Atlas of Hispanic-American History

California. Wealthy rancheros in New
Mexico had cause to be sympathize with
Confederate plantation owners since they
shared similar concerns in operating rural,
agricultural businesses. But overpowering
that sentiment was suspicion of Texas,
which had a history of trying (and failing)
to conquer New Mexico, dating back to
the 1841 Santa Fe Expedition.
In July 1861 a Texan force crossed
the western border and captured what is
now southern New Mexico, claiming that
region and Arizona as Confederate terri-
tory. The Confederates went on to cap-
ture Albuquerque and Santa Fe in 1862.
Their victory was short-lived, however.
At the Battle of Glorieta Pass that spring,
in a clash sometimes known as the
Gettysburg of the West, Union soldiers
destroyed the Confederate supply train
and forced the Confederates to withdraw
from New Mexico Territory. Nuevo-
mexicanos who fought for the Union in
that battle included Lieutenant Colonel
Manuel Chaves and other members of
the New Mexico Volunteers, a predomi-
nantly Hispanic unit. Among the other
Hispanic-American soldiers who served
with the Union army in the West,
patrolling the borders and skirmishing
with Confederates, was Major Salvador
Vallejo, an officer in a California unit, and
Miguel E. Pino and Roman Anthony
Baca of the New Mexico Volunteers.

The American Civil War had one

other major impact on Nuevomexicanos.

During the war, what had been a single

territory was divided into two separate

entities. In 1863 the Union organized

the Arizona Territory out of the western

portion of what had been New Mexico

A TIME OF TRANSITION 109

Manuel Chaves(Library of Congress)

Creation of the Arizona Territory, 1863

In 1863, New Mexico Territory was divided into separate territories. Most of the western

half became Arizona Territory. Another portion later became part of southern Nevada.

Both New Mexico and Arizona entered the Union in 1912.

A WOMAN

IN BATTLE

Among the more unusual Hispanic

Americans to have served the

Confederacy was Loreta Janeta

Velasquez. According to her 1876

memoir The Woman in Battle,this

intrepid Latina took on male garb as

Lieutenant Harry Buford, in which

guise she fought valiantly at the First

Battle of Bull Run (1861) and the

Battle of Shiloh (1862). By her

account, she also raised a battalion in

Arkansas; served as a spy and block-

ade runner; met Union president

Abraham Lincoln and Confederate

president Jefferson Davis; and had

a chance to shoot Union general

Ulysses S. Grant from a concealed

position but decided against it

because it would have been “too

much like murder.” Both contempo-

raries and later historians have cast

doubt on her stories, which have

little corroborating evidence. But

she remains a colorful character in

the annals of Hispanic-American

military lore.