Paul Dale Roberts
Via e-mail

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Editor’s note: DuPont did not really retire; he resigned from active duty and continued to serve on a naval board. He is not as well-known today as some of his contemporaries such as David D. Porter and David G. Farragut. Part of the reason for his relative obscurity is that he had a falling out with the Northern high command after the failed attack at Charleston to which you allude, and part of it stems from the fact that he died in 1865 and was therefore not a part of the war commemoration and memorialization that took place in the North during the postwar years.

New Mexico Invasion

I enjoyed reading David Rosenberg’s article on Sibley’s campaign in New Mexico during 1861-62 (”Rebel Invasion of New Mexico,” July 2000), but I am puzzled by the map that accompanies the article on P. 52. A key to the map and a mileage scale would help. I do not know what the light colored trail is that winds through the center of the map. It is labeled the Santa Fe Trail at the top but that stopped at Santa Fe. Perhaps it is supposed to also represent the Camino Real, but the trail on this map tends to follow the Rio Grande on the wrong side in places. It also does not show mountains between the Jornada del Muerto and the river.

I assume that dark arrows represent Sibley’s advance northward and the broken arrows represent his retreat. If so, it fails to show that Sibley used Fort Thorn as a kind of base camp on his push northward. It has Sibley going on the wrong side of the river to Valverde and again from Valverde to Albuquerque. The whole point of the battle at Valverde was whether Canby could prevent Sibley from crossing the river in a push north above Fort Craig. Sibley was able to cross and go on up to Albuquerque, but this is not reflected in the map.

Dr. Robert Bouilly
Via e-mail

Editor’s note: Sibley did start on the east bank of the Rio Grande, and then crossed to Fort Thorn–which is not reflected on the map. After leaving that post, however, he crossed back to the eastern bank, and after defeating Canby at Valverde, he crossed once again to the west side of the river before moving north to Albuquerque. The map correctly shows that portion of the campaign.

Regarding the proper name of the trail, we only meant the portion of the trace that led to Santa Fe to bear the name of that locale. As for the precise location of the trail that ran along the Rio Grande, different sources show it crossing the river at different points, and considering the large area covered by the map, we were simply trying to show the path’s general location. Sorry for any confusion.

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