Battle of Peralta

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Peralta


caption=
partof=American Civil War
date=15 April, 1862
place=Peralta, New Mexico
result=Union victory
combatant1= flagicon|USA|1861 United States (Union)
combatant2= flagicon|CSA|1861 CSA (Confederacy)
commander1=Edward Canby
commander2=Thomas Green
strength1=2 brigades
strength2=5th Texas Mounted Volunteers
casualties1=4 killed
3 missing
casualties2=5 total{also reported as
6 kia/3 w/22 pow}|

The Battle of Peralta was a minor engagement near the end of Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley's 1862 New Mexico Campaign. Retreating after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, Confederate troops of the 5th Texas Mounted Volunteers under Colonel Thomas Green camped in the town of Peralta, New Mexico and planned to cross a series of irrigation canals the next day. On April 14 the pursuing Union Army forces under Colonel Edward Canby caught up with Green. The Confederates used the low adobe houses in the town as natural fortifications. Canby captured a Confederate supply train approaching Peralta, and then sent John Chivington and Gabriel R. Paul to surround the Confederates to prevent any forces from reaching Green. The rival armies battered each other in an artillery duel until a dust storm blew in and allowed Green to withdraw, leaving behind a town which had been reduced into rubble.

Trivia

* A battle with similar characteristics was featured in the movie "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", which is set during Sibley's New Mexico Campaign.

* As he attempted to help Colonel Green, General Sibley came directly under fire and retreated across the Rio Grande with bullets splashing behind his horse's heels; it was the only time during the campaign that Sibley was in any personal danger.