Different sites in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina claim the location of the "last battle" in the War Between the States. Yet this distinction most likely belongs to Palmito Ranch near Brownsville, Texas.
Located at the southernmost point of the Lone Star State, the final exchange between Yankee and Rebel came to an end on May 13, 1865 -- about six weeks after Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia -- when Major John Salmon Ford and the 2nd Texas {Confederate} Cavalry "Mounted Rifles" Regement (among others) battled the 2nd Texas {Union} Cavalry Regiment, the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment, and the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.
In one of the more ironic twists of the entire War, the Southerners won.
Texan forces formally surrendered on May 26, 1865. General Edmund Kirby Smith ceded his corps in the Trans-Mississippi Department one week later on June 2.
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