The distance from Shell Island to Corpus Christi was some sixteen or eighteen miles.

The channel to the bay was so shallow that the steamer, small as it was, had to be dragged over the bottom when loaded.

Not more than one trip a day could be effected.

Later this was remedied, by deepening the channel and increasing the number of vessels suitable to its navigation.
Corpus Christi is near the head of the bay of the same name, formed by the entrance of the Nueces River into tide-water, and is on the west bank of that bay.

At the time of its first occupancy by United States troops there was a small Mexican hamlet there, containing probably less than one hundred souls.