Fort Casa Blanca, C.S.A.
Sandia, Jim Wells County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(About 2 1/2 mi. NW) First building erected in area that is now Jim Wells County early as 1855. During the Civil War was on Confederate supply line that started in Corpus Christi, followed the Nueces here, went to Laredo, to Brownsville and back to Corpus Christi. When Federals were in Corpus Christi, Thomas Wright, the sutler, drove from here to other points. Casa Blanca was supplied by small boats that outmaneuvered Federals on Nueces Bay, slipped into the Nueces River, and came up Penitos Creek. They hauled guns, ammunition, medicine, and other wartime goods and took out cotton, "Currency of the Confederate." The fort had walls 28" to 36" thick. An escape tunnel from its well led to the creek. It's one entryway, wide enough for a 2-wheel cart or 2 horses abreast, was closed with a heavy cypress door. Cypress shutters covered its few small windows. Corner parapets and portholes at 3 heights gave it emplacements for defense. It not only warehoused goods, but also provided shelter and water for drivers passing with wagons along the Cotton Road from San Antonio to Matamoros. For cotton wagons it meant safety from bandit chases and from killing thirsts. In the 20th century the fort has disappeared. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built as early as 1855, Fort Casa Blanca guarded a Confederate supply line that ran from Corpus Christi up the Nueces to Laredo, Brownsville, and back. With walls two to three feet thick, an escape tunnel from its well, corner parapets, and gun portholes, it warehoused arms, ammunition, and medicine while sheltering wagon drivers hauling cotton — the 'currency of the Confederacy' — toward the Rio Grande. Small boats slipped past Federal forces on Nueces Bay to keep it supplied; by the twentieth century the fort had vanished.
Why it matters
Fortified depots like Casa Blanca kept the Confederacy's cotton trade alive along the Cotton Road to Mexico, a lifeline that ran beyond the reach of the Union blockade.
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Related people
- · Thomas Wright
Themes & tags
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