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[516] July, 1861, the Confederates had been masters of the course of the Rio Grande, in the southern portion of New Mexico, from El Paso to above Fort Thorn, also situated on that river. But they had refrained from disturbing the Federals in their possession of the rest of that territory, and had contented themselves with drawing them into two unimportant engagements in the vicinity of Fort Craig. Being sustained by their governor, the population of New Mexico, among whom were many emigrants from the North, had remained loyal to the Union, and some volunteers, raised in the neighboring territory of Colorado, had come to reinforce the small garrisons which protected that vast region. At the end of 1861 the government had sent to Santa Fe General Canby, an officer of great energy, who set immediately to work to multiply the means of defence. He had, in fact, to sustain with inadequate force the attack which the Confederates had long meditated against New Mexico. The Confederates were commanded by General Sibley, lately an officer in the regular army, who must not be confounded with his namesake, made prisoner by Van Dorn the year previous, who had remained loyal to the Union.

The Confederate general assembled on the frontier at Fort Bliss all lovers of war and plunder who, under the name of settlers, occupied Texas. When, in the early part of February, he had thus collected a small army of two thousand three hundred men — a considerable force for those regions-he took up his line of march, passed Fort Thorn, and proceeded in the direction of Fort Craig, where Canby, apprised of his movements, had repaired with all the troops at his disposal, about four thousand men, to await his coming. This position, well fortified, and defended by a few guns of heavy calibre, was the key of the valley of the Rio Grande and of the Santa Fe road. But Canby's troops, although numerically superior, were far inferior in quality, to the Texans, who had long been inured to the hardships of war by their incessant struggles with the Indians and the Mexicans. The two batteries which constituted his whole artillery were in excellent condition; a regiment of volunteers, commanded by Kit Carson, that hold trapper who had already played an important part in the conquest of New Mexico, was composed of good material; but

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