Texas Park In Border Standoff Graveyard Of The Confederacy

The Texas park at the center of the battle between Governor Abbott and the White House is, ironically, named for a confederate general who refused to surrender and fled to Mexico.

Shelby Park, in Eagle Pass, Texas, is named for Confederate General Joseph Orville Shelby and is also known as the "grave of the Confederacy".

The story behind this ends with a colony of exiled Confederate soldiers being welcomed and given land by Mexico in the last days of the Civil War.

Shelby Park sits along a portion of the Rio Grande that is fairly shallow which made it a very popular spot for illegal aliens to cross. Governor Abbott ordered the Texas National Guard to take control of the park which, apparently, stopped all crossings.

The White House ordered the Border Patrol to cut the razor wire that had rimmed the park and Texas and Washington have been battling over all this ever since.

Ironically, the park itself is named for a Confederate General who refused to surrender after the Civil War and fled TO Mexico to avoid having to do so.

As the group stood in the Rio Grande, they plunged the Confederate battle flag into the river rather than letting Union forces get their hands on it. “He withdrew the black plume from his hat brim and laid it gently within the folds of the flag before it vanished beneath the muddy water”  CNN

That's what earned Eagle Pass the nickname “grave of the Confederacy.” Unlike illegals entering America today, Shelby, and his men, were welcomed by Mexico with open arms.

Shelby and his men offered their military expertise to Maximilian I, installed as emperor by the French and, then, fighting to maintain French control of Mexico. He turned them down but gave them land to start a colony. Pretty sweet deal but they weren't there long.

Within 2 years, Shelby and most of his crew were back in the states, Maximilian was deposed and executed while the French were driven out of Mexico completely. One of the key battles in that revolution is honored on Cinco de Mayo.