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While stationed in
Mississippi, my then grade school daughter and I got into civil war
reenacting. When the Colonel was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base
in Albuquerque, New Mexico, my daughter and I joined the 1st New
Mexico Volunteers reenacting group and gloriously fought the Texans
who came up the Rio Grand River in their attempt to capture the gold
fields of the then, new Territory of Colorado.
Having taught Air Force Junior ROTC at a high school in
Mississippi, which is basically U.S. history with a military flavor,
I thought I had a good working knowledge of the Civil War.
However I knew very little about the far western campaign of that
war, fought in New Mexico. Nobody makes movies about it; John
Wayne never saved the Union by beating back the drunken, | |
Van E. Harl |
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traitorous, General Henry Sibley and his brigade of
mounted Texas riflemen, from El Paso. Their
mission was to ride north, and steel the Yankee
gold. So needless to say most people in this
country know next to nothing about a small little
battle in the mountains of New Mexico at a place
called Glorieta Pass and the significance of that crucial
defeat for the Confederates at the hands of the 1st Colorado
Volunteers and the Colorado Rangers. |
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“He who has the gold wins the war” and the
U.S., in 1861 had a brand new territory in Colorado that held the
gold fields which would finance their war. That is why there
is a mint in Denver, not to print paper money but to produce gold
coins. The Texans pushed right up the Rio Grand, occupying
Albuquerque and Santa Fe. The prize for the Confederates was
the gold fields and with the perceived “easy victories” in New
Mexico, General Sibley smugly headed into the mountains to take
Denver.
The Colorado
Rangers were in fact fashioned after the success of the Texas
Rangers. They were a group of hard living, hard drinking, and
hard fighting men who had been called on to defend the Colorado
Territory against the increased hostilities by local Native
American tribes, who saw this new civil war as an opportunity to
attack their invaders. The Colorado Rangers fought on horseback
with repeating revolvers, while the average Union soldier fought
on foot with a single shot rifle.
On March 26,
1862 a scouting party of Rangers lead by Major John Chivington,
made contact with the Texans. A running battle was on for the
next two days with both sides disengaging on 28 March, the
Confederates believing they had won the fight. Generals
Sibley's biggest mistake of the entire Civil War was his men's
failure at the Battle of Glorieta Pass to guard their supply
train. Major Chivington and the Rangers found and
destroyed 80 wagons of ammunition, food and clothing. They
spiked the Confederate artillery and took Sibley's supply troops
prisoner. To this day if you go out to “Johnson's Ranch” where
the Rangers burned the wagons, you can find metal pieces of those
wagons.
As the history
of the Civil War was reviewed later, it was determined that
Glorieta Pass was the “Gettysburg of the West.” The Rangers
went back to Colorado, provided law enforcement for the new
territory and continued to be called up to keep the peace after
Statehood was established. The Colorado Rangers were disbanded
in the 1920s because of political reasons, but were then
reestablished in 1941 at the personal direction of Governor
Teller Ammons. They currently serve to support the needs
of the Governor, to provide augmentation and assistance to state,
county and local law enforcement agencies.
Since 9-11
their emphasis on emergency management has been increased. The
Colorado Mounted Rangers are volunteers who have served their
State in past times of crisis and stand ready to be there when
called on yet again. In the micro-sense “what if” the US Army
Rangers had not destroyed the German artillery at Normandy on
June 8 1944: could the D-Day invasion have failed, and if so,
could the length of WW II been continued into 1946 or 1947? If
the Colorado Rangers had not stopped the Confederate Army at
Glorieta Pass in 1862, with the capture of the gold fields,
could the suffering on both sides of the Civil War have gone on
for years past 1865? The Colorado Rangers have stood in the
breach of history and yet few know of their service and their
sacrifice. They are looking for new
Rangers to serve and
protect Colorado. |
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By
Van E. Harl
Copyright
2010 About Author:
Major Van E. Harl, USAF Ret., was a career police officer in the U.S. Air
Force. He was the Deputy Chief of police at two Air Force Bases and the
Commander of Law Enforcement Operations at another. Major Harl is a graduate of
the U.S. Army Infantry School, the Air Force Squadron Officer School and the Air
Command and Staff College. After retiring from the Air Force he was a state
police officer in Nevada.
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