Battle of Stanwix Station
Part of theTrans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War
The desert in Arizona, where Stanwix Station lies.
Date March 30, 1862 (1862-03-30) Location New Mexico Territory (USA),Arizona Territory (CSA) Modern Day:Yuma County, 6 miles SW ofAgua Caliente, Arizona Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Confederate States
Commanders and leaders
William P. Calloway	John W. Swilling
Strength
272	10
Casualties and losses
1 wounded	None

Stanwix Station, in westernArizona, was a stop on theButterfield Overland MailStagecoach line built in the later 1850s near theGila River about 80 miles (130 km) east ofYuma, Arizona. Originally the station was calledFlap Jack Ranch laterGrinnell's Ranch orGrinnell's Station. In 1862, Grinnell's was listed on the itinerary of theCalifornia Column in the same place asStanwix Ranch (orStanwix Station) which became the site of the westernmost skirmish of theAmerican Civil War.^[1] A traveler in 1864,John Ross Browne, wrote Grinnell's was six miles southwest of the hot springs ofAgua Caliente, Arizona.^[2]

The westernmost skirmish of theAmerican Civil War, which occurred at Stanwix Station, took place on March 29, 1862, when Capt.William P. Calloway and a vanguard of 272 troops from theCalifornia Column discovered a small detachment of Confederate Arizona Volunteers led by 2nd Lt.John W. Swilling burning hay, which had been placed at Stanwix Station for the California Column's animals. After a brief exchange of gun fire with the much larger Union force, the Confederates retreated toTucson, the capital of the western district of theConfederate Territory of Arizona. The skirmish resulted in the wounding of a German-born Union private, William Frank Semmelrogge (Semmilrogge), who subsequently recovered. There appear to have been no other casualties.

The significance of the incident was twofold. First, the burning of hay, not only at Stanwix but at five other former stagecoach stations along theGila River east of Fort Yuma, delayed the California Column's advance to Tucson andMesilla, the territorial capital of Confederate Arizona. Before the Confederates evacuated Tucson, they also removed or destroyed the supplies gathered for the Union advance byAmmi S. White at the Maricopa Villages. Secondly, and of more immediate importance, Swilling was able to reach Tucson and warn Capt.Sherod Hunter, district military commander of western Confederate Arizona, of the approaching California Column. This led Hunter to place pickets at strategic locations, leading to theBattle of Picacho Pass.

The stagecoach lines were abandoned in the 1880s when theSouthern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) completed laying track to Tucson from Yuma. The SPRR built a station just to the east of theMaricopa County line on Stanwix Flats and called it "Stanwix Station."

• La Paz Incident

• The Confederate Arizona Campaign of 1862, Col. Sherrod Hunter Camp 1525, SCV, Phoenix, Arizona.
• Hunt, Aurora,James Henry Carleton, 1814–1873, Frontier Dragoon, Frontier Military Series II, Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1958. (Hunt states that John Swilling led the Confederates at Picacho Pass, but this is persuasively contradicted by the other source above, who show that Swilling was actually elsewhere guarding Union prisoners at the time.)
• Masich, Andrew E.,The Civil War in Arizona; the Story of the California Volunteers, 1861–65 Nornan: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006.
• Josephy, Alvin M. Jr. (1986).War on the Frontier: The Trans-Mississippi West. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books.ISBN 0-8094-4780-0.
• Fort Bowie National Historic Site
• Hart, Herbert M."The Civil War in the West".California and the Civil War. The California State Military Museum. Retrieved20 December 2011.

32°56′01″N113°23′33″W / 32.93352°N 113.39255°W /32.93352; -113.39255

• Battles of the California Column of the American Civil War
• Battles of the Trans-Mississippi Theater of the American Civil War
• Union victories of the American Civil War
• Battles and conflicts without fatalities
• Butterfield Overland Mail
• Battles of the American Civil War in Arizona
• Gila River
• Stagecoach stations in Arizona
• History of Yuma County, Arizona
• March 1862

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