Corpus Christi, 1861-1865
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Near here on August 16 and 18, 1862, three Confederate artillery pieces held off four attacking Federal ships during the Civil War bombardment of Corpus Christi. The blockading squadron of Lieutenant J.W. Kittredge, U.S.N., had harrassed the southern coastal trade inside the offshore islands since February. It had gained control of Aransas Bay in July, halting water traffic in the shallow bays, and entered Corpus Christi Bay August 12. Women and children were evacuated during a forty-eight hour truce and the Confederates threw up breastworks for the artillery on the night of August 15. On August 16, the Federal ships and Confederate shore battery exchanged hundreds of shells before the Federals withdrew. The Federal ships returned August 18, landing sailors and a howitzer north of the Confederate battery. The sailors dragged the howitzer within range of the battery and began firing. Confederate infantry, led by Major A.M. Hobby, charged the Federal position. Captain James A. Ware's cavalry joined the assault, forcing the Federals to withdraw. A month later Kittredge was captured south of here at Flour Bluff while ashore with a detail. On November 17, 1863, Federal troops under General Nathaniel P. Banks captured Mustang Island to the east and held it seven months. By this time Confederate troops had been withdrawn from south Texas, making it possible for soldiers from the Federal garrison to visit Corpus Christi at will. They frequently returned to camp loaded with lumber torn from frame buildings, other objects of plunder, and on occasion, Union sympathizers. These depredations, a bitterly cold winter in 1863-1864, and a scarcity of food resulted in an exodus of local people. There was little left in Corpus Christi when the war ended. A memorial to Texans who served in the Confederacy.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In August 1862, a small Confederate battery of three guns near this spot dueled a Union blockading squadron that had spent months choking off the South Texas coast trade. Over two days, shore artillery and Federal warships traded hundreds of shells before a charge led by Major A.M. Hobby and Captain James Ware's cavalry drove the Federals back. The war ground on here for years afterward, with Union troops taking nearby Mustang Island in 1863 and a harsh winter and plundering raids emptying much of Corpus Christi before peace returned.
Why it matters
The bombardment of Corpus Christi is a reminder that the Civil War reached even the remote Gulf coast, where blockade and coastal raids brought hardship far from the great eastern battlefields.
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Related people
- · J.W. Kittredge
- · A.M. Hobby
- · James A. Ware
- · Nathaniel P. Banks
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of the Corpus Christi Lighthouse
Corpus Christi, TX
As Corpus Christi worked to become a deepwater port in the late 1850s, the U.S. Lighthouse Service bought this site in 1857 and built a brick lighthouse to guide approaching vessels. The Civil War halted the harbor plans, and Confederate forces turned the tower into a powder magazine — until a band of young Confederate loyalists, fearing Federal capture in 1863, secretly packed a butter churn with gunpowder and tried to blow it up. The blast scorched the tower but spared the powder store; the battered beacon limped on until it was dismantled as a nuisance around 1878.
George Owens
Corpus Christi, TX
Born into slavery in Kentucky in 1843, George Owens enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 and served with the 116th United States Colored Infantry through the Appomattox Campaign that ended the Civil War. He then joined the newly formed 9th Cavalry—one of the regiments Plains nations called Buffalo Soldiers—patrolling and guarding the west Texas frontier before settling in Corpus Christi, where he died in 1879.
William Henderson Maltby
Corpus Christi, TX
Ohio-born William Henderson Maltby came to Corpus Christi in 1859 to help his brother publish the Ranchero, beginning a lifelong career in the frontier press. He served the Confederacy as an artillery officer until his battery was captured in 1863, survived the 1867 yellow fever epidemic that killed his first wife, and in 1877 co-founded the Corpus Christi Free Press, forerunner of the Corpus Christi Caller.
Matthew Nolan
Corpus Christi, TX
Orphaned and brought to Corpus Christi as a boy in 1845, Matthew Nolan served as a bugler through the Mexican-American War, rode with the Texas Rangers under 'Rip' Ford, and became Nueces County sheriff in 1858. He fought for the Confederacy along the Texas coast, returned to the sheriff's office as a major, and was murdered in 1864; he lies in Old Bayview Cemetery beside the brother who died as his deputy.