Whooping it up and shooting blanks

The Blue and the Gray. North vs South. Johnny Rebs vs Billy Yanks. Smoking muskets and booming cannons.

Make sure you’re there and not square this weekend when a contingent of Civil War reenactors return to engage in mock battles symbolic of the Battle of Valverde. Now in its 20th year, the reenactment commemorates New Mexico’s early involvement in the War Between the States, and it all takes place on the east bank of the Rio Grande at the Escondida Bridge.

Saturday morning after reveille, the public is welcome to stroll through both the North and the South living history camps, talk with reenactors, and learn a little history of those times.

The mock battle starts at 10:30 and lasts about an hour. Spectators root for their favorite side from the Escondida Bridge overlooking the faux fighting going on, and you can’t count how many cameras and cell phones come out when it all gets underway.

You probably know the story of how a Confederate army from Texas invaded the state and brought the Civil War to Socorro. In 1862, Socorro County extended from Texas to California and the Confederates hoped to capture the Southwest, including New Mexico, the gold fields of Colorado, and all the way to the California coast.

Well, it didn’t work out as planned.

A little backstory.

Thirty-two miles south of Socorro is the site of one of the most storied Army posts in the American Southwest. It’s what remains of Ft. Craig. The fort was established to protect against the constant danger from Apache and Navajo attacks, but it was a different story back on Feb. 21, 1862, when its soldiers and New Mexico volunteers battled it out with the Confederate army at a ford near the town of Valverde.

Turns out the Battle of Valverde ended in a tactical victory for the Confederacy, but the Rebel army failed to capture Ft. Craig. Two days later, the Rebel army broke camp and easily captured Socorro. That evening, they fired a cannonball over the town, which reportedly landed between the Plaza and San Miguel Church. The following morning, the US Army detachment in the town surrendered.

The Confederates established a hospital on Sixth Street to treat the Valverde wounded, and Socorro was occupied by the rebels for about nine weeks. However, Union forces at Fort Craig had destroyed a substantial number of their supply wagons.

The capture of Albuquerque and Santa Fe followed, but after losing a decisive battle at Glorieta Pass, the Rebel army decided to skedaddle back to Texas. Worn out and short on supplies and ammunition, they veered west at Ladron and then south, passing between the Magdalena and San Mateo mountain ranges in order to avoid getting too close to Ft. Craig. They weren’t in any shape for another battle and needed to stay out of sight of the Union Army and even buried some of their equipment in the Bernardo area.

Confederate uniform buttons and other artifacts have been discovered along that route, specifically in the area of Pueblo Springs, north of Magdalena.

So much for conquering New Mexico.

But I digress.

“Both the city and county have a unique place in Civil War history,” organizer Gabriel Peterman said. “Many present-day Socorro families are descendants of the volunteers who fought there as part of the New Mexico Militia.”

Peterman, a Major in the New Mexico National Guard, has been involved with reenactments for 20 years. He said he expects over 50 reenactors to take part.

“All our reenactors utilize either original or period-correct reproductions of the firearms. They’re usually 58 to 69-caliber muskets. There might be a smattering of breech loaders mixed in, but those were very rare in this campaign.”

He’ll be commanding the Federal side come Saturday.

I’ll be the first to decry the Civil War as most decidedly uncivil and regrettable, but participants hold that reenactments help keep history alive and if nothing else, hints at what our great-great-etcetera grandpas may have gone through back in those calamitous days.

I was told once that dedicated war-historian types have been re-creating particular battles of the Civil War since forever. In fact, various communities would stage “sham battles” representing Northen victories even while the war was still going on.

One more thing. Writing this reminds me of a story I covered having to do with the exhumation in 2009 of more than 60 Civil War-era men, women and children who were initially buried near Ft. Craig. Their remains were laid to rest for a final time at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Among them were three Buffalo Soldiers, who were reburied with full military honors after their original graves had been desecrated by trophy hunters.

It was Mark Twain who once wrote, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” If that’s the case, the Civil War reenactment this weekend deserves at least a couplet.