The Back Door of the Confederacy

Toggle the blockade and the Cotton Road. Drag the year slider. Click any place on the map for its story.

Turn on the blockade and watch sea trade die — all but one neutral door. Turn on the Cotton Road to bring trade back overland.

Río Grande Galveston Sabine Pass King Ranch Brownsville Matamoros Laredo Eagle Pass
1861
The coast is still open

Texas: The Confederacy’s Back Door

In 1861, the Civil War began. Union warships sailed along the Texas coast to shut down Southern trade. We call this a blockade.

But Texas had a back door. Wagon trains hauled cotton south to Matamoros, Mexico — a neutral country the blockade could never legally touch.

One honest note before you explore: the cotton in these wagons was grown and picked by enslaved people. This map shows a supply route — and the war it served ended in their freedom. That story is where this map ends, at Galveston, on June 19, 1865.