Before well-known Battle of Glorieta Pass, Texans captured Santa Fe

The Confederates who briefly occupied Santa Fe 150 years ago this month found it an inhospitable city with Jewish merchants who refused their money, terrified nuns and a Hispanic majority neutral in the fight between Anglos. Much has been written about the Battle of Glorieta Pass, known as the Gettysburg of the West, which took place from March 26 to 28, 1862. But less is known about Santa Fe's few weeks as a Confederate territory. That is partly because just about anyone who openly sided with the Union had left Santa Fe -- heading either to Fort Craig, south of Socorro, where New Mexico's Union troops had hoped but failed to stop the advancing Rebels, or to Fort Union, north of Las Vegas, N.M., where the Union contingency awaited reinforcements from Colorado. One rare local perspective comes from the Santa Fe Weekly Gazette of April 26, 1862 -- the first edition the newspaper had published since being shut down by the Rebels. The issue is preserved on microfilm at the Museum of New Mexico's Fray Angélico Chávez History Library, but the original could be not located. According to the Gazette...more