Baylor defeats Federal troops in Arizona Territory, declares himself governor

(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1861, Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor led 300 men of the Confederate Second Texas Mounted Rifles in an assault on Union forces under Maj. Isaac Lynde at Fort Fillmore, Arizona.
Baylor was under orders to occupy a chain of forts protecting the overland route between Fort Clark and Fort Bliss.
He entered the nearby town of Mesilla that night. The next morning Lynde ordered an artillery attack on Mesilla, but after three of his men were killed and six wounded, he withdrew. Continued