First Battle of Mesilla - Aftermath

Aftermath

At sunset the next day, Baylor ordered his artillery and more cavalry to reinforce him, while the rest of his command moved into position to attack the fort the next day. During the same night, the Confederates managed to capture 85 of the fort's horses, which formed most of the fort's transportation. Fearing an attack the next day, Lynde abandoned Fort Fillmore after destroying the ammunition and supplies in the citadel. He retreated northeast towards Fort Stanton across the dry Organ Mountains. Many Union troops apparently had filled their canteens with the fort's medicinal whiskey instead of water, hardly wise for a summertime march across desert country.

During the pursuit the following day, the Confederates were able to capture dozens of straggling Federals. Lynde's dehydrated command, reduced to 100 men by this time, was overtaken by the Confederates and forced to surrender at San Agustine Springs on July 27. The prisoners were paroled, and Baylor concentrated his battalion at the fort. He was able to refit his command with the captured Springfield rifles and other captured equipment.

The Confederate victory at Mesilla actualized local overtures towards secession, which had been ratified by two conventions in March 1861. On August 1 Baylor declared the establishment of an organized Confederate Arizona Territory, consisting of the portion of the New Mexico Territory south of the 34th parallel north. Baylor installed himself as the new territory's military governor, and declared martial law. Baylor's success at Mesilla led to Henry Hopkins Sibley's ambitious New Mexico Campaign the following February. The Second Battle of Mesilla was a skirmish fought in the desert near Mesilla on June 1, 1862 between Arizona rebels and New Mexican militia. The engagement ended with a Union victory and prompted the rebels to withdraw from Mesilla a few days later on June 7.