The Battle of Galveston: Civil War on the Island

In the first hours of January 1, 1863, the Confederacy took back Galveston. Union forces had occupied the island port weeks earlier, and Major General John B. Magruder answered with a bold two-part plan: infantry and artillery hidden in the buildings along the harbor, and a pair of improvised gunboats — 'cottonclads' stacked with cotton bales for armor — steaming down from Houston to strike the Union fleet. What followed was a chaotic New Year's Day battle fought on the water and in the streets, ending in a Confederate victory that kept Galveston in Southern hands for the rest of the war. This short waterfront walk traces the ground where it happened: the wharves, the old commercial buildings that served as lookouts and cover, and the harbor where the cottonclads rammed the Union gunboats. Watch for traffic along the working waterfront as you go.