Allan Coleman Ashcraft

“ October saw an overpowering flotilla of eight enemy craft secure the surrender of Galveston Island. With the loss of Galveston, Governor Lubbock sealed off the entire bay area and called for 5,000 volunteers to defend the main coastline. In issuing this call, Lubbock declared that “The crisis of the war seems to be at hand in Texas, and we must prepare to defend our homes, or be driven from them with insult and degradation, and all the horrors of rapine and violence.” ”

“ Northwest and west of the cotton lands was a subsistence agricultural belt that extended to the frontier. Here, strong men fought marauding Indians and contended with periodic drought in an effort to make a meager living for their families. Finally, to the southwest of the plantations was cattle country, where almost four million unmarketable beeves roamed the open ranges from the San Antonio River to the Rio Grande.
The agrarian nature of 1860 Texas is well reflected in the fact that less than five percent of the population lived in urban areas. ”

“ But, as Confederate officers and state leaders called for more men and desperately planned to regain Texas ports, high strategic considerations in Washington caused the Union to evacuate most of the occupied coast. It was again a matter of tying up too many regiments, forces that would be needed in 1864 for a massive invasion of the Red River Valley, an action that might well cause the fall of the whole southwest. ”

“ Because the state was in an early phase of settlement, the population of 420,891 white persons included a great majority of people who had been born in other states or in foreign countries. Barely one-third of the whites had been born in Texas, while over ten percent of them were originally from countries other than the United States. Most of the settlers from other states were from the South. [2] Thus far these hardy individuals had organized counties along the entire length of the Rio Grande and, elsewhere, as far west as the 100th meridian frontier line. ”

“ By September Texas had ten regiments in Confederate service or in the process of being organized. Several of these units were in Virginia, while the rest were standing by to secure the state from possible invasion. [20]
The forming of companies was seldom a smooth procedure. For one thing, all Texans wanted to fight on horseback, but the Confederate army already had sufficient cavalrymen and now needed only foot soldiers. Also, the Southern leaders wanted men to serve for the war’s duration, but most volunteers were reluctant to sign up for more than twelve months. ”

“ About the only successful cotton brokers were those men who flaunted the laws and smuggled bales across the Rio Grande.
Other serious weaknesses in Texas were a continued scarcity of weapons, a shortage of laborers that forced the Confederate authorities to impress slaves, and refusals on the part of civilians to sell supplies to the army that ultimately resulted in impressments. [108] As for the citizens, they were oppressed by high taxes, inflation, and shortages of basic necessities. ”

“ While the leaders of Texas were busily concerned with the well being of their own state, the men of Texas were actively serving the Confederate cause elsewhere. From the very outbreak of the conflict Texas units made proud names for themselves on all fighting fronts.
The Lone Star State was represented in northern Virginia by three regiments in the brigade of John Bell Hood. This brigade was formed at Dumfries, Virginia, in September of 1861, and consisted mainly of the First Texas Infantry, the Fourth Texas Infantry, and the Fifth Texas Infantry. ”

“ On November 24 and 25, the Texas regiments in Cleburne’s Division of Breckinridge’s Corps engaged in bitter combat on Missionary Ridge. As the center of the Confederate line was broken, Texas regiments that had been making progress against the Union right were commanded to fall back to Ringgold, Georgia, twenty miles away, and to make a defensive stand there as the main Southern army pulled back through that town. On November 26, the Texans were manning blocking positions near Ringgold. Strenuous fighting there delayed Union advance elements until General Braxton Bragg’s main forces were safe. ”

“ As Union craft tightened the blockade of Texas port towns, the main unblocked trade route from Texas to the outside world came to be the overland trail from San Antonio to Matamoros. This Mexican town contained a number of merchant houses that were willing to exchange valuable Texas cotton for goods needed by the South. To safeguard this supply route, to control border violence, and to intercept shirkers and Unionists attempting to cross the Rio Grande, Texas kept a number of state troops on patrol duty along the international river. ”

“ Anna I. Sandbo, “Beginnings of the Secession Movement in Texas” in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XVIII, No. 2, Oct., 1914, pp. 169-72.
6. The convention call referred to Section I of the “Bill of Rights” of the Texas Constitution of 1845. This section provided that “All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit; and they have at all times the unalienable right to alter, reform, or abolish their form of government, in such a manner as they think expedient.” ”

“ Because of the increasing scarcity of guns, Governor Clark adopted a policy of keeping the remaining state-owned weapons within the confines of Texas. Future troops mustered into Confederate service would have to draw arms from the Richmond government. Clark also sent agents to Mexico, Cuba, and Europe in a near fruitless effort to make contracts for the purchase of foreign guns. The state likewise encouraged the establishment of local arms factories and powder plants. ”

“ During the first two years of the war, the state government and the people at home diligently struggled to supply Texas regiments with the essentials of life. Prison made cloth, contributed items of clothing, and special county tax funds and bond sale receipts were forwarded to needy companies. [49] As for the care of the sick and wounded Texans, the financially embarrassed state passed heavy appropriations for the establishment and support of special hospitals for Texas casualties in various parts of the South. ”

“ A current listing of named Texas units includes thirty artillery batteries, one artillery regiment, thirty-nine cavalry battalions, sixty-one cavalry regiments, thirteen infantry battalions, twenty-eight infantry regiments, and two legions. [121] These organizations fought in all parts of the South and their operations ranged from Maryland to Arizona and from the Potomac River to the Rio Grande. As for heroism, the state produced such outstanding regiments as those of Hood’s Brigade and such noted individuals as Lieutenant Dick Dowling. ”

“ While these requirements tended to make young men feel less enthusiastic about serving their country, the state government was seriously hampered in its recruiting operations by an over-anxious Confederate War Department. ”

“ After preliminary probes against the Texans’ positions, on May 22 the Union threw five regiments against them. Colonel Ashbel Smith, the Second Texas regimental commander, reported that during this horrible struggle “my men received the enemy with a most resolute fire; my cannon belched canisters: my men made the air reel with yells and shouts as they saw the earth strewn with the enemy’s dead. One of the enemy’s regiments staggered and was thrown into utter confusion. Our men, too, fell thick and fast ”

“ Throughout the early mobilization period Texans were anxiously observing the invasion of New Mexico by Lieutenant Colonel John R. Baylor and three hundred men of the Second Texas Rifles. As the summer of 1861 passed, the Baylor force pushed scattered Federal defenders northward along the upper Rio Grande. [31] Despite this early success, the Texas commander made it clear to leaders of the South 13 that he would need many more soldiers to hold these gains. ”

“ While the War Office was justified in seeking relief for the divisions in the east, Kirby Smith made it clear that his regiments were barely capable of securing the Southwest. The loss of any appreciable number of men would spell sure doom for his department. [104]
While Texas now seemed temporarily safe from military advances, other signs of weakness were to be observed. Confederate paper dollars came to be worth only twenty cents or thirty cents in specie. ”

“ Then, when other states of the South called for secession conventions, Texans demanded that the same action be taken in their state. [5]
Governor Houston managed to block all secession calls until December, when Attorney General George M. Flournoy, Associate Justice O. M. Roberts of the State Supreme Court, and lawyer William P. Rogers and John S. Ford took the lead in calling for a state-wide election of secession convention delegates to meet in Austin on January 28, 1861. ”

“ In late April, 1865, just as a number of scandals involving illegal seizures of privately owned cotton were coming to light, the word arrived in Texas that General Lee had surrendered in Virginia. General Kirby Smith and Governor Murrah quickly penned proclamations asking the soldiers and citizens of the trans-Mississippi region to continue the struggle. ”

“ He took three hundred and fifty prisoners, killed almost one hundred men, and gained a number of Federal weapons and supplies. No injuries were suffered on the Southern side, although some of Dowling’s guns were almost ruined by the heat of the rapid firing. The men of the company were highly honored for this success, and their incredible victory served to boost the morale of Texas and of the Confederate cause. ”

“ McCulloch’s strong show of force was sufficient to cause the bloodless surrender of Brevet Major General David E. Twiggs—aged commander of all United States forces in the state. According to the terms of his capitulation, Twiggs was to evacuate his soldiers and turn over all station property to the state. [13]
A week later in the midst of fiery editorials and heated discussions. the mandate on secession was held and county results were forwarded to Austin. On March 2, the anniversary of Texas independence, the Secession Convention re-assembled to canvass the result of the election. ”

“ Late in May they arrived in San Antonio where they were armed, mustered into Confederate service as Company “F” of the Second Texas Mounted Rifles, and assigned to patrol duty on the state’s frontier. [22]
As more regiments were formed, a growing scarcity of firearms caused grave concern. A few units solved this difficulty by demanding that the enlistees secure weapons on their own initiative. By using this system Captain Strobel’s Company of Terry’s Texas Rangers could boast that each of its men carried a double barrel shotgun, a six-shooter, and an issued “Texas tooth-pick.” ”

“ Volunteers were expected to supply their own mounts while the state agreed to furnish arms. On the appointed day the young men were massed in the center of the town, had their horses examined for serviceability, elected their officers, and were given an oath of allegiance to Texas by a local judge. ”

“ In answer to this situation, drastic means were taken to force men into uniform. Shirkers were arrested and forced into military service, and troops detailed to non-combatant jobs were returned to active commands. Confederate regiments at guard positions in Texas were shifted to Louisiana, while defense of the Gulf ports was left to state soldiers. [99] In the meanwhile, Major General F. Steele and the Union forces in Arkansas pushed across the Little Missouri River to within two hundred miles of Banks, who had now secured Natchitoches, Louisiana. ”

“ With this one great hope crushed, the entire department was too demoralized to continue the fight. Desertions in very large numbers followed. Oftentimes bands of ten and twenty men would leave their undersized regiments in a single night. In Galveston, only the timely calling out of faithful troops prevented the attempted desertion of four hundred soldiers. [127]
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By May, surrender negotiations between Kirby Smith’s representatives and the United States government were in progress. It was at this time that the last land action of the war took place in the isolated Brownsville sector. ”

“ The fort had six guns and was manned by Company “F” of the First Texas Heavy Artillery. This particular unit, under Captain F. H. Odlum and Lieutenant Dick Dowling, was composed of Irish stevedores who had been recruited in Houston and Galveston.
At midnight on September 6, a sentry sighted ship signals off the coast. Because the company commander was absent, Dowling assumed command of the fort. By mid-morning a fleet of twenty-two transport ships and five gunboats was standing off Sabine Pass. On board the vessels was an invasion force of 5,000 men. ”

“ Finally, when Banks withdrew to the east of the Mississippi River and proceeded to concentrate against Port Hudson, most Texas commands in the area were shifted to the Red River Valley of northern Louisiana. ”

“ Prisoners made dugout shelters on a hillside and roofed these “shebangs” with split logs. About 5,000 men were held in confinement there when the prison was operating at maximum capacity. [43]
The Confederate Congress, in April of 1862, passed its first conscription act. Although Texas now had fifty-five regiments formed, [44] all able-bodied young men from eighteen to thirty-five (the age limits were later repeatedly raised) would henceforth be subject to the draft. ”

“ By late March, General Kirby Smith had received communications that convinced him of the seriousness of these two enemy columns. In all, the enemy forces were estimated to total 50,000 foot soldiers and 8,000 cavalry troops. Major General Richard Taylor, in command of Confederate forces in western Louisiana, and Major General Sterling Price, Confederate commander in Arkansas, were both instructed to pull back cautiously toward Shreveport before the Federal advances. ”