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LAS CRUCES - Mesilla Valley residents of the 21st century have more in common with the Confederacy than they realize.

"For most people, the American Civil War is something back East. They don't realize it occurred out here and the people who were in Mesilla - which, at the time, New Mexico was New Mexico, Arizona and the southern tip of Nevada - they seceded because they were wanting to get away from Santa Fe," says Las Cruces historian and author Steven Grizzell. "They did, and joined the Confederacy."

Grizzell is the commander of the New Mexico Sons of Confederate Veterans' 2nd Brigade (a group that counts several actual sons of Confederate veterans - both quite elderly and born to their fathers very late in life) which dedicated a $1,400 iron sign Saturday at the Mesilla Plaza commemorating the Civil War Battle of Mesilla after the town's trustees approved the placement in April. The event featured about 20 Civil War re-enactors, a vintage mountain howitzer cannon, bagpipers, a fired salute and flag-raising.

The battle

In fields just a few hundred yards from the plaza, Confederate Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor fought Union infantry commanded by Maj. Isaac Lynde in a battle that resulted in six Union casualties on July 25, 1861.

After exchanging fire and bungling a charge, Lynde was driven away to Fort Fillmore, which he later abandoned for an ultimate retreat toward the San Augustin Pass in the Organs, eventually surrendering his 492-man force. Some

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Union soldiers, unfamiliar with the territory, were willing to give up their firearms for just a drink of water, said John Smith, the coordinator of Saturday's event.

"It was a minor skirmish," Grizzell said, "but it gave them the southern half of New Mexico (Territory), which gave them access to Pacific ports and Colorado gold fields."

Days after the battle, Baylor proclaimed the land the Confederate States of America's Arizona Territory, naming himself governor and making Mesilla his base until forces returned to Texas the following year. (While in Mesilla, in another interesting parallel to modern-day life, Baylor pistol-whipped the editor of the Mesilla Times newspaper in a street fight, Smith noted. When the editor took out a knife, Baylor fatally shot him.)

Mesilla vs Santa Fe

But joining the Confederacy wasn't about the same north versus south issues as it was in most of the country, Grizzell said.

"It was Santa Fe versus us because it was, essentially, what it is now - two states," Grizzell said. "They kept all the troops up in Santa Fe. They would tax people, but everything went up to what Santa Fe wanted. We had Fort Fillmore and Fort Stanton, but they had eight forts up north, so the people down here were getting attacked by Apaches and nobody up there cared."

That sentiment was strong said Smith, a descendant of Confederate Capt. Peter Maytubby, of Oklahoma, and Union soldier Henry Clay Smith.

"They were sort of neglected by the powers that be in Santa Fe," Smith said.

Nation's huge loss

Slavery was indefensible and certainly should have been done away with - no question about it, Grizzell and Smith said. The loss of that institution is not what groups like the 2nd Brigade focus on - it's the history and the grisly loss of 700,000 Americans.

"You've lost scientists, literature people, you've lost everything that may have helped the country be so farther beyond where it is now, but also families, fathers and sons that may have contributed in some way. But we'll never know, because they were killed," Grizzell said.

"It's something for all Americans to realize. What happened here - history - was not just back East. It was here."

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462