The War Between the States

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD

Part 19: The War Between The States

by Bob Heinonen

John Salmon Ford distinguished himself during the War Between The States, although, like most of the rest of his life, his participation was not without controversy.

On February 1, 1861, Ford was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety, made a Texas Colonel and put in charge of capturing the Union forts on the Rio Grande River…and he did so without a shot being fired. Ford said “on the twenty-third of February, 1861, reached Brazos Santiago. There a lieutenant of the United States and a small body of soldiers were on duty. The place was surrendered to the State of Texas. This was the first time the writer [Ford] ever saw the flag of the United States lowered to an opposing force. His ancestors had fought to create and sustain it, and he had marched beneath its victorious folds. Now to see it lowered, even to men who where born beneath it, was a trial of no ordinary character.”[i]

After Ford demanded surrender of the Union forts along the Rio Grande, and some discussion, General Twiggs agreed to abandon the forts and remove his Union forces from Texas. “About the twentieth of March the last of the Federal officers bade farewell to Texas, and took passage on a river steamer for Brazos Santiago. It was a sad parting. Colonel Ford bid adieu to men with whom he had served, whom he respected, and with whom he had faced danger. The future was full of uncertainty, dark, and lowering. Each one of us felt a dread of what might befall us. A terrible foreboding of civil war warned us that we might meet as foes and, under a sense of duty, might take the life of a valued friend. Having been companions in former conflicts, having stood by each other as only warrior-comrades can stand, we were extremely depressed; it was a dreadful feeling to reflect that these recollections of the past, these memories of honorable deeds, were to be swallowed up, embittered by the rancorous and hellish hostility of civil war, in which the ties of friendship, the relations of life, the regard between father and son, brother and brother, were to be swamped, strangled, and obliterated by the demoniac passions of the combatants.”[ii]

The withdrawal of Union troops along the Rio Grande occurred before Fort Sumter in South Carolina was fired on by the Confederates on April 12, 1861. In fact, “The Confederates had already seized most United States property in the Deep South. [President] Lincoln admitted frankly that he would not attempt to reclaim this property…”[iii] But Lincoln and the North could not overlook the attack on Fort Sumter.

Immediately after taking control of the north side of the Rio Grande River from Brazos Santiago Island in the Gulf of Mexico to El Paso, Ford headquartered at Fort Brown near Brownsville and began working with Mexican authorities to develop friendly relations. “When the United States blockaded Brazos Santiago, Colonel Ford visited the merchants of Matamoros [across the Rio Grande River from Brownsville], particularly those of foreign countries, and insisted upon steps being taken at once to open trade with Europe and the Confederate States through Matamoros….The consuls of Great Britain and Germany promised to aid in the matter, and they did. Cotton was hauled across Texas to Matamoros where it was traded for foodstuffs and war materiel. An immense trade opened up in a short while. Matamoros was soon crammed with strangers and filled with goods of every class.”[iv] . Since the Union navy had the entire Texas coast blockaded, this became the major avenue of foreign exchange.

In the fall of 1861, John Salmon Ford was still in state service when his Rio Grande force was mustered out and replaced by Confederate troops. In June of 1862, “Ford was appointed by the state as Superintendent of the Bureau of Conscription, a job which consisted mainly of running down draft dodgers and which he despised.”[v] John Salmon Ford’s status in the Confederate Army “was most unclear. His state appointment as a colonel was no longer valid, and he held no Confederate rank. [General Paul Octave] Hebert [commander of the Confederate Military Department of Texas], however, addressed him as ‘Colonel,’ and he saw that Ford was paid as a full colonel. [General] Bankhead Magruder continued the practice in 1863.”[vi]

During 1863, Union troops recaptured the lower Rio Grande Valley and Ford was asked to capture it again. On March 17, 1864, Colonel Ford and his 1,300 troops called The Cavalry of the West left San Antonio. Four months later, Colonel Ford and his Cavalry of the West marched into Brownsville and Fort Brown while the Union army retreated to Brazos Santiago Island for the duration of the war. The trade vital to Texas and the Confederacy could now begin again through Brownsville and Matamoras. “During all this period Colonel Ford was sick [with the malaria he had caught in the Mexican-American War 17 years earlier]. He was frequently helped to mount his horse.”[vii]

The rest of the war was an uneasy stalemate between the Union commander on Brazos Santiago, General Juan Cortinas, a Union sympathizer in charge of the Mexican Army in Matamoras, and Old Rip Ford.

But Old Rip Ford always seemed to have the last word and the War Between The States was no exception.

Next Month – Part 20: Palmito Ranch

Bob Heinonen is a founder of Texana Living History Association and has been portraying Rip Ford since 1993.