Titlum-Tatlum
Freeport vicinity, Brazoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Nearby island. Resort for fishermen, hunters, small boats. During the Civil War, 1861-65, used by such captains as H. C. Wedemeyer, a peacetime shipbuilder, as base for operations defying Federal blockade. Ships loaded with cotton entered waterways around Titlum-Tatlum and hid among willows, out of range of observers with spyglasses on the tall masts of federal blockading ships. On dark nights or in bad weather, blockade-runners would slip out of here to the open seas, hugging shores, sometimes being towed by men on land until water was reached. Cotton taken overseas by such ships would buy for the Confederacy (hampered by lack of manufacturing facilities) guns, gunpowder, medicines, coffee, cloth, hardware and shoes. Purchases came into Texas by the same route that cotton was freighted out. Aside from such havens as Titlum-Tatlum, blockade runners needed every advantage over the foe, for they supplied life-blood to the Confederacy. Texas gave them unstinted support: from her coast guard and from infantry and cavalry that would not let Federals land even to get drinking water or wood; so that blockade ships often had to drop duty and take off for New Orleans for supplies and repairs. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, the tangled willow-lined waterways around this coastal island gave Confederate blockade-runners a place to hide. Captains like the shipbuilder H. C. Wedemeyer slipped cotton-laden vessels out on dark or stormy nights, sometimes towed to open water by men working from shore, evading the Federal ships watching from offshore. The cotton they carried overseas bought guns, powder, medicine, and cloth for a Confederacy short on manufacturing of its own.
Why it matters
It marks how the Union naval blockade shaped the war along the Texas coast, and how smuggling became a lifeline for a South starved of manufactured goods.
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Related people
- · H. C. Wedemeyer
Related events
- · Union naval blockade
Themes & tags
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