Battle of Peralta

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Battle of Peralta
Part of American Civil War
Date 15 April 1862
Location Peralta, New Mexico
Result Union victory
Combatants
United States of America Confederate States of America
Commanders
Edward Canby Thomas Green
Strength
2 brigades 5th Texas Mounted Volunteers
Casualties
4 killed
3 missing		 5 total{also reported as
6 kia/3 w/22 pow}
Sibley's New Mexico Campaign
Valverde – Glorieta Pass – Peralta

The Battle of Peralta was a minor engagement near the end of Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley's 1862 New Mexico Campaign. Retreating after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Confederate troops of the 5th Texas Mounted Volunteers under Colonel Thomas Green camped in the town of Peralta, New Mexico and planned to cross a series of irrigation canals the next day. On April 14 the pursuing Union Army forces under Colonel Edward Canby caught up with Green. The Confederates used the low adobe houses in the town as natural fortifications. Canby captured a Confederate supply train approaching Peralta, and then sent John Chivington and Gabriel R. Paul to surround the Confederates to prevent any forces from reaching Green. The rival armies battered each other in an artillery duel until a dust storm blew in and allowed Green to withdraw, leaving behind a town which had been reduced into rubble.

[edit] Trivia

  • As he attempted to help Colonel Green, General Sibley came directly under fire and retreated across the Rio Grande with bullets splashing behind his horse's heels; it was the only time during the campaign that Sibley was in any personal danger.
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