Battle of Palmito Ranch

Why were soldiers still fighting? On May 1, 1865, a passenger on a steamer tossed a New Orleans newspaper to Confederates at Palmito Ranch, and they read of Lee's surrender and Lincoln's death. Several hundred men went home within ten days. Those who stayed followed commanders whose superiors had rejected a separate peace in March, and on May 9 General Kirby Smith told the western governors that his army would fight on. While Ford's cavalry drove the Union column off the field, those governors were authorizing Smith to disband. A truce at Brownsville followed within days.

What the plaque says

Battle of Palmito Ranch The last land engagement of the Civil War was fought near this site on May 12-13, 1865, thirty-four days after Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Col. Theodore H. Barrett commanded Federal troops on Brazos Island 12 miles to the east. The Confederates occupied Fort Brown 12 miles to the west, commanded by Gen. James E. Slaughter and Col. John S. (Rip) Ford, whose troops had captured Fort Brown from the Federals in 1864. Ordered to recapture the fort, Lt. Col. David Branson and 300 men advanced from Brazos Island. They won a skirmish with Confederate pickets on May 12. Barrett reinforced Branson's troops with 200 men on May 13 and renewed the march to Fort Brown. Confederate cavalry held the Federals in check until Ford arrived with reinforcements that afternoon. Ford's artillery advanced and fired on the northern end of the Federal line while the cavalry charged. The Confederate right charged the southern end of the Federal line and captured part of the Union infantry. Barrett ordered a retreat toward the U.S. position on Brazos Island. While the Confederates reported no fatalities in the Battle of Palmito Ranch, the Union forces reported four officers and 111 men killed, wounded or missing. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site — 9.9 mi
  A 72-foot brick tower finished in 1852 for the Brazos Santiago shipping lane, dark from 1905 until a reproduction lens was lit in 2022, and the only Texas lighthouse open to the public.
• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park — 12 mi
  A flat coastal prairie north of Brownsville where Taylor's army and Arista's Army of the North fought the first major battle of the Mexican War on May 8, 1846, now interpreted from both sides.
• Stillman House Museum — 13 mi
  The 1850 Greek Revival house of Charles Stillman, who laid out Brownsville in 1848 beside the army's Fort Brown, and for a century the home of the Treviño family.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 19 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.

More markers nearby

• Port of Brownsville — 6.9 mi
• Pan American Airways Blind Flying School — 9.0 mi
• Charles Champion — 9.8 mi
• Point Isabel, C.S.A. — 9.9 mi