Glorieta Pass, the Battle Known as the Gettysburg of the West

Where the real aspect was --- was in strategy. You can not win a war on the defensive. You can not win a war being defeated and losing your offensive capability. And you can not lose a fight and not be able to conduct a retrograde the army back and lose the better portion of the Army in that action itself. The rebuilding of combat power takes time.. and has to be balanced. A strategy that does not employ a means to gain the offensive... no matter how many defensive victories... is unsustainable. And yet.. all that said... in 1862 and in 1863 - al the cards were still on the table.

So Lawrence - best example can apply to what just said was the defeat with enormous loses at Cold Harbor. Grant was able to rebuild his combat power and strike again. He did so by stripping the garrisons around DC and along the coast. He knew that he had to remain on the offensive and grind the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia down. Sure... Lew was probably the real hero who saved the US at the ost critical hour of the whole war, but Wallace was never ever forgiven for Shiloh. But strategy and great leadership allowed Grant to have forces to shift back to DC and repell Early's Corps surprise attack on the capital. That is the stuff of Great Captains...

And to get back to this article - could not have picked a worse leadership team for an offensive than the Confederates had for the invasion of New Mexico. Well - maybe there were even worse - but how do you qualify terrible being more terrible?

LTC Eric Udouj - You and I agree on that point. The greatness of Grant was that he grasped Strategy beyond the immediate battle, as did Sherman. After taking a beating at Kennesaw, Sherman didn't engage in another frontal assault, but committed to a series of Flanking Maneuvers since he knew that the Confederates would have to follow him. He understood that losing a battle didn't mean anything if the enemy couldn't stop you from progressing.
If Lee had followed Longstreet's advice to disengage at Gettysburg and march on Washington, making the Union Army follow and fight on ground of their choosing, the outcome may have been different.
I had a Battalion Commander that had us tour any Civil War Battlefield we were close to at the time. He was a fanatic about them and had them memorized to the point he could tell you which unit was where and how they did.