James Baquet

In the 1850s, the United States was increasingly rent by the issue of slavery. The economy of the South depended on the labor of enslaved people to keep the plantations operating; the industrial north was able to survive on the cheap labor of factory workers.

In 1861, this tension broke out into open conflict, called the “War Between the States” or more often, “The American Civil War.”

It is easy to assume that the battlegrounds were all in the states that then made up the young nation along, or east of, the Mississippi River. But California, Nevada and Oregon in the Far West were already states, as was Iowa in the Mid-West. These all went in on the Union (northern, anti-slavery) side. Texas was the only Confederate (southern) state well west of the Mississippi.

But the U.S. had vast territories in the west, between those areas which were already states. Those in the north were all pro-Union, but three more southerly territories — now Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma — were mainly Confederate in sympathies, if not in fact.

This situation led to the New Mexico Campaign of 1862. A Confederate army left Texas in February of that year and proceeded up the Rio Grande River into northern New Mexico Territory. It was their intention to take control of the southwest, including the gold and silver mines in California and the Colorado territory, as well as the seaports of Southern California.

The Confederate Army won their first battle, at Valverde, New Mexico, but neither captured the nearby U.S. fort nor forced the surrender of the U.S. Army. They continued moving north toward Santa Fe, at that time the capital of New Mexico territory (and now of the state of New Mexico).

The Confederates were prevailing at the Battle of Glorieta Pass on March 28, 1862, having pushed the Union forces back through the pass. But a daring raid on their supply train — wagons with all of their food and ammunition — and the slaughter of their reserve mules and horses forced them to retreat all the way to Texas.

Three years later, the South was defeated, and the nation reunited. All of those territories have since achieved statehood.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. based on manufacturing

2. went ahead, moved forward

3. take for granted, believe without evidence

4. more and more

5. held back for later use

6. torn, split

7. winning

8. feelings, support

9. get along, make it

10. huge farming operations

ANSWERS: 1. industrial

2. proceeded 3. assume

4. increasingly 5. reserve 6. rent

7. prevailing 8. sympathies

9. survive 10. plantations