On December 23, 1863, Capt. James Speed of General Napoleon J.T. Dana's Brownsville-based Federal Army force raided the unguarded King Ranch to capture or kill Captain Richard King and destroy the Confederate cotton trade. Forewarned, King escaped. At the ranch, the raiders killed Francisco Alvarado; captured Confederate Captains John Brown, Alvin Dix, W.S. Gregory, and James McClearly, and Chaplain Hiram Chamberlain; rifled all buildings; dispersed ranch employees; set the slaves free; confiscated all horses and mules; impounded Confederate cotton, saying that if it were burned or moved, King's life would be forfeited; and warned of more raids from Boveda. Mrs. King and the children moved to San Antonio for the duration of the war, and Colonel J.S. (Rip) Ford's Confederate cavalry, called the Cavalry of the West, came to protect the cotton road and the area. Federal units then moved away from Boveda. Camp Boveda stood at a ford 2 miles east, on Los Olmos Creek in present Poteet Ranch, and its seven cypress-lined water wells probably had served General Zachary Taylor's army in 1846.