The Battle of Galveston Harbor was fought at Galveston, Texas on October 4, 1862, during the American Civil War. After attempts to blockade the Texas coastline were unsuccessful, the Union navy decided to attempt to capture the port of Galveston. While Galveston was defended by Confederate forces, most of the cannons in the city's defenses were removed, as Galveston was thought to be indefensible. On October 4, five Union naval vessels commanded by Commander William B. Renshaw approached Galveston, and a single ship, USRC Harriet Lane was sent into Galveston Bay under a flag of truce.
The Confederates, commanded by Colonel Joseph J. Cook, could not get a boat to Harriet Lane in a timely manner, and the Union ship left the bay. The Confederate boat headed for the Union fleet, which moved towards the bay under flags of truce to meet it. Misunderstandings led to artillery fire, although a four-day truce was eventually made. The terms of the truce were unclear, and the Confederates used the truce to evacuate the city, which was initially objected to by Renshaw. At the expiration of the truce, Union troops landed in Galveston and raised the United States flag over the city. The Confederates recaptured Galveston on January 1, 1863, in the Battle of Galveston.
When the American Civil War began in April 1861, President of the United States Abraham Lincoln declared a naval blockade of the coastline and ports of the Confederate States of America, with the goal of cutting the Confederates off from foreign trade. At the time, the most significant port on the Texas portion of the Confederate coastline was Galveston. After the blockade order was issued, Union navy ships were sent to the Texas coast, but the blockade was not immediately effective. Under international law of the time, a blockade needed to be effective in order to be legal, and in December, HMS Desperate visited Galveston and saw no US Navy presence. William McKean, commander of the Gulf Blockading Squadron, doubted the accuracy of the British report but forwarded the information to the United States Secretary of the Navy. Because of the shape of Galveston Bay, blockading the port would require at least two ships.
Under the supervision of Major General John B. Magruder, Confederate forces under W. W. Hunter had been placing artillery batteries, digging trenches, and obstructed harbor channels to ready the defense of Galveston. The defenses were not particularly imposing, though, and Confederate officer Xavier Debray wrote in a letter than the city was not defensible. The Union blockade still struggled with ineffectiveness, and the decision was made to capture some Confederate ports in order to provide more bases for Union ships and fewer for blockade runners. On May 17, 1862, the captain of the USS Santee sailed to Galveston, and demanded the surrender of the town, threatening to begin bombarding the place on May 23; the threatened attack did not occur. In August, Union Admiral David Glasgow Farragut ordered Commander William B. Renshaw to destroy blockade runners and capture Galveston if practicable.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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