Battle of Picacho Pass RoadyGoat
1862The Battle of Picacho Pass was fought on April 15, 1862, in the Sonoran Desert near Picacho Peak (now Picacho Peak State Park) in Pinal County, Arizona, about 50 miles northwest of Tucson. It was the westernmost battle of the American Civil War. The Confederacy had claimed the southern Southwest, hoping for a land route to California's gold and the Pacific, and a Confederate force under Captain Sherod Hunter held Tucson. In response, the Union sent the California Column — some two thousand volunteers under Colonel James Carleton — marching east across the desert to retake the territory. A Union cavalry patrol of about twelve troopers and a scout from the 1st California Cavalry, led by Lieutenant James Barrett, was scouting ahead of that column when it ran into Hunter's pickets. Barrett had been ordered to wait for the main column, but he attacked the Confederate camp alone. In a fierce fight lasting more than an hour, Barrett and two of his men — Private George Johnson and Private William S. Leonard — were killed and three others wounded before the Rangers retreated to Tucson. Weeks later, outnumbered, Hunter abandoned Tucson, and the California Column marched in unopposed. A monument erected in 1928 by the Arizona Pioneers Historical Society and the Southern Pacific Railroad marks the spot.