The Establishment of the Arizona Territory (USA)
Date: February 24, 1863
Location: Washington D.C., USA
Prior to the American Civil War, the modern states of Arizona and New Mexico, along with sections of eastern Nevada and southern Colorado, comprised a large territory in the Union called the New Mexico Territory. Following the outbreak of the war, Lieutenant Colonel John C. Baylor led a Confederate army against the Union forces in the New Mexico Territory, and following several victories, established the Arizona Territory (CSA) on August 1, 1861, a Confederate domain consisting of the southern half of the New Mexico Territory, with its capital as Mesilla.
Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley & Lieutenant Colonel John C. Baylor
Since the Confederate victories of 1861, 1862 had seen Baylor's army repeatedly thrown back from western Arizona by the massive Union force arriving from California, the California Column. 1862 had also seen Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley attempt to invade the remainder of the New Mexico Territory, only to have his army decisively defeated at Glorieta Pass by Union forces from New Mexico and Colorado.
The Union captured Tucson on May 20, 1862, captured Mesilla on July 1st, and drove the remaining Confederate forces to Confederate Texas. Its capital fallen, territory recaptured, and armies on the run, the Confederate domain known as the Arizona Territory ceased to exist, once again becoming a part of the New Mexico Territory and the Union.
On March 12th, 1863, the Arizona Organic Act was introduced to Congress by Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio.
U.S. Representative James M. Ashley of Ohio
The bill called for the division of the New Mexico Territory into halves along a north-south border, with the new Arizona Territory being the western half, its capital in Prescott, and new New Mexico Territory being the eastern half, its capital remaining in Santa Fe, as well as a provisional territorial government for each respective territory. This was in stark contrast to what the Confederacy attempted from 1861-1862, dividing the New Mexico Territory along and east-west with Arizona Territory being the southern half and New Mexico Territory being the northern half.
United States President Abraham Lincoln
On February 24th, 1863, after being ratified by Congress, President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law.
Later in 1868, the Arizona territorial capital was moved back to Tucson, back to Prescott in 1877, and finally moved to its current location in Phoenix in 1889. As it existed since the creation of the original New Mexico Territory in 1850, through the American Civil War, and up to modern day, the capital of New Mexico has remained in Santa Fe.
In 1912, almost 50 years after the creation of both territories, New Mexico and Arizona were admitted to the Union as states.
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