<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Ul> <Li> Palmito Ranch </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> Palmito Ranch </Li> </Ul> <P> The Battle of Palmito Ranch is considered by some criteria as the final battle of the American Civil War . It was fought May 12 and 13, 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of Brownsville, Texas and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago . Since the Confederacy had ceased to exist, it is also argued that this battle should be classified as a postwar action . </P> <P> Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865 . But Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, newly assigned to command an all - black unit, and never having been in combat, ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons . The Union attackers captured a few prisoners, but the following day the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch by Colonel John Salmon Ford, and the battle resulted in a Union defeat . Union forces were surprised by artillery, said to have been supplied by the French Army occupying the nearby Mexican town of Matamoros . </P>

What is the final battle of the civil war