Qualla: Second Battle of Mesilla https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Second Battle of Mesilla https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla Second Battle of Mesilla: Introduction https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Carl Schuchard, Public domain. By July 1862, the Confederate dream of a Pacific empire was dying in the New Mexico dust. After defeats at Glorieta Pass and Albuquerque, rebel forces retreated south through the Rio Grande valley, desperate for supplies and increasingly unwelcome. Their capital in the Confederate Arizona Territory was Mesilla, a small town in the Mesilla Valley that had declared for the South just a year earlier. But when starving soldiers began seizing cattle and crops from locals, both New Mexican and Puebloan, the population turned against them. On July 1, 1862, the last engagement between Union and Confederate forces in Arizona erupted in the streets of Mesilla. It was less a battle than a rout, and it marked the end of Confederate ambitions west of Texas.

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Image: Carl Schuchard | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Second Battle of Mesilla: A Starving Army in Retreat https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Creator:Leon Trousset, Public domain. The Confederate retreat had been brutal. Following their flight from the Battle of Albuquerque and the advance of Union forces from California into Arizona, rebel troops had no supply lines, no reinforcements, and no welcome. Mesilla had served as the capital of Confederate Arizo...

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Image: Creator:Leon Trousset | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-a-starving-army-in-retreat.mp3 0:06 2 full Second Battle of Mesilla: Death in the Streets https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Creator:Leon Trousset, Public domain. The battle began in the town itself. Accounts are fragmentary, but the violence was real. Twenty citizens of Mesilla died in the fighting, though it remains unclear how many were combatants and how many were caught in crossfire. The skirmishing spread to the outskirts, where New ...

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Image: Creator:Leon Trousset | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-death-in-the-streets.mp3 0:06 3 full Second Battle of Mesilla: Pursuit and Welcome https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Creator:Leon Trousset, Public domain. The fighting at Mesilla did not end the pursuit. A large party of New Mexicans and Puebloans continued chasing the retreating rebels as they made for the Texas border. The Confederates had made too many enemies to find safe passage. When Union officers finally arrived in Mesilla,...

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Image: Creator:Leon Trousset | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-pursuit-and-welcome.mp3 0:06 4 full Second Battle of Mesilla: The Ghost of Confederate Arizona https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Creator:Leon Trousset, Public domain. The Second Battle of Mesilla marked the end of Confederate Arizona as a functioning political entity. The territory had been proclaimed in March 1861 by a convention of secessionists, recognized by the Confederate Congress in January 1862, and defended by forces under Colonel Joh...

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Image: Creator:Leon Trousset | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-the-ghost-of-confederate-arizona.mp3 0:06 5 full Second Battle of Mesilla: The Valley From Above https://qualla.com/second-battle-of-mesilla/ Photo credit Creator:Leon Trousset, Public domain. Modern Mesilla sits just south of Las Cruces, a small historic town centered on a plaza that looks much as it did in 1862. From the air, the Mesilla Valley stretches along the Rio Grande, a ribbon of green irrigated farmland between the Organ Mountains to the east and the desert ...

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Image: Creator:Leon Trousset | Public domain

]]> Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/t/s/p/second-battle-of-mesilla-wp/9tsp-second-battle-of-mesilla-the-valley-from-above.mp3 0:06 6 full