CWRT of South Central CT: Hamish Lutris presents: The Civil War in the West

This presentation will discuss the ill-fated western expedition of 1862. Headed up by Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley, the CSA attempted to bring a force to Colorado in 1862, hoping to take over the extensive and newly-discovered mineral deposits there, as well as seeking a staging area to take California. The effort failed, but the danger to the new territories and states of the west was real, and only narrowly averted by one of the greatest marches of the Civil- or any other- War by a hodge-podge group of miners and cowboys, as well as by the efforts of the venerable Indian scout Kit Carson to defend the area against Confederate threats. The valiant defense of the American West is one of the lesser-known aspects of the Civil War, but one that deserves more attention from historians of the war.