Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.
E.M. was born Ewing Moredock Skaggs about 1825 near Bowling Green, Kentucky.  His older brother, E.H. was born Eli Harrison Skaggs in 1818, the oldest son of Abraham and Rhoda (Smith) Skaggs.  These guys quickly decided farming wasn't their thing and moved down to New Orleans to make their fortune.  In the 1850s E.H. owned two sugar plants in St. Mary Parish.  In 1850 E.M. jumped on the steamship "Falcon" for Panama and joined the California gold rush.  He shows up in the 1860 census for Sacramento, California as a "capitalist."  E.M. made a bundle and had invested in real estate.  He was leasing rooms to boarders, conference rooms to the California legislature and owned the El Dorado gambling saloon at J and 2nd Streets.  E.M. bought the Louisiana Racetrack in Sacramento, later to become the neighborhood of Curtis Park.  E.M. moved into horse racing and breeding and showed several race horses at the California State Fair.

While E.M. was striking it rich in California, E.H. was doing deals in New Orleans.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, E.H. bought a steamboat, Indian No. 2, and used it to ship goods from Mexico and Cuba into New Orleans during the Union occupation.  E.H. would load Indian No. 2 up with cotton in New Orleans and steam over to Matamoros and pick up a load of provisions for New Orleans.  E.H. had a pass from Union General Benjamin Butler stating "Mr. E. H. Skaggs has permission to bring the steamer Indian No. 2 from the mouth of Sabine to this city (New Orleans) with a load of cattle and provisions."  Butler's pass allowed him to go through the Union blockade and this really irritated the Admiral David Farragut of the Union Navy, since Butler's passes made his job of blockading the Confederacy more difficult.  E.H. could just drop off supplies to the Confederates before going back into New Orleans.  Farragut called E.H. a "professed gambler and speculator" and put enough heat on him to move the Indian No. 2 up the Mississippi to the Red River and E. H. spent the rest of the war running supplies up there.

E.M. had a piece of this smuggling action because both E.M. and E.H. filed for war damages with the U.S. government.  E.H. had a receipt from the Union Army for supplies confiscated from him during he war.  After the war, when he presented the receipt for payment, the government refused, citing his questionable smuggling activity with the Indian No. 2.  However, in 1891 a Congressional committee offered the opinion that, after considering all evidence, E.H. acted as a loyal American during the war and the estate was entitled to compensation for the war claims.
E.M. died the way you might have expected, he got into a fight about horse racing and was thrown down a flight of stairs in 1884.  E.H. died in 1890 in Athens, Texas.