Battle of Palmito Ranch 1865
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Year | 1865 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | American Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Confederate States of America, Texas | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 25.9467, -97.2853 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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, which had since been communicated to both commanders at Palmito. However, in early May Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith had rejected a proposal from Union Major-General John Pope to surrender Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on the same terms that General Ulysses S. Grant had given to Robert E. Lee. As such Kirby Smith only officially surrendered all Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865.
Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865, but 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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Palmito Ranch (revision 1380714233), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the American Civil War
- Skirmish at Cedar Creek 1864
- Skirmish at Terre Noire Creek 1864
- St. Albans Raid 1864
- Third Battle of Murfreesboro 1864
- Third Battle of Winchester 1864
- Battle of Aiken 1865
- Battle of Amelia Springs 1865
- Battle of Anderson 1865
- Battle of Appomattox Court House 1865
- Battle of Appomattox Station 1865
All 498 battles of the American Civil War →
Browse more: battles in United States · North America · 19th century battles