C.S. Arizona: Peralta and the Confederate Retreat
April 15, 1862
For the Confederates the retreat back to Texas was a long nightmare of thirst and starvation punctuated with occasional fighting. Most of the battles were small affairs, but it appeared that there would be a big blowup at the town of Peralta. On April 15th Canby caught up with Sibley rear guard just outside of town. Canby didn’t want to attack because he didn’t want to feed prisoners, he figure if he just kept them moving the desert would do his dirty work. The Confederates artillery opened fire however and Canby attacked.
Peralta Battlefield starting from north to south.
There is some disagreement whether Canby ordered an attack or the Coloradans launched one on their own accord. One problem Canby had faced throughout the campaign was his volunteers not understanding tactics. The Coloradans thought he was afraid of a fight and grumbled about him. They didn't understand his concern about taking prisoners, not just feeding them but guarding them as well. So it is quiet possible that the Coloradans attacked without orders. A similar thing happened at Valverde where Canby ordered a retreat back to the fort and the volunteers wanted to stay and fight. Kit Carson was disgusted until he figured out what Canby was up to, again, letting the desert do his dirty work for him. Then Carson was impressed by the wisdom of Canby's actions.
Back in Peralta, the fighting soon moved into town which was a narrow collection of buildings that ran for a couple miles along the Rio Grand. Canby didn’t want to engage in house to house fighting and ordered a halt. That pretty much ended the battle and the Confederates left out the other side of the town. In desperation, to save as much as he could, Sibley abandoned his wagons and everyone who couldn't walk under their own power. Sibley did however, keep a battery of canon captured at Valverde and drug them all the way back to Texas. The rest of his cannon he buried, one was eventually found is now on display in Old Town Albuquerque. He cut west away from the river to avoid Fort Craig and under the terrible stress of the desert Sibley’s army disintegrated much like Lynde’s column had done way back in July of 1861.
The Confederates were strung out for miles. When Sibley reached Fort Bliss he learned that a new enemy, the California Column led by Col. James Carlton was rapidly closing in from the west. The only thing working for Sibley at that point was the column was having to fight Indians along the way.
While Sibley’s men were falling back to Texas as fast as their sore tired feet would carry them, word spread in San Antonio of their terrible plight. Citizens of the town organized a relief and hurried to meet the men with wagons loaded with food. Of the 3500 men, there about, who marched north with Sibley only 2000 returned.
While that was it for Confederate military operations in the far west there were still a great many Confederate sympathizers scattered throughout the mining camps and boomtowns. Conflicts of a less formal nature were to arise all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Also, various western Indian tribes had been watch all this goings on and decided that it was time to do a little rebelling of their own. While Fort Craig was glad to see the heels of the Texans they were by no means done fighting.
Peralta is a good example of a place where more could be done to showcase the history that happened there. Out side of the town and a few who are interested very little is known of the fighting there, some signs and a walk might arouse some outside interest. Maybe build a monument.
In 1862 the Rio Grand was not bound by dikes, so it was much wider, narrower and slower. The river would have meandered along a wide series of channels with eddies and swamps all along the way.
It would have looked more like this, lots of sandbars and quicksand. One of the things that made Peralta an important site was the presence ford across the river.
The banks of the river would tend to be brushy and overgrown discouraging the movement of men and material.
The swampy nature of the ground would also discouraged men from fighting along the river and moved them into town.
So the battle was fought in town house to house. In 1862 the buildings were adobe with 2 or even 3 foot thick walls. They ran along the river in a narrow band. I shot this down the tracks because it probably looked more like this than anything else.
Note how quickly the landscape moves from trees to sand dunes and sagebrush. A man could die of thirst 100 yards from the river.
This is a state map of Pueblos along the Rio Grande it also shows where the Texans traveled south with Canby forcing them west away from the river and out into the desert.
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