The Medallions of the Generals

 

423 E. Maxan St & Various other locations

 

    There are 21 medallions placed in sidewalks around Port Isabel’s Historic Lighthouse Square. These medallions commemorate the generals that served and fought here in both the Mexican American War and the Civil War. Generals commemorated include: Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis, Zachary Taylor, Samuel Ringgold, George Gordon Meade, and more. Be sure to look for additional medallions and portraits of the famous generals on your walk through Lighthouse Square.

In 1846 General Zachary Taylor established Fort Polk and used it as a base for military excursions into Mexico. The six-sided Fort, named for President Polk, consisted of 4 sides of earthen embankments and 2 sides open to the shoreline. The fort included one of the largest military hospitals in the United States. It was abandoned in 1850 and the settlement later developed in to Port Isabel (Then called Point Isabel).

Later, the Civil War impacted Point Isabel.  Both Union and Confederate forces used the lighthouse as a lookout to watch for the enemy.  There was a small battle fought by the docks.  Confederate soldiers used the Lighthouse as a lookout for monitoring the movements of the Union forces. In May of 1863, a Union ship entered the harbor to engage blockade-running vessels. The Confederates exploded a charge inside the lighthouse, blowing out the glass in the lantern room, but the Union forces did not try to occupy the port. However, five months later, they returned with an invading force, and the retreating Confederates again exploded powder in the tower. This time they succeeded in causing more damage. The tower’s door was blown off, the brickwork was cracked, and the clockwork mechanism for revolving the lens was damaged. But, still the lighthouse stood to see the end of the Civil War.

During the four years of the Civil War, the military hospital located in Port Isabel (probably near the cemetery) served over 100,000 patients.  In addition to military wounds, many were also treated for yellow fever, cholera, and dysentery.

Rumors of Confederate and Union ghosts still occupying the lighthouse high vantage point still endure. In 2013 a visiting “ghost hunting” crew recorded multiple unexplained voices with very old southern accents in the Lighthouse during one night.