 The next day on September 26, 1861, after the battle of Canada Alamosa was over, the Union cavalry patrol under Captain Robert M. Morris, skirmished with Confederates involved in the Alamosa engagement in the Skirmish near Fort Thorn, New Mexico Territory.This skirmish occurred thirty miles southeast of the town at the north end of Mesilla Valley and 15 miles north of Fort Thorn.Union Colonel Edward Canby, in his report of the engagement, said ten Confederates were killed and over thirty wounded in a fight that lasted one hour and forty-two minutes long.