Palmito Ranch: From Civil War Battlefield to National Historic Landmark

Runner-up, 2019 Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Book Award, sponsored by the Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association (TOMFRA)

Despite the strategic importance of the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the Civil War, the two battles fought there—the first (September 1864) and the second (May 1865) battles of Palmito Ranch—have largely faded from public memory even as the second battle earned the title “Last Land Battle of the Civil War.” In Palmito Ranch: From Civil War Battlefield to National Historic Landmark, Jody Edward Ginn and William Alexander McWhorter document efforts to redress this lacuna in the popular consciousness. They offer new information about these battles while chronicling the efforts to save and preserve the battlefield site, one of the few places in Texas where the war was contested.

Opening with a crisp retelling of the principal military events that unfolded at Palmito Ranch, near the Confederate port city of Brownsville, Ginn and McWhorter recount the initiative pursued by a multidisciplinary team organized largely through the efforts of the Texas Historical Commission to study, document, and preserve this important Texas historic site. Now, visitors to the area may benefit from not only improved and expanded historical markers, but also a radio transmitter and a viewing platform, along with other interpretive aids. All this is due to the campaign spearheaded by McWhorter, Ginn, and a cohort of dedicated volunteers and professionals.

Providing a case study in constituency building and public awareness raising to preserve and promote historic sites, Palmito Ranch will interest and educate heritage tourists, Civil War enthusiasts, and travelers to South Texas and the Lower Rio Grande Valley.
 

JODY EDWARD GINN was the 2001 and 2002 winner of the Texas State Historical Association’s Fred White Jr. Research Fellowship in Texas History. He is an adjunct associate professor of history and a media consultant who lives in Austin. WILLIAM ALEXANDER MCWHORTER is the former executive director of the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission. Previously he served as military historian at the Texas Historical Commission. He resides in Kyle, Texas.