On the cold afternoon of March 28, 1862, Confederate Capt. Charles Buckholts fell in bloody combat while leading Company E of the 4th Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers at the decisive Civil War Battle of Glorieta east of Santa Fe.

Like other casualties of that day, the captain had his own personal history, which for him ended there at age 38.

The person who perhaps knows the Buckholts story best is James Taylor of Santa Fe. He happens to own the Colt Model 1851 Navy Revolver and one of the pair of Trotter Derringer pistols that the captain carried when he was slain.

I spoke with Taylor recently and he filled in some of the gaps in my own knowledge of the actions and death of Capt. Buckholts at Glorieta.

Mississippi-born in 1824, Buckholts studied English and law at Yale University, then migrated to central Texas at mid-century with his brother John.

Charles Buckholts settled at Cameron in Milam County. Taylor says that according to a niece, Jean Adams, he was a Mason regarded as "a gentleman who quoted poetry and liked fine clothes."

After the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861, Charles Buckholts took up arms for the Confederacy. At San Antonio he became a member of the 4th Volunteer Regiment led by Lt. Col. William F. Scurry, part of Gen. Henry H. Sibley's brigade.

Sibley's force, almost 3,000 strong, marched to El Paso and used it as a launching pad to conquer New Mexico for the South. On Feb. 21, 1862, the Texans defeated a superior Union force at the Battle of Valverde above Fort Craig.

Advance units of the Sibley brigade then hurried up the Rio Grande. Socorro, Albuquerque and Santa Fe fell to the invaders.

Lt. Col. Scurry was soon on the trail east of the capital with 600 men, headed for Fort Union. But at the summit of Glorieta Pass on March 28, the Confederates ran headlong into a body of Federal troops far outnumbering them.

The battle was joined mid-morning and continued with fury until late in the day. Even though the Union Army was stronger and better armed, it remained on the defensive.

The Texans, to compensate, waged a highly aggressive type of combat, letting loose with their unnerving rebel yell at every opportunity.

After a pause to regroup about noon, Scurry repositioned his forces for an assault against the entire Union line. He sent steely eyed Maj. John Shropshire to lead the attack from the Confederate right.

With him went Capt. Buckholts and some of his company. As the fighting commenced, the Texans surged forward, toward what is today called Artillery Hill, where Federal cannon were stationed.

In the fierce stand-up fighting, Maj. Shropshire died when a musket ball struck him in the head.

Capt. Buckholts and his men out front locked horns at close quarters with some of their enemies in blue. The fighting became furious, hand-to-hand.

The captain in such a situation used his long-bladed Bowie knife to good effect. These were made by Texan blacksmiths for the soldiers and often on the handle had a protective D-guard.

Buckholts took down three of his foes before he himself was killed. Theo Noel, a 4th Texas scout, relates that Capt. Buckholts died from "a sabre thrust, the one doing it being killed by the captain with his pistol before he expired."

Since James Taylor owns two of the three Buckholts pistols, there's a fair chance that he has the one that fired that final shot.

When Lt. Col. Scurry rode out to check on the status of his right wing, he was shocked to learn of the slaying of two of his most valiant officers, Maj. Shropshire and Capt. Buckholts. In addition, Maj. Henry Raguet had been mortally wounded on the Confederate left.

As day's end approached, the exhausted armies disengaged. Both claimed victory: the North for inflicting the greater number of casualties on its enemies, and the South because by nightfall it held possession of the battlefield.

The body of Charles Buckholts was taken to Santa Fe and buried in the Masonic Cemetery. The exact location of his grave today is unknown.

The captain's personal effects and weapons, according to Taylor, were recovered by a priest who returned them to Buckholts' brother John in Texas. His daughter sold the guns to a Texas dealer in 1952.

Taylor informed me that a few years ago he went over the Glorieta Battlefield with local Civil War expert Dr. Don Alberts, who showed him the approximate spot where Buckholts fell.

The site is under the pavement or perhaps the gravel shoulder of Interstate 25, just east of the Glorieta exit. How sad that such an important patch of ground would seem to be lost forever!

Historian Marc Simmons is author of numerous books on New Mexico and the Southwest. His column appears Saturdays.