These activities pulled him into business alliances and rivalries with Cornelius Vanderbilt which culminated in Morgan's support of William Walker's filibuster in Nicaragua.

Just prior to his death, he incorporated Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company and distributed his shares to several family members.

[3] Charles Morgan left home for New York City at age fourteen to work for a merchant, but he later started his own import business.

[7] The New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company was formed in June 1834 by Charles Morgan, James P. Allaire, and John Haggerty.

The packet company had won the bid for the United States Mail contract, worth $7,200 annually, and its ships were earning more than $1,000 per trip in profits.

Some of the investors sold David Brown and then abandoned the company, leaving Morgan, Allaire, and Haggerty as the sole partners and Columbia as their only ship.

The previous year, the New York and Charleston Steam Packet Company deployed the steamship David Brown to sail a route from New Orleans to Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba.

During this era, New Orleans was the main port for Gulf traffic, and the newly formed Republic of Texas attracted many immigrants and demand for trade goods.

June marked the beginning of the slack season, which lasted throughout the summer and part of the fall, and business picked up again in early October.

During the Mexican War, Morgan accepted various contracts to move U.S. troops, deploying New York and Galveston for military transport, and collecting nearly $80,000 (~$2.43 million in 2023) in less than six months in 1846.

Captain Smith maintained a small interest in Palmetto and became an investment partner with Morgan in the 249-ton steamship Yacht, a much smaller vessel better suited for navigating the sandbars of the Texas coast.

Portland was a steamer built in 1835 which originally served the coast of Maine; she was brought into the Morgan fleet late in 1847 and assigned to move military troops and equipment out of New Orleans.

With financial capital and the means of production still concentrated near the Eastern seaboard, there was demand for transportation to carry people and supplies to the Pacific coast.

At the same time, demand outstripped supply in early 1849, especially on the Atlantic side, and Charles Morgan first entered this market as a major shareholder of Crescent City, which his agent J. Howard & Son dispatched to Chagres, Panama, from New York.

Morgan and John T. Howard increased their investment in westbound transportation throughout 1849 and 1850, first buying the screw-steamer Sarah Sands, then four more ships of the line, three of which sailed the Pacific side from Panama to San Francisco.

The agreement was negotiated between Joseph L. White and the conservative faction which ruled out of the city of Granada, and conveyed the rights to construct a canal to the Vanderbilt-controlled Accessory Transit Company.

Morgan placed his own ships into service of Vanderbilt's company, running his Empire City Line steamers from New York, as well as Mexico from New Orleans, all of which put in at the port of San Juan del Norte.

A third board member, Cornelius B. Payne, was a junior partner of Harris & Morgan and owned 250 shares of stock in the Southern Steamship Company.

The NOO&GW was planned to span from New Orleans to the Pacific Coast, but higher than expected construction costs prevented the company from building beyond this swampy, inaccessible, and sparsely populated area of Louisiana.

In addition, transferring western-bound freight to the railroad eliminated both navigating the Mississippi River and shortened the western route to Galveston by about 160 miles (260 kilometres).

NOO&GW also agreed to move freight for the Southern Steamship Company at a discount, and provide its ships with a wharf at Brashear.

Louisiana Governor Thomas O. Moore mandated a seizure of three ships from the Southern Steamship Company, viewing Charles Morgan as a northerner and a threat to the Confederacy.

With the United States mail service discontinued and the effective Union blockade of southern ports, Morgan's steamship empire was idled.

Beyond civilian production, the Morgan Iron Works built engines and other marine equipment for thirteen ships in the Union Naval fleet.

Preceded by the departure of George Quintard and Henry Morgan, both of whom pursued new paths as independent financiers, his agent in New Orleans, Israel C. Harris, retired on April 1 before dying on Christmas Eve.

The following year, William S. Pike approached Morgan to join a group of 26 NOO&GW bondholders to force a court-ordered sale of the railroad.

One of these suits competed against an earlier lawsuit filed in federal court by the Illinois Central Railroad, which was attempting to force the NOO&GW into liquidation.

For example, a Morgan agent in 1873 was able to sell a single ticket for passage between New Orleans and San Antonio, Texas, which employed several modes of transportation.

When this line started operation on September 11, 1876, Morgan gained access to most of Texas and no longer needed Galveston within his transportation network.

Next, he engineered a takeover of the Houston and Texas Central, ousting the all-Texas management, and installing himself as a director with Charles A. Whitney as president.