Moments of Enchantment; Confederate Major John Shropshire

If John Schroppcher had been under 6 feet tall, chances are he would have stayed in New Mexico forever. It took a move to Texas, a civil war, and more than 150 years to earn a plane ticket back to his home. More in a moment. In 1987, a landowner in Glorietta discovered two graves as he trenched a foundation for his home. The first grave held 30 Confederate soldiers. Arms carefully folded across their chests. The other had a single occupant. A tall officer whose spurs signaled his rank. The landowner recognized the importance of his discovery. This was the site of the famous civil war battle of Glorietta Pass. The buried officer and his men died in the bloody battle of March the 28th 1862, and although it would be difficult to identify the men in the

mass grave, the officer was a different story. Battle diaries tell of a major John Schroppcher of the fifth regiment, Texas mounted volunteers, who was felled by Union fire. The major should have been taken to Santa Fe with other Confederate officers for burial, but there was a problem. The only caskets available were six feet long, not long enough for the Lanky Schroppcher. The best his men could do was wrap him in his own blanket and bury him in a separate grave. The discovery of the graves 125 years later started the major on his journey home. Museum officials alerted newspapers and civil war associations all over the country looking for the soldier's descendants. A family unit, the Society of Schroppchers, replied, and in August 1990, the major finally went home to Valley Forge Kentucky. There, with full military honors, he was reunited with his parents, who died in 1834. Learn more about the Battle of Glorietta Pass at the Palace of the Governor's History Museum in Santa

Fe. Moments of Enchantment brought to you by the new Mexico Office of Cultural Affairs. For Moments of Enchantment, I'm David Griffin.