After Fort Union, we made it to Santa Fe. The two locations are only about an hour apart, which made the old Fort an obvious stop on the way down. Upon arriving in Santa Fe, we were greeted with a beautiful, and historic downtown. The city can best be described as a fusion of Native American, Hispanic and European cultures. It truly is an amazing place. However, I’ll leave the talk of the city to Daisy. Although it wasn’t our next stop in terms of chronology, it relates very closely to our last post.
During our time in Santa Fe, Daisy and I decided it would be fun to check out their local Civil War battlefield. And yes, the Civil War was very much relevant out West. There were battles and critical goldmines located in the frontier of the United States. In one horrific event, Texans hanged 41 Unionists in the Great Hanging at Gainesville. Despite their victimized vocabulary, the South carried out some of the most disgusting atrocities of the entire war. However, we’ll get into that another time. Today, what we’re going to be discussing is The Battle of Glorieta Pass.
Glorieta Pass is located just a 30 minute drive from Santa Fe, perhaps even closer. Before we made it to the actual battlefield, Daisy and I saw that there was going to be a Civil War weapons demonstration shortly after we arrived at the visitor center. The demonstration was to take place just a mile down the road, so naturally we both agreed it would be a pretty cool thing to witness and made our way there. It turns out this was fated to happen as Daisy and I were the only people in attendance, which meant we had plenty of one on one time with the National Park Service employee who was running the event. The demonstration itself was quick. The employee showcased the Springfield 1861, which was the most common weapon of the war. Laden in Union military garb, he demonstrated how to load, fire and clear the weapon. Additionally, he showed just how fast a trained soldier could reload their weapon. Seeing this really put it into perspective why the casualties were so high during the war. Additionally, we were able to see authentic minie balls from the period, which was the ammunition used for the Springfield 1861 and many other rifles of the time. Additionally, the guns used in the battles were mostly rifled, as compared to smooth-bored. A rifled gun has a barrel with grooves in it that allows the bullet to spin while being ejected from the firearm, allowing it to be more accurate at a greater range. Seeing this demonstration helped me visualize and understand the battle more. I was able to imagine what the battlefield looked like, the motion of the reloading troops, and what must have been a thick layer of smoke, as the Springfield 1861 ejected a lot of smoke after being fired.
Upon walking the battlefield, the first thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t feel like a Civil War battlefield. The site is densely forested, and the terrain is rather hilly. The Glorieta Pass battlefield site feels like a lovely hike in the woods, with the occasional sign to remind you that you’re standing on sacred ground. This was my second trip to Glorieta Pass, and one of the first things I noticed was the improvement on the signage in the park, and by that I mean, the removal of some of the informational placards. Many of the placards seen along the trail were funded privately. One of the primary donors of the signs that could be seen were the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The UDC is perhaps the most prominent organization to promote the Lost Cause Myth, which essentially argues that the Southern cause during the American Civil War was a just, but lost cause. The UDC is responsible for erecting statues across the SouthEastern United States honoring the Confederacy’s leaders and generals. Needless to say this is problematic for numerous reasons. I will limit it to one; however, for the sake of staying on track: The Confederates were treasonous slave owners. Seeing the signs funded by the UDC removed from the Glorieta Pass Battlefield was an inspiring sight to behold, and a step in the right direction toward preserving an unbiased history of the United States.
Comparatively, Glorieta Pass was a very small battle. East of the Mississippi some would even consider it more of a skirmish, so why does this battle matter? The Battle of Glorieta Pass put a permanent end to Confederate efforts to advance into Union territory in the trans-mississippi theatre, specifically toward Colorado and California. The Confederate advance may seem confusing at a glance; however, the motive behind their plan was sound. During the war, the Southern economy suffered greatly. Union blockades, lack of industrial infrastructure, and fighting a defensive war on their home soil made it rather difficult to finance their desperate cause. In 1862, Confederate Brigadier General Henry Hopkins Sibley proposed the idea to lead an army North from Texas, through Colorado and onto California. Sibely’s grand idea was to seize gold mines from the Union states to fund the Southern war. Additionally, Sibley believed that citizens of the areas he was invading would join the Southern cause. Sibley led his band of Texans north, defeating the Union forces at the Battle of Valverde in New Mexico. As he continued forward, after taking a rest at Santa Fe, Sibley and his men were met by Union troops at Glorieta Pass between March 26th and 28th. Leading the Union forces at the battle was Col. John Slough. Slough was an inexperienced military man, who was given command of troops due to his prominence outside of the war. The colonel was hated by his men for his pompous and demanding attitude. During the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Slough reported incoming fire from the wrong direction, perhaps a sign that he was uninvolved in the battle, or that his own men were firing upon him. What’s remarkable about this battle is the journey Union troops made to reach the battlefield to halt the Confederate advance. The 1,300 Union troops who were present at the battle marched nearly 40 miles a day to reach the pass, through snow and mountains. Most miraculously done was their march through the snowy Raton Pass, where the Union forces marched 92 miles in just 36 hours.
The Battle itself was arguably a Confederate tactical victory, as they seized the locations they desired. However, during the middle of the fighting, Col. John Chivington led a Union column deep into Confederate territory in an effort to destroy the Texans’ supplies. Upon arriving, Chivington was surprised to see how little resources Sibley had devoted to guarding their supplies, and called for his men to hold as he thought it was a trap. After some time passed, Chivington’s men convinced him that there was no trap. So on March 28, as the battle was raging, Confederate soldiers looked behind them to see massive pillars of smoke. In that moment, the invading army knew their chances to continue on were destroyed. In the aftermath of the battle, there were 369 men either dead, captured, wounded or missing.
So why is this small battle in the west so significant? Well truth be told, it isn’t. If the Confederates succeeded and advanced further on, it is undeniably true that they would have been halted by other Union forces, or their lack of supplies. The significance in the battle lies in the fact that it halted and prevented further Confederate invasions in the far west. Furthermore, the Battle of Glorieta Pass shows that the entirety of the United States was affected by the U.S. Civil War, even the frontier territories of the American West.
Visiting this sacred ground with Daisy was such a treat. We enjoyed that we were the only people on the trails of the battlefield, as the silence helped create a somber atmosphere. Furthermore, the hike itself was lovely, and the park staff was incredible. Although Glorieta Pass is not your typical battlefield, it’s well worth the visit if you find yourself in the Santa Fe area.
(All information provided by the American Battlefield Trust and National Park Service)