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When the battery was lost, the day was decided in favor of the enemy, and the Federal forces retreated to Fort Craig.

Colonel Canby had in the engagment about 1,500 men, consisting of regulars and volunteers. The force of the enemy, under Colonel Steele, was from 1,500 to 2,000. Our loss, according to the best information, was 50 or 60 killed, and about 140 wounded. The loss of the enemy was estimated at from 100 to 200 killed and wounded. Captain Rossel, of the regulars, was taken by the Texans, his horse having been drowned in crossing the river.

THE BATTLE OF APACHE CANON.

MARCH 28, 1862.

The immediate consequence of the battle of Valvende was that the insurgents marched directly past Fort Craig, which for want of men and provisions they were powerless to invest or capture, direct on Albuquerque and Santa Fé, which fell into their power without resistance. Albuquerque was the depot of United States Government stores, most of which was removed on the advance of the insurgents, and the rest destroyed. The occupation of Santa Fé was followed by the proclamation of a provisional government, which however never entered into practical operation. Fort Craig still remained in the rebel rear, and Fort Union in the possession of the national troops, on the northeast, from which direction reinforcements might be expected. The policy of the insurgents was therefore either to capture Fort Union before relief could arrive, or maintain their position, isolating Fort Craig until that post should be compelled to surrender for want of supplies.

Meantime, news of the critical condition of affairs having reached the Colorado territory and Kansas, troops were at once organized to go to the relief of the threatened positions By forced marches, scarcely paralleled in history, a Colorado regiment 950 strong, under Colonel Hough, reached Fort Union on the 13th of March. Here he gathered around him all the troops available, or possible to obtain, and marched for Santa Fé, to give battle to the invaders. The latter moved their forces forward to meet him. The numbers on both sides were nearly equal-between 1,200 and 1,500. They met at a point called Apache

Pass.

The main fight took place at Apache Cañon, eighty miles from Fort Union, and twenty miles from Santa Fé. Three battalions, one under Major Chivington, one under Captain Lewis, and one under Captain Wynkoop, advanced to the cañon, on the 28th, when the pickets reported no enemy in sight. The command then advanced, when shots

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were fired at them by the Texans, who were in ambush and succeeded in killing four privates. The Union men, under Hough, rushed on them, killing 20 or 30 Texans, wounding many of them, and taking seven prisoners, four officers and three privates. Major Chivington's command, which went ahead and surprised the Texan pickets, taking 67 prisoners, and 64 provision wagons, now arrived, and a plan of 'action was determined upon. It was to meet the enemy in front and flank them at the same time.

About 12 o'clock they advanced, and the action became general, the Coloradans doing wonders. The battery under Captain Ritter, and also the howitzer battery under Lieutenant Claflin, swept the Texans from the field. The fight lasted until four o'clock, when flags of truce were interchanged to bury the dead and care for the wounded. The enemy had about 2,000 men and one 6-pounder. The Unionists had 1,300 men, one six and one 12-pounder, and four howitzers. The enemy lost their entire train (64 wagons and provisions), 230 mules, about 150 killed, 200 wounded and 93 taken prisoners, among whom were 13 officers.

The Texans, when surprised, supposed it was Colonel Canby's force that was coming. The Texan officer in command, with two of his companies, made several attempts to charge on the Union men and seize their batteries, but they were each time repulsed, with tremendous loss, while daring, noble deeds were performed by the Federal soldiers. At one time, the Texan companies charged within a few yards of the Union batteries. The defeat at Apache Pass proved an effectual check on the invaders, and so far weakened their forces as to compel their abandonment of the territory, and its complete restoration under the national authority.

The enemy fled into Arizona, where they found it useless to remain, and applied to the authorities of Mexico for permission to cross their territory on their return home, but were refused; they however succeeded in reaching Texas. A reinforcement of Federal troops soon after arrived in New Mexico.

FIGHT AT BLOOMING GAP, VA.
FEBRUARY 14, 1862.

To General F. W. Lander's brigade had been assigned the perilous duty of protecting the Baltimore and Ohio railroad at Cumberland, Md., and the various towns and strategic points in Virginia within a radius of forty or fifty miles from that centre, at several of which his troops were quartered.

On the 13th of February, Lander received information that a brigade of rebels under General Carson had occupied Blooming Gap, a strong

pass in the mountains seven miles beyond the Cacapon river, whose turbid waters, swollen by the storms of winter, were deemed an impassable barrier to the advance of the Federal forces. No bridge spanned the torrent, and the blackened buttress and crumbled pier gave evidence that the incendiary torch had been at work.

Lander was then at Pawpaw Tunnels, on the Maryland shore of the Potomac, a station on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, midway between Hancock and Cumberland, with a small force. He immediately marched to New Creek, in Hampshire county, Va., to join the detachment of troops at that point, where he also hastily concentrated all his available command. Taking twenty wagons loaded with lumber, he proceeded to a point on the Cacapon river, seven miles south of the railroad, and between the hours of nine and one o'clock at night he improvised a bridge one hundred and eighty feet long, by placing the wagons in the river as a foundation, over which he marched his force of four thousand men, and advanced upon the enemy's pickets before the dawn of day.

With five hundred of the First Virginia cavalry, under Colonel Anastanzel, he had designed to charge through the rebel camp at the Gap, and then form immediately in his rear, cut off the retreat, and capture the whole force, after the Federal infantry, following up the cavalry charge, should have completed the discomfiture of the enemy. But the rebels had retired before Lander's approach; and when led by the General and his staff, the cavalry flew through the Gap and beyond it, they met with no opposition. Colonel Anastanzel was at once ordered to push forward on the Winchester road with the cavalry, reconnoitre, and, if possible, overtake and capture the baggage of the enemy.

General Lander meantime brought up Colonel Carroll with the Eighth Ohio regiment, and the Seventh Virginia, Colonel Evans, for a support. Colonel Anastanzel encountered the enemy at the head of the pass, two miles from Blooming. He was met by a sharp fire, and halted his command. On hearing the firing, General Lander came up and led the charge, followed by Major Armstrong, Assistant Adjutant-General; Lieutenants Fitz-James O'Brien, the well-known poet of his staff, and Major Bannister, Paymaster U.S. A., who had volunteered for the expedition. A group of rebel officers were distant about three hundred yards, encouraging their men. General Lander being the best mounted, outran the rest of the party, and cut off the retreat of the rebel officers. "Surrender, gentlemen," he said, coolly dismounting, and extending his hand to receive the sword of Colonel Baldwin, over whom an instant before he had appeared to be riding.

Five of the rebel officers surrendered to General Lander, and four others immediately afterward, to the officers of his staff, among them the Assistant Adjutant-General of General Carson.

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