Brownsville.

This is coolbert:

Thanks to the archives of the New York Times as seen at Freeper posted by Homer Simpson lurid headlines of an alarmist nature.

All this while the nation concentrates [1861] on Fort Sumter.

"HIGHLY IMPORTANT NEWS: TEXAS TO BE RECONQUERED BY MEXICO; IMPORTANT FROM MONTGOMERY: REPORTED REINFORCEMENT OF FORT PICKENS (4/3/1861)"

New York Times archives – Times Machine ^ | 4/3/1861

"GEN. AMPUDIA WITH 3,000 MEXICANS MARCHING ON BROWNSVILLE. NEW-ORLEANS,"

"Tuesday, April 2. Texas advices state that Col. FORD is reliably informed from Matamoras that Gen. AMPUDIA with 3,000 Mexicans is 60 miles off, and marching on Brownsville. AMPUDIA had dispatched expresses with placards and handbills announcing that Texas rightly belonged to Mexico; that she had no longer the support of the Federal Government, and now is the time to retake her."

Intrigue and schemes of various foreign powers [hardly] limited to Mexico] during that period of the American Civil War undeniable. Take advantage of a situation when the American nation having internal division unable to satisfactorily respond to external threat.

coolbert.