1860s 5000 troops left San Antonio for the West

[Kaprota]

I want more info on this. I understand that the supply line was too long and the majority did not make it. Also Colorado union sympathizers/ troops rushed to NM to stop the advance by the confederate troops. Can that number (5000) be right?
I assume the confederates were trying to claim the west.
Thanks, Lee

[BUGEYE]

I want more info on this. I understand that the supply line was too long and the majority did not make it. Also Colorado union sympathizers/ troops rushed to NM to stop the advance by the confederate troops. Can that number (5000) be right?
I assume the confederates were trying to claim the west.
Thanks, Lee

they DID need the west.  gold, silver, etc. to finance the war.

[Duke0313]

Try researching the campaigns of Brig. Gen. H.H. Sibley and Lt. Col. John R. Baylor. This might be what you're looking for.
P.S...That's Henry HOPKINS Sibley, Confederate General...NOT Henry HASTINGS Sibley, Union General.

[Larry L]

Here's a pic of the wagons loaded for the Sibley lead Confederate Army on it's trip to New Mexico. Sibley was pretty much handed a defeat at the Battle of Glorietta Pass. My GGGrandfather was a surgeon with the Texas Mounted Rifles that rode with Sibley. The pic is at Main Plaza in San Antonio. Just months before this pic, the Union Army had surrendered to the Confederacy at the same location. The Union troops were allowed to leave Texas with their arms.



The military office was in the building at the right edge of the pic with the gabled roof. The two story building was the Plaza House which was a vaudeville theater. Next to it was a mercantile. The pic is taken from the balcony of the old France Building.