The Last Shots After Surrender: Palmito Ranch
Picture this: you’re a Union colonel, the war’s practically over, and you decide to attack Confederate forces anyway. Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, newly assigned to command an all-black unit and never having been involved in combat, ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons. The 30-year-old Barrett had been an army officer since 1862, but he had yet to see combat. Anxious for higher rank, he volunteered for the newly raised “colored” regiments. The Battle of Palmito Ranch, also known as the Battle of Palmito Hill, is considered by some criteria the final battle of the American Civil War. It was fought May 12 and 13, 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago, at the southern tip of Texas. The battle took place more than a month after the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee to Union forces at Appomattox Court House. On May 12-13, the last battle of the Civil War had been fought at the southernmost tip of Texas–resulting in a Confederate victory. Although Palmetto Ranch did nothing to change the war’s outcome, it added the final irony to a conflict replete with ironies, unexpected successes, and lost opportunities. Union Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment is believed to have been the last man killed during the engagement. Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana was the last fatality during the Battle at Palmito Ranch, likely making him the final combat death of the entire war. The ultimate irony of America’s bloodiest conflict ending with a Confederate victory seems almost too absurd to be true, yet here we are.
When 47 Irishmen Defeated a Navy: The Battle of Sabine Pass
The Confederate garrison at Fort Griffin, established to protect Sabine City, only numbered 46 men. The fort’s small force of 46 men, under the command of Lt. Richard W. Dowling, disabled two ships, captured the gunboat Clifton with about 200 prisoners, and forced the Union flotilla to retire. He placed General William B. Franklin in charge of an amphibious force that included four gunboats, 18 transports, and nearly 6,000 troops. They set sail from New Orleans, Louisiana, and arrived off Sabine Pass on September 7. The next day, Franklin called for an invasion of the Confederate band of 47 Irish immigrants commanded by Lieutenant Richard W. “Dick” Dowling. The Davis Guards fired their cannons 107 times in 35 minutes of action, a rate of less than two minutes per shot, which ranked as far more rapid than the standard for heavy artillery. The Confederates captured 350 Union prisoners and two gunboats. The Confederate defenders suffered no casualties, and Union operations in the area ceased. The Davis Guards, who suffered no casualties during the battle, received the thanks of the Confederate Congress for their victory. Deemed by Jefferson Davis the most impressive defensive stand in the entire history of warfare, the Battle of Sabine Pass was certainly surprising. 47 Confederates defeated an invading force of more than 4000 Union Soldiers and 20 warships, and accomplished this feat with six artillery guns and a fort constructed mostly from compacted mud. It’s like David and Goliath, except David had five friends and Goliath brought an entire armada.
The Duel That Captivated Europe: Alabama vs. Kearsarge
The Battle of Cherbourg, or sometimes the Battle off Cherbourg or the Sinking of CSS Alabama, was a single-ship action fought during the American Civil War between the United States Navy warship, USS Kearsarge, and the Confederate States Navy warship, CSS Alabama, on June 19, 1864, off Cherbourg, France. After five successful commerce raiding missions in the Atlantic Ocean, CSS Alabama put into Cherbourg Harbor on June 11, 1864. The Confederate States sloop-of-war was commanded by Captain Raphael Semmes. The duel took place on June 19, 1864, in international waters off the coast of France, although close enough to be visible from shore. The two warships circled one another, firing as fast as the crews could load. The quality of Alabama’s shells proved an even greater defense than Kearsarge’s chain mail armor. Several rounds failed to explode, including a shell that lodged in the sternpost of Kearsarge and almost certainly would have been fatal had it detonated. Instead, it was Alabama that took several hits and began taking on water. Semmes fought her until she sank, then — defiant to the last — threw his sword into the sea and swam to the safety of a nearby British yacht that had come out to watch the excitement. She was escorted by the French Navy ironclad Couronne, whose mission was to ensure that the ensuing battle occurred outside the French harbor. Captain Winslow spotted the departing Confederate raider, so he turned his ship around to take the impending battle out of French territorial waters. This wasn’t just a naval battle; it was theater for all of Europe to witness.
The Crater That Became a Death Trap
At Petersburg, during the final protracted assault on Richmond’s layered defense, the Civil War had settled into World War One-style trench warfare. Both sides had finally absorbed the idea that the accuracy of modern weapons made obsolete Napoleonic mass charges like the murderous Pickett’s Charge. Pennsylvania coal miners hatched a brilliant plan to dig a tunnel under Confederate lines and blow them sky-high with tons of explosives. Unfortunately, it was all done so sluggishly that the Confederates were able to recover and repel the advance, which threatened to collapse their lines. Common sense suggests that the Federals should have been directed around the crater but Garrison doesn’t address this. Grant, not an enthusiastic supporter of the idea, visited the site and realized the tremendous lost opportunity, and relieved the local commander responsible for its failure, General Ambrose Burnside. Instead of charging around the massive hole they’d created, Union troops poured directly into it like lemmings. The Confederates simply stood at the rim and shot down into what became a turkey shoot. What should have been an ingenious breakthrough turned into one of the war’s most embarrassing tactical disasters.
When the Enemy Saved Your Life: Angel’s Glow at Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh was one of the bloodiest in the entire Civil War. It was a constant, two-day struggle that left little time for the medics to tend for the wounded, and the massive amount of wounded soldiers meant that many of them would be left just lying on the battlefield for days. As the wounded men lay in agony, a strange thing happened: Some of their wounds started glowing. The eerie sheen was clearly visible in the dark, and no one could understand what was happening. However, the strangest part happened when the medics actually started treating the wounded: The soldiers with glowing wounds were healing much better than the ones with normal, non-glowing injuries. The phenomenon soon became known as Angel’s Glow. Its nature remained a mystery, and many suspected the healing shine was actually divine in origin. The strange secret of Angel’s Glow was finally solved in 2001 by two high school students who were investigating the phenomenon for a science fair project. Turns out it was bioluminescent bacteria that actually helped fight infection! Sometimes the strangest things in war aren’t supernatural at all – they’re just science we haven’t figured out yet.
The Accidental Victory at Chattanooga
At Chattanooga, the Federal army advanced to take the base of Missionary Ridge, but the soldiers were so caught up in their successful charge that they swept on without orders to capture Missonary Ridge itself. Picture thousands of Union soldiers getting so excited about winning that they completely forgot to stop when their officers told them to. These weren’t green recruits either – these were seasoned veterans who’d been beaten down by defeats and humiliations. But something magical happened that day in November 1863. The men just kept charging up that impossibly steep ridge, screaming like banshees, completely ignoring their commanders who were frantically trying to call them back. The Confederates, who should have easily held the high ground, panicked and ran. What started as a limited objective turned into one of the most spectacular unplanned victories of the entire war. Sometimes the best military strategy is just pure, unhinged enthusiasm.
The Naval Battle That Inspired an Impressionist
Édouard Manet produced two paintings of the fight, The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama, now at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Kearsarge at Boulogne, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. American marine artist Xanthus Smith painted six versions of the naval battle. The most famous of these, a massive work exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition, is in the collection of the Union League of Philadelphia. The 37th album of Les Tuniques Bleues, titled Duel dans la Manche (“Duel in the Channel”), takes place during the Battle of Cherbourg, on USS Kearsarge. When Kearsarge later anchored off the French resort town of Boulogne-sur-Mer it was thronged by curious visitors, one of whom was the artist Édouard Manet. Although he did not witness the historic battle, Manet made a painting of it partly as an attempt to regain the respect of his colleagues after having been ridiculed for his works in the 1864 Salon. Manet’s picture of the naval engagement and his portrait of the victorious Kearsarge belong to a group of his seascapes of Boulogne whose unorthodox perspective and composition would profoundly influence the course of French painting. For years it was believed that Manet had been in one of the civilian boats. Not so; The Battle of the U.S.S. “Kearsarge” and the C.S.S. “Alabama” was based on news reports. Dominated by swirling smoke and a roiling sea, the painting, now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, captures the terror of combat at sea. This wasn’t just any battle – it was art in the making, literally shaping the future of French Impressionism.
The St. Albans Raid: When the Civil War Came to Vermont
The historical marker in Taylor Park only begins to describe what happened on October 19, 1864. Late that afternoon, a tall, handsome man dismounted from a horse in front of the American House Hotel on Main Street in St. Albans, just 15 miles south of the Canadian border. His name was Bennett Young, and he had been staying in town for a few days, letting on little about himself beyond evident interests in the Bible and fishing. On that Wednesday, he drew a pair of Colt revolvers and said, “Gentlemen, I am a Confederate officer, and my men have come to take your town. This wasn’t some backwoods skirmish – this was downtown Vermont, where people thought the war was happening safely far away. Young and his Confederate raiders had infiltrated the town over several days, posing as ordinary travelers. They robbed three banks, tried to burn down the town, and killed one civilian before fleeing back to Canada. It was the northernmost action of the entire Civil War, proving that nowhere was truly safe. The people of St. Albans went to bed thinking they lived in peaceful New England and woke up realizing they’d been living in a war zone all along.
The Mystery of the Vanishing Steamer
On November 9, 1861, a steamer named USS Keystone State disappeared. What made this strange were the circumstances: The Civil War–era ship was nowhere near the battlefronts—the vessel had been unassumingly hauling passengers and iron goods from Detroit to Milwaukee on the Great Lakes of Michigan. What’s more, the USS Keystone State was one of the largest, sturdiest steamers in existence, so its complete disappearance (and presumed sinking) was a surprise. For over 150 years, the ship’s final fate remained a mystery. Finally, in 2013, a veteran shipwreck hunter found the mighty vessel at the bottom of Lake Huron, where it had lain all those years. It was determined that the USS Keystone State had sunk in a particularly nasty storm. But why was it attempting to make its voyage during such a terrible storm? The ship was supposed to be carrying civilian passengers and freight, but some historians suspect it was actually on a secret military mission. Was it smuggling weapons to Union forces? Was it trying to intercept Confederate agents? We may never know, but the fact that a massive steamer vanished without a trace for over a century makes you wonder what other Civil War secrets are still buried out there.
The Battle of Milliken’s Bend: When Former Slaves Fought Their Masters
Part of Ulysses S. Grant’s operations against Vicksburg in 1863, the Battle of Milliken’s Bend is all but forgotten. This wasn’t your typical Civil War engagement – it was newly freed slaves, many still learning how to use their weapons, facing off against Confederate troops who might have been their former masters. The Union had recruited these men just weeks earlier, and they were still figuring out military drill when Confederate forces attacked. What happened next was pure determination overcoming inexperience. These soldiers fought with a fury that surprised everyone, including themselves. They held their ground against seasoned Confederate veterans, proving that freedom was worth fighting for. The battle might be forgotten by history books, but it represented something profound: the moment when enslaved people became soldiers, when property became warriors, when the oppressed began writing their own story of liberation with bullets and bayonets.
The Dranesville Fodder Fight
December 20, 1861: In Dranesville Virginia, hungry horses trigger a skirmish when their Union and Confederate handlers fight over hard-to-find fodder for their animals, resulting in 250 casualties. You read that right – men died because horses were hungry. Winter had been harsh, and both armies were desperately scrounging for anything to keep their animals alive. When Union and Confederate foraging parties stumbled across each other near Dranesville, they weren’t initially planning to fight. They were just trying to find hay and grain for their starving mounts. But tensions were high, someone fired a shot, and suddenly 250 men were casualties in what might be the only battle in history caused entirely by equine hunger. It sounds almost comical until you remember that those were real bullets flying and real men falling. The horses got their food eventually, but at a cost that makes you wonder if warfare always has to be this absurd.
The Battle Where Geography Was Destiny: Drewry’s Bluff
May 15, 1862: At Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia, the Confederate capital of Richmond is saved when Union navy guns cannot be elevated high enough to fire upon the city on the bluff. Sometimes victory comes down to physics, not heroics. The Union Navy had sailed right up the James River, confident they could blast Richmond into submission with their powerful naval guns. They had the firepower, they had the will, and they had the element of surprise. What they didn’t have was the right angle. The Confederate fort sat on a bluff so high that the Union warships literally couldn’t point their guns up far enough to hit it. It’s like trying to shoot a bird in a tree when you’re lying flat on the ground – physically impossible, no matter how good your aim is. The Confederates, meanwhile, could rain down artillery fire from above like vengeful gods. Richmond was saved not by brilliant strategy or heroic sacrifice, but by simple geometry. Sometimes the land itself picks sides in a war.
When Brother Really Did Fight Brother
During the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863, as darkness fell on Horseshoe Ridge, members of the 21st Ohio saw a swarm of men approaching but couldn’t tell if they were friend or foe. Most assumed they were Union reinforcements, but a few feared they were Confederates. As the troops grew closer, one Union soldier called out, “What troops are you?” The collective reply was “Jeff Davis’s troops.” The Ohio soldiers relaxed, believing they meant the Union general. A few moments later
