Legends of the Old West - TEXAS RANGERS Ep. 1 | “Civil War”

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

In the spring of 1861, it becomes clear America is headed for civil war. Texas Rangers Ben McCulloch, Henry McCulloch, John S. “Rip” Ford, and Lawrence Sullivan Ross join the Confederate army. They have four vastly different experiences, highlighted by the second major battle of the war, Sherman’s capture of Atlanta, and the final battle of the war.   SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY “The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900” by Mike Cox “The Ranger Ideal, Vol. 1&2” by Darren L. Ivey “Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers” by Robert M. Utley “The Texas Rangers” by Walter Prescott Webb “Captain L.H. McNelly: Texas Ranger” by Chuck Parsons & Marianne E. Hall Little “Taming the Nueces Strip” by George Durham “Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers” by Doug J. Swanson “Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman” by J. Evetts Haley “Comanches: A History of a People” by T.R. Fehrenbach “The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West” by Peter Cozzens   Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join   Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage.  For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It all happened fast after the day that didn't seem all that extraordinary in the moment, but eventually took on a life of its own, especially in Texas history and the history of the Texas Rangers. That day was December 19, 1860, when a troop of Rangers led by Lawrence Sullivan Ross and Scout Charlie Goodnight recovered Cynthia Ann Parker. She had been kidnapped by Comanches 24 years earlier during an attack on her settlement of Fort Parker in present-day Limestone County, east of Waco. Over time and with pain and difficulty, she assimilated into Comanche culture and eventually married the great warrior chief, Peta Nakona. That day in December 1860, 22-year-old Ranger Captain Sol Ross was leading an expedition in retaliation for recent Comanche attacks.

The Ranger Column stumbled upon a group of Pettinacona's band and quickly initiated a brief engagement that would be called the Peace River Fight. The Rangers captured Cynthia Ann and her infant daughter and brought them back to White Settlements. Cynthia Ann's re-assimilation into White society was even more difficult than her assimilation into Comanche society. When she was recovered by the Rangers, and it's been said that the word captured is a better description at that point in her life, she was forced to leave behind her husband and her two sons, Quanah and Pecos. She never saw them again, and there is still debate about whether or not her husband,

Chief Pettinacona, was killed in the fight. Saul Ross believed Nacona died in the engagement, but others, including Quanah Parker, said the chief survived the fight and died a few years later, likely in 1864. Regardless of how or when Pettinacona died, by the end of the Civil War, his son Quanah was on the path toward becoming the last great Comanche chief. And America's path to war was moving lightning fast by the time Sol Ross' troop discovered Cynthia Ann Parker. A month and a half after the Peace River fight, delegates in Austin voted for secession. Three weeks later, a popular vote began. On March 2, 1861, the results were tallied and the people of Texas had voted to leave the Union and join the Confederacy.

Another war was coming to Texas, a state that had seen a remarkable evolution in just 40 years. Stephen F. Austin had established the first colony of white settlers in Texas in 1821, when the land was a northern province of Mexico. Two years later, he famously authorized 10 men to become the first rangers who were needed to protect the growing settlements. 10 men to become the first rangers who were needed to protect the growing settlements. The flood of immigrants into Texas after Austin's first colony was established shocked the Spanish government that ruled Mexico. Mexican officials tried to stem the tide, but there was no holding it back. By the early 1830s, the settlements were on the road to revolution. Against long odds, Texas won its

independence from Mexico in 1836, and it began a nine-year run as an independent republic. At that time, the first regular ranger companies went out on patrol, mostly in the region between San Antonio and the Rio Grande River. That was when Texans started hearing the names of some of the men who would be early legends in the Rangers. A small, slim man from Tennessee named John Coffey Hayes, who proved to be a great leader and a fearless fighter. Two brothers, Ben and Henry McCullough, also from Tennessee, who arrived in Texas just in time to help Sam Houston and his army win the Battle of San Jacinto and independence from Mexico. A fresh-faced lad from Maryland, Samuel Walker, who helped resurrect the career of America's most famous early gun maker.

A Virginian who towered over most others at 6 feet 2 inches tall and would be known to history as Bigfoot Wallace. A man from South Carolina who also fought in the Mexican-American War and helped lead the transition after the war, John S. Rip Ford. And a young man whose father rode with Rip Ford and was an Indian agent after the Mexican-American War. At 22 years old, the son, Saul Ross, led the expedition that ended up finding Cynthia Ann Parker in December 1860. As the new year of 1861 arrived, and the word secession was on everyone's lips, the lineup of those famous Texas Rangers had changed. Samuel Walker had died in Mexico during the war. Jack Hayes followed the gold rush to

California, and Bigfoot Wallace led some ranger companies in the early 1850s before he essentially retired from service. For the others, the McCullough brothers, Rip Ford and Sol Ross, the Civil War was coming. They would have vastly different experiences, and those experiences would run the length of the conflict, from the first big battle in the West to the very last battle of the war. And not all would survive. Those who did would turn over the reins to a new crop of rangers who would fight the last battles with the Comanche in Kiowa, and wage a bloody and ruthless campaign against bandits along the Rio Grande. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer,

and this season we're returning to the stories of the Texas Rangers. This series will follow the Rangers through the Civil War, to their final years as frontier fighters, and then to their beginnings as lawmen. This is Episode 1, Civil War. Saul Ross's Ranger Company found Cynthia Ann Parker on December 19, 1860. Forty-two days later, on February 1, 1861, delegates in Austin voted 168 to 8 in favor of secession. The people of Texas still had to cast votes to make secession official, but their representatives in the state capitol were confident of the outcome. Four days after the delegates voted, they formed the Committee of Public Safety to begin the process of preparing for war.

The committee commissioned Ben McCullough and Rip Ford as colonels in a provisional Texas force until the Confederate government and army could get up and running. McCullough's orders were to take command of what was called the Middle District of Texas and to seize federal property in and around San Antonio. Ford's orders were to head to South Texas and take command of the District of the Rio Grande. Both men did their work quickly and efficiently. McCullough recruited 1,100 volunteers for his command, and he took 400 of them to San Antonio. On February 16, 1861, one week after he received his orders, he forced the surrender of two companies of federal troops at San Antonio.

There was no battle, and the surrender was already partially in motion before McCullough arrived. Three weeks earlier, the general who commanded the troops in San Antonio had been relieved of duty, so he was already on his way out by the time McCullough showed up. The commander, General David Twiggs, then issued orders to all commanders at all federal forts in Texas to surrender and evacuate their posts. surrender and evacuate their posts. In South Texas, the order arrived at the perfect time to help avoid needless bloodshed. Rip Ford had sailed from Galveston down through the Gulf of Mexico to Brazos Island, a barrier island along the Texas coast. Brazos Island is essentially the southernmost tip of Texas. Ford rendezvoused with his officers and 500 volunteers from Corpus Christi, and they made a show of force for the 13 federal artillery

men who manned the small island garrison. The artillery men quickly accepted an offer to abandon the facility and head to the mainland to save their lives. to abandon the facility and head to the mainland to save their lives. From there, Ford and his men traveled inland to Fort Brown, the heart of the town of Brownsville. Convincing the captain who commanded the fort to give up his post was not as easy as convincing the badly outnumbered artillerymen. Ford and a couple of his officers met with the captain on February 22nd. The next day, the captain refused to surrender. Ford instructed his officers to bring all their volunteer soldiers to Brownsville to attack the fort. While the officers wrangled the troops, the captain in the fort received the

surrender order from General Twiggs in San Antonio. The captain and his men left without quarrel, and shortly thereafter, the dominoes started to fall all over Texas. By March 1st, Ben McCullough and Rip Ford had taken control of virtually everything from San Antonio to the Rio Grande. The next day, the results of the vote to secede from the Union became official. While Rip Ford had been convincing the captain in Brownsville to surrender, the people of Texas had been voting on the question of secession. On March 2nd, the votes were counted, and the people had voted overwhelmingly to leave the Union and join the Confederacy. Two weeks later, on March 16, 1861, Texas officially seceded from the Union, and the evacuation of U.S. Army forts throughout the state began. In the late 1840s, after the

Mexican-American War, the U.S. Army had built a string of forts along what was then the western frontier of settlements in Texas. At that time, when Texas had just joined the Union, the Army helped fight the perpetual twin fears of Texas, Native American attacks, and incursions by troops and bandits from Mexico. Now, with Texas in the Confederacy, those outposts were behind enemy lines, as far as the U.S. Army was concerned. The soldiers in those forts fell into three groups. Some became prisoners of the Provisional Texas Force. Some fled Texas and remained federal soldiers in new units of what was increasingly called the Union Army. And many more

changed uniforms. They left the U.S. Army and joined the Confederate Army. While that transition happened, the Confederacy came to life. Jefferson Davis became president of the new Confederate government, and his Secretary of War asked Ben McCullough to raise a regiment of volunteers to resume protection of the western frontier of Texas. Ben badly wanted a command in the official Confederate Army, so he declined the offer and passed the command to his brother Henry. Henry McCullough, with Ben's help, raised the Frontier Regiment, which ended up having a bunch of different official names during the war. While the brothers recruited Henry's force, the Secession Convention in Austin formalized Rip

Ford's rank of colonel and officially gave him command of the 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles with orders to continue to secure the region of South Texas that he already controlled. Shortly thereafter, the Confederacy formed the District of Texas and named Colonel Earl Van Dorn the commander. On April 12, 1861, the same day the war began with the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter and Charleston Harbor, the Committee of Public Safety handed over control of Texas to Colonel Van Dorn.

A month later, Confederate President Jefferson Davis granted Ben McCullough's wish. Davis gave McCullough a commission as a brigadier general and ordered him to go to Fort Smith, Arkansas. At Fort Smith, McCullough needed to build an army from scratch and then protect Arkansas and Indian territory from invasion by Union troops in Missouri. Within three months, McCullough would lead his men to a bloody victory in the second major battle of the war. possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business. From the launch your online shop stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million orders stage. Whether you're selling scented soap or offering outdoor

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Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business, no matter what stage you're in. Shopify.com slash realm. The first real battle of the Civil War happened July 21st, 1861, near the village of Manassas in Virginia. Much of the fighting happened along a creek called Bull Run, so the battle was called the Battle of Bull Run on the Union side and the Battle of Manassas on the Confederate side. The second major battle happened 20 days later and more than 800 miles to the west in the border state of Missouri. Ben McCullough's army spent the first part of the summer of 1861 doing a lot of marching

and very little fighting. That changed in the second week of August. Missouri was seen by both sides as critical to the war effort. The Confederate War Department ordered McCullough to link up with Sterling Price, who commanded a Missouri militia force called the Missouri State Guard that was loyal to the Confederacy. McCullough and Price didn't get along, which caused numerous problems during the nine months they were forced to work together. But on August 10, 1861, their combined army met a Union army under General Nathaniel Lyon near Wilson's Creek outside the town of Springfield in southwest Missouri, the town where, incidentally, Wild Bill Hickok would win a famous gunfight almost exactly four years in the future. The battle was a bloody mauling on both sides.

Both armies, more than 16,000 men in total, were inexperienced and untested. Both sides won certain parts of the six-hour battle and lost others. Union General Nathaniel Lyon was killed during the fighting, and Union forces eventually retreated from the field. McCullough and Price claimed victory, and for a brief period of time, the Confederacy controlled southern Missouri. The day after the battle, the Confederate government honored McCullough and his men. The thanks of Congress are cordially tendered to Brigadier General Ben McCullough and the officers and soldiers of his brave command. In the opinion of Congress, General McCullough and his gallant troops are entitled to, and will receive,

the grateful thanks of our people. The celebration didn't last long. It quickly turned to squabbling between Ben McCullough and Sterling Price. Price wanted to seize the moment, plow ahead, and push the Union army clear out of Missouri, which made sense on an aspirational and strategic level. But McCullough believed his army needed to rest and recover, and he marched his men 80 miles south to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Price surged forward and tried to complete the conquest of Missouri on his own, but he quickly discovered he didn't have enough men for the job.

Price asked McCullough to come back to Missouri, but McCullough hesitated. He thought Arkansas militiamen would be enlisted as regular Army soldiers and added to his command, but that didn't happen. He also didn't want to move until he knew the terrain. He was a big believer in knowing the location of every river, road, and bridge in the area. He wanted to know where to find food and water, and he wanted to know every feature that his enemy could use against him. And that's where 22-year-old Texas Ranger Sol Ross came in. Ross had enlisted in the 6th Texas Cavalry Regiment and had been elected major by the men. Major Ross and his unit joined McCullough's command

in the fall of 1861, about two months after Wilson's Creek. McCullough immediately utilized his former Texas Ranger colleague as a scout. Ross and five companies of scouts infiltrated the Union lines in southern Missouri and brought back vital information about troop position and plans. But before McCullough could use the information, the Union troops packed up and moved to St. Louis.

The campaign to take over Missouri stalled again, but it restarted early in the new year of 1862, just not the way the Confederates wanted. Union forces pushed Price's Missouri State Guard clear out of the state of Missouri. Price retreated down to Arkansas and joined McCullough's army. At that point, with a Union army marching south toward Arkansas, McCullough ordered Saul Ross to attack the Union's thin supply lines. In February 1862, Ross took 500 cavalrymen from Texas and rode around the Union Army's left flank.

Major Ross and his men rode 70 miles behind enemy lines, destroyed wagon loads of supplies, captured 11 prisoners and more than 60 horses and mules. Ross returned from his mission on March 1st or March 2nd, right before Major General Earl Van Dorn arrived to take command of the entire Confederate army in the region. Confederate President Jefferson Davis had decided to make a change in leadership after months of squabbling and inaction, or retreat, by McCullough and Price. Davis took Colonel Earl Van Dorn out of his post

as commander of District of Texas, promoted him to major general, and sent him to command the Trans-Mississippi District. Van Dorn was now McCullough and Price's superior officer, and he arrived in Arkansas with the immediate challenge of facing the oncoming Union Army, and he arrived in Arkansas with the immediate challenge of facing the oncoming Union Army, which was a raid along Sugar Creek, near a hill called Pea Ridge. Snowstorms pounded both armies in the first few days of March, 1862.

General Van Dorn had arrived at McCulloch's headquarters and immediately ordered a march toward the Union Army's entrenchments near Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Van Dorn wanted his two columns, one commanded by McCullough, one commanded by Price, to perform a classic pincer maneuver. He wanted the columns to swoop around the flanks of the Union force, avoid the earthwork fortifications the Union soldiers had constructed, and strike the rear of the Union army. McCulloch's column and Price's column spent three days trudging through snowdrifts and blinding winds. Progress was slow and painful, and in an effort

to pick up speed, Van Dorn pushed the soldiers to move far ahead of their supply wagons. They marched through the night on March 6th, and they succeeded in their first goal. They had been able to sneak behind the Union army without being noticed. When the Union commander, General Samuel Curtis, learned on the morning of March 7th that the Confederates were not in their camps, he was taken completely by surprise. 7th that the Confederates were not in their camps, he was taken completely by surprise. The Confederates had kept their campfires burning all night to disguise their march, and the tactic had worked. In terms of position, the Confederate columns were exactly where they wanted to be. They were ready to strike the rear of the Union army. But in terms of time,

they had a problem. It had taken longer than expected to complete the night march through the grueling conditions. On the morning of March 7th, when General Curtis's scouts discovered the new locations of the Confederate columns, Curtis ordered his army to turn around, to do a 180-degree about-face, and prepare for battle. At about 10.30 that morning, when the battle started, Price's column of Missouri and Arkansas soldiers weren't attacking the rear of the Union Army, they were attacking the front. Union Colonel Eugene Carr's infantry division was waiting on Telegraph Road, the dirt track that ran through the middle of the western battlefield. The first day of the Battle of Pea Ridge was actually two

simultaneous battles. On the west side of the ridge, General Price's Missouri State Guard, bolstered by Arkansas troops, struck General Carr's Union troops from Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. They clashed along Telegraph Road, and the battle swirled around a local drinking establishment called Elkhorn Tavern. On the east side of the ridge, General Ben McCullough's column slammed into the main body of Union troops under Colonels Osterhaus and Davis, just north of the village of Leetown. The Confederates may have lost part of the advantage by not being able to capitalize on the element of surprise, but they still had the numerical advantage. All told, the Confederate Army numbered 16,000 men.

They were split evenly into two columns of 8,000, commanded by Price and McCullough. split evenly into two columns of 8,000 commanded by Price and McCullough. The Union army had about 10,500 men, who were now divided into two groups to meet the simultaneous attacks of Price and McCullough. The initial Confederate assault was positive. On both battlefields, the Confederates used their numbers and their artillery to pound the Union troops. On the west side of Pea Ridge, Price's Confederates quickly drove Carr's Federals from their positions. Carr's men continuously fell back, regrouped, formed new lines, fought the advancing Confederates, and then fell back again. The same thing happened on the east side of Pea Ridge. McCulloch's force slowly and steadily drove the two Union colonels back toward Leetown. McCulloch's column also contained a unit

of Cherokee soldiers, who struck an early damaging blow against the Union troops. But that was when things started to go wrong for the Confederate columns. for the Confederate columns. The battle had raged all day on both sides of Pea Ridge. The Confederate army was exhausted before the battle even started, after days of marching through the snow with very few provisions as General Van Dorn pushed them well ahead of their supply train. Now, in the late afternoon of March 7th, the Confederate soldiers were still fighting, but they were bone tired. The daylight was fading, and the battlegrounds were thick with dust and smoke, which made it hard for the commanders to move their troops. And the Confederates were running low on ammunition, because all of their extra ammo

was miles behind them with the supply wagons. On the west side of the ridge, Price continued to urge his exhausted troops forward, and they continued to push Colonel Carr's smaller Union force. But the Confederates failed to crush the Union men. On the other side of the ridge, the Cherokee warriors made one big attack and then pulled back, disengaged, and refused to fight again. And then the hammer blow fell. A young Illinois soldier shot and killed Brigadier General Ben McCullough. McCullough was a towering figure in the earliest days of the Confederacy, before the ascent of Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. He had fought in the Texas Revolution, the Mexican-American War,

and for years as a Texas Ranger. And now he was gone. His column's attack on the Union lines didn't just falter, it stopped in mid-stride. And it got worse. Right after McCullough fell, his second-in-command, Colonel James McIntosh, was killed. McIntosh had been in direct command of Sol Ross's unit, which saw its advance halted after minimal progress, and then a second colonel was captured. By the time the sun set on March 7th, McCullough's column had lost its commanding general and two of five colonels, with a third colonel essentially out of action as he tried to rally his Cherokee fighters. On the other side of the ridge, as night fell and the battle fizzled out, Price's men collapsed from exhaustion. The Union army had weathered the storm.

General Samuel Curtis had been able to hold back his single division of reserve troops until late in the day, when he deployed them on the west side of the ridge to keep Colonel Carr from being overrun. Now, Carr repositioned his men to strengthen his battered, but not broken lines on both sides of the ridge. On the morning of March 8th, the Union troops awoke with confidence that they had withstood a heavy assault.

They were ready to fight on. Meanwhile, the Confederate soldiers awoke hungry and demoralized. They still didn't have their food or ammunition, but General Van Dorn ordered the attack to resume at daylight. The Confederate cannons blasted away again, but their accuracy was worse than the previous day, and they had no way to replace their shot and shells. As their rate of fire slowed, the Union cannons went to work and steadily knocked out the Confederate gunners. The Union soldiers surged forward on both sides of Pea Ridge and retook all the ground they lost the previous day. The Cherokee warriors

melted away from the battlefield and disappeared into the wilderness. The Confederate columns retreated deeper into Arkansas, and the Union claimed control of the coveted ground of Missouri for the next two years. Historians don't look back on the Battle of Pea Ridge and call it a turning point in the war, but it could probably be fairly judged as the conclusion of the first year and the first phase of the war. At Pea Ridge, the war was one month away from its one-year anniversary, and both sides had spent the first year trying to figure out everything. How to build

an army of volunteers, how to train them, how to lead them, how to move them around the landscape, how to feed them, how to equip them, how to arm them. There were only two major battles in that first year, Bull Run and Pea Ridge. After Pea Ridge, there would be the turning point in the war, and the fighting would continue non-stop for the next three years. Exactly one month after Pea Ridge was the Battle of Shiloh, the scariest and bloodiest battle in living memory, and it would be dwarfed by what was to come. Two months later, in June 1862,

Robert E. Lee took command of the Army of Northern Virginia, and the battles came flying hot and heavy. That month saw the Battle of Cross Keys, Port Republic, the Seven Days, and Mechanicsville. The next month, it was Malvern Hill. In August, it was Cedar Mountain and Second Bull Run. In September, it was Antietam, and two days later, Iuka, Mississippi. October was Corinth, Mississippi, and Perryville, Kentucky. And December was Fredericksburg. All that was the year 1862, and Major Saul Ross, now Colonel Saul Ross, would be right in the thick of it for the next three years. right in the thick of it for the next three years. Ross and the 6th Texas Cavalry marched,

rode, and fought all over Mississippi and Tennessee for six months after the Battle of Pea Ridge. They were held in reserve during the Battle of Iuka, Mississippi in September 1862, but they saw heavy fighting at the Battle of Corinth in October. but they saw heavy fighting at the Battle of Corinth in October. Ross's unit continued operations in the Mississippi-West Tennessee region throughout the winter of 1862 and the spring and summer of 1863. During that time, Ross proved himself to be a great cavalry commander and he was promoted to Brigadier General in the summer of 1863. That summer, he and his men were stationed at Yazoo City, Mississippi He was promoted to Brigadier General in the summer of 1863. That summer, he and his men were stationed at Yazoo City, Mississippi when Vicksburg

fell to Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman. Even with the Union Army gaining ground in the South, Ross and his cavalry continued to operate in Mississippi and Tennessee until the spring of 1864. At that point, they were sent to Georgia and assigned to Confederate General Joe Johnston's army, which had the unenviable task of stopping Sherman's dogged march toward Atlanta. For more than 100 straight days, Johnston's army, with Ross's cavalry unit, fought Sherman's army until Sherman finally captured Atlanta on September 2, 1864. During the losing campaign, Confederate General Joe Johnston was replaced by General John Bell Hood. After the fall of Atlanta, Hood marched his army

north to threaten Sherman's supply lines in Tennessee. The threat did not have the effect Hood planned. Instead of rushing north to defend his supply lines, Sherman cut loose of them and made his infamous march to the sea. In Tennessee, Ross's cavalry brigade fell under the command of Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest for its final significant action of the war. They fought in the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee on November 30, 1864. It was the first of a pair of disasters led by the hard-charging but increasingly reckless John Bell Hood. Two weeks later, on December 15, Hood led his army in its final battle, the Battle of Nashville, which was the second of the pair of disasters. With the loss, the proud army of the Tennessee was decimated and done with the war.

Ross's brigade was not at Nashville, but it continued to perform limited service at the end of 1864 and early 1865, though the end was clearly close. Brigadier General Saul Ross had also been suffering from illness during that final winter of the war, and in mid-March 1865, he received permission to go home to Waco for 90 days to recover. He made it home around April 1st, and eight days later, learned of Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

Two weeks after that, Confederate General Joe Johnston surrendered to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in North Carolina. Sol Ross's war was done, and the war in the East was done, but the war in the West was not. and the war in the East was done. But the war in the West was not. The final battle of the Civil War was fought in South Texas along the Rio Grande, and it featured Texas Ranger Rip Ford. Rip Ford had followed a rocky road throughout the war. He was celebrated for his work in the first year of securing Brownsville and building coastal defenses to protect the town. He was celebrated for his work in the first year of securing Brownsville and building coastal defenses to protect the town. But in the spring of 1862, he became embroiled in disputes with officials in Mexico that tarnished his reputation. In the summer of 1862, he was sent to San Antonio to supervise the enlistment of conscripts from Texas. He handled conscription

duties for a year and a half while he pleaded with the Confederate government for an officer's commission. He was denied each time until the Union Army invaded South Texas and captured Brownsville in November 1863. The people of South Texas personally asked for the return of Rip Ford, and the Confederate commander of the district that included Texas found a way to make it happen. The commander, John Bankhead Magruder, was occupied with the war effort in Louisiana, so he sent a confidential letter to Ford that authorized Ford to take control of all the troops in San Antonio and recruit others to form an expeditionary force. The Texas-based army would be called the Cavalry of the West. Ford spent three months organizing his force of 1,300 soldiers,

and they marched out of San Antonio in mid-March 1864. The campaign took four and a half months, but by the end of July, Ford and his Cavalry of the West had successfully forced Union troops to abandon their posts in the Rio Grande Valley and Brownsville and flee to the Gulf Coast. Rip Ford was once again hailed as a hero and the liberator of Brownsville, but his work wasn't done. The Federals had abandoned Brownsville, but they had not abandoned Texas. The small Union force retreated out to Brazos Island, the barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico that Rip Ford had used as his landing spot in March of 1861 when he arrived to take control

of the Rio Grande Valley after Texas seceded from the Union. Some Union troops made a brief incursion toward Brownsville in September 1864, but they were repelled and forced back to the island. After that, both sides settled in for what ended up being six months of waiting. During that time, Atlanta fell, and General John Bell Hood's army was wiped out in the twin attacks on Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee. General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was trapped at Petersburg and surrounded by Union General Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac.

And General William Tecumseh Sherman was completing his march from Atlanta to Savannah, the infamous March to the Sea, which he finished just before Christmas 1864. In South Texas, Confederate Brigadier General James Slaughter arrived to take control of Ford's troops and to help organize the defense of the Rio Grande. In March of 1865, Union General Lew Wallace tried to broker the peaceful surrender of the Confederate troops in South Texas, but his effort failed. He did secure a ceasefire agreement with General Slaughter, as it seemed obvious that no amount of fighting in South Texas would change the course of the war. Two weeks into the agreement, it seemed even more obvious, when Grant's army finally forced

Lee's army out of Petersburg. Two weeks after that, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Three weeks after Lee surrendered, Confederate General Joe Johnston surrendered to General Sherman in North Carolina. Two weeks after Johnston surrendered, Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union forces. At that point, the war was well and truly done, but not in Texas. The Union Colonel, Theodore Barrett, who commanded the small force on Brazos Island, decided he wanted to seize Brownsville, despite everyone knowing of the Confederates' surrenders. On the night of May 11, 1865, the day after Davis was captured, Barrett ordered his lieutenant colonel to lead 300 men to the mainland and then toward Brownsville. Early in the morning on May 12, the Union force made it to the first of two ranches that were used as outposts by the Confederates, but there was no one there.

The Union troops quickly secured the ground, called White Ranch, and moved on to the next ranch, called Palmetto Ranch. There, the Union force skirmished with a company of Confederates. skirmished with a company of Confederates. That night, the Union Lieutenant Colonel requested reinforcements, and the next morning, Colonel Barrett led another 200 men to Palmetto Ranch. The Union troops now numbered 500, and they attacked the company of 100 Confederates. The Confederate company held out for hours while they waited for reinforcements from Brownsville. for hours while they waited for reinforcements from Brownsville. At about 3 p.m., Rip Ford arrived at the battlefield with 400 men.

The forces were now evenly matched in terms of numbers, but Ford had brought six cannons with him. On the flat prairie of Palmetto Ranch, there was no place for the Union troops to hide. At 4 p.m., Ford's cannon started pounding the Union lines. The Confederate ground troops hit both Union flanks and drove them back. Then the Confederates punched through the center of the Union line and convinced Barrett to retreat. Ford's army was on the verge of capturing the entire Union force, but a unit from the 62nd U.S. Colored Troops, the official designation for

black regiments in the U.S. Army, held the right flank long enough for Barrett's men to escape back to Brazos Island. The final battle of the Civil War was a meaningless escapade on the hot, cactus-filled prairie along the Rio Grande, and it was a Confederate victory, supervised by former Texas Ranger John S. Rip Ford. Next time on Legends of the Old West, one generation of Texas Rangers finishes its service in the Civil War while another begins its service in the war. John B. Jones and Leander McNally emerge as leaders of the Texas Rangers after the war, and their enemies are the same as they ever

were, bandits on the southern border and the Comanche in the north and west. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Thank you. or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. Memberships are just $5 per month. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your writer, host, and producer, Chris Wimmer. Thanks for listening.