Texas in the American Civil War

Texas seceded from the United States on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States of America on March 2, 1861, replacing its governor, Sam Houston, when he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. During the subsequent American Civil War, Texas was most useful for supplying soldiers for Confederate forces and in the cavalry. Some were veterans of the Mexican War. Texas was mainly a "supply state" for the Confederate forces until mid-1863, when the Union capture of the Mississippi River made large movements of men, horses or cattle impossible. Some cotton was sold in Mexico, but most of the crop became useless because of the Federal naval blockade of Galveston and other ports.

Military recruitment

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, four battalions of infantry, one regiment of heavy artillery and 30 batteries of light artillery for the Confederacy. In addition, the state maintained, at its own expense, some additional troops that were for home defense. These included 5 regiments and 4 battalions of cavalry, and 4 regiments and 1 battalion of infantry. In 1862, the Confederate Congress in distant Richmond, Virginia, passed a conscription law that ordered all males from 18 to 45 years of age to be placed in the service, except ministers, state, city and county officers and certain slave owners. All persons holding 15 slaves, or over, were exempt.

Among the most famous units were the Terry's Texas Rangers (a group of frontier cavalrymen, many of who later became peacekeepers in the Old West) and "Hood's Texans," a brigade comprised mainly of Texas regiments augmented by the 3rd Arkansas Infantry, and orginally commanded by John Bell Hood. Hood's men suffered severe casualties in a number of fights, most notably at the Battle of Antietam, where they faced off with the Iron Brigade, and at Gettysburg, where they assaulted Houck's Ridge and then Little Round Top.

Battles in Texas

Texas did not experience many significant battles. However, the Union mounted several attempts to capture the Trans-Mississippi regions of Texas and Louisiana from 1862 until the war's end. With ports to the east under blockade or captured, Texas in particular became a blockade-running haven. Referred to as the "back door" of the Confederacy, Texas and western Louisiana continued to provide cotton crops that were transferred overland to the Mexican border town of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and shipped to Europe in exchange for supplies. Determined to close this trade, the Union mounted several invasion attempts of Texas, each of them unsuccessful.

The U.S. Navy blockaded the principle seaport, Galveston, for four years, and Federal infantry occupied the city for three months. A few other cities also fell to Union troops, including Port Lavaca, Indianola, and Brownsville. Federal attempts to seize control of Laredo, Corpus Christi, and Sabine Pass failed.

The last battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Palmito Ranch, was fought in Texas on May 12 1865, well after Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865, at the Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Limited Opposition to Secession

A small number of Texans inhabiting the Texas Hill Country and five counties in North Texas did not support secession, and many in those regions worked to preserve their ties with the Union. Some 2,000 of these men joined the Union army, led by future governor Edmund J. Davis who initially commanded the 1st Texas Cavalry (USA) and rose to the rank of brigadier general. Texas's relatively large German population around Austin by and large tried to remain neutral in the dispute. East Texas gave the most support to secession, and the only East Texas counties in which significant numbers of people opposed secession were Angelina County, Fannin County, and Lamar County. Furthermore, the conscription act proved controversial to some Texans, who felt that the war was being fought by poor people in deference to the wealthy few.

Notwithstanding the above, the following incidents serve as further evidence that most Texans were staunch supporters of succession and the Confederacy: In August 1862, a band of Germans seeking to avoid conscription was massacred along the Nueces River. Forty suspected Unionists were hanged at Gainesville in October. Two others were shot as they tried to escape. Although the affair reached its climax in Cooke County, men were killed in neighboring counties as well. Most were accused of treason or insurrection; historians conclude that few had actually conspired against the Confederacy, and many were innocent of the abolitionist sentiments for which they were executed.

Further reading

• Bell, Walter F. "Civil War Texas: A Review of the Historical Literature" Southwestern Historical Quarterly 2005 109(2): 204-232. Issn: 0038-478x
• Elliott, Claude. "Union Sentiment in Texas 1861-1865" Southwestern Historical Quarterly 50:4 (April 1947), online
• James Smallwood, "Disaffection in Confederate Texas: The Great Hanging at Gainesville," Civil War History 22 (December 1976) pp 349-60. online at JSTOR
• Wooster, Ralph A., Civil War Texas: A History and a Guide. Texas State Historical Association, 1999. ISBN 0-87611-171-1.
• Wooster, Ralph A., Essays on Texas in the Civil War.
• Wooster, Ralph A., Texas and Texans in the Civil War.

External links

• Handbook of Texas Online
• Texas Military Units in the Civil War
• Texas Civil War Map of Battles
• Texas Civil War Museum