New Mexico Territory"
The slides used during his presentation are available by clicking HERE or at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_WZQoRZ3Ut9CY6LTnQsjDZ7hsF64uA-m/view
About the Topic:
In December, 1861, pursuant to orders from President Jefferson Davis, Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley led the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 7th Texas Mounted Volunteers from San Antonio, Texas into the Union Territory of New Mexico. Sibley styled his army ”The Army of New Mexico.” His orders from President Davis read: “Sir, in view of your recent service in New Mexico and knowledge of the country and the people, the President has intrusted you with the important duty of driving the Federal troops from that department, at the same time securing all the arms, supplies and materials of war.”
Mr. Rivera’s presentation will focus on answering the question why the President of the Confederacy authorized this invasion and the associated commitment of human and fiscal resources to conquer and occupy New Mexico, particularly in view of the Confederacy’s imminent and serious military engagement with the Union. The inquiry is complex, involving the Mexican War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the history of the thorny relationship between Texas and New Mexico and the Compromise of 1850.
Mr. Rivera has led many tours of the battlefield at Glorieta, New Mexico (where Sibley’s campaign came to an end) as well as most of the significant battlefields in the Eastern Theatre.
He has a passion for history and chairs the board at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas, the southwest’s premier living history museum, located south of Santa Fe.
