Feeble skirmishing begins. On
the 2lst of February, the bitter conflict of Val Verde shows Valois
for the first time--alas, not the last!--the blood of brothers
mingled on a doubtful field. It is a horrid fight. A drawn battle.
Instead of pushing on to Arizona, deluded by reports of local aid,
Sibley straggles off to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Canby refits his
broken forces under the walls of strong Fort Union. Long before the
trifling affairs of Glorietta and Peralta, Valois, disgusted with
Sibley, is on his way east. He will join the Army of the West. His
heart sickens at the foolish incapacity of the border commander.
The Texan column melts away under Canby's resolute advance. The
few raiders, who have ridden down into Arizona and hoisted the
westernmost Confederate flag at Antelope Peak, are chased back
by Carleton's strong column. The boasted "military advance on
California" is at an end. Carleton's California column is well over
the Colorado. The barren fruits of Val Verde are only a few buried
guns of McRea's hard-fought battery. The gallantry of Colonel
Thos. P. Ochiltree, C.S.A., at Val Verde, under the modest rank of
"Captain," is the only remembered historic incident of that now
forgotten field.
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