DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Brazos Santiago Pass — south of where you're sitting right now, if you can picture it — was no quiet stretch of Texas coastline during the Civil War. It was a doorway.
And like most doorways in a war, everybody wanted to control it, everybody tried to hold it, and nearly everybody, at one point or another, got pushed back through it. Let me walk you through what happened here. On February 21, 1861, Texas troops under Colonel John S.
Ford crossed to the island on the far side of the pass — there was a fort and a town over there, Brazos Santiago — and they captured the U.S. depot. Not just took it. Captured it with mortars, siege guns, and ordnance.
That's a statement. A Confederate battery went up right after. Then, in March of 1861, the negotiations happened — and this is the part that always strikes me as quietly remarkable.
Out on the water, off the bar, aboard the U.S.S. Daniel Webster, two men sat down: E.B. Nichols, acting for Texas, and Major Fitzjohn Porter, acting for the United States.
They arranged the Federal evacuation of the Rio Grande. Not a battle. A conversation on a ship.
And then the war kept right on coming anyway. Blockade ships arrived in December of 1861, and Colonel Ford shifted his forces to Brownsville. General J.B.
Magruder, C.S.A., ordered the blasting of the lighthouse north of the pass in 1862 — because sometimes the most useful thing a lighthouse can do for one side is to stop existing. Now here's where this stretch of water gets genuinely extraordinary. Trade vital to the Confederacy came from Cuba, from Europe, from Asia, running into Bagdad, Mexico — and often slipping, the marker says, actually slipping, into Brazos Santiago Pass itself.
The harbor sheltered blockade runners from 1861 all the way through 1864. It was a lifeline stitched together by ships that weren't supposed to be there. But on May 10, 1863, the U.S.S.
Brooklyn came in and destroyed schooners in the harbor. That was a blow. Then late in 1863, French warships banned war material in Bagdad, which you'd think would tighten the knot — but instead, Mexican steam lighters started running guns from sea vessels directly into Brazos Santiago.
The pass found a way. It always found a way. On November 2, 1863, General N.P.
Banks landed U.S. Army troops right here. He took the line of Rio Grande forts, refortified Brazos Island, and made it the terminus for an Army railroad running all the way to Rancho Blanco on the Rio Grande.
A railroad. Built on an island. In the middle of a war.
When the Confederates retook the Rio Grande Line in 1864, the Federals in Brownsville were pushed back — thrown back, the marker says — to Brazos Island. And then we come to May of 1865. The war, by any reckoning, was over.
But nobody had quite told everyone in this corner of Texas. Colonel Theodore H. Barrett took troops from Brazos Island and marched on Brownsville.
He was met by Colonel Ford's Confederates at Palmito Hill. And what followed was the last engagement of the Civil War. The very last one.
All of it — the captured depot, the negotiated evacuations, the blockade runners slipping through the dark, the lighthouse blown to rubble — all of it wound up here, at a pass south of where you're standing, at the end of a war that had already ended. That's Brazos Santiago.
What the marker says
Brazos Santiago Pass, to south of this spot, was important Confederate harbor-entry during the Civil War. On island across the pass were fort and town of Brazos Santiago, where on Feb. 21, 1861, Texas troops under Col. John S. Ford captured the U.S. depot with mortars, siege guns and ordnance. A Confederate battery was then set up. In March 1861, off the bar, on U.S.S. "Daniel Webster", E.B. Nichols and Maj. Fitzjohn Porter, acting for Texas and the U.S., arranged Federal evacuation of the Rio Grande. Blockade ships arrived Dec. 1861. Col. Ford shifted forces to Brownsville. Gen. J.B. Magruder, C.S.A., ordered blasting of lighthouse north of pass, 1862. Trade vital to Confederacy plied from Cuba, Europe, Asia to Bagdad, Mexico, often actually slipping into Brazos Santiago Pass. Harbor sheltered blockade runners 1861-64. On May 10, 1863, U.S.S. "Brooklyn" destroyed schooners in the harbor. Late 1863, French warships banned war material in Bagdad, and Mexican steam lighters ran guns from sea vessels into Brazos Santiago. Nov. 2, 1863, Gen. N.P. Banks landed U.S. Army here, took line of Rio Grande forts. Refortified Brazos Island and made it terminus for Army railroad to Rancho Blanco on Rio Grande. When C.S.A. retook Rio Grande Line in 1864, Federals in Brownsville were thrown back to Brazos Island. Col. Theodore H. Barrett, with troops from here, marching on Brownsville in May 1865, was confronted by Col. Ford's Confederates at Palmito Hill and fought last engagement of the Civil War.