Credit for this post belongs to an Arizona resident whose comments about Civil War battlefields in Arizona led to an exchange that prompted this particular post. Though I have never visited any Civil War battlefields in Arizona (there are some 150th anniversary reenactments coming soon), as a resident of Florida I am familiar with writing about and dealing with ignored or forgotten Civil War history, to redress the balance.

The Westernmost battle of the American Civil War was fought in Arizona, and it happens to be that battle which prompted the original exchange between my friend and I. There is some ambiguity about dealing with Arizona in the American Civil War, because both the Union and Confederacy had territories that were labeled as Arizona. In addition, the complexity of Civil War battles in Arizona is increased by the fact that not only were the Union and Confederacy opposed in various small engagements, but also because both had larger engagements against Apache Indians in part of the longer Indian Wars fought over many decades, which involved Mexico as well. The Civil War in Arizona is therefore a vastly more complicated and more profitable area of study than most students of Civil War history realize.

The first problem that a historian must deal with regarding Arizona’s role in the American Civil War is what territory is to be counted as Arizona. The goal of the citizens of Tuscon (the only sizable settlement in what is now Arizona during the period of the Civil War) was to receive their own territory and not be subject to New Mexico’s authority. During early 1862, a small Confederate army under Texan leadership sought to take over the Far West, and the Union countered by sending forces based out of California and Colorado. During a very brief occupation of Tuscon (it lasted 80 days [1]), the Confederacy established an east-west boundary that included what is now Southern Arizona and New Mexico in the Confederate territory of Arizona. Northerners favored a north-south boundary, which they established in 1863 after retaking Tuscon.

The disagreement between free and slave states over the border of Arizona suggested different ambitions. Southerners figured that an east-west boundary would ensure Arizona as a slave territory with New Mexico as a free territory. Northerners figured (accurately) that a north-south boundary would allow both Arizona and New Mexico to become free territories, as it happened. Tuscon residents and the other scattered communities in what became Arizona (what later became Phoenix was not itself founded until during the Civil War) wanted troops sent in to help control the Apache. In the end, the struggle to ensure the Far West as Union territory provided Union troops that aided Arizona’s larger goals for protection against the Apache. Therefore, it may be said that ultimately the Union and the Arizonans both achieved their strategic objectives in the Civil War in the Arizona theater. The Confederacy and Apache were clearly losers, which perhaps accounts for the reason why the theater is nearly forgotten.

The Civil War battles in Arizona consisted of three different types: Union vs. Confederacy, Union vs. Apache, Confederacy vs. Apache. Additionally, these three types of battles took place in two campaigns: the Confederate invasion of Arizona and New Mexico in early 1862 and the march of the California Regiment, which later took over El Paso. Both of these campaigns involved battles in what is now Arizona. None of the battles were extremely large, but they were important both in terms of the Civil War as well as the ongoing and continuing Indian Wars against the fierce Apache. Let us therefore look at the battles in Arizona in roughly chronological order and then make some comments afterward.

The first battle within what is now Arizona was the siege of Tubac in early August 1861 [2]. Though the dates of the engagement have been lost to history, the general outlines are clear. For four days a 200-man Apache army besieged the small presidio (fortress) of Tubac. After four days the people of the town fled to Tuscon to avoid being massacred, and though their lives were spared the Apaches burned the town to the ground. The people who escaped from this siege went to Tuscon and then sought to settle in what is now New Mexico, where they were attacked again in what is now New Mexico.

Meanwhile, the Union California Regiment entered what is now Arizona in order to push the Confederates out of the Far West. The first encounter between the Union and Confederate forces was at Stanwix Station [3], on March 29, 1862, near what is now Agua Caliente, Arizona, between the 272 (or so) Union soldiers and a small picket force of 10 Confederates. Somehow only one Union soldier was wounded, and the Confederates fled, warning their compatriots and leading to further engagements and slowing the march or the Californians by destroying supplies.

Soon thereafter, on April 15, 1862, a small Union picket incompetently led by Lt. James Barrett ran into a small Confederate picket incompetently led by Henry Holmes at Picacho Pass [4]. Disobeying orders to wait for the main column, Barrett attacked the Confederate picket, getting himself killed in the process (Holmes was captured), with roughly even casualties on each side. Despite the fact that only 23 people were involved in this battle, the relatively high number of casualties (about half the total combatants were either killed, wounded, or captured), this remains the best-known Civil War battle fought within Arizona. About a month later, 2,000 Union soldiers captured Tuscon without a shot. Shortly after this, the Confederates started their retreat from Arizona altogether in the face of the clearly superior Union forces.

During this retreat back to Texas, on May 5 and May 9, 1862 were the First [5] and Second Battles [6] of Dragoon Springs, near what is now Dragoon, Arizona. On May 5 about 100 Apache warriors ambushed a small Confederate party, killing 4 soldiers and seizing a large amount of cattle. Four days later Captain Sherod Hunter of the Confederate Tuscon Rifles captured the cattle back and killed five Apache. During the whole time of Confederate operations in Arizona those were the only recorded deaths of their forces.

The largest battle of the Civil War in what is now Arizona was the Battle of Apache Pass on July 15-16, 1862, in what was not only the largest battle of the American Civil War in Arizona, but also one the largest battles in the whole series of Apache Wars. A company of Union soldiers, a little over 100 strong, fought off about 500 Apache warriors, with most of the casualties coming from the Union forces’ two mountain howitzers. After two days of fighting, the Apache broke off combat, leaving 66 dead. Union soldiers, prompted by Apache atrocities, built Fort Bowie as well in the area of Apache Pass to secure the area for the Union. However, since this battle was not fought between the Union and the Confederacy it has not been well-remembered by readers of Civil War history, despite its obvious size and importance.

The only other combat that occurred at all in what is now Arizona was a terrorist attack where a Confederate sympathizer hiding in the shadows shot two Union Soldiers dead and seriously injured a bystander in a crowd of people in the (present-day) ghost town of La Paz, Arizona, where Union soldiers had gone to purchase supplies at a small store along the Colorado River on their way to Fort Mohave. After killing the two soldiers, William Edwards fled town, where he was soon pursued by about 40 union cavalry troopers, who found his dead body, presumably having died of exposure, a couple days later. This is known as the La Paz Incident [7].

After the Confederates were completely driven out of the Arizona territory the larger Apache War continued on without respite. At May 3, 1864 at Doubtful Canyon [8], about 100 Apache attacked a Union force about half its size and were driven off with losses of about ten killed and twenty wounded with only one missing and about five or six wounded to the Union force. This battle was similar to Apache Pass in its progress, with Union arms proving more effective despite being outnumbered by the Apache forces.

However, at the later Battle of Fort Buchanan, the last Civil War battle in Arizona, the Union faced a strategic defeat similar to the Confederate defeat at Tubac. At Fort Buchanan on February 17, 1865, 9 cavalry were unable to defend the fort against about 75 Apache, and they had to retreat to the Santa Rita Mountains [9] after losing one dead and one wounded and killing about two Apache. Fort Buchanan was the only Union post to be lost to the Apache during the War against the Chiricahua Wars. Later on, in 1867, Fort Crittenden was built near the abandoned ruins of Fort Buchanan.

A few threads connect these various incidents together. For one, the Union enjoyed fairly overwhelming numerical superiority in most encounters, which discouraged the Confederates from fighting out in the open, except at Picacho Pass, where the numbers were roughly even (and therefore casualties were higher). In addition, both the Confederates and the Apache preferred to use ambush tactics as a result of their numerical inferiority, though the Union was generally able to use its superior numbers to gain the victory in most encounters.

Additionally, the encounters within Arizona show the extreme importance of logistics. Most of Arizona’s battlefields: Picacho Pass, Dragoon Springs, Apache Pass among them, occurred along an old trading route, the Butterfield Overland Stagecoach route, that had been used before the Civil War. As a result, most of Arizona’s battles took place near springs and near staging posts where supplies could be kept and water could be found. Even more so than most engagements logistics was a major concern that decisively influenced the location of battles, since there were only a few places where food and water could be found in dry Arizona, and these places dictated the routes of an army’s advance. Additionally, springs and passes provided choke points for the Apache to (ultimately unsuccessfully) resist the advance of either Union or Confederate troops.

As a result of the combat in Arizona, Arizona was a made a separate territory on the terms of the free states, with the present north-south boundary. Additionally, Union reinforcements from California allowed an ultimately successful (if lengthy) prosecution of warfare against the Apache, who unsuccessfully sought to preserve their freedom against the Mexicans, Confederates, and Americans. Whatever the difference of those three polities, there was an agreement among all of them that the only good Apache was a dead one. And so even while fighting between themselves, the Indian Wars went on.

Intriguingly enough, even though Picacho Pass is the best-remembered battle of the Civil War in Arizona, Apache Pass was a far larger and far more important battle, and the Apache proved themselves at Dragoon Springs and Tubac and Fort Buchanan to be worthy adversaries of the Union and Confederacy, even if they could not hope to match Union numbers and technology under most circumstances in the open field even in the 1860s. In many ways, the Civil War somewhat complicated our memory of the battles that actually occurred Arizona, since the presence of the Apache as combatants hostile to both Union and Confederacy adds a complication into understanding the Civil War in the Far West that many simply have no conception of. Additionally, the remoteness and obscurity of many Civil War engagements within Arizona also tends to lead these sometimes important battles to be forgotten, even by those who should remember and know them best.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Tucson_(1862)

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Tubac

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanwix_Station

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Picacho_Pass

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Dragoon_Springs

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Dragoon_Springs

[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Paz_Incident

[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skirmish_in_Doubtful_Canyon

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fort_Buchanan