Palmito Ranch

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF RIP FORD

Part 20: Palmito Ranch

by Bob Heinonen

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

“Early in the month of March, 1865, Federal General Lew Wallace came to Brazos Santiago [Island where the Union Army was headquartered]. He sent a communication to [Confederate] General Slaughter, inviting him to meet him at Point Isabel on the eleventh of that month. General Slaughter invited Colonel Ford to accompany him, which Ford did. At the meeting the matter of concluding a peace between the North and the South was discussed, and propositions were submitted by General Wallace. He suggested that it was useless to fight on the Rio Grande, that if the contending parties met and slaughtered each other it would have no effect on the final result of the contest. We [Wallace and Ford] admitted the fact, but declined to entertain those propositions for want of authority from the Confederate government.”[i] “Everything collapsed, however, because dispatches on the discussions fell into the hands of Confederate Major General J. G. Walker, an officer of the ‘last ditch school.’ Walker reprimanded Slaughter and Ford, and the project fell through. Afterward, Ford mentioned this was a mistake.”[ii]

By this time, the peaceful co-existence in the Rio Grande valley had caused a depletion of Confederate forces. Many men were on furlough visiting their families. When a report came on May 12^th that the Union soldiers had advanced to the San Martin Ranch,[iii] it came as a surprise and found the Confederates very short handed. Ford told Captain Robinson to hold his ground---he would bring reinforcements from Fort Brown as soon as he could gather them. “It would be saying the mere truth to assert that Ford’s orders found some of the detachments badly prepared to move.”[iv]

“Ford put the question: ‘General [Slaughter], what do you intend to do?’

‘Retreat,’ the general said.

‘You can retreat and go to hell if you wish!’ Ford thundered. ‘These are my men, and I am going to fight.’

Among other things Ford said was this: ‘I have held this place against heavy odds. If you lose it without a fight the people of the Confederacy will hold you accountable for a base neglect of duty.’”[v]

General Slaughter finally agreed with Old Rip and also agreed to meet at the parade grounds at Fort Brown the next morning to begin the campaign. Old Rip waited at the parade grounds but General Slaughter did not show; Old Rip took command of the few troops that were gathered and marched to the San Martin Ranch.

“When Colonel Ford saw the Federal lines some half a mile lower down below the ranch of San Martin, cutting the road at right angles, he felt badly.

‘This may be the last fight of the war,’ he thought to himself, ‘and from the number of Union men I see before me, I am going to be whipped.’

He bouyed up his spirits, made a short talk to the boys, and found them in such good fighting trim that he made haste to put them to work. It is but simple justice to them to say they fully met his expectations, and showed themselves worthy of the encomiums passed upon the gallant soldiers of a noble State.”[vi]

“Colonel Ford’s Confederate force of some 1,300 engaged a Federal column of about the same number in the thickets above the ranch [Palmito], driving them back to Brazos Island in a wild running fight. From a prisoner Ford learned the next day that General Lee had surrendered over a month before at Appomattox. Rip said the news struck him like a physical blow. Lee’s surrender forced him to face something he’d known for many months but could not bring himself to acknowledge: the South was non indomitable, the cause was not eternal, the Confederacy was dead.”[vii]

Ford wrote “The prisoners taken in the battle of Palmito Ranch were conducted to Fort Brown and treated with kindness. Several of them were from Texas. This made no difference in their treatment. Some were taken who had deserted from the command on the lower Rio Grande. The most of these were allowed to escape on the march up to Brownsville. The Confederate soldiers were unwilling to see them tried as deserters. 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.”[viii]

Fehrenbach says “This is not the whole truth. The prisoners who made it back to Brazos Island told a different tale. They had seen many of Haynes’s Texas Unionists shot down after they had surrendered, though Jack Haynes himself was spared. Most of these Southern deserters had died fighting rather than surrender.”[ix]

The war was over. “Ford dismissed the Cavalry … [May 26, 1865], and took his family south of the border with Mejia’s consent. The Federals marched into Brownsville unopposed.”[x]

The battle at Palmito Ranch was the last fight of the war and Old Rip Ford had won it. But The War Between The States was over and Reconstruction now began.

Next Month – Part 21: The War Is Over—Reconstruction Begins

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