Hundreds of Union and Confederate troops fought the Civil War’s last land battle at Palmito Ranch on May 12 and 13, 1865, more than a month after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. Despite news of the surrender, Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, commander of Union forces stationed on Brazos Island, ordered an advance on Brownsville, Texas. On May 12, 1865, U.S. cavalry troops attacked a small party of Confederates, which withdrew to Palmito Ranch. The next day, reinforcements arrived for both sides. Although U.S. forces outnumbered Confederates two to one, they were outgunned and outflanked, and the battle ended in a Confederate victory when Union forces fled back to the coast. Private John Jefferson Williams of the 34th Indiana Volunteer Infantry was killed there, becoming the last Union soldier killed in battle during the Civil War. Colonel John Ford, a former Texas Ranger known as "Old Rip," led Confederate troops to victory there from his command at Fort Brown.