| On May 13, 1865, Civil War in Texas officially ended with the defeat of Union troops at the Battle of Palmito Ranch (also known as Rancho Las Rucias), some twelve miles east of Brownsville. While Confederate rebels across the country surrendered their weapons and prepared to face consequences, others turned to Mexico amid ongoing conflict between French occupation armies supporting Emperor Ferdinand Maximilian versus the nationalist forces of President Benito Juarez, as an outlet for southern soldiers-of-fortune. Literally, thousands of ex-Confederates fled across the border to fight, to avoid retribution, or simply to return to a planter's life outside the United States of America.;Meanwhile, merchants along the lower Rio Grande who had enjoyed a long, profitable run during the American conflict between the states continued to serve the French constituency that resided south of the border. Many traders, both foreign and American, had garnered fantastic profits brokering cotton, munitions, clothing, and other goods during the war. Matamoros, Tamaulipas, a convenient outlet for Southern cotton situated only three hundred yards across the river from Brownsville, became a channel for this vital commodity required by textile mills in England and France. Europe and Great Britain, eager for cotton bales, readily bought the commodity in exchange for the essentials of war needed by the Confederacy. Therefore, as a wartime strategy, Abraham Lincoln's maritime forces closed every port along the eastern and Gulf coasts to Southern commerce.;Owing to the French occupation of Mexico and the uncertainty of the future, merchants who operated stores and warehouses on both sides of the river quickly readjusted to serve American troops, Union or Rebel, as well as Mexican and French, depending on demand and competition. Moreover, their profits and custom house revenues provided French imperialists or Mexican republicans with a source of cash. The reality of the market positioned the merchants in a grip of power and vulnerability.;This monograph will depict how the merchants resolved to further the French occupation of Mexico's northern border and conversely how American authorities countered with a decision to assist Liberal partisans as an alternative to destabilize trade and dislodge French interlopers from the lower Rio Grande. Ultimately, damage to trade led to undermining the French intervention in northern Tamaulipas and hastened the end of the reign of Ferdinand Maximilian. Afterwards, the merchants retreated to Brownsville and began a new era of transportation, commodity trade, and cattle ranching in South Texas. |
