In 1861, voted for secession 147 to 77. With its beef and cotton, helped supply South. Furnished salt from beds near Cox's Creek; hides and tallow from a plant between Port Lavaca and Texana; lead from Navidad mine (now a "lost mine"). Homefolk molded bullets and sent to fighting men, along with clothes woven, sewed or knitted by the family. Couriers operated along a line that skirted blockade coast from mouth of Caney Creek to Brownsville. Home guard kept enemy ships off the shores. A Confederate gunboat, chased from Lavaca Bay, sank in the Navidad.