The last land battle of the civil…

The last land battle of the civil war, the Battle of Palmito Ranch in far south Texas on May 13, 1865, more than a month after Confederate General Lee's surrender, ends with a Confederate victory.

Why the battle happened remains something of a mystery.

The French Foreign Legion was occupying neighboring Matamoros, Mexico at the time, and was said to have reinforced the Confederate forces in Brownsville.

Theodore H. Barrett's detractors among the brigade suggested soon after the battle that he had desired "a little battlefield glory before the war ended altogether." (Marvel, William. "Last Hurrah at Palmetto Ranch." Civil War Times, January 2006 (Vol. XLIV, No. 6); p. 69)

Others theorized that Barrett needed horses for the three hundred dismounted cavalry in his brigade and for other purposes.

In Barrett's official report of August 10, 1865, he will report one hundred and fifteen Union casualties: one killed, nine wounded, and one hundred and five captured.

Confederate casualties will be 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 thirty, 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.