In November 1863, during the Civil War, the Union Army arrived in Calhoun County as part of its effort to take Fort Esperanza on Pass Cavallo at the entrance to Matagorda Bay. On the morning of December 26, 1863, Union forces trying to reach Lavaca, current-day Port Lavaca, by way of Norris Bridge over Chocolate Bayou met Texas Rangers on the bayou's banks. According to similar accounts from both sides, forty Rangers tried to set fire to the bridge when they saw the large infantry force approaching, but Union soldiers put out the fire and began shelling the Texans. The Rangers held their ground until their captain ordered a retreat because they faced three thousand Union soldiers, then scattered on horseback in all directions, gaining an advantage over the Union infantry. Few casualties resulted, in part because the Union Army mistook a distant herd of cows for the enemy and fired on the animals instead. The only death in the fighting was a Union officer struck in the thigh by a musket shot. This brief clash was one of the rare engagements between armies on the Texas front, and Norris Bridge, named for A.W. Norris, who bought the bridge property in 1857 and operated it as a toll bridge, was damaged by the Texans while Norris's nearby house was vandalized by the Union Army.