The Last Land Battle of the Civil War Was Fought in Cameron County

On May 12-13, 1865, Union and Confederate forces fought at Palmito Ranch. The site is just east of Brownsville along the Rio Grande. This was more than a month after Confederate General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Confederate forces won the skirmish. But the war was already over.

During the war, Brownsville was a key port for Confederate cotton. Ships carried the cotton into Mexico to avoid the Union naval blockade. That border location made the region unusually important in the conflict. The Palmito Ranch battlefield site is near present-day Brownsville.