A walk at Picacho Pass, the westernmost Civil War battlefield

Desert cactus near Picacho Mountain and the Picacho Pass skirmish site.

        In video, I reference 200 Rebels fought here. The correct figure is about a dozen.

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To reach the site of the westernmost “battle” of the Civil War, I pass the nearby Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch -- “The Darndest Place You’ll Ever Visit!” -- and park my rented Jeep on a gravel frontage road near a Dairy Queen. Then I deftly cross two railroad tracks and gingerly lift a barbed-wire fence, carefully slipping under it without snagging my clothes. I scurry down and then up a wide gully, avoiding menacing-looking plant life. 

All this is legal, mind you — I had purchased the state permit required for access to the seldom-seen Picacho Pass battlefield, a footnote in Civil War history. On April 15, 1862, a dozen soldiers in the 1st California Cavalry, led by Lieutenant James Barrett, and an advance party of a like number of Confederates clashed in the desert about 30 miles northwest of Tucson, in what was then New Mexico Territory. Three were killed — all Yankees — including Barrett, who died instantly from a bullet to his neck. The desert outpost was an early-warning system of sorts for a Confederate garrison in Tucson.

You won't find this vegetation at Gettysburg.

Much as it did in 1862, the landscape today more closely resembles the surface of the moon, not what we typically think of when we envision a Civil War battlefield. The impressive Picacho Mountains, which tower more than 1,500 feet,  loom near the battleground. Scrub, mesquite, greasewood and cactus dot the desert, where the occasional pronghorn antelope leaps away as I slowly walk the largely open ground. Odd-looking tracks, surely from animals, sprinkle the landscape. Although this stroll in the desert has an in-the-middle-of-nowhere feel, the constant hum of traffic on nearby Interstate 10 makes it clear civilization is oh-so-close.

About 30 minutes earlier, a ranger at Picacho Peak State Park visitors center across that super-busy interstate had told me the general area where the long-ago battle was fought.  “Do you see those telephone poles?” he said, pointing into the far distance, about a mile or so away. “It took place there. If you go past the poles, you’ve gone too far.” If I look closely enough, he said, I might even be able to make out the trace of the old wagon road, near where the skirmish was fought.

But there is no evidence found of the road or any other sign of the 1862 battle on this visit. No Minie balls. No horseshoes. No Civil War-era metal at all. And no battlefield markers or memorials, either. There's nothing here but the beauty of the Sonoran desert: a deep-blue sky, a massive, ancient rock formation in the far distance and unusual flora and fauna you will never see at Gettysburg.

On the return to my vehicle, I wonder about the commander of the ill-fated Union attack at this lonely outpost. Apparently ignoring orders, James Barrett was not supposed to attack that spring day in 1862. Never recovered, the lieutenant's body may be buried near the railroad embankment I cross to leave this little-known Civil War site.

Or he may rest somewhere else in this beautiful landscape.

                           PANORAMA: Click at upper right for full-screen experience.

Unusual plant life on the seldom-visited battleground.

The bleak landscape where a skirmish was fought on April 15, 1862.

Parched earth at Picacho Pass, about 50 miles northwest of Tucson, Arizona.

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Civil War in Arizona: Photos of Picacho Pass skirmish site

On April 15, 1862, a small Union cavalry force was routed at Picacho Pass, about 50 miles north of Tucson, Ariz.,  by about a dozen Rebels. The state-owned skirmish site, the westernmost engagement of the Civil War, is accessible to the public only via a permit but may be seen from nearby Picacho Peak State Park. For a spectacular view, you can take a park trail to the top of a mountain, as my daughter and I did last weekend. Here's even more on Picacho Pass on my blog.

A small wayside exhibit at Picacho Peak State Park explains the fighting at Picacho Pass.
Sadly, your humble blogger, an Alabama fan, appears in the image. Roll Tide!

The skirmish site is across U.S. Interstate 10, in the shadow of the Picacho Mountains.

Saguaro cactus near Picacho Pass.

Rugged, beautiful ground near Picacho Pass.

Another view of the rugged ground near the skirmish site.

Daughter Jessie Banks with her dad at Picacho Peak State Park, near Picacho Pass.

The skirmish site, inaccessible to the public, is several hundred yards beyond this sign.

                                           Click at upper right for interactive panorama.

Civil War in Arizona: Picacho Pass skirmish photo gallery

Click here for battlefield panoramas from Antietam, Cedar Mountain, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Harris Farm, Manassas, Malvern Hill, Salem Church,  Spotsylvania Courthouse and more.

The Picacho Pass skirmish, a decisive Confederate victory, was fought April 15, 1862, 
40 miles north of Tucson, Ariz.

A wayside marker explains the skirmish at Picacho Pass, fought in the far distance.

The plaque at left notes that the three Union dead at Picacho Pass were buried on the battlefield.
 Two of the soldiers were later disinterred and re-buried in a San Francisco cemetery.

                              Picacho Pass, state-owned land, is accessible with a permit.
                              (CLICK ON IMAGE FOR FULL-SCREEN PANORAMA.)

A plaque in Picacho State Park is dedicated to the
 Confederate frontiersmen who defended Picacho Pass.

The Civil War wasn't just fought in the East and South. Fighting took place in the Southwest and Far West at such far-flung places as Glorieta Pass in the New Mexico Territory; Palmetto Ranch on the banks of the Rio Grande River, near Brownsville, Texas; and in the Arizona territory at Dragoon Springs, Stanwix Station and elsewhere. 

On April 15, 1862, a skirmish was fought in the shadows of the Picacho Mountains, about 50 miles north of Tucson, among thick mesquite and saguaro cactus. Led by Lieutenant James Barrett of the 1st California Cavalry, an advance party of 13 Union soldiers battled nearly a dozen Rebels at the advance outpost near Tucson, quickly taking three prisoners at Picacho Pass before they were routed. Among the three Yankee dead was Barrett, who was killed instantly by a bullet in the neck and buried in an unmarked grave near railroad tracks that still border the battlefield.

Twenty-five days after the fighting, a general order was issued to honor the two other Union soldiers who died. When the names of privates George Johnson and William S. Leonard were called at roll  for the remainder of the war, it stated, their companies were to respond: "He died for his country!" The remains of Johnson and Leonard were recovered and re-buried in a cemetery in San Francisco. No Rebel was killed at Picacho Pass and the Confederates had few wounded, if any.   

Located on state-owned land that requires a permit to visit, the skirmish site is located across two three-lane highways opposite Picacho Peak State Park. On a beautiful, crisp winter morning, I crossed railroad tracks and two gulleys and maneuvered through sagebrush to shoot the interactive panorama posted above of the battle site.

The skirmish was fought in the shadow of the Picacho Mountains.

Saguaro cactus are abundant at the Picacho Pass skirmish site. 

Reenactors commemorate the Picacho Pass skirmish each March at Picacho Peak State Park.