In 1861, Civil War broke out between the Northern and Southern states. Texan ranchers left their farms to fight for the Confederate army. The Confederates lost the war. The defeat destroyed the economy in the South. However, the cattle, left to their own devices, had multiplied. There were approximately 5 million longhorn cattle in Texas in 1865 but there was no market for them in the South. There was, however, a market in the north. If the ranchers could get their cattle to the North they would fetch ten times what they were worth in the South.
