Editing Confederate Arizona (section)

== Major campaigns ==
[[File:Arizona Civil War New Mexico.png|left|thumb|300px]]
Arizona was thought to be important to the role of the [[New Mexico Territory in the American Civil War]] primarily because it offered Confederate access to California. Consequently, it was the scene of several important battles in the war's [[Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War|Trans-Mississippi Theater]].

In July 1861 a force under Lieutenant-Colonel John R. Baylor arrived in [[El Paso, Texas]] across the border from Mesilla. With support from the secessionist residents of Mesilla, Baylor's 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles entered the territory and took a position in the town on July 25. Union forces under Major Isaac Lynde at nearby [[Fort Fillmore]] prepared to attack Baylor. On July 25 the two armies met outside of town at the Battle of Mesilla in a brief engagement in which the Union troops were defeated.

Major Lynde then abandoned [[Fort Fillmore]] and began a march north to join the troops at [[Fort Craig]] under Colonel [[Edward Canby|Edward R. S. Canby]]. However, his retreat came to a halt in severe heat and was overtaken by Baylor. Lynde surrendered his command without a shot fired at San Augustine Springs, in the [[Organ Mountains]].<ref>[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfm04 Handbook of Texas online.]</ref>

On August 1, 1861, the victorious Baylor proclaimed the existence of a Confederate Arizona Territory, which comprised the area defined in the Tucson convention the previous year. He appointed himself as permanent [[governor]]. Among his cabinet members was the Mesilla attorney [[Marcus H. MacWillie]], who served as the territorial [[attorney general]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Sacks |first=B. |date=1963 |title=The Creation of the Territory of Arizona |journal=[[Journal of the Southwest|Arizona and the West]] |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=109–148 |issn=0894-8410 |jstor=40167054 |jstor-access=free |lccn=87643843 |oclc=15876763}}</ref>

The next month, Baylor's cavalrymen under [[Bethel Coopwood]], marched north from [[Fort Selden|Camp Robledo]] along the Rio Grande and surprised a Union force of New Mexican militia cavalry in a [[Battle of Canada Alamosa|small engagement]] west of the Rio Grande at the village of [[Canada Alamosa, New Mexico#Cañada Alamosa (present-day Monticello NM), the historic Hispanic community downstream from the canyon|Canada Alamosa]], ending with another Confederate victory and the capture of 25 men of that unit including its commander. The next day after disarming and paroling the captured New Mexican enlisted men, Coopwood retired southward along the west bank of the river with the two captured Union officers and an NCO to a camp 15 miles to the north of [[Fort Thorn, New Mexico|Fort Thorn]].  There a Union column of Mounted Infantry sent to relieve the New Mexican militia force caught up with Coopwood, and [[Skirmish near Fort Thorn, New Mexico Territory|skirmished]] for a few hours with the Confederates until their ammunition was depleted, forcing the Mounted Infantry to retire northward to their base at [[Fort Craig]].

The proposal to organize the Confederate Territory of Arizona was passed by the Confederate Congress in early 1862 and proclaimed by [[President of the Confederate States of America|President]] [[Jefferson Davis]] on February 14, 1862.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/swetc/hav2/body.1_div.4.html|title=Chapter IV. Confederate and Federal Occupation|last=Farish|first=Thomas Edwin|website=www.library.arizona.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-04-27|quote=Arizona Historian}}</ref> Coincidentally, Arizona statehood was approved exactly fifty years later on February 14, 1912.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://archive.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/20120130arizona-centennial-state-fight.html|title=How Arizona almost didn't become a state|work=azcentral.com|access-date=2017-04-27}}</ref>

[[File:Flagraise.gif|thumb|right|175px|Raising the [[Flags of the Confederate States of America|Confederate flag]] in Tucson.]]
Efforts by the Confederacy to secure control of the region led to the New Mexico Campaign. Baylor sent [[Company A, Arizona Rangers]] to Tucson to protect the population from the Apache and [[Company A, Arizona Rangers#Arizona Campaign against the California Column|delay the advance of Union troops from Fort Yuma]].

In 1862 Baylor was ousted as governor of the territory by President Davis, and the Confederate loss at the Battle of Glorieta Pass forced Confederate retreat from the territory. On March 30, Union forces fought a smaller engagement against a detachment of [[Company A, Arizona Rangers]], a Confederate force destroying supply depots along the [[California Column]] route of advance on the [[Gila River]], 80 miles east of its base at [[Fort Yuma]]. This skirmish, known as the [[Battle of Stanwix Station]], was the westernmost engagement of regular forces in the Civil War, and successfully delayed the advance of the California forces.

The following month a small picket troop of the Rangers north of Tucson fought with an equally small Union cavalry patrol from the California Column in the so-called [[Battle of Picacho Pass]] again delaying the advance of the California Column to Tucson.

By July 1862, Union forces of the California Column were approaching the territorial capital of Mesilla from the west but severe flooding of the Rio Grande barred their way and they had to divert north to Fort Thorn and the [[San Diego Crossing]] and wait two weeks for the water to fall enough for a crossing.  With Canby advancing down the east bank of the Rio Grande and the loss of control of the countryside to New Mexican guerillas after the [[Second Battle of Mesilla]] the Confederates abandoned Mesilla and retreated south to [[El Paso, Texas|Franklin, Texas]].

In 1862 the [[California Column]] volunteers who fought at Stanwix Station and Picacho Pass fought at the [[Battle of Apache Pass]] against 500 [[Apache]]s. The battle is considered part of the American Civil War. There were also several engagements between [[Apache]]s and Confederates. The [[First Battle of Dragoon Springs|Battle of Dragoon Springs]] marks the only known Confederate combat deaths in the modern confines of Arizona. Other engagements include the [[Siege of Tubac]], the [[Battle of Cookes Canyon]], the [[Battle of the Florida Mountains]], the [[Battle of Pinos Altos]] and a number of other smaller skirmishes and massacres.

The territorial government relocated to Franklin, then with Confederate military units retreated to [[San Antonio]] abandoning [[West Texas]]. For the rest of the war, California Column troops controlled all of Confederate Arizona, Franklin and [[Fort Quitman]] in West Texas.  The government in exile remained in Texas for the duration of the war, although MacWillie continued to represent the territory in the [[1st Confederate States Congress|First]] and [[2nd Confederate States Congress]]es. Minor resistance in Arizona continued at the partisan level, and Confederate units under the banner of Arizona fought until the end of the war in May 1865.