Battle of Canada Alamosa

Battle of Canada Alamosa
Part of the American Civil War
Date September 27, 1861 Location Canada Alamosa, Confederate Arizona Modern Day: Canada Alamosa, New Mexico Result U.S. victory
Belligerents
Confederate States	United States
Commanders and leaders
Captain Bethel Coopwood	Captain R.M. Morris
Strength
100, cavalry, infantry	200, cavalry, infantry

The Battle of Canada Alamosa was a skirmish of the American Civil War on September 27, 1861. Several small battles occurred in Confederate Arizona along the border with Union New Mexico Territory. This engagement happened about thirty-five miles south of Fort Craig at the village of Canada Alamosa near the Rio Grande River. To keep the Union Army out of Confederate Arizona, Governor John R. Baylor sent patrols up the Rio Grande which kept watch on the Union post at Fort Craig. During the patrol on the 27, a force of 100 Confederate infantry and cavalry detected a force of about 200 Union troops under a Captain R.M. Morris on a reconnaissance mission. The Union army was encamped at the small town when the Confederates surrounded and skirmished with them for a little while before withdrawing. Casualties are unknown but were light.

See Also

• Apache Wars

References

• The Confederate Arizona Campaign of 1862, Col. Sherrod Hunter Camp 1525, SCV, Phoenix, Arizona.
• Hunt, Aurora, James Henry Carleton, 1814-1873, Frontier Dragoon, Frontier Military Series II, Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958. (Hunt states that John Swilling led the Confederates at Picacho Pass, but this is persuasively contradicted by the other source above, who show that Swilling was actually elsewhere guarding Union prisoners at the time.)