f the
regular troops at Fort Fillmore (directly opposite La Mesilla), marched
north. They found Fort Craig too strong to be attacked, and, contrary to
all military maxims, had continued on, leaving a fortified position in
their rear. The desperate battle of Val Verde had taken place on the
twenty-first and twenty-second of February, 1862, a short distance above
Fort Craig. And as long as Major Benny Roberts had command of the
Federal troops they were successful, but when General E. R. S. Canby
came on the field and took command, the rebels soon had turned the tide
of the battle in their favor. McRae's battery was taken, and our troops
were returning, panic-stricken, across the river, and fleeing towards
Fort Craig, about three miles down the river. The rebels then approached
Albuquerque, where was stored a large amount of government stores, which
were surrendered without a struggle. Thence they proceeded to Santa Fe,
where, without opposition, they took possession. There was one other
fort to be taken, about one hundred miles northwest--Fort Union. After
some delay at Santa Fe, the rebels, numbering some sixteen hundred, set
out for Fort Union. At Apache Pass, or Pigeon's Ranch, they were met by
a Colorado regiment, with what regulars and militia could be found, all
under command of Colonel John P. Slough (afterwards chief justice of the
Territory), and were defeated, their wagons, ammunition, and all their
stores having been destroyed by a party of Union troops under Captain
W. H. Lewis, Fifth United States Infantry, and Captain A. B. Cary, of the
Third United States Infantry, who scaled a mountain and got into their
rear. The rebels precipitately retreated from this point, to and down
the Rio Grande, having passed La Mesilla a few weeks before our arrival,
and left the Territory with about twelve hundred men out of thirty-seven
hundred, that they had arrived with.

The different companies of the "Column," as they arrived, were now sent
to different points in the department. Our Colonel, James H. Carleton,
had been promoted to Brigadier General, and had relieved General E. R. S.
Canby, in command of the department of New Mexico. The regular troops
were all relieved, except the Fifth Infantry, and sent east, and a
protection was now assured to the population, by the California
Volunteers. Lieutenant Colonel J. R. West was now promoted to Colonel of
the regiment, and in command of the southern district of the department.