History

Pecos National Historical Park preserves over 12,000 years of rich cultural history including Pecos Pueblo and Spanish mission ruins, the ruts of the Santa Fe Trail, the Forked Lighting Ranch and the Civil War Battle of Glorieta.

The People of Pecos

At midpoint in a passage through the southern Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the ruins of a Pecos pueblo and Spanish mission share a small ridge. Long before Spaniards arrived this village commanded the trade path between Pueblo farmers of the Rio Grande and tribes who hunted the buffalo plains. Its 2,000 residents could marshal 500 fighting men. Its frontier location brought both war and trade. At trade fairs Plains tribes—mostly nomadic Apaches—brought slaves, buffalo hides, flint, and shells to trade for pottery, crops, textiles, and turquoise with the river Pueblos. Pecos Indians were middlemen, traders and consumers of the goods and cultures of the very different peo­ple on either side of the mountains. They became economically powerful and practiced in the arts and customs of two worlds.

Pecos Indians remained Puebloan in culture—despite cultural blendings—practicing an ancient agricultural tradition borne north from Mexico by the seeds of sacred corn. By the late Pueblo period, the last few centuries before the Spaniards arrived in the Southwest, people in this valley had congregated in multi-storied towns overlooking the streams and fields that nourished their crops. In the 1400s these groups gathered into Pecos pueblo, which became a regional power.

A Spanish conquistador described the pueblo in 1584 set on a "high and narrow hill, enclosed on both sides by two streams and many trees." The hill was cleared of trees. "It has the greatest and best buildings of these provinces and is most thickly settled." The people had "quantities of maize, cotton, beans, and squash," and the pueblo was "enclosed and protected by a wall and large houses, and by tiers of walkways which look out on the countryside. On these they keep their offensive and defensive arms: bows, arrows, shields, spears, and war clubs." Like other Pueblo groups the Pecos enjoyed a rich culture with inventive architecture and beautiful crafts. Their elaborate religious life, evidenced by many ceremonial kivas, reached out to the nurturing spirits of all things, animate and inanimate.

Fine-tuned adjustments to their natural and cultivated world rested on practical science infused with spirituality. By story and dance tradition-bearers conveyed the knowledge and wisdom of centuries past. Individual, family, and social life were regulated via a religion binding all things together and holding balance, harmony, and fitness as the highest ideals. But ideals did not always prevail. Warfare between Pueblo groups was common. The frontier people of Pecos had to be vigilant with nomadic Plains Indians, whose intent—trade or war?—could be unpredictable. Neighboring pueblos saw the Pecos as dominant. The Spaniards soon learned that the Pecos could be determined enemies or powerful allies.

Before the Spaniards
First to settle here were pre-pueblo people who lived in pithouses along drainage's about 800. Around 1100, the first Puebloans began building their rock-and-mud villages in the valley. Two dozen villages rose here over the next two centuries, including one where Pecos pueblo stands today. Sometime in the 14th century the settlement patterns changed dramatically. Within one generation small villages were abandoned and Pecos pueblo grew larger. By 1450 it had become a well planned frontier fortress five stories high with a population of over 2,000.

Land and Life
The land around the pueblo was a storehouse of natural products the Pecos knew intimately. They used virtually every plant for food, clothing, shelter, or medicine and turned every part of the game they hunted into something useful.

Farming supplied most of their diet. The staple crops were the usual trio of corn, beans, and squash cultivated along Glorieta Creek and the area's many drainage's. Water was an important to the Pecos as to us. They built check dams to slow the runoff of rain and grew their crops where topsoil collected. Yields were apparently considerable. In 1541 Coronado found the Pueblo storerooms piled high with corn, a three-year supply by one estimate.

Trade
Location, power, and the ability to supply needed goods made Pecos a major trade center on the eastern flank of the Puebloan world. Pecos Indians bartered crops, clothing, and pottery with the Apaches and later the Spaniards and Comanche's for buffalo products, alibates flint for cutting tools, and slaves. These Plains goods were in turn swapped west to other pueblos for pottery, parrot feathers, turquoise, and other items. Trading could go quickly or take weeks. Rings left by tipi's set up for long spells of bartering are still visible in the area. Uneasy relationships between Pueblos and the Plains tribes made hostilities a continual threat. The rock wall circling the pueblo, a relic from trading days, was too low to serve a defensive purpose. It was probably a boundary other tribes were not allowed to cross.

Spanish Encounters

The idea of a "new" Mexico, another land of great cities weighted with gold, appealed to the latecomers who thronged Mexico City after the conquests of the Aztecs and Incas. These ambitious seekers needed only direction. Shipwrecked Cabeza de Vaca stumbled back into Mexico in 1536 after wandering over new Spain's northern frontier. His tales of rich cities farther north combined with tantalizing legends of-lost bishops and their seven cities out somewhere in the wilds to provide that direction. This was the vision quest Francisco Vasquez de Coronado pursued in 1540.

Leading an army of 1,200 Coronado made his way into he country north of Mexico. Six months into the march he rode into a cluster of Zuni pueblos, Cibola, near present day Gallup. He attacked the Zuni an Hawikuh, taking over that principle town and its food stores for his famished soldiers. At Cicuye-later called Pecos- 150 miles east the reception was different. The Indians welcomed the Spaniards with music and gifts. A Plains Indian captive at Pecos told of a rich land to the east, Quivira, and Coronado set out in spring 1541 to find it. Wandering as far as Kansas he found only a few villages. His Indian guide confessed he lured the army on to the plains to die, and Coronado had him strangled. The expedition turned back. After a bleak winter along the Rio Grande the broken army went back to Mexico empty handed, harassed by Indians most of the way. In Coronado's sojourn the Pecos Indians and their Pueblo neighbors had felt the warmth of a powerful world. They had seen the gray-clad priests plant crosses for their gods. But the strangers went away, and the Pueblos settled back into their old ways.

Colonizers and Missionaries
Nearly 60 years now passed before Spaniards came to New Mexico to stay. New Spain's frontier had slowly advance with the discovery of silver in nothern Mexico. In 1581 explorers began prospecting for silver in the land of the Pueblos. Their failures foreshaowed a truth that determined much of Spanish New Mexico's history: that province held neither golden cities nor ready riches. But the fact that settlers could farm and herd there focused the joint strategies of Cross and Crown: Pueblo Indians could be converted and their lands colonized.

Don Juan de Oñate was first to pursue this mixed objective, in 1598. Taking settlers, livestock, and 10 Franciscans he marched north to claim for Spain the land across the Rio Grande. Right away he assigned a friar to Pecos, richest and most powerful New Mexico pueblo. The new religion got off to a shaky start. After episodes of idol-smashing provoked Indian resentment, the Franciscans sent veteran missionary Fray Andrés Juárez to Pecos in 1621 as healer and builder. Under his direction the Pecos built an adobe church south of the pueblo, the most imposing of New Mexico's mission churches—with towers, buttresses, and great pine-log beams hauled from the mountains.

The ministry of Fray Juárez from 1621 to 34 coincided with the most energetic mission period in New Mexico, now a royal colony. It was a Franciscan-led time of mission building and expansion. Its success bred conflict—church and civil of­ficials vied for the Pueblo Indians' labor, tribute, and loyalty. The Indians suffered these struggles as religious and economic repression.

War and Reconquest
Decades of Spanish demands and Indian resentments climaxed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Indians in scattered pueblos united to drive the Spaniards back to Mexico. At Pecos loyal Indians warned the local priest, but most followed a tribal elder in revolt. They killed the priest, destroyed the church, and—symbolizing the discontent— built a forbidden kiva in mission's convento itself.

Twelve years later, led by Diego de Vargas, the Spaniards came back to their lost province, peacefully in some places but with the sword in others. Vargas expected fighting at Pecos, but opinion had shifted. The Indians welcomed him back and supplied 140 warriors to help retake Santa Fe. A smaller church built on the old one's ruins was the first mission reestablished after the Reconquest, and most Pecos sus­tained Spanish rule until it ended.

In return the Franciscans mod­erated their zeal. Tribute was abolished. As allies and traders the Pecos became partners in a relaxed Spanish-Pueblo community. But by the 1780s disease, Comanche raids, and migration reduced the pop-ulation of Pecos to fewer than 300. Long-standing internal divisions—between those loyal to the Church and things Spanish and those who clung to the old ways—may have contributed to this once powerful city-state's decline. The function of Pecos as a trade center faded as Spanish colonists, now protected from the Comanches by treaties, established new towns to the east. Pecos was almost a ghost town when Santa Fe Trail trade began flowing past in 1821. Last survivors left a decaying pueblo and empty mission church in 1838 to join Towa-speaking relatives 80 miles west at Jémez pueblo, where their descendants still live today.

Forked Lightning Ranch

When 20-year-old Clar­ence Van Nos­trand left home in 1908, he rein­vent­ed himself for a life of ad­ven­ture. He changed his name to John Van Aus­tin but every­one knew him as "Tex" Aus­tin. Although born into a strict St. Louis hous­ehold, he claimed to have been born and raised on a cattle ranch in Victo­ria, Texas. After working on New Mexi­co and Texas ranch­es and briefly joining the Mex­ican Revolution, Tex started produc­ing rode­os. From his first ro­deo in El Paso in 1917 to his last in Lon­don, England, in 1934, Tex was known for his generosi­ty and show­man­ship. When he produced the first Mad­ison square Garden Rodeo in 1922, the prize money was a record $25,­000. Tex had other "fir­sts" --

-first recorded indoor rodeo in Wichi­ta, Kansas (1918)
-first rodeo ever held in Chicago Stadium (1926)
-first contest rodeo to go over­seas.

Some 114,000 people attended his 1924 rodeo in Lond­on's We­mbley Stadium.

Everyone agreed that Tex was "pos­sessed of tremendous charm and bluff" and "spent his last dollar like it was a leaf and he owned the forest." Tall and lanky, Tex was not consid­ered a decent working cow­hand by his cowboys, but "he did learn to wear a big hat and to sit his saddle as if born to the leather."

In 1925, Tex bought up parcels of land on the old Pecos Pueblo Grant and called his 5,500 acre holdings The Forked Lightning Ranch. The remains of Kozlowski's Stage Stop and Tavern on the Santa Fe Trail (1858-1880) became part of his new holdings, which Tex converted into ranch headquarters and a trad­ing post. He hired architect John Gaw Meem to design and build the main ranch house on a bluff above the Pecos River. (The assignment was one of Meem's first. He later became famous throughout the Southwest for his "Pueblo Revival" buildings.) All rooms in the rectan­gu­lar house faced a grassy patio. Its defining touch was a huge, specially sculpt­ed steer head mounted out­side on the chimney. Tex's advertis­ing tout­ed it as "the most complete, mod­ern and comfort­able ranch house in the West. The life of the romantic West is at its doors."

"Way out west an' a Little Bit South"
Tex hoped for a share of the grow­ing East Coast tourist market to New Mexico. The ranch, after all, was less than two days by train from Chi­cago: "Thir­ty-four hours, and you're out where the West is--and will be for some time." Train travelers got off at Rowe just a few miles down the road.

For $125 a week, 18 guests sharing nine bedrooms received "all proper service...to insure the comfort and friendly atmosphere of a country home...Feed--and how!...served ranch style...in big heaping dishes. Pitch till you win and no one keeps track of the helpings!" "Pack and chuck wag­on trips to the high peaks" were a highlight of many available amuse­ments.

The Forked Lightning was a work­ing cattle ranch too, reputed to run sever­al thousand head of cattle on 100,000 acres of leased grazing land in the valley. One story says that Tex took the train to Chicago, found a bar, and then complained to pa­trons that he had all this cattle to go to Las Vegas, New Mexico, for loading on the train and no one to do the work. He found "dudes" who volun­teered to take the trip to the Forked Lightning at their own ex­pense just for the chance to be on a cattle drive. After the ani­mals were at Las Vegas, Tex took the train back to Chicago and complained about all the ani­mals he had at Las Vegas that he needed to get to his ranch!

The ranch only operated for seven years; the last guests left in May 1933. Tex had heavily mortgaged the ranch and could­n't pay the debt. A year later, his attempt to produce anoth­er London rodeo fell on hard times -- British animal rights groups tried to stop the show on the grounds that steer-wrestling was cruel. Though they failed, Tex lost over $20,000. After losing the ranch, Tex moved to Santa Fe and opened the Los Ran­cheros Restau­rant near the Plaza. In October 1938 Tex com­mit­ted suicide. Rumor at the time was he had been told he was going blind. Tex Austin, the "Daddy of Rodeo," was named to the Na­tional Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1976.

A New Breed
In 1936, W. C. Currier bought the Forked Lightning Ranch, and five years later sold it to E. E. "Buddy" Fogelson, a Dallas oil man and ranc­her. Over the next 25 years, Mr. Fogelson purchased land to the south expand­ing the ranch to 13,­000 acres. The Forked Light­ning be­came a small cattle ranch and Tex's ranch house the Foge­lson summer home. After Mr. Fog­elson mar­ried the actress Greer Garson in 1949, the ranch house became a center for gracious enter­taining. Active in ranch life, Mrs. Fog­elson unsuc­cessfully tried to raise white Short­horns imported from her native Scotland. While attending a cattle auction in 1958, Mr. Fogelson im­petuously pur­chased a purebred Santa Gertrudis bull named "Gee Gee" which, with three heifers pur­chased at the same auc­tion, became the founda­tion for the Forked Light­ning Santa Gertr­udis herd.

Santa Gertrudis, the first offi­cially recognized American breed of cat­tle, was developed on the famous King Ranch in Texas. A cross be­tween a Brahma and Shor­thorn, the breed resulted from an effort to pro­duce good beef ani­mals better suited to the heat, humidi­ty, and range con­di­tions of South Texas. When Mr. Fogelson brought Santa Gertrudis to the Forked Light­ning it was the first time the breed was win­tered at high alti­tude. A tire­less pro­moter of the breed, Mr. Foge­lson was the first to ex­hibit San­ta G­ertr­udis at the New Mex­ico State Fair in 1961.

When Mr. Fogelson died in 1987, the Forked Lightning was divided along the old southern boundary line of Tex's original Forked Light­ning. Greer Garson Fogelson re­ceived the "old" Forked Lightning Ranch and Mr. Fogelson's son inher­ited the southern portion. In January 1991, Mrs. Foge­lson sold the Forked Light­ning to The Con­servation Fund which donated it to the National Park Service to be­come part of Pecos National His­tori­cal Park.

The ranch house has remained rela­tively unchanged. Tex's Forked Light­ning brand still marks the origi­nal fixtures in the living and dining rooms and the steer head still stares down the Pecos. It is not difficult to imagine the fa­mous and not so famous gath­ered around the huge fireplace, sip­ping drinks on the wide front porch, or enjoying the sun on the patio - all basking in the warm atmosphere that wel­comed many guests for more than 60 years.

Alfred Vincent Kidder

From 1915 to 1929, Kidder conducted site excavations at an abandoned pueblo in Pecos, near Santa Fe, New Mexico. He excavated levels of human occupation at the pueblo going back more than 2000 years, and gathered a detailed record of cultural artifacts, including a large collection of pottery fragments and human remains. From these items, he was able to establish a continuous record of pottery styles from 2000 years ago to the mid to late 1800s. Kidder then analyzed trends and changes in pottery styles in association with changes in the Pecos people's culture and established a basic chronology for the Southwest. With Samuel J. Guernsey, he established the validity of a chronological approach to cultural periods. Kidder asserted that deductions about the development of human culture could be obtained through a systematic examination of stratigraphy and chronology in archaeological sites. This research laid the foundation for modern archaeological field methods, shifting the emphasis from a "gentlemanly adventure" adding items such as whole pots and cliff dwellings to museum coffers to the study of potsherds and other artifacts in relation to the cultural history. Pioneering archaeologists in other regions of the United States completed the transformation of professional methodology initiated by Kidder.

His Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology, published in 1924, was the first synthesis of North American prehistory based on professionally recovered empirical data. In spite of his efforts at documentation, Kidder's conclusions have sometimes been criticized for a lack of integration between his field reports and his later synthesis and interpretation of that data. However, Kidder clearly emphasized archeology's need for a scientific "eye" in the development of fact collecting techniques and clear definitions. In the late 1920s, Kidder started the Pecos Conferences for archaeologists and ethnologists working in the American southwest. In 1927, a temporal system of nomenclature, known as the Pecos Classification System, was established for use in southwestern sites. Archaeologists have since used the sequence, with later variations, to assign approximate dates to dozens of sites throughout the Southwest and to determine cultural ties and differences among them. In 1936, Kidder formally used the Navajo term "Anasazi" to define a specific cultural group of people living in the southwest between approximately 200 BC and 1300 AD. This term had been casually used by excavators for many of the "ancient people" since the early explorations of Richard Wetherill, and had been informally used in the work of the Pecos Conferences.

During Kidder's studies and excavations at Pecos Pueblo, particularly between 1915 and 1929, pottery and other artifacts were sent to the Robert S. Peabody Museum, Andover, Massachusetts, while excavated human remains were sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. In the early 1900s, no archaeologist consulted with Native American descendants concerning the excavation of their ancestors' homes and graves. Although Kidder was aware of the long standing relationship between the abandoned Pecos Pueblo and the modern Pueblo of Jemez, he did not consider that any local population had a claim on artifacts and remains. By a 1936 Act of Congress, the Pueblo of Jemez became the legal and administrative representative of the Pueblo of Pecos, which had been privately owned during Kidder's excavation. As a consequence of The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires federal and other museum facilities to inventory, establish cultural affiliations, and publish in the Federal Register any and all Native American human remains and certain objects in their possession, the Pueblo of Jemez made a formal claim on behalf of the Pecos people. This repatriation was primarily due to the efforts of William J. Whatley, the Jemez Pueblo tribal archaeologist, who searched through museum records for these remains and artifacts for eight years. The human remains from Kidder's excavations were returned to the Jemez people in 1999 and ritually reburied at Pecos National Historic Park. In a sense, they rejoined Kidder, as he is buried on a hillside not far away, close to Pecos Pueblo.

Battle of Glorieta

The Confederate plan for the West was straightforward - raise a force in Texas, march up the Rio Grande, turn northeast on the Santa Fe Trail after taking Santa Fe, capture the stores at Fort Union, head up to Colorado to capture the gold fields and then turn west to take California.

There were many arguments in favor of mounting this military operation. New Mexico, Utah and Colorado were "giant recruiting grounds" for potential enlistees to the Southern cause. All three states had populations loyal to the Confederacy and southern New Mexico had already effectively seceded from the government at Santa Fe and formed a separate territory all the way to California. The war supplies in New Mexico were rumored to be huge - 6,000-8,000 rifles and 25-30 cannon - and the morale of the Federal troops guarding the territory was said to be abysmal. Capture of these territories would mean more wealth for the Confederacy from the rich mines of Colorado. Slavery could be expanded - especially into fertile California - and Arizona could be used as a springboard to invade Mexico. And, perhaps most important, access to 1200 miles of the California coastline with many open, blockade free ports. Open trading ports meant better chance of recognition by and trading with many European countries.

In 1861, Jefferson Davis commissioned General Henry Hopkins Sibley to raise three full regiments in West Texas which eventually became the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Texas Volunteer Cavalry.The Fourth was commanded by Colonel James Reily with Colonel William R. Scurry second in command. The Fifth was led by Col. Thomas Green with Lt. Harry C. Macneill and the Seventh was commanded by Col. William Steele with Lt. Col J. S. Sutton as second. Lt. Col John Baylor, self-appointed Governor of the new territory led the Second Texas Regiment, Mounted Rifles. By late Fall 1861, there were 3,500 men prepared to invade New Mexico.

By June, 1861 Lt. Col Edward R. S. Canby, Union commander of the Department of New Mexico, was alerted to the Confederate mobilization near El Paso. To prepare, Canby moved to enlarge his army of only 2,500 men. He appealed to Colorado Governor William Gilpin for two companies of militia and New Mexico Governor Rencher for eleven companies of volunteers. On July 23, 1861, Baylor crossed the state line to take the Federal Fort Fillmore, near Mesilla, which surrendered to them in a controversial move on the 27th. The Federals fell back and reorganized at Santa Fe. Canby increased his requests for volunteers. By February, 1862, Canby reported that he had 4,000 troops at the ready and 3,000 Confederates under Sibley's command were moving up the Rio Grande Valley.

February 21, 1862 saw the first major conflict between Union and Confederate forces in the West - the Battle of Valverde near Fort Craig, 100 miles south of Albuquerque. The Texans won the battle with 200 casualties attributed to each side. However, Fort Craig remained in Union hands under Canby. Needing supplies, the Confederates began a steady march up the Rio Grande and took possession of Albuquerque on March 2, 1862. Major Charles Pyron of the Second Texas Regiment was sent on to unprotected Santa Fe and hoisted the Confederate flag over the Palace of the Governors on March 13. With supplies running low, Sibley knew they could not remain idle and determined to advance on Fort Union to capture its great stores and arsenal. (Ironically, Sibley had supervised the construction of the arsenal at Fort Union before the war broke out.)

Meanwhile, the First Regiment of the Colorado Volunteers was marching rapidly down from Denver to reinforce the Union troops at Fort Union. The First Regiment consisted of ten companies of men with John P. Slough as Colonel and Samuel F. Tappan as Lt. Colonel. John M. Chivington, a Methodist minister, refused the commission of Chaplain and was designated a Major. Commands were issued to march on February 13, 1862 with the following companies and their commanders:

Co. A - Captain Edward Wynkoop

Co. B - Captain Samuel Logan

Co. C - Captain Richard Sopris

Co. D - Captain Jacob Downing

Co. E - Captain Scott Anthony

Co. F (Cavalry) - Captain Samuel Cook

Co. G - Captain William F. Wilder

Co. H - Captain George Sanborn

Co. I - Captain Charles Mailie (a mostly German Co.)

Co. K - Captain Samuel Robbins

After a fast and exhausting march (400 miles in 13 days) they arrived at Fort Union on March 10. The 950 Colorado Volunteers bolstered the 800 regulars and volunteers already at Fort Union. Colonel Slough assumed command of all the troops. The two forces were poised to meet - between them lay Glorieta Pass.

Colonel Slough's command as they left Fort Union on March 22, consisted of 1342 men - 75% were Colorado Volunteers. Two days later they camped at Bernal Springs about 40 miles southeast of Glorieta Pass.

Unaware that the Colorado troops were in New Mexico, Sibley anticipated little trouble from Col. Canby and his men who had been bypassed at Fort Craig. Major Pyron, Second Texas Mounted Rifles, was reinforced with four companies from the Fifth Texas Cavalry under Major John S. Shropshire and headed towards Fort Union. Colonel William Scurry with the Fourth Texas Regiment and the First Battalion, Seventh Texas Mounted Volunteers was despatched to Galisteo to unite with Pyron on the road between Santa Fe and Fort Union. Pyron camped at Johnson's Ranch at the west entrance to Glorieta Pass on March 25.

Neither of the Supreme Commanding Officers were with their troops as they entered Glorieta Pass - U. S. Army Colonel Canby remained at Fort Craig and Confederate General Henry Sibley was rumored to be inebriated at his headquarters in Albuquerque.

The Battle
On March 25 at 3:00 p.m. Major John Chivington with over 400 infantrymen left Bernal Springs for Santa Fe where he planned to surprise what he believed to be a small force of Confederates.

After marching 35 miles, the group arrived and camped at Kozlowski's Ranch at midnight. There, Chivington learned that some Confederates scouts had been in the area. About 2:00 a.m George Nelson, with 20 calvarymen captured the scouts (one a Union deserter) without incident and brought back the prisoners to Kozlowski's for questioning. They then learned that Confederate forces were at the far end of Glorieta Pass preparing to march the next day. At 8:00 a.m. on the 26th, Chivington's force moved toward Glorieta Pass for a surprise attack on the Texans. They unexpectedly came upon a scouting party of 30 mounted confederates about 2:00 p.m. They were captured without casualties.

First Skirmish - March 26, 1862
Major Pyron and his estimated 600 troops left Johnson's Ranch (Canoncito) moving east into an open part of Apache Canyon where he ran into Chivington's troops. Pyron set up two howitzers and fired at the Union troops. Chivington deployed two companies under Captains Wynkoop and Anthony along with Captain Walker's dismounted cavalry to the left through the trees. Captain Downing's company was dispatched to the right. Two mounted companies under Captains Howland and Cook were held in reserve to charge the artillery. The Confederates withdrew down the canyon 1 1/2 miles to a narrower point, crossed a sixteen foot log bridge over an arroyo and destroyed it to cut off pursuit. They placed their battery on a narrow bluff (no one knows the exact placement) and posted riflemen among the trees. Union Captain Howland failed to charge the Confederates and the Union troops moved cautiously towards the Texans. Chivington planned to assault this natural fortress by deploying Downing's company and Howland's dismounted cavalry up the steep mountainside on the right to drive the Texans out of the Canyon. Wynkoop and Anthony's troops were to outflank the Texans on the left. The remaining troops were to keep up a steady fire. After about an hour, Chivington's men gradually forced Pyron's troops back. Then Company F of the Colorado Volunteers under Captain Cook, charged down the road, leaping all 103 horses across the broken bridge, and charged three times through the Texans. Downing's men drove the Texans up a side canyon and captured a number of prisoners. Further pursuit was abandoned when darkness fell. Not knowing how near Confederate reinforcements might be, Chivington gathered up Union and some Confederate wounded, as well as Union dead and returned to Pigeon's Ranch to camp for the night. Major Pyron sent word asking for time to bury the dead and care for the wounded. Chivington agreed to a truce until 8:00 am on the 27th. Total Confederate losses in dead, wounded, and captured vary from 131 to 223. Union casualties were estimated to be from 21 to 29.

During March 27, Chivington's troops buried their dead near Pigeon's Ranch and converted the ranch house to a hospital. The Confederate prisoners were started to Fort Union under guard. All the troops except the wounded returned to Kozlowski's where Colonel Slough united all Federal forces after a march from Bernal Springs.

During the first skirmish, Major Pyron sent a courier to Colonel Scurry, camped at Galisteo, to ask for help. Scurry's troops and the supply wagons joined Pyron at Johnson's Ranch 3:00 a.m. on the 27th.

Battle of Glorieta Pass, March 28, 1862
In the morning, Colonel Scurry decided to move ahead and attack the Union forces since an expected attack on the 27th had not occurred. Because the supply train would impede progress, it was left behind with a small guard at Johnson's Ranch. Scurry's command was made up of seventeen partial companies from the Texas

Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Regiments, another independent group of volunteers, and a battery of three guns. Under Scurry, Majors Pyron, Henry Ragnet and Shropshire commanded approximately 1100 men (other sources say 600). Scurry halted his troops about one mile west of Pigeon's Ranch and arranged them in battle formation.

Spies had informed the Union officers that a strongly reinforced Confederate force were approaching. A plan was hatched that took Major Chivington and 430 men in a circuitous route across Glorieta Mesa to reconnoiter the Texans and harass them from the rear. Colonel Slough and the remainder of the troops were to move against the Confederates directly in the pass. The group consisted of six companies of Colorado Volunteers, part of a company of New Mexico Volunteers, two detachments of regular cavalry, and two batteries of regular artillery - a total of approximately 700 men. (Other sources say 900.) Slough's troops arrived in the vicinity of Pigeon's Ranch about 10:30 a.m. where they broke rank, filled canteens and rested before the trip into Glorieta Pass.

Colonel Slough sent a cavalry unit under Captain Chapin, to reconnoiter the enemy. They rushed back in minutes informing Slough that the Texans were in attack position 800 yards ahead in the trees. Before the men could form into battle formation they were shelled by the Confederates.

The fighting was among the rocks and trees. Cavalry could not be used. Rifle and small arms fire was deadly. The odds were against the Union troops - the Texans had a superior position and a greater number of men. The battle raged for over 6 hours.

Texan Col. Scurry deployed his men across the canyon with Pyron on the right, Ragnet in the middle and Scurry on the left. The artillery under Lt. James Bradford took a position on Windmill Hill. They were attacked and scattered briefly when Company I, First Colorado charged them from above.

Lt. Col Samuel Tappan, assigned the command of the Colorado Volunteers, sent two batteries under Captain Ritter and Lt. Claflin to the left of the road 400 yards in front of the Texas line. They were supported by Co. C under Sopris and Co. K under Claflin. Co. D under Captain Downing was deployed to the left and Co. I under Lt. Kerber deployed to the right. Fighting was desperate and sometimes fiercely hand-to-hand when the German Co. I, engaged a Texan column. Captain Downing's company was fiercely attacked and fell back. The Union officers ordered their troops to fall back about 400 yards near to Pigeon's Ranch. Another line was formed across the valley. (see map).

The Texans advanced, and again opened fire for three hours. Two of the three guns were disabled and most of the gunners picked off. The Confederates were compelled to rely on their superior numbers and repeated charges to win the day. The Texans gained possession of Sharpshooters Ridge and repeatedly fired upon the Union artillery. The Texans made one last charge upon the Union guns, hoping to reach their supply train, but were driven back.

About 5:00 p.m. Colonel Slough ordered his Union forces to gradually fall back to the camp at Kozlowski's. Some were reluctant to leave but Slough said they had fulfilled their objective to "reconnoiter and harass the enemy." Both sides were so exhausted it would have been impossible to continue the fight much longer. The Texans were overjoyed to have been left holding the field.

The joy turned to defeat when word was brought to Colonel Scurry that his supply train at Johnson's Ranch had been completely destroyed. Major Chivington's men, led by Lt. Colonel Manuel Chavez, New Mexico Volunteers, had reached a height on the other side of Glorieta Mesa overlooking the Confederate supply train 1000 feet below. The troops crawled, slid and were lowered by ropes to the base of the cliff. The surprised Confederates were almost defenseless. All the heavily loaded wagons, enough supplies for a small army, were destroyed along with all the animals. Chivington's group returned to support Colonel Slough, but when they arrived at Kozlowski's they learned their attack had caused Colonel Scurry to send Slough the flag of truce and the request for two days of cease fire.

March 29 was spent burying the dead. Casualty figures vary -

an estimated 38 Union soldiers killed, 64 wounded and 20 captured; 36 Confederate dead (including Major Ragnet and Shropshire), 60 wounded and 25 captured. Pigeon's Ranch was once again used as a hospital but this time for the Confederates.

After two days and nights at Pigeon's Ranch, the Texans retreated to Santa Fe without food or supplies. In attempt to save the campaign, Sibley wrote the Governor of Texas requesting reinforcements but no answer came. The Texans were forced to retreat to Santa Fe and eventually took a long, dangerous march back to Texas. By July, 1862, all Confederate Troops had vacated New Mexico Territory and for the duration of the Civil War, New Mexico remained under Union control.