Battle of Valverde

Battle of Valverde. . , A bloody Civil War battle was fought near Cortadero Mesa, directly ahead, across the Rio Grande, on February 21, 1862. Below the small village of Valverde, Confederate forces led by Colonel Henry Hopkins Sibley clashed with Colonel E.R.S. Canby's Union troops posted at Fort Craig. Fighting in the arroyos and gullies of a dry riverbed, both sides found their regiments physically cut off from one another, and often unable to communicate with their leaders. Communication and trust among Union troops were hampered because of the language barrier between Angio regulars and New Mexico Hispanic volunteers. Control of the battlefield moved back and forth between North and South, but the engagement culminated in a Confederate tactical victory. However on the following day, when Sibley demanded the surrender of Fort Craig and its supplies, Canby adamantly refused, placing the Confederates in a difficult position, because they had neither enough food nor military supplies to launch a direct attack on the fort or to return to Texas. The Confederates spent several days burying their dead and transporting the wounded to Socorro, and then pressed northward to Glorieta Pass, near Santa Fe. There, during a two-day battie in late March, Union troops destroyed their remaining supply wagons. Without even enough ammosition for a full dey's fight, and unable to obtain reinforcements and supplies, the Confederate initiative collapsed. Sibley's column retreated south, widely bypassing Fort Craig on a difficult route behind the San Mateo Mountains to the west, ending the Confederates long-range plan of capturing the gold fields of Colorado and the ports of California.