Fort Ringgold, C.S.A.

Not every Texan who passed through here wore gray. The First Texas Cavalry (Union) was organized at New Orleans in November 1862 under Edmund J. Davis, and its ranks held many Spanish-speaking Texans and German Unionists from the Hill Country. It landed on the coast on November 2, 1863, and occupied Brownsville four days later. Roughly 2,500 Tejanos fought for the Confederacy and more than 900 joined the federal army. Texas as a whole sent 1,915 men to the Union. The border war was never a simple contest between two sides.

What the plaque says

Fort Ringgold, C.S.A. Occupied early in Civil War by Texas Confederates under Col. John S. Ford. Vital in chain of posts used to defend the 2,000 mile Texas frontier, coastline and border always threatened by attacks from Indians, bandits and Federal troops. Cols. Ford, August Buchel and Santos Benavides had troops here from time to time to scout the river, defend ranches and guard wagons trading cotton for war supplies in neutral Mexico. Taken in November 1863 by 1st Texas Union Cavalry. Retaken May 1864 by Ford and used as base to recapture Brownsville. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Roma Historic District — 13 mi
  A bluff-top Rio Grande steamboat port, now a National Historic Landmark District where Heinrich Portscheller's molded brick and walled stone compounds face Ciudad Miguel Alemán across the river.
• Falcon State Park — 25 mi
  A 576-acre state park at the foot of the Falcon International Reservoir, made by the dam Presidents Eisenhower and Ruiz Cortines dedicated in 1953, known for bass fishing, camping and brush-country birds.
• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 30 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.

More markers nearby

• Fort Ringgold — steps away
• The Rev. Gustav Gollbach, O.M.I. — 0.7 mi
• Site of Cortina Battle — 0.7 mi
• Rio Grande City, C.S.A. — 0.7 mi