The American Civil War, 1861 - 1865:

"Perhaps no other issue inspired so much greed and corruption on both sides during the Civil War as the cotton trade...

"[T]hese transactions enabled the Confederacy to purchase urgently needed arms and supplies ..."


Snippet from pages 210 - 211 of Douglas Hale's book The Third Texas Cavalry in the Civil War. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

SCENE: Confederate commander "Sul" Ross's brother, Lt. Col. Peter F. Ross, orders the 3rd. Texas & 9th. Texas Cavalry Regiments off on a raid down the Yazoo Valley on March 30, 1864:

"Their target was Yankee cotton.

"Perhaps no other issue inspired so much greed and corruption on both sides during the Civil War as the cotton trade.

"While possessing little else, the South had the cotton that the North needed to supply its own textile mills and to placate English and continental manufacturers who were cut off from their normal supply of the precious fiber.

"Since early in the war, both sides had therefore connived at trading with the enemy.

"Armed with authorization from the Federal government, and operating under the protection of the Union army, Yankee traders bought Southern cotton.

"The proceeds from these transactions enabled the Confederacy to purchase urgently needed arms and supplies.

"Such an underhanded trade fostered an atmosphere of speculation and chicanery and often frustrated Northern strategy.

"By its contribution to the Southern war effort, the contraband trade in cotton prolonged the war by at least a year...

"After the fall of Vicksburg the Mississippi Valley became the heart of this disreputable business.

"The Federal government developed ways to bypass the unscrupulous traders:

"One method was to lease out confiscated plantations in conquered territory, place reliable agents in charge of them, and protect the cotton crop until it might be grown, picked, and delivered securely into Union hands.

"There were such leased plantations in the Yazoo valley, and the recently recruited African - American troops were primarily responsible for their protection from marauding Rebels.

"Near Snyder's Bluff, which overlooked the Yazoo about ten miles north of Vicksburg, two high - ranking Union officers had been granted the lease to one such plantation.

"While the gentlemen were away fighting the war, their agents supervised black laborers in cultivating the cotton and sold the crop at a tidy profit.

"The Texans' mission was to destroy this plantation.

"The troopers descended out of the bluffs and onto the main valley road before dawn on March 31, and the two attacking regiments split up in order to bracket the Yankee earthworks that protected the plantation.

"The Third Regiment fell upon a squadron of black cavalry from the south, while the Ninth attacked them from the rear.

"The Rebels slaughtered about thirty of the black soldiers and raged unhindered around the plantation's main buildings.

"They destroyed all the equipment, burned the gin, and captured about one hundred mules.

"After a brief skirmish with the Yankee infantry nearby, the Texans rode back unscathed through the hills to their campground.

"The men of the Third Texas did not know it yet, but their raid at Snyder's Bluff would account for the last blood they shed in Mississippi ..."