Preserving Glorieta National Battlefield{Webmaster's note: Gaby Gollub, the Web Co-ordinator of the National Parks Conservation Association sent this message to me. Please support the Preservation of the Glorieta National Battlefield.} Subj: Preserving Glorieta National Battlefield. Hello, I'm writing to you from the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit watchdog group for the National Park Service dedicated to preserving and enhancing parks for present and future generations. I've been scouring the Internet for people who would be interested to know about the grave threats facing the West's most important Civil War site. Glorieta National Battlefield is hallowed ground--one of 38 Civil War battlefields in the National Park System and one of only three such battlefields west of the Mississippi. Referred to by some historians as "the Gettysburg of the West," Glorieta is among the nation's 50 Priority I Civil War Battlefields as identified by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission. It is the only Civil War site in the Southwest on this priority list. In addition to being a National Park System unit, Glorieta is a National Historic Landmark and is on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties. Glorieta National Battlefield was added to Pecos National Historical Park in 1990, and is one of the most threatened battlefields in the nation. Glorieta is also the only Civil War engagement in which Hispanics fought as a unit. New Mexico Road 50 cuts directly through the battlefield and the State has proposed widening Road 50, which would adversely affect park resources. If this highway were re-routed, the West's most significant Civil War site would serve as both an important destination for tourism and a source of sustainable economic development. To learn more about Glorieta and to read about the benefits of re-routing Road 50, visit To contact the decision-makers who can rescue Glorieta, take action at Please consider posting something about this issue to your website, mentioning it in an upcoming newsletter, or letting your peers know some other way. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and thank you in advance for your concern for Glorieta. Sincerely, Gaby Gollub, Web Coordinator Subj: HERITAGEPAC INFOMEMO 8/25/01 Preservation News Round-Up Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust Group says limiting access to Glorieta Battlefield is costing millions WASHINGTON (AP) - Today, semi-trucks and heavy traffic roaring across a New Mexico highway that, 139 years ago, was the site of one of the decisive battles on the Westsern front in the Civil War. The traffic through Glorieta National Battlefield has forced the National Park Service to essentially close the field to the public - a decision that may be costing the local economy millions of dollars and nearly 200 jobs due to lost tourism, according to a new study. The National Parks Conservation Association commissioned the report to determine how many tourists might visit the battlefield. In its first year, the battlefield 15 miles southeast of Santa Fe would attract 23,900 new visitors, growing to 51,600 visitors within 10 years, the study said. Currently, the battlefield can only be visited in groups led by rangers from the nearby Pecos National Historic Park. The renovations would generate $1.4 million in its first year and 84 new jobs in San Miguel and Santa Fe counties, growing to $3.1 million and 182 jobs within 10 years, according to the report, prepared by New Mexico State University professor Frank Ward. Randall Rasmussen, program director for the NPCA in New Mexico, said he believes the numbers are very conservative. But it would require moving the highway that now bisects the field. In 1996, New Mexico transportation officials studied the possibility of rerouting the road and nixed the idea, unable to afford the project which could have cost as much as $12.2 million. Rasmussen said he hopes the NCPA study prompts the state and federal government to at least take a careful look at the battlefield's potential. "We think these numbers should get people excited about the economic benefits," said Rasmussen. "This is something sustainable in the long-term for the economy of the Pecos Valley." Rasmussen's group would also like to see parking lots, a visitor's station, trails and education exhibits at the battlefield - one of the few in the southwest. "Most people don't know there was any fighting in New Mexico," said John Taylor, who has written two books on the campaign. In 1861, shortly after the war began, about 3,000 Texas volunteers under the command of Confederate Gen. Henry Sibley streamed into New Mexico. Their goal was to steal military supplies from Union forts and divert gold from Union mines in Colorado and California. Taylor said Sibley, who was prone to excessive drinking, also envisioned swaying the New Mexico territory and California to the Confederate cause, giving the South direct access to the Pacific Ocean. "If they could lay a rail line they could go all the way to West coast," Taylor said. Sibley's troops moved north along the Santa Fe Trail, winning a battle at Valverde, then capturing Albuquerque and Santa Fe. They were pushing toward Fort Union, a major storage depot and foothold in the region. On March 26, about 1,300 of Sibley's troops were met by about the same number of Union troops and Colorado volunteers. There were 331 casualties, 142 Union troops, 189 Confederates. The Confederates controlled the field at the end of the battle, but lost their supply wagons. They were forced to retreat to Texas and never mounted another incursion. The battlefield was added to Pecos National Historical Park in 1990. It is one of the 50 battlefields most in need of preservation efforts, according to a 1998 National Park Service study. Of the 38 Civil War battlefields maintained by the National Park Service, Glorieta is one of just three West of the Mississippi. Jerry L. Russell Subj: HERITAGEPAC INFOMEMO 3/28/02 Civil War Media Roundup - 3/28/2002 Remembering New Mexico's Civil War battle 03/27/2002. The Santa Fe New Mexican. (Copyright 2002 Santa Fe New Mexican) Al Sanchez, a retired attorney who has built a memorial to the battle just off Interstate 25 near Glorieta, said he feels people too often forget the importance of the fight in the narrow canyon that pitted hundreds of men from both sides against each other. It has been called by some historians, the "Gettysburg of the West," not so much for the loss of life as the strategic importance of the Union's win. "If we keep talking about it, maybe people won't forget," Sanchez said. By March 10, 1862, Confederate forces had captured Valverde, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The men of the Union's First Colorado Volunteer Infantry Regiment, known as The Pike's Peakers, marched south from Colorado in freezing weather to shore up the Union forces gathered near Pecos. On March 26, 1862, Maj. John Chivington led some of the Pike's Peakers against a force of Texas Confederates in Apache Canyon. After what historians and Sanchez describe as fierce fighting, with men braving cannon fire and rifles, Union soldiers overran Confederate positions. The battle included a daring cavalry charge by Capt. Samuel H. Cook and 100 Union men, who plunged their horses across the Apache Canyon arroyo, some 16-feet wide and 25-feet deep to attack the Confederate position. The Confederates had earlier removed portions of the log bridge spanning the arroyo, believing it would halt the Union advance. The day left 32 Rebels dead, 43 wounded and 70 taken prisoner by Union forces. Five Union soldiers were killed and 14 wounded. Sanchez said he knows where the boots of 18 of the Rebels soldiers are buried in the canyon. He commemorates the event each year by raising flags and inviting the public to come see the site of the battle on land which he partially owns. A high hill overlooking the scene of the fighting is known as Chivington's Rock. Sanchez continues the memorial today and Thursday with refreshments for visitors and tales of the battle and tours. On Thursday, there will be a flag-raising ceremony of the U.S., Colorado and New Mexico flags by the Pigeon's Ranch memorial marker on N.M. 63, to mark the anniversary of the end of the battle. The battle ended with a rear action strike by the U.S. forces under Chivington; Union forces burned and destroyed the Confederate wagon train and supplies. Gov. Gary Johnson once again signed a proclamation calling March 24-30 the Battle of Glorieta Pass Week, honoring the men who lost their lives during the fight. Senator BINGAMAN SEEKS $750,000 TO STUDY ALTERNATIVES TO THE ROAD THROUGH GLORIETA BATTLEFIELD (Credit of the source came from P.G. Nagle, dated 5/1/2002) GLORIETA BATTLEFIELD COALITION SEEKS MEMBERS (Credit of the source came from P.G. Nagle, dated 5/1/2002) (This email was sent to me by a friend, Carl Speros, Lancaster CWRT, on 5/24/2002.) Also it is from the Courtesy of the Civil War Preservation Trust. Travel back in time on a Civil War tour Historic Sites Believe it or not, Santa Fe and Albuquerque were once in the hands of the Confederacy, and in 1862 the Southern flag flew over the Governor's Palace for a few weeks. It all started when the confederates, desperate to refill their nearly bankrupt coffers, decided to march into New Mexico to capture the Santa Fe Trail, which was the gateway to the California gold fields. Southern strategists believed that if they could get the gold, they would win the war. They also thought their goal in New Mexico would be an easy one to achieve. They were mistaken. Civil War experts have long known about this fragment of history. Now, the Northeast New Mexico Regional Board, made up of representatives of chambers of commerce and tourism departments from various northeastern New Mexico communities, wants others to know about it too. The board recently mapped out a drive-walk-hike program that follows the Civil War trail from the Texas border to Fort Union north of Santa Fe. The tour is divided into several segments that direct you to monuments, send you through towns and lead you to the battlefields where generals walked and talked strategy and both sides billeted and clashed. A rough trip Although Confederate leaders knew a lot about marching through the lush environs of Georgia, they understood next to nothing about high plains desert topography or the mountain ranges of New Mexico. As a result, they made a couple of serious errors in planning their campaign here. First, they took few rations with them because they assumed they could live off the land as they had been doing throughout the South. Second, they brought heavy cannons and ammunition and weren't prepared for the crushing burden of negotiating the New Mexico mountain ranges with hundreds of pounds of equipment. Nonetheless, they crossed the Texas border into New Mexico. On Feb. 21, 1862, 3,000 Southern soldiers engaged 4,000 Union fighters at Valverde, near Socorro, and won. The confederates then went on to capture Socorro, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. However, by late March in the same year, the massed Union Army had decided enough was enough. It marched to an area near Glorieta Pass and fought a series of seesaw skirmishes. When the dust cleared, although the Southern forces had beaten the northerners, theirs was a Pyrrhic victory. Ultimately, they were driven back and never reached the glittering California gold. Fighting back The Pecos National Historical Park is a great example of what you can experience along the Civil War trail in New Mexico. Four well-versed guides help you get the most out of the experience. Curt Hawley is one of them. A tall, quiet man, Hawley loves Civil War history. He describes the Battle of Glorieta Pass so vividly you will almost smell the gunpowder and hear the clatter of steel. He takes you from the Union soldiers' billet at Kozlowski's farm to Johnson's Ranch, where the confederates stole barrels of whiskey and molasses, to the Glorieta battleground where the North and South shot it out in a farmer's field. At the Kozlowski farm you look across the way and see the hillock where the Union army camped before marching into battle. At Sharp Shooters' Ridge, the farmer's field where the two sides fought all day, there's still an adobe building that the park maintains because soldiers used it to protect the wounded. Another part of the tour is a side trip to the edge of Apache Canyon. That is where Maj. John "Fighting Parson" Chivington, with the help of local luminary and Union scout Lt. Col. Manuel Chaves, discovered the entire 70-wagon Confederate supply train hiding in the canyon. Chivington and his 425 soldiers climbed down from their vantage point, blew up the confederate ammunition wagon, scattered the mules and horses and scared off the few men left guarding the train. It was the turning point for the confederates. As Hawley puts it, "The confederates were fighting ... unaware that they had just lost everything they had but the shirts on their backs." On the trail By the time the New Mexico struggles ended, the Confederacy had lost 85 percent of its men and supplies here and was forced to return to Texas with fewer than 800 soldiers. For a summer vacation that is much more than a pleasant memory, you could follow the entire Civil War trail. Plus, if you are up to it, by special arrangement with Pecos National Historical Park, one of the guides will hike the war trail with you. To learn more about the absorbing adventure, visit the Northeast Regional Board's Web site at N.E. New Mexico / Civil WarCaption: FLEEING THE SCENE: Members of the confederate make a hasty retreat During a re-enactment of a New Mexico Civil War battle. You can learn more about the state's role in the Civil War by following the Civil War trail from the Texas border to Fort Union.; $122:Map showing Civil War sites in Northern New Mexico.; Photo: JOURNAL FILE; Color PGNAGLE.COM UPDATE--news about P.G. Nagle's work and the Glorieta Battlefield GLORIETA BATTLEFIELD COALITION Other Links on Glorieta Pass and Civil War in New MexicoNew Mexico Genealogical Society, including a web site on Glorieta Pass New Mexico Civil War Links Civil War Sites in New Mexico New Mexico Civil WarTo learn more about Glorieta and to read about the benefits of re-routing Road 50, visit Webmaster: Gordon Kwok
gordoncwrt@gmail.comMarch 29, 2002. Revised on Sept16, 2003 Uploaded on the current server: March 18, 2009.
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