Allan C. Ashcraft, Ph. D. Assistant Professor of History The Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas A Publication of the Texas Civil War Centennial Commission Austin, Texas January, 1962 TEXAS CIVIL WAR CENTENNIAL COMMISSION 112 East 18th Street Austin, Texas Walter E. Long, Austin, Chairman Rupert N. Richardson, Abilene, Vice Chairman Mrs. C. C. Cameron, Austin, Second Vice Chairman George W. Hill Executive Director PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE Millard Cope John T. Duncan Cooper K. Ragan F. Lee

The Texas Civil War Centennial Commission has long felt the need for a booklet setting forth a brief history of Texas’ participation in the Civil War and the Confederacy. Many requests for such a publication have come from schools, organizations and individuals. We are proud to present “Texas in the Civil War” and feel that it will lead to an understanding of the true story of this period of Texas history. We are especially indebted to Dr. Allan C. Ashcraft, who prepared “Texas in the Civil War”

Texas in 1860 was an area where the Old South faded into what was to become the new West. The state was a partially settled land of contrasts surrounded by enemies on all but the Louisiana side. [1] This one friendly boundary was a powerful tie that linked Texas both physically and psychologically with its Southern parent lands. 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 i

In state politics Texas was divided between a loosely organized Democratic Party and the followers of Sam Houston. Houston’s strong anti-sectional views cost him the gubernatorial election in 1857. Two years later, however, the aging hero of San Jacinto capitalized on a general reaction against sectional extremists and was elected governor on a nationalist platform. When Abraham Lincoln won the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, Governor Houston urged his fellow Texans to keep cool head

Throughout 1861 Governor Clark issued calls for more troops and worked to bolster state defenses. 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 nee

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 that he would need many more soldiers to hold these gains. Southern control of the Arizona-New Mexico

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

Until the latter part of 1863 the Union was unable to hamper the growing cotton traffic from Texas to Mexico. According to the United States Navy Department, there were frequently several hundred ships standing off the mouth of the Rio Grande depositing goods in the Matamoros-Bagdad area and picking up Texas cotton for trans-oceanic shipment. Before the war, scarcely a half-dozen vessels visited these Mexican towns each year. [73] Because the Rio Grande was an international body of water, the Un

The western frontier of Texas was again being ravaged by Indian raids in 1864. The Frontier Regiment still existed; but, once it was accepted into Confederate service, all but four of its companies were transferred to East Texas. These four companies and a small command known as Bourland’s Border Regiment, stationed near the Red River, simply could not safeguard the state’s extensive line of settlement against heavy Indian attacks. [93] In one raid six hundred Comanches and Kiowas depredated the

After heavy losses at Gettysburg, Hood’s Texas Brigade was shifted to Tennessee in September of 1863. At Chickamauga, the First Texas, Fourth Texas, and Fifth Texas charged through artillery and small arms fire to push repeatedly against a determined enemy in well protected positions. One company of the First Texas had only a single officer and no men surviving as a result of the many days of fighting. The First and Fifth Texas had fewer than one hundred men each who were unscratched at this poi

By spring, 1865, the soldiers of the trans-Mississippi region were showing signs of the increasing defeatist feeling. A Union officer who scouted widely in the Rio Grande valley reported that “the demoralization of the rebel army in Texas is very extensive. In all the counties from San Antonio to Austin up to the mountains the rebel soldiers are coming home in large numbers, and in two or three places have notified the enrolling officer and provost-marshal that their services were no longer need

1. To the north were Commanches and Kiowas, to the west were Apaches and hostile New Mexicans, and to the south were unfriendly Mexicans. 2. Population of the United States in 1860 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864), pp. 472-90. 3. Ibid. , Agriculture of the United States in 1860 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1864), pp. 140-51. A. B. Bender, “Principal Military Posts in the Southwest” in The March of Empire (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1952), opposite p. 284. 4.

Executive Record Books and Governor’s Letters (both in Texas State Archives) contain extensive correspondence and records relating to the problems of managing the state during the war....

Collection of the Papers of Edmund Kirby Smith. Folder No. 37-53 (1863-1866). Microfilm in Texas Collection, The University of Texas Library, original at University of North Carolina. Selected military problems of the departmental commander. Oldham, W. S., Memoirs, 1861-1867 . The University of Texas Archives. Rich comments by Texas’ crusty Confederate Senator....

Eighth Census of the United States. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1864. Statistics of 1860 Texas. Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas 1861. Edited by Ernest W. Winkler. Austin Printing Co., Austin, 1912. Documentary coverage of the convention’s work. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1912. The War of Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Gover

Barron, S. B., The Lone Star Defenders, A Chronicle of the Third Texas Cavalry, Ross’ Brigade . The Neale Publishing Co., New York, 1908. Blessington, Joseph P., The Campaigns of Walker’s Texas Division . Lange, Little & Co., New York, 1875. DeBray, X. B., A Sketch of the History of DeBray’s (26th) Regiment of Texas Cavalry . Von Boeckmann, Austin, 1884. Heartsill, W. W., Fourteen Hundred and 91 Days in the Confederate Army . Edited by Bell I. Wiley. McCowat-Mercer Press, Jackson, Tenn.,

Bancroft, Hubert Howe, History of the North Mexican States and Texas . Vol. XVI of The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft . The History Co., San Francisco, 1889. Blackburn, J. K. P., Reminiscences of the Terry Rangers . Austin, 1919. Dyer, John P., The Gallant Hood . The Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York, 1950. Friend, Llerena, Sam Houston The Great Designer . The University of Texas Press, Austin, 1954. Giles, L. B., Terry’s Texas Rangers . Copyright 1911. Hamilton, D. H., History of Company M First T

Several dozen different newspapers are available covering the period. A general guide to their existence and location is the rather outdated Texas Newspapers 1813-1939 . Prepared by Historical Records Survey Program Division of Professional and Survey Projects. W. P. A. of Texas, San Jacinto Museum of History Association, Houston, 1941. Of particular value are: The Galveston Tri-Weekly News —Texas State Archives and The University of Texas Library. The Southern Intelligencer (Austin)—Texas State

Selections from The Southwestern Historical Quarterly (earlier The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association ) are helpful in fitting missing pieces into the picture. Of particular value are: Bridge, C. A., “The Knights of the Golden Circle”, LIV, No. 3, pp. 287-302. Crimmins, Col. M. L., “An Episode in the Career of General David E. Twiggs”, XLI, No. 2, pp. 167-73. Delaney, Robert W., “Matamoros, Fort for Texas during the Civil War”, LVIII, No. 4, pp. 473-87. Elliott, Claude, “Union S