Padre Island National Seashore             

The Civil War and "The Affair on Padre Island"

During the Civil War, the Union blockaded the passes between the local barrier islands to disrupt the export of cotton from the Confederacy and to prevent salt from the Laguna Madre reaching the southern forces. Union troops occasionally landed on the island to secure fresh meat from the herds of free roaming cattle.   Occasionally, southerners would endeavor to transport cotton across Padre Island and load it onto ship standing off shore in the Gulf, but with Union warships patrolling just beyond the horizon, this was always a precarious occupation at best.

Only one small skirmish occurred on Padre Island.  The engagement was so small that the local newspapers referred to it as "The Affair on Padre Island".

In December of 1862, Captain John Ireland and seven men crossed Corpus Christi Bay in the boat The Queen of the Bay to scout Corpus Christi Pass (dividing Padre and Mustang Islands), in order to determine if the pass was deep enough to allow ships to transit.  As they checked the water depth, they became aware that the Union bark Arthur, laying just off shore, was observing them. At noon the Confederates decided to return to Corpus Christi, returned to the Queen of the Bay, and cast off.  They then noticed they were being pursued by two launches carrying twenty-two men from the Arthur and that they could not escape because the launches were quickly gaining on them.  The Confederates ran their boat ashore, secured it, and began firing upon the Union launches, who quickly landed on Mustang Island on the other side of the the pass and returned fire.  Unfortunately, the Union troops failed to anchor their launches, which promptly drifted out into the pass.  Captain Ireland waded into the pass and seized one while a soldier named Jack Sands seized the other before it drifted out into the Gulf.  The Confederates returned to Corpus Christi in the Queen of the Bay with both launches and all the weapons and equipment they contained including a wounded Union soldier who had been found in the first launch while the Union troops waited on Mustang Island for another boat to retrieve them.