On May 12-13, 1865, the last land battle of the American Civil War unfolded across about a dozen miles between this area and Brazos Island on a windy coastal river delta in Texas. Over 36 hours from dawn to dusk, Union and Confederate soldiers skirmished in hot, muggy conditions, and in the end the Confederates won, chasing Union forces back to the Gulf. Today the quiet landscape appears much as it did 150 years ago, shaped by Rio Grande floods and windstorms and supporting native plants and animals, while only traces of the fighting remain, including lead pistol balls, carbine bullets, a French Minié ball, and a brass button probably lost from the civilian coat of an ill-clad Confederate soldier.