Henry Hopkins Sibley (May 25, 1816 – August 23, 1886) was a career officer in the United States Army, who commanded a Confederate cavalry brigade in the Civil War.

In 1862, he attempted to forge a supply route from California, in defiance of the Union blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports, while also aiming to appropriate the Colorado gold mines to replenish the Confederate treasury.

After capturing Albuquerque and Santa Fe, he was forced to retreat after losing the Battle of Glorieta Pass (in today's New Mexico).

From 1855 to 1857, Sibley was part of the forces trying to control conflict in Bleeding Kansas, where hundreds of new settlers arrived to vote on the question of slavery, provoked by the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act.

Placed in command of a brigade of volunteer cavalry in West Texas, Sibley dubbed his small force the Army of New Mexico and began planning a New Mexico Campaign[1] to capture the cities of Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Fort Union on the Santa Fe Trail to establish a forward base of supply.

He then intended to continue north to Colorado to capture the numerous gold and silver mines in the area as a means of replenishing the badly depleted Confederate treasury.

Their ultimate strategy was to gain access to the warm-water ports of California and establish a badly needed supply line to the South, as the Union Navy had implemented a naval blockade from Virginia to Texas.

[5] Sibley was initially successful at the Battle of Valverde on 20–21 February, and pressed on to capture Albuquerque and Santa Fe in the first weeks of March.

Although the subsequent Battle of Glorieta Pass on March 28 ended in an apparent Confederate victory on the field, Sibley had to retreat because his supply train was destroyed and most of the horses and mules killed or driven off during the fight.

Glorieta Pass has been called the "Gettysburg of the West" by some authors;[6] Sibley's retreat to the campaign's starting point at Fort Bliss in April ended the hopes of the Confederacy to stretch to the Pacific Ocean and use the mineral wealth of California and possibly Colorado.