10, 1862. | ||||||||||||||||
| The Confederate effort to take Ft Union meant controlling the Santa Fe Trail and that meant securing Glorieta Pass. The main action occurred on March 28 with the Confederate forces, despite being outnumbered as usual, succeeded in driving off their Union assailants. However, during the battle Union Colorado troops stole around the Confederate lines and destroyed the entire southern supply train. Despite winning all the battles, this ended the campaign for General Sibley and with no supplies he was forced to abandon the operation and begin the grueling retreat back to Texas. Far to the west though, scattered Confederate units fought on. Two days after Glorieta Pass, a detachment from Company A of the Arizona Rangers clashed with Union troops at Stanwyx Station on the Gila River, taking three federals prisoner. | ||||||||||||||||
| Despite the withdrawal of General Sibley, combat in Arizona continued with smaller local Confederate forces. On April 15, 1862 a patrol of federal cavalry stumbled across some Confederate pickets at Picacho Pass. The Union troops captured three of the southerners but lost three men killed of their own, including their commander. The following month, on May 5, 1862, occurred one of the strangest battles of the war. At Dragoon Springs Station a Confederate foraging party from Company A of the Arizona Rangers was attacked by Apache Indians. Three Union prisoners were given weapons and helped repel the attack as the Apaches cared little if their enemies were wearing blue or gray jackets. Four Confederates were killed before the Indians were driven off and the battle at Dragoon Springs went down in the history books as the only occasion during the war in which Union and Confederate soldiers fought side by side. | ||||||||||||||||
| Indians had cost the Confederates in Arizona of Company A a number of horses and Captain Hunter was determined to get them back and punish the Indians who were responsible. Captain Hunter dispatched a patrol toward this aim and on May 9, 1862 they found a Chiricahua raiding party, killed five of them and recovered the livestock. However, the Confederates could not hold out forever with no help from their own forces. General Sibley had abandoned the Arizona Territory and Governor Baylor was dismissed by the authorities in Richmond for cruelty toward the Indians. To make matters worse, Captain Hunter and his small company learned that a massive column of more than 2,500 Union troops from California were advancing on his position from Yuma. With no hope of reinforcement or re-supply, Captain Hunter was forced to abandon Tucson on May 14, 1862 and take his command eastward to Texas. From there, he and his rough southwestern troops joined with the Arizona Brigade which fought out the rest of the war in the Trans-Mississippi Department, still holding the distinction of being the soldiers who had carried the Confederate flag to its farthest westward extent. | ||||||||||||||||