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The Confederate Push For California
The Gettysburg of the west
The western theater of the Civil War is often largely ignored. People’s knowledge of the expansive conflict usually reaches the banks of the mighty Mississippi and then promptly ends. Beyond the Mississippi, the war continued to rage, albeit, on a much smaller scale than it did in the east. Despite the smaller scale of the armies, the actions that took place west of the Mississippi were no less important than some of those happening elsewhere.
In 1862, Confederate elements in Texas hatched a bold new idea. If the rebel armies could force the surrender of the Union army in New Mexico, they would have a clear path to California. The distant Pacific state provided ample opportunities for the Confederacy. A secure path linking Texas and California would give the Confederacy access to the sea and the goldfields.
There were many in California who were sympathetic to the Confederacy and if a southern army showed up in the state there was hope that it would lead to a smooth occupation — as it had in New Mexico.
What followed is a little-known fight for the American southwest between the Union and the Confederacy. This campaign led to a battle that some romanticized as the “Gettysburg of the West”.
