Territory of Arizona | |||||
Organized incorporated territory of Confederate States of America | |||||
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Union and Confederate claims in Arizona and New Mexico during 1861–1865. The 1863 date reflects the establishment of the US Arizona Territory. | |||||
Capital | Mesilla | ||||
Government | Organized incorporated territory | ||||
Governor | |||||
• | 1861 | Lewis Owings (provisional) | |||
• | 1861–1862 | John Baylor | |||
• | 1862–1865 | Lewis Owings | |||
Historical era | American Civil War | ||||
• | Mesilla Convention | March 18, 1861 | |||
• | Ordinance of Secession | March 28, 1861 | |||
• | Battle of Mesilla | July 25, 1861 | |||
• | Admission to the Confederacy | February 14, 1862 | |||
• | Second Battle of Mesilla | July 1, 1862 | |||
• | Exile of the territorial government | July 1862 | |||
• | Surrender of the Confederacy | April 9, 1865 |
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Confederate Arizona was a territory claimed by the Confederate States during the American Civil War, between 1861 and 1865. Delegates to secession conventions had voted in March 1861 to secede from the New Mexico Territory and the United States, and seek to join the Confederacy. It consisted of the portion of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel, including parts of the modern states of New Mexico and Arizona. Its capital was Mesilla along the southern border. The Confederate territory overlapped the Arizona Territory later established by the Union government in 1863.
The physical geography differed in that the Confederate Arizona Territory was approximately the southern half of the historic New Mexico Territory. The Union-defined Arizona Territory was approximately the western half of what had been New Mexico Territory, and became the basis for the future state.
The territory was officially declared on August 1, 1861, following the Confederate victory at the Battle of Mesilla. The Confederate hold in the area was broken after the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the defining battle of the New Mexico Campaign. In July 1862, the government of the Confederate Territory of Arizona relocated to El Paso, Texas. With the approach of Union troops, it withdrew to eastern Texas, where it remained for the duration of the war. The territory continued to be represented in the Confederate Congress, and Confederate troops continued to fight under the Arizona banner until the war's end.