Battle of Palmito Ranch - Aftermath

Aftermath

In Barrett's official report of August 10, 1865, he reported 115 Union casualties: one killed, nine wounded, and 105 captured. Confederate casualties were reported as five or six wounded, with none killed. Historian and Ford biographer Stephen B. Oates, however, concludes that Union deaths were much higher, numbering approximately 30, many of whom drowned in the Rio Grande or were attacked and killed by French border guards on the Mexican side. He likewise estimated Confederate casualties at approximately the same number. However, using court-martial testimony and post returns from Brazos Santiago, Texas A&M International University historian Jerry D. Thompson determined that:

• the 62nd U.S.C.T. incurred two killed and four wounded;
• the 34th Indiana one killed, one wounded, and 79 captured; and
• the 2nd Texas Cavalry Battalion one killed, seven wounded, and 22 captured,
• totalling four killed, 12 wounded, and 101 captured.

Like the war's first big battle at First Bull Run, which also yielded little gain for either side, the battle is recorded as a Confederate victory. Two weeks later, Texan forces surrendered formally on May 26, 1865; Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2. Most senior Confederate commanders in Texas (including Smith, Walker, Slaughter, and Ford) and many troops and equipment fled across the border to Mexico, possibly to ally with Imperial French, or Mexican forces with Benito Juarez.

The Military Division of the Southwest (after June 27 the Division of the Gulf), commanded by Maj. Gen. Phillip H. Sheridan, occupied Texas between June and August. Consisting of the IV Corps, XIII Corps, the African-American XXV Corps, and two 4,000-man cavalry divisions commanded by Brig-Gen. Wesley Merritt and Maj-Gen. George A. Custer, it aggregated a 50,000 man force on the Gulf Coast and along the Rio Grande River to pressure the French intervention in Mexico and garrison the Reconstruction Department of Texas.

In July 1865, Barrett preferred charges of disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, abandoning his colors, and conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline against Morrison for actions in the battle, resulting in the latter's court martial. Confederate Col. Ford, who had returned from Mexico at the request of Union Gen. Frederick Steele to act as parole commissioner for disbanding Confederate forces, appeared as a defense witness and assisted in absolving Morrison for responsibility for the defeat.

The following material is from first-hand and published sources. They are recounts of the role of Hispanic Confederate veterans and the treatment of black POWs in South Texas.

There were Hispanic Confederate veterans at Fort Brown in Brownsville and on the field of Palmito Ranch. Col. Santos Benavides, who was the highest ranking Hispanic in either army, led between one hundred and one hundred and fifty Mexicans in the Brownsville Campaign in May 1865.

"Some of the Sixty-Second Colored Regiment were also taken. They had been led to believe that if captured they would either be shot or returned to slavery. They were agreeably surprised when they were paroled and permitted to depart with the white prisoners. Several of the prisoners were from Austin and vicinity. They were assured they would be treated as prisoners of war. There was no disposition to visit upon them a mean spirit of revenge."-Colonel John Salmon Ford, May 1865.

When Colonel Ford surrendered his command following the campaign of Palmito Ranch he urged his men to honor their paroles. He insisted that, "The negro had a right to vote."

Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana was the last fatality during the Battle at Palmito Ranch, making him likely the final combat death of the war. Fighting in the battle involved Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, and Native American troops. Reports of shots from the Mexican side, the sounding of a warning to the Confederates of the Union approach, the crossing of Imperial cavalry into Texas, and the participation by several among Ford's troops are unverified, despite many witnesses reporting shooting from the Mexican shore.