Palmito Ranch was never the site of a town, fort, or other built settlement; it was open ranchland along the Rio Grande east of Brownsville, used historically for grazing livestock, when it became the unplanned scene of the last land battle of the Civil War on May 12-13, 1865, fought weeks after General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and even after the war's other major surrenders, largely because news of the Confederate collapse had not yet reached this remote border region. Union and Confederate troops skirmished across the open prairie and along the river in an engagement that, notably, ended in a Confederate tactical victory despite the South's overall defeat in the war. Because the land was never developed for housing, industry, or agriculture beyond ranching, the battlefield has retained much of its historic open, undeveloped character to the present day. It functions today not as a formal park with a visitor center but as a largely rural, privately and publicly held landscape along Texas Highway 4, marked by state historical markers and interpretive signage describing troop movements and the battle's significance. The battlefield was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996 in recognition of its historical importance, and while it lacks extensive public facilities, it draws Civil War history enthusiasts and researchers, and portions are studied and monitored for archaeological preservation as an essentially undeveloped historic battlefield site.