Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist: Prizing People, Place, and History
Which two Civil War battles were fought west of the Mississippi River? Chief Justice William Rehnquist knew the answer, as he knew a myriad of often obscure (but never unimportant) historical and geographical facts, salting many of them into his Supreme Court opinions and books and using others in informal wagers with friends, family, and law clerks. The answer, found in the Chiefs opinion in Leo Sheep Co. v. United States} is the Battle of Glorieta Pass (at a strategic location near Santa Fe, New Mexico, on March 26-28, 1862) and the subsequent Battle of Picacho Pass (fought on April 15, 1862, near Tucson, Arizona). Both battles, as the Chief emphasized, were more skirmishes than full-drawn engagements, but they helped illustrate the value to the United States of building a transcontinental railroad that could transport troops when needed to protect the western states and territories. The Confederate army hoped to create an outlet to the Pacific but was effectively stopped by the Union victory at the Battle of Glorieta Pass.2 The Confederates, however, did not give up easily. When the Union forces at the Battle of Glorieta Pass asked the Confederates to surrender, one Southern commander responded memorably (and perhaps apocryphally), "We will fight first and surrender afterwards!"3