Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 24.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[314] impassable quagmire for any character of troops, except the narrow levee. General Slaughter saw the movement of the enemy and ordered Captain Carrington, with Carter's Battery, to press the rear guard of the enemy and cut it off before it reached the levee, but the rear guard was too quick and passed in a hurry. Although Carrington's troopers were fresh and spurred their horses to their best running capacity, the enemy gained the levee when they were about 200 yards from the main body of the enemy, who had formed a line of battle at the further end of the levee among the sand hills.

Carrington immediately formed his troopers into line on the edge of the slough, then covered with tide water. While doing this he saw General Slaughter dash forward into the water in front and empty his six-shooter at the retreating foe. The Federal line formed on the other side of the slough was 300 yards off from the Confederate troopers. A heavy skirmish fire was kept up for nearly an hour across the slough. The enemy, though in full view, shot too high. They were five or six times as numerous as the Confederates, and were composed of veteran troops and commanded by experienced officers. As the sun went down the fire slackened and the enemy began to retreat toward Boca Chica, a shell from the United States war ship Isabella exploded between the Confederates and the retreating force of the enemy. A seventeen-year-old trooper of Carter's battery blazed away in the direction of the exploded shell with his Enfield rifle, using a very profane expletive for so small a boy, causing a hearty laugh from a half score of his comrades. The firing ceased. The last gun had been fired.

Colonel Barrett claims the last volley of the war was fired by the 62d United States colored troops. The United States war ship Isabella, very likely, fired the last shell, but it was a Texan, on Texas soil, of Carter's battery, that fired the last gun. The last battle of the war was a victory for the Confederates, and it will go down in history as such.

Captain Carrington was ordered by Colonel Ford to occupy the battlefield, gather up arms and bury the dead. While engaged in this it was reported that a body of Federals was in the bend of the river near the old Palmetto Ranch. Captain Carrington ordered Sergeant R. S. Caperton to deploy a squad of mounted men and drive out the enemy. In obeying this order the sergeant and his men captured First Lieutenant James W. Hancock, Second Lieutenant Thomas A. James, Hancock's brother and about twenty of Hancock's