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| https://digital.utsa.edu/digital/collection/p9020coll008/id/3031/ |
For
many, the end of the Civil War comes with the surrenders of Robert E. Lee’s and
Joseph Johnston’s Confederate armies in April of 1865. Indeed, these events
sealed the death of the Confederacy. However, the war did not properly end
until early summer. There are two reasons for this. First of all, news traveled
slower back then, even with the recent introductions of new railroads and the
telegraph. Thus it took some time for Confederate forces further west to receive word that their war had been lost. Secondly, defiant elements in the
Confederate government, President Jefferson Davis among them, refused to admit
defeat. Since the head of government never confirmed an overall surrender, the
still sizeable Confederate force west of the Mississippi was unsure as how to proceed.
Some steeled themselves for a final stand, but most got the sense that things
were indeed coming to an unfortunate conclusion. They were keen not to start
any hostile actions which could prove to be unnecessary wastes of life. Yet
such an unnecessary battle would occur.
On
May 12-13 a Federal colonel who had managed not to see any action in his four
years of service led three regiments along the Rio Grande, his purposes still
up for debate. The result was the last proper battle between the forces of the
Union and the Confederacy. It was light in hard casualties of killed and
wounded, but lasted hours and generated controversy. This was the Battle of
Palmito Ranch, fought in the most backwater theatre of the war.
The Border Front
Perhaps “backwater” would not be an entirely accurate term. The Rio Grande, as it does today, forms the boundary between Texas and Mexico. It was the one border of the Confederacy that the Union Navy could not blockade. If they dared send ships up the river, they would violate Mexico’s neutrality. This neutrality was only in regards to the American Civil War itself, for Mexico was undergoing its own civil war at the same time, one injected with a strong dose of foreign invasion as well. Eager to capitalize on the United States’ internal conflict, French Emperor Napoleon III sought to expand his nation’s global influence by intervening in Mexico’s always volatile politics. He backed the conservative Mexican faction, who wanted a monarchy, against the republican Juaristas.
