The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the Westvolume 61

By Don E. Alberts

Book Overview

On the morning of March 26, 1862, Confederate and Union armies met in Glorieta Pass in the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. A series of skirmishes, jockeying for position, and a pitched battle on March 28 took a heavy toll on both sides and left the Rebels under Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley apparently victorious over Gen. John P. Slough's troops. However, the tide turned when Union soldiers under Col. John Chivington located the Confederate supply train and destroyed it. Without supplies, replacement arms, and ammunition, the Rebel troops could not maintain themselves against the still strong Federal forces in the area. After a few additional skirmishes, the dispirited and disorganized Rebels straggled back to Texas. The Confederate quest for expansion into the Southwest was abandoned. The Battle of Glorieta, some twenty miles southeast of Santa Fe, marked the Rebels' farthest advance northward in the Far West, just as the encounter at Gettysburg the following year would define their farthest significant northward penetration in the eastern theater. The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the West offers the first full, detailed, and accurate history of this blind, groping struggle in the smoke-filled Glorieta valley. The definitive work on the battle, it includes not only the Confederate organization and approach to the key battle, but also that of the Federal military units as they organized within New Mexico and Colorado Territories. It incorporates for the first time under one cover all the known Union participant accounts, including a number never before published. Based on his own research on the battlefield, Don E. Alberts also presents a thorough understanding of the deployment of troops and their actions. Alberts reveals, with rigorous supporting evidence, a whole new site for the Battle of Apache Canyon, miles from that previously described. From his field research and discovery of artifacts, he details the exact complement of both Confederate and Federal artillery. Finally, he marshals evidence to reach the startling, yet now inevitable, conclusion that the Battle of Glorieta was indeed a clear and significant Union victory.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585441007
• ISBN13: 9781585441006
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
• Length: 248 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Big "Small" Battle

Well-written story of the 1862 campaign in New Mexico, with emphasis the battle of Glorieta Pass. Excellent tactical maps in sufficient numbers. Nice Texas A & M edition. Small Union and Confederate armies operating in a wilderness at the end of very tenuous logistical communications. John Chivington, later a villain at Sand Creek, performs honorably here, and is instrumental in the Union victory. Author makes a convincing case that Glorieta was the "Gettysburg of the West". A "small" battle compared to Chickamauga or Antietam, but not if you were in it!

The Battle of Glorieta: Union Victory in the West

Go discussion of the non main stream battle of the War Between the State well research. Jim Lynch

Victory of the Pikes Peakers

I really enjoyed Alberts' well researched account of the climactic battle that doomed Southern ambitions in New Mexico and Confederate ambitions in the West. The book is well written and easy to read. Alberts is very familiar with the battlefields and uses maps to show troop positions and movements in the battles in Glorieta Pass. The book includes a good introduction of the campaign and troop movements to the area as well as the aftermath and southern retreat to Southern New Mexico. An Order of Battle and extensive end notes are helpfull and he even gives brief accounts of the fates of the major players in the campaign.