Along the Texas coast, the first year of the Civil War saw skirmishes between blockading ships of the U.S. fleet and Confederate bastions guarding Aransas Pass and Pass Cavallo. One of the first actions in the war was the capture of the Star of the West troopship off Pass Cavallo and the surrender of U.S. forces waiting to embark at Indianola.

In February 1862, Major C.G. Forshey, a Confederate engineer inspecting defenses on Matagorda Island, reported that ”the enemy has discovered the valuable and daily increasing trade passing by our inland navigation route.

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