Free to follow every thread. No paywall, no dead ends.
Texas in the American Civil War | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · The Secession Vote —
Texas in the American Civil War.
~8 min read · Ch. 1 of 8
On the 1st of February, 1861, members of the Texas Legislature and a massive crowd of private citizens packed the House galleries to watch the final vote on secession. Seventy yeas were recorded before there was a single nay. One negative vote came from James Webb Throckmorton of Collin County in North Texas. He faced a roar of hisses and boos when he cast his ballot against leaving the Union. Throckmorton retorted that when the rabble hiss, well may patriots tremble. The crowd gave him a grudging round of applause despite their anger.
The convention adopted an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 166 to 7. This was the highest percentage of any other state in the Lower South besides South Carolina. A statewide referendum held on the 23rd of February affirmed the decision with 46,129 votes for approval and 14,697 against it. The ordinance repealed the act of the 4th of July 1845, which had approved Texas annexation by the United States. It revoked all powers and obligations to the U.S. federal government.
Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. State officials declared his office vacant after he remained silent when his name was called three times. Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark replaced him as governor. The convention president Oran Milo Roberts introduced a resolution suggesting Texas leave the Union on January 29.
Houston's Removal
After his ouster from the governorship, Houston maintained a low public profile until his death in July 1863. In June 1861, he wrote to a friend stating there comes a time a man's section is his country. He said he stood with his own section but identified as a conservative citizen of the Southern Confederacy. His refusal to swear loyalty cost him his position and ended his political career.
The state legislature passed laws requiring all public officials to take oaths of allegiance to the new Confederate government. Those who refused faced removal from office. This process removed many Unionists from positions of power across the state. It created a climate of fear where dissent could lead to imprisonment or execution.
In August 1862, Confederate soldiers under Lt. Colin D. McRae tracked down a band of German Texans headed out of state. They attacked their camp in a bend of the Nueces River after a pitched battle resulted in the deaths of two Confederates. Approximately 19 Unionists were killed in the fighting. After the battle, 9 to 11 wounded Unionists were murdered with shots to the head in what became known
Persecution Of Dissenters
as the Nueces Massacre.
Another nine Unionists were pursued and executed in the following weeks. Future Republican congressman Edward Degener was the father of two men who were murdered in the massacre. The German population around Austin County led by Paul Machemehl successfully reached Mexico to escape persecution. In October 1862, approximately 150 settlers in Cooke County on the Red River were arrested for allegedly plotting to seize arsenals.
A court convened in Gainesville tried them for cooperating with Union army forces. Several settlers were hanged in downtown Gainesville during the first week of October. Nineteen additional men were found guilty and hanged before the end of the month. A total of about forty Unionists were hanged in Gainesville. Two were shot while trying to escape and two more were hanged elsewhere.
Over 70,000 Texans served in the Confederate army and Texas regiments fought in every major battle throughout the war. The state furnished 45 regiments of cavalry, 23 regiments of infantry, 12 battalions of cavalry, 4 battalions of infantry, 5 regiments of heavy artillery, and 30 batteries of light artillery. When the first companies of Texas soldiers reached Richmond, Virginia, Confederate President Jefferson Davis greeted them saying Texans have theirs to
Regiments And Divisions
maintain unlike other states who had their reputations to gain.
The Texas Brigade also known as Hood's Brigade was composed of the 1st, 4th and 5th Texas Infantry Regiments. They often served as shock troops of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Lee praised their fighting qualities remarking that none had brought greater honor to their native state than his Texans. Hood's men suffered severe casualties at Antietam where they faced Wisconsin's Iron Brigade and at Gettysburg where they assaulted Houck's Ridge.
Walker's Greyhound Division was a division composed of four brigades with Texan units. It was the only division in the Confederate States Army that maintained its single-state composition throughout the war. Formed in 1862 under command of Major General John George Walker it fought in the Western Theater and Trans-Mississippi Department. Over 2,000 Texas men joined the Union Army including future governor Edmund J. Davis.
Under the Anaconda Plan, the Union Navy blockaded Galveston and the entire Gulf and Southern borders for four years. Federal troops occupied Galveston for three months in late 1862 before Confederate troops recaptured it on the 1st of January 1863. A few days later the Confederate raider CSS Alabama attacked and sank the USS Hatteras off the coast of Galveston.
Civilian Blockade Runners largely evaded the Union blockades to smuggle
Blockade And Smuggling
cotton out of The Port of Bagdad, Mexico. They exchanged cotton for goods on European and black markets at a premium. President Lincoln referred to this economic movement through the Rio Grande as highly desirable in 1863. The Rio Grande Expedition led by General Nathaniel P. Banks pushed 100 miles inland to impede the flow of cotton.
Most of the crop became useless because of the Union's naval blockade of Galveston, Houston, and other ports. By the end of the war no territory but Brazos Island and El Paso was in Union hands. The California Column occupied the region around El Paso from 1862 until the war ended.
The most notable military battle in Texas during the war happened on the 8th of September 1863. At the Second Battle of Sabine Pass, a small garrison of 46 Confederates from the mostly-Irish Davis Guards under Lt. Richard W. Dowling defeated a much larger Union force. Skilled gunnery disabled the lead ships in Gen. William B. Franklin's flotilla prompting the remainder of 4,000 men on 27 ships to retreat back
Sabine Pass And Palmito
to New Orleans.
This victory resulted in the Confederate Congress passing a special resolution of recognition and the only contemporary military decoration of the South, the Davis Guards Medal. CSA President Jefferson Davis stated Sabine Pass will stand perhaps for all time as the greatest military victory in the history of the world. In 1864 many Texas forces moved into Northwestern Louisiana to stall Union Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks' Red River Campaign.
Union forces launched the Brazos Santiago Expedition leading to the last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch. It was fought in Texas on the 12th of May 1865, well after Robert E. Lee's surrender on the 9th of April 1865 at Old Appomattox Court House.
In the spring of 1865, Texas contained over 60,000 soldiers of the Army of the Trans-Mississippi under General Edmund Kirby Smith. Morale had deteriorated to the point of frequent desertion and thievery. News of Lee's surrender finally reached Texas around April 20. Local Confederate authorities had mixed opinions on their future course of action. Most senior military leaders vowed to press on with the war including commanding general Kirby Smith.
Collapse And Chaos
The month of May brought increasing rates of desertion. On May 14 troops in Galveston briefly mutinied but were persuaded to remain under arms. Soldiers began openly pillaging the Galveston quartermasters stores on May 21. A mob demanded that a government warehouse be opened to them and soldiers detained and plundered a train. Several hundred civilians sacked the blockade runner Lark when it docked on May 24.
Riots continued in Houston until May 26. Residents in Navasota suffered an explosion that cost eight lives and flattened twenty buildings. In Austin, the State Treasury was raided and $17,000 in gold was stolen. By May 27 half of the original Confederate forces in Texas had deserted or been disbanded.
Federal troops arrived in Texas to restore order on the 19th of June 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and 2,000 Union soldiers took possession of the state. The Stars and Stripes were not raised over Austin until June 25. President Andrew Johnson appointed Union General Andrew J. Hamilton as provisional governor on June 17. He granted amnesty to ex-Confederates if they promised to support the Union in the
Restoration And Readmission
future.
Convention delegates refused to grant suffrage to the state's black residents and Texas would not ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments until 1870. A second constitutional convention produced the Constitution of 1869 which expanded the franchise to all men over 21 years old regardless of race. Edmund J. Davis tried to adjourn the convention after the draft had been engrossed but before a final vote could be held.
A committee acting at the behest of General Edward Canby retrieved the document before officially adjourning the session. On the 30th of March 1870, the United States Congress permitted Texas' representatives to take their seat in Congress. This marked the end of the political process of restoring federal control and returning Texas to full representation.
When did Texas officially secede from the Union in 1861?
Texas officially seceded from the Union on the 1st of February 1861 when the state legislature passed an Ordinance of Secession by a vote of 166 to 7. A statewide referendum held on the 23rd of February affirmed this decision with 46,129 votes for approval and 14,697 against it.
Who was the governor of Texas during the Civil War after Sam Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance?
Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark replaced Sam Houston as governor after state officials declared his office vacant following his refusal to swear loyalty to the Confederacy. This occurred after Houston remained silent when his name was called three times at the convention.
What happened during the Nueces Massacre in August 1862 involving German Texans?
Confederate soldiers under Lt. Colin D. McRae attacked a band of German Texans in a bend of the Nueces River resulting in approximately 19 Unionists killed in fighting. After the battle, 9 to 11 wounded Unionists were murdered with shots to the head in what became known as the Nueces Massacre.
When did the last battle of the American Civil War occur in Texas?
The Battle of Palmito Ranch took place in Texas on the 12th of May 1865 serving as the final engagement of the war. This event occurred well after General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Old Appomattox Court House on the 9th of April 1865.
On what date did federal troops arrive in Texas to restore order and end Confederate control?
Federal troops arrived in Texas to restore order on the 19th of June 1865 when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger and 2,000 Union soldiers took possession of the state. The Stars and Stripes were not raised over Austin until June 25 following this arrival.