American Civil War
The New Mexico Territory , which included the areas which became the modern U.S. states of New Mexico and Arizona as well as the southern part of Nevada , played a role in the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War . Both Confederate and Union governments claimed ownership and territorial rights over it. In 1861 the Confederacy claimed the southern tract as its own Arizona Territory and waged the ambitious New Mexico Campaign in an attempt to control the American Southwest and open up access to Union California . Confederate power in the New Mexico Territory was effectively broken after the Battle of Glorieta Pass in 1862. However, the territorial government continued to operate out of Texas, and Confederate troops marched under the Arizona flag until the end of the war.
New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War
Map of the division of the states during the Civil War. Blue represents Union states, including those admitted during the war; light blue represents Union states which permitted slavery ( border states ); red represents Confederate states . White or unshaded areas were territories before or during the Civil War.
Union (American Civil War)
The Confederate States of America ( CSA ), also known as the Confederacy , was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by a number of Southern slave states that had declared their secession from the United States . The Confederacy recognized as members eleven states that had formally declared secession, two additional states with less formal declarations, and one new territory. Secessionists argued that the United States Constitution was a compact among states, an agreement which each state could abandon without consultation. The United States government rejected secession as illegal.
Confederate States of America
The tactics at the beginning of the Civil War were left over from the smooth bore musket. The advent of the rifled musket tripled the effective range of the infantry. The artillery had to back up to move further away. There was much experimentation starting just before the Civil War with breech loading guns. There were many models of breech loading carbines for the cavalry, but it wasn't until near the end of the Civil War that a serviceable metallic cartridge was made for a breech loading musket.
Civil War Guns
Civil War in New Mexico
September 9, 1861, US Territorial Governor Henry Connelly issued a call for service. By January, 4,000 men had volunteered in New Mexico. These were mostly poor, illiterate, Spanish-speaking men, aged 18 to 45, from Las Vegas, Santa Fe, Taos, Mora, and other surrounding villages. They knew little of American military training. They were organized into 5 regiments composed of 5 to 10 companies (80-100 men per infantry or cavalry company). (That's Governor Connelly on the left.)