Hey everyone, welcome to the 96th episode of our Civil War podcast.

My name is Rich.

And I'm Tracy. Hello, y'all. Thanks for tuning into the podcast. During our

coverage of the war so far, Rich and I have already taken y'all west to

Kentucky and Tennessee and even Missouri. But this week we're going to take

y'all still farther to the west. The 1861-62 Confederate invasion of the

territory of New Mexico was the westernmost military campaign of the civil

war. But even while the campaign was in progress, it received scant

attention. With the exception of the Texans, the eyes of most of the people in

the north and the south were focused closer to home on the battlefields of the

war's eastern theaters. But out in the far west, in the southwest, two hard-fought

battles and several minor engagements took place in what is now the state of

New Mexico. And that fighting was an important and dramatic part of the civil war.

The stakes involved in the Confederate invasion of New Mexico were high. Some

historians believe that what was at stake was nothing less than a Confederate

version of manifest destiny. On July 5th 1861, upon the recommendation of Jefferson

Davis, Henry Hopp, considerably, was commissioned a Brigadier General in the

Confederate Army. Shortly before that, in May of 1861,

Sibley and native of Louisiana was a major serving in the US Army and he was

stationed in New Mexico. But he resigned his commission in May in order to offer

his services to the south. Shortly afterward, he traveled east to the new

Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia and briefed the Confederate

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