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The Battle of Palmito Ranch is generally reckoned as the final battle of the American Civil War, since it was the last engagement between organized forces of the Union Army and Confederate States Army, involving casualties. It was fought on 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 (now known as Matamoros). Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce, but Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown, for reasons unknown (some claimed he wanted to see combat before the war ended.) The Union took a few prisoners, but the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch the next day by Col. John Salmon Ford, and most historians regard it as a Confederate victory. Casualty estimates are not dependable, but Union Private John J. Williams of the 34th Indiana is believed to have been the last man killed in combat in the war. The engagement is also known as the Battle of Palmito Hill or the Battle of Palmetto Ranch. ==Background== After July 27, 1864, most of the 6,500 Union troops were withdrawn from the lower Rio Grande Valley, including Brownsville, which they had occupied on November 2, 1863. The Confederates were determined to protect their remaining ports, which were essential for cotton sales to Europe, and the importation of supplies. The Mexicans across the border tended to side with the Confederates because of the lucrative smuggling trade.〔Comtois, p. 51〕 Early in 1865, the rival armies in south Texas honored a gentlemen's agreement, since there was no point in further hostilities between them.〔Marvel, p. 69〕 Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace proposed a negotiated end of hostilities in Texas to Confederate Brig. Gen. James E. Slaughter, and met with Slaughter and his subordinate Col. Ford at Port Isabel on March 11–12, 1865.〔Hunt, 2002, p. 32〕 Despite Slaughter's and Ford's agreement that combat would prove tragic, their superior, Confederate Maj. Gen. John G. Walker, rejected the cease fire in a scathing exchange of letters with Wallace. Despite this, both sides honored a tacit agreement not to advance on the other without prior written notice. A brigade of 1,900 Union troops, commanded by Col. Robert B. Jones of the 34th Indiana Veteran Volunteer Infantry, were on blockade duty at the Port of Brazos Santiago, on the mouth of the present ship channel of the Port of Brownsville. The 400-man 34th Indiana was an experienced regiment that had served in the Vicksburg Campaign and was then reorganized in December 1863 as a "Veteran" regiment, composed of veterans from several regiments whose original enlistments had expired. The 34th Indiana deployed to the Port of Los Brazos de Santiago on December 22, 1864, replacing the 91st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which returned to New Orleans. The brigade also included the 87th and 62nd United States Colored Infantry Regiments ("United States Colored Troops", or U.S.C.T.), with a combined strength of about 1,100. Shortly after Gen. Walker rejected the armistice proposal, Col. Jones resigned from the army to return to Indiana. He was replaced in the regiment by Lt. Col. Robert G. Morrison, and at Los Brazos de Santiago by Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, commander of the 62nd U.S.C.T. 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, and was appointed colonel of the 1st Missouri Colored Infantry in 1863. In March 1864, the regiment became the 62nd U.S.C.T. Barrett contracted malaria in Louisiana that summer, and while he was on convalescent leave, the 62nd was posted to Brazos Santiago. He joined it there in February 1865. Why this final battle even took place is still debated. Soon after the battle, Barrett's detractors claimed he desired "a little battlefield glory before the war ended altogether."〔 Others have suggested that Barrett needed horses for the 300 dismounted cavalrymen in his brigade and decided to take them from his enemy.〔Trudeau, 1994, p. 301〕 Louis J. Schuler, in his 1960 pamphlet ''The last battle in the War Between the States, May 13, 1865: Confederate Force of 300 defeats 1,700 Federals near Brownsville, Texas'', asserts that Brig-Gen. Egbert B. Brown of the U.S. Volunteers had ordered the expedition to seize as contraband 2,000 bales of cotton stored in Brownsville and sell them for his own profit.〔 However, this is impossible, as Brown was not appointed to command at Brazos Santiago until later in May.〔Hunt, Jeffrey William (2002). ''The Last Battle of the Civil War: Palmetto Ranch'', p. 46. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-73460-3〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Palmito Ranch」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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