Saturday, April 3, 2004

THE CIVIL WAR IN NEW MEXICO

Part III — RETREAT FROM NEW MEXICO

Paul Harden For El Defensor Chieftain

NA5N na5n@zianet.com

Summary of Parts I and II

The Battle of Valverde was fought between Union and Confederate forces near Fort Craig on February 21, 1862. Three days later, an advanced guard of the Texans arrived outside of Socorro and demanded the surrender of the town. The 400 families in Socorro were being defended by a mere 37 men of the 2nd New Mexico Militiamen, commanded by Col. Nicholas Pino. Despite attempted negotiations and stall tactics, Col. Pino was forced to surrender Socorro, at 2 a.m., to the superior enemy force. On Feb. 26, the 2,600 men of Sibley's Brigade arrived at Socorro and established a hospital near the Plaza, where more than 100 sick and wounded Confederates were left, and 27 of these men died there.

The March to Albuquerque

On the morning of Feb. 28, the Sibley Brigade broke camp at Escondida and began the march to Albuquerque, leaving about 100 men at the Socorro hospital and a small garrison of soldiers, and the Confederate flag flying over the Socorro plaza. The Texans marched along both side of the Rio Grande, seizing food and supplies from the villages and ranches for their survival. However, there is no historical evidence that the Texans brought any physical harm to New Mexicans.

On March 5, Union soldiers at Albuquerque, aware of the Confederate advance, fled with 100 wagons of Federal supplies, burning the rest. The Texans arrived on the heels of the fleeing supply train; for as they arrived, the Federal supply buildings were still ablaze. The Union wagons were approaching Tijeras Canyon on their way to Ft. Union. Why Sibley did not pursue this supply train is a mystery. Instead of the ample supplies Sibley had promised, they settled for what they could salvage from the smoldering remains and those goods "appropriated" from Albuquerque.

Major Pyron's artillery and about 400 men continued to Santa Fe. Like Albuquerque, the arriving Texans found the capitol abandoned by Union forces and they captured the few supplies left behind.

Sibley now set his sights farther north. He knew that the majority of Federal supplies were being stored at Ft. Union, including $1 million in army payroll and gold bullion. Sibley also knew that Ft. Union was being defended by only a few hundred New Mexico Volunteers. Taking the fort with his superior force would be easy. What Sibley did not know was an unexpected enemy force was heading his way.

The Colorado Volunteers

The news of the Battle of Valverde reached Denver on March 1. Two days later, 1,300 men of the Colorado Volunteers departed Denver under the command of Col. John Slough. On March 6, the news arrived that Sibley had taken Albuquerque and was advancing towards Santa Fe. Col. Slough pulled out all the stops and ordered a forced march the rest of the way. These "Pike's Peakers," as they were often called, marched the last 170 miles in five days, arriving March 11. After a short rest, they were ready to engage the Texans at Santa Fe. However, an express message from Col. Canby, at Ft. Craig, ordered Col. Paul, who was commanding the New Mexico Volunteers at Ft. Union, to "defend the fort at all costs." The impatient Pike's Peakers remained at Ft. Union awaiting marching orders from Canby. Gen. Sibley never knew of the arrival of the Colorado Volunteers until they met "face-to-face" a few weeks later.

After Sibley's arrival in Albuquerque, the brigade seemed to stall out. While Sibley enjoyed the comforts of Albuquerque, he sent the bulk of his command to Tijeras Canyon. The unpredictable weather in March produced extreme hardships on the men with bitter cold winds and snow. Every few days, the command would move to locate fresh wood and water, and hoped for better weather. During this period, many of the Texans became ill and died of pneumonia.

Meanwhile, Back at the Fort

The actions of Col. Canby, the Union commander, were mysterious as well. He remained within the walls of Ft. Craig "licking his wounds" for the entire month of March, giving the Confederates full reign of the territory.

Col. Slough, growing tired of Canby's procrastination, decided to engage the Texans on his own. On March 22, ignoring Canby's orders, the Colorado Volunteers departed for Santa Fe, leaving Col. Paul and a few hundred men to defend Ft. Union.

The Ill-fate of Serendipity

On March 25, Maj. Pyron and his men departed Santa Fe for Ft. Union, camping for the night on the western approach to Glorietta Pass at Johnson's Ranch. That same evening, Col. Scurry's Texans were camped near Galisteo. And, the Colorado Volunteers were camped on the eastern entrance to Glorietta Pass. Three armies within miles of each other, yet unaware of each other's presence. That would soon change. The following morning, Maj. Pyron continued his trek towards Ft. Union, while the Colorado Volunteers moved closer to Santa Fe. The two armies ran into each other in the narrow confines of Apache Canyon. Serendipity, just like at Valverde, started the Battle of Glorietta.

The Battle at Glorietta

As soon as Maj. Pyron began taking fire from Maj. Chivington's advance guard of Pike's Peakers, he dispatched an urgent request for assistance from Lt. Col. William Scurry's command at Gallisteo. That evening, both armies retreated to their former camps. About 3 a.m., on March 27, Scurry's command arrived at Johnson's Ranch. This combined command now greatly outnumbered the 400 Colorado Volunteers they had just fought. What they did not realize is the Pike's Peakers had another 1,000 men at their camp as well. Over the next two days, these armies fought each other in the narrow confines of the canyon, over rocks and through the trees. The details of the battles are too lengthy to present here. For a good description, the book "The Battle of Glorietta," by Don Alberts, is highly recommended.

The Confederate Defeat

The devastating blow to the Texans occurred on March 28. Maj. Chivington and about 500 Colorado Volunteers rode to the top of Glorietta Mesa to flank the enemy from the rear, and to see if any further Texans were arriving from Santa Fe. After all, after three days of fighting, one would think reinforcements from the command at Albuquerque would be arriving by now. Sibley was absent from this battle, the same as he was at Valverde. Chivington's men did not see any arriving Texans, but they did accidentally stumble onto the entire Confederate supply train at Johnson's Ranch. The Pike's Peakers climbed down the treacherous rock cliff to the valley floor, where they overpowered the 200 Texan guards. Capturing the camp, they set loose some 500 horses, then burned all 80 supply wagons.

The Texans had lost nearly everything they owned to the torches of the Colorado Volunteers. Scurry ordered a retreat to Santa Fe. Since they had no wagons to transport the dead and wounded, both were left at Johnson's Ranch. Thirty men were buried in a mass grave. The mass grave was discovered and excavated in 1986-1988. The bodies have since been reinterred at the National Cemetery in Santa Fe.

The Confederate Retreat

Scurry was left with no choice except to order the retreat back to San Antonio, Texas, a distance of over 800 miles. Many of the men made this retreat, largely on foot, making it the longest retreat in Civil War history — in fact, unheralded in most any war.

Leaving Santa Fe, the defeated men rejoined the rest of the command still in Albuquerque. From there, they began the trek down the Rio Grande to El Paso, and eventually to San Antonio, Texas.

Col. Canby finally left Ft. Craig with about 1,200 men to confront the enemy. The two opposing armies met again at the village of Peralta, where a day-long skirmish ensued with very few losses. The Texans retreated to Los Lunas, leaving the Union Army at Peralta.

On April 17, the Texans broke camp near Sabinal and marched through a ferocious dust storm, making travel slow and cumbersome. About 3 p.m., the orders were given to make camp. The men struggled to erect the few tents they had and make fires for warmth. About 5 p.m., the wind and blowing sand suddenly stopped and the air cleared. Directly across the river from them was Canby's Union Army, camped less than a mile away! This was a tenuous situation for Sibley. With virtually no ammunition and a totally demoralized army, he was in absolutely no position to engage the enemy. In calling a Council of War, it was decided to flee from the Union Army under the cloak of night. As the sun set, the men quietly broke camp and began the retreat through the mountains.

The activity of Sibley's Brigade cannot be described better than the words from the diary of A.B. Peticolas. "(April 17) We traveled in all about 15 miles today and crossed a stream of water and camped on the far side, in full view of the enemy and out on the open prairie." The small stream they crossed was the Rio Puerco. Their campsite was the flat meadow just east of present day I-25.

"About 7 o'clock we started with our whole force, artillery and packs and a few wagons, to try Coopwood's route through the mountains to the lower country. And now commenced one of the most remarkable retreats ever read of." Two weeks earlier, Capt. Bethel Coopwood traveled from Mesilla to join the command in Albuquerque. He took a circuitous route through the San Mateo's, then along the Rio Salado, in order to bypass Ft. Craig. It was his route, in reverse, the Texans were taking.

"We left all our most valued articles scattered over the ground in profusion; left the wagons and left our sick men huddled around a fire with the yellow flag of our hospital waving over them from the corner of the wagon. It was affecting to see the brave companions in arms of these sick men grasping them by the hand and bidding them an affectionate farewell." One can only image the pain the men shared in leaving their comrades behind, knowing they would be captured by the enemy, and perhaps never seen again.

"We marched till two o'clock up a gradual slope over rough uneven ground and then down a canion till we reached the hilly cedar country of the mountains. We then halted and built large fires, spread our blankets around the blazes, and tired and sleepy after our 14-mile march, fell asleep ..." The Texans marched from the Rio Puerco camp almost due west toward Ladrone Peak, crossed a series of rough, sandy hills (hardly visible from I-25), and dropped into "the canion," the Tio Lino arroyo. (This is based on field work and artifact evidence by the author under an historical permit on the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in 1984). The Texans had marched a total of 29-30 miles that day.

The morning of April 18, the Texans marched 8 miles to the junction of the Rio Salado and Silver Creek. Peticolas described the area: "We then came to salt water sink and camped for the remainder of the day ... This water we found extremely unpalatable and salty, and the coffee made from it was hardly fit to drink atall, and as we had nothing but coffee and bread, we had pretty hard fare."

The following day, they marched 25 miles down the Rio Salado, then along the LaJencia gulch until they could not pull the artillery through the sand any further. From there, they left the LaJencia and traveled west to Bear Springs, north of present day Magdalena. While leaving LaJencia gulch, they buried one of McRae's captured canons after it broke an axle. This canon was found by a ranch hand on the LaJencia Ranch in the 1930s. The canon is still in Socorro today in a private collection.

By this time, Sibley's Brigade had lost all appearance of a military command. The men tried to march in companies, but the line of march, and the camps, stretched out for miles, as the starving men marched at different paces and scattered about searching for water holes, of which there were few.

The men passed through present day Magdalena and along the San Mateo Mountains, very similar to what is today Hwy. 107. On April 21, they passed 20 miles west of Ft. Craig and the Valverde battlefield. The men were aware that the battle had occurred two very long months ago on that very day. Reaching Canada Alamosa on April 24, they found ample water to fill their canteens. Marching three more days, they finally met Col. Steele's supply wagons north of present day Hatch, on April 27, where they finally got a meal. The Texans had marched 140 miles in 10 days, with virtually no food and no roads, through some of the most difficult terrain in New Mexico. For years, their trail was shown on maps as "The Texan Trail."

Peticolas recorded in his diary that day his strongest feelings yet of the campaign. "Sibley is heartily despised by every man in the brigade for his want of feeling, poor generalship, and cowardice. "Several Mexican whores can find room to ride in his wagons while the poor private soldier is thrown out to die on the way. The feeling and expression of the whole brigade is never to come up here again unless mounted and under a different general."

The command arrived in Las Cruces on May 1 and lingered around between Mesilla and El Paso for the entire month of May. The command started moving out for home in early June, most arriving in San Antonio, Texas, by August. Col. Steele's supply wagons were the last Confederates to leave on July 8, 1862, upon learning of the arrival of the California Volunteers. Historian Martin Hardwick Hall estimates that of the nearly 2,600 men of Sibley's Brigade, only 1,800 returned to San Antonio fit for duty.

Recapitulation of Socorro

On April 1, Col. Canby left Ft. Craig with about 1,200 men to meet the enemy following the Battle of Glorietta, leaving Col. Kit Carson and 1,200 New Mexico Volunteers to defend Ft. Craig. Two companies were left in Socorro to take over the administration of the Confederate Hospital and garrison, and the town, with Federal troops. Down came the Confederate flag and up went the stars and stripes for the first time since Feb. 26. On April 18, the day after the Texans began their retreat through the mountains, Canby's forces again entered Socorro. The hospital was closed, the remaining sick and injured moved to Ft. Craig to complete their care, and the rest of the Texans were taken prisoner. These men were eventually furloughed, some rejoining the Texans at El Paso, and the whereabouts of others is unknown. Some Texans deserted to Canada Alamosa (Monticello), where they remained the rest of their lives, according to oral history. Many of the prisoners captured during the Battles of Valverde and Glorietta were sent to the POW camps "back east," with many being sent to Camp Donaldson.

The California Column

In March 1862, about 2,000 California Volunteers, under the command of Gen. James Carleton, were ordered to reinforce Canby in New Mexico. However, due to very strong rains and unmanageable mud, this brigade was not able to cross the Colorado River until June. The 1st California Cavalry and 1st California Infantry arrived in New Mexico at Ft. Thorn (near Hatch), raising the U.S. flag in the abandoned fort on July 4, 1862. Upon their arrival, most of the Confederates were on the road to San Antonio, Texas. Those that remained quickly got the message and left as well.

While these men were not directly involved in the Civil War in New Mexico, many were stationed at Ft. Craig and some later changed the history of Socorro. Some of the prominent citizens and business owners of today's Socorro are descendants of these soldiers.

The Torres Families

There are two distinct Torres families in Socorro: The Max Torres family, owners of the Sunset Lounge and other enterprises, and the Eugene Torres family, the founder of Gambles. Both families have a long ancestry in Socorro.

Juan de Torres arrived with the Oñate expedition in 1598. This Torres family has since been in New Mexico continuously. Many generations later, Augustin and Felipe Torres moved to Socorro when it was reopened for settlement in 1815. Their firstborn son, Lucia, was one of the first children born in Socorro. He served in the New Mexico Militia with the First Dragoons in Socorro in the early 1850s, and was later involved with the establishment of Ft. Conrad, in 1854. One of Lucia's brothers, Ricardo, married Gertrudes Padilla in 1837. One of their daughters was Maria "Pablita" Torres. Remember her name. She comes up in Socorro's history again shortly.

José Torres (Pablita's brother) was a wagon master at Ft. Craig from 1860 until the late 1870s. When the Civil War broke out, José was the head wagon master, running supply trains of 50-100 wagons between Ft. Union and Ft. Craig every 3-4 weeks. While records are incomplete, it appears he was the wagon master bringing in the last supply train into Ft. Craig on Feb. 20, 1862 — the day before the Battle of Valverde, and narrowly escaping capture by the Texans. Had the starving Texans captured the 60 wagons of Torres' supply train, their fate and success in New Mexico might have been a different story. José married a Maria Gallegos, together raising 19 children — 13 of their own and six due to the death of José's brother, Ysidro. One of their daughters was Elisa Torres. Remember her name. She comes up in Socorro's history again as well.

Several generations later, some of this Torres family moved to Monticello. Two brothers, Emilio and Max Torres, moved in 1927 to work in the Kelly mines. Emilio's son, Eugene, started a mercantile business in Magdalena in the 1940s, moving the business to Socorro in the 1950s. At first it was the Western Auto store and, eventually, grew into today's Gambles store near the plaza. Two of Eugene's sons, David and Paul Torres, continue to operate Gambles today. All of these Torreses are direct descendants of Juan de Torres who arrived with the Oñate expedition in 1598.

The Zimmerly Families

Samuel Zimmerly, born in Germany in 1837, moved to America with his family. When the Civil War broke out, Samuel enlisted with the California Volunteers on Oct. 9, 1861. He arrived at Ft. Craig with the California Column in July 1862. Promoted to Corporal, he was involved in the construction of Ft. McRae (near present day T or C) until discharged from the Army in November 1864. Two years later, he married Pablita Torres (remember her name?) in Socorro. They had six children. The two of importance in this story are daughter Gertrude and son Richard.

Richard Zimmerly married Eloisa Stackpole in 1900. Of their 11 children, Ben Zimmerly went on to run Ben's Finer Foods, in Socorro, for years; Samuel Zimmerly worked at the Socorro train depot; and Edward was a navigator on a B-17 during WWII. Edward was killed on April 11, 1944 when his B-17 was shot down over Germany, just miles from where his grandfather, Samuel Zimmerly, was born. Edward died in action 60 years ago this Easter Sunday.

Another son, Charles, was the father to Charles "Chuck" Zimmerly Jr., who served his country in the U.S. Navy during Viet Nam. Chuck Zimmerly has been a school teacher in Socorro for years, and now the principal of Sarracino Middle School. Starting with Corporal Sam Zimmerly, this family has a long Socorro history of military and civic service.

The Stackpole Families

An Irishman named Richard Stackpole also arrived in Socorro with the California Column. Sergeant Stackpole was involved with establishing Ft. McRae, and, in the 1870s, with the 15th Cavalry in Canada Alamosa, protecting the Apache Indians at Ojo Caliente. He married Elisa Torres (remember her name?) in San Marcial in 1877. Their daughter, Eloisa, married Richard Zimmerly in 1900.

Since the turn of the last century, the families of Zimmerly, Stackpole and Torres are all related. There are descendants of the Stackpole family still in Socorro today, such as Socorro policeman E.P. Higgs. When Ft. Craig closed (twice) in the 1880s, these families all established family farms along Cuba Road.

There are other Socorro families with similar histories. Were it not for the ill-fated Confederate invasion, Socorro would not have many of these families, nor the history, it has today. Socorro also owes thanks to the very beautiful women of the Torres family!

Author's Epilogue

During the 1861-1862 Confederate invasion of New Mexico, many men lost their lives due to battle, disease, pneumonia, starvation and other calamities. These men were northern Union men, southern Confederate men and the Mexicans of the New Mexico Volunteers, all trying to fight and survive in a harsh land. They were all Americans before the Civil War, and they were all Americans after the Civil War. Regardless of the army in which they served, they ALL deserve to be honored and their sacrifices never forgotten.

I wish to publicly thank the fine people of Socorro, who graciously provided their family histories for the preparation of these articles.

References used for this article: "Rebels Along the Rio Grande," by Don Alberts; "The Confederate Army of New Mexico," by Martin Hardwick Hall; "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies," 128 volumes, Govt. Printing Office; "Colorado Volunteers in New Mexico, 1862," by Ovando J. Hollister; "Turmoil in New Mexico,1846-1868," by William A. Keleher; and personal interviews.

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