Colorado Territory in the American Civil War

The Colorado Territory was formally created in 1861 shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter sparked the American Civil War.

Colorado was strategically important to both the Union and Confederacy because of the gold and silver mines there as both sides wanted to use the mineral wealth to help finance the war.

The New Mexico Campaign (February to April 1862) was a military operation conducted by Confederate Brigadier General Henry Sibley to gain control of the Southwest, including the gold fields of Colorado, the mineral-rich territory of Nevada and the ports of California.

The campaign was intended as a prelude to an invasion of the Colorado Territory and an attempt to cut the supply lines between California and the rest of the Union.

During the late 1850s, many Southerners migrated to the Colorado Territory in search of new opportunities, including working in the newly discovered gold fields.

These Confederate Partisan Ranger units operated in the Colorado Territory from 1861 to 1865, raiding supply wagon trains, disrupting communications lines, recruiting volunteers, and skirmishing with Union troops.

A young man in the crowd, Samuel M. Logan, later a Captain in the First Colorado Volunteers, climbed to the roof of the store to remove the flag.

Nicknamed "Gilpin's Pet Lambs" because of the governor's involvement in their organization, the regiment and its first commander, John P. Slough, marched to northern New Mexico Territory in February–March 1862.

)[12] In January 1864, the 2nd Colorado Cavalry was ordered to the Missouri border counties to relieve Kansas troops defending against Confederate Partisan Units.

The 2nd Colorado was attached to the Union force raised to repel General Price's Missouri State Guards, and took part in the battles of the Little Blue River, Westport, Marais des Cygnes, and Mine Creek in October 1864.