Point Isabel, C.S.A.
Port Isabel, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After Texas seceded and joined the Confederacy, the Federal Navy in late 1861 blockaded this port with the U.S. "Santiago de Cuba". Commerce stoppage caused removal of customs offices to Brownsville and some civilians to neutral Bagdad, Mexico. The Confederates ceased to use the lighthouse, and it became a watch tower for blockade runners, and thus Laguna Madre their haven. Boats from the U.S.S. "Brooklyn", in May 1863, attacked vessels in port and a Confederate unit near the lighthouse. The Confederates tried to blow up the tower--a defense measure--but only succeeded in damaging fixtures. The French, supporting Maximilian in Mexico, prohibited the landing of war material at Bagdad. Defying both the French and U.S. Naval patrols, Mexican lighters from the Rio Grande landed here in Sept. 1863 with a large cargo of C.S.A. arms. In Nov. 1863, U.S. forces from the expedition of Gen. N.P. Banks occupied Point Isabel. The blockade was lifted and the port reactivated. In Aug. 1864, the Confederates drove the Federals across the bay to Brazos Island. The next march, Federal Gen. Lew Wallace (later author of "Ben Hur") met Confederate officers here to talk peace.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After Texas joined the Confederacy, the U.S. Navy blockaded this Gulf port in late 1861, choking off commerce and driving customs offices and civilians away. The old lighthouse became a watchtower for blockade runners who used Laguna Madre as a haven, and the port changed hands repeatedly — Federal forces occupied it in 1863, Confederates drove them out in 1864, and in 1865 Union General Lew Wallace, later author of "Ben Hur," met Confederate officers here to discuss peace. Mexican lighters even ran Confederate arms ashore in defiance of both French and U.S. patrols.
Why it matters
Point Isabel shows how the Civil War reached the far southern edge of Texas, where blockade, smuggling, and the tangled politics of the Rio Grande border made this remote port strategically vital.
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Related people
- · Lew Wallace
- · N. P. Banks
Related events
- · Union blockade of Point Isabel
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Point Isabel Lighthouse
Port Isabel, TX
Raised by the federal government in 1852, this lighthouse guided the busy commerce of the Rio Grande's mouth, where steamboats and coastal traders converged. Its light went dark during the Civil War and flickered in and out of service for decades before being permanently extinguished in 1905, a small monument to the rise and decline of Gulf maritime trade.
Brazos Santiago, C.S.A.
South Padre Island, TX
Guarding the mouth of the Rio Grande, Brazos Santiago Pass became one of the Confederacy's most vital lifelines during the Civil War. With the Union blockade choking Southern ports, cotton and war material moved through neutral Mexican Bagdad and slipped into this pass from Cuba, Europe, and beyond, keeping the Trans-Mississippi supplied. The region changed hands repeatedly, and troops staged from Brazos Island fought at Palmito Hill in May 1865 — the last land engagement of the war, weeks after Appomattox.
These Palmetto Pilings
Brownsville, TX
These weathered pilings mark two separate military supply roads a generation apart. The cypress piles are remnants of a floating bridge Gen. Zachary Taylor threw across Boca Chica Inlet in 1846 during the Mexican-American War; the palmetto pilings are what remains of a railroad crossing begun by Gen. Francis Herron in 1864 and finished by Gen. Philip Sheridan in 1865 to move Union supplies at the close of the Civil War.
Battle of Palmito Ranch
Brownsville, TX
On May 12–13, 1865 — more than a month after Lee's surrender at Appomattox — Union and Confederate forces clashed near this spot in the last land engagement of the Civil War. Federal troops advancing from Brazos Island toward Fort Brown were checked by Confederate cavalry under Col. John S. "Rip" Ford until his artillery and a flanking charge forced a Union retreat. In a strange coda to a war already lost, the Confederates carried the field, reporting no fatalities while Union losses ran to more than a hundred.