Texas and the Civil War
Slavery and States’ Rights
Before the Civil War
Growing National Divisions
• Slavery was one of the issues that
divided the U.S. along sectional, or
regional, lines
• North – population growing due to
immigration; factories
• South – agricultural economy; slave
labor
Growing National Divisions
• Tariffs – taxes on imports
– North – wanted tariffs to protect their
industry
– South – did not want tariffs because they
increased the cost of imported items
– Southerners argued that the states had
the right to ignore tariffs and other
federal laws
– States’ rights – argument that state power
was greater than federal power
Growing National Divisions
• Westward expansion = new territories
– Congress debated whether territories
would enter as free or slave states
– Would affect the balance of power in
Congress
– Texas entered in 1845 as a slave state
– The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave the
U.S. more land
Growing National Divisions
• The Compromise of 1850
– Created a way for new territories to
become states
– Included the Fugitive Slave Act – declared
that assisting runaway slaves was a crime
• Abolition movement – this act, along with
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel (Uncle Tom’s
Cabin), increased support for the end of slavery
Growing National Divisions
• Kansas – Nebraska Act
– 1854
– Allowed Kansas and Nebraska Territories to decide
whether to be free or slave states
– Northerners who were a part of the Whig Party
became angry because this act violated the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited
slavery above the 36 30 line.
– The members of the Whig Party helped form the
Republican Party which wanted to end slavery
– Sam Houston (U.S. Senator) opposed the act
Growing National Divisions
• Dred Scott decision
– 1857 – Supreme Court case
– Ruled that African Americans were not
citizens, and therefore could not sue in
federal court
– Congress could not ban slavery in any
territory
– Shocked northerners
– Increased sectional tension
Growing National Divisions
• John Brown
– Abolitionist
– 1859 -- Led a raid on the federal armory in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia, to start a slave revolt
– He and his followers were
hanged for treason
– Example
of sectional
tensions
increasing
Texas Joins the Confederacy
• 1860 – Abraham Lincoln elected president
• He received no electoral votes from the south
because many southerners believed he
supported abolition
• After the election,
South Carolina seceded
(formally withdraw)
from the Union
• Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia,
and Louisiana also seceded
Texas Joins the Confederacy
• Many Texas leaders called for a meeting of the
legislature to consider secession
• This angered Unionists – people who wanted to
stay in the Union and work out differences about
slavery
• One out of four Texans were Unionists
• Governor Sam Houston tried to delay the meeting
• Delegates at the secession convention voted to
secede
• Statewide vote – February 23, 1861 – voted to
secede
• March 2, 1861 – Texas became the seventh state
to secede from the U.S.
The Confederacy
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February 1861 – Montgomery, Alabama
Confederate States of America
Wrote a constitution
Emphasized the sovereignty
(supremacy) of the states and the right
of people to hold slaves
• Jefferson Davis – elected president
The Confederacy
• March 5, 1861 – Texas Secession Convention
was held
• Created a new state constitution
• Same as the 1845 constitution, just removed
the U.S.
• Governor Houston refused to take oath of
allegiance to the Confederacy
• He was removed from office
• Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark replaced
Houston
Convention
Results:
For: 166
Against: 8
Statewide
Results:
For: 46,153
Against: 14,747
Governor Sam Houston
“Let me tell you what is coming. Your fathers and husbands,
you sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the
bayonet. You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions
of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, as a bare
possibility, win southern independence … but I doubt it.
The North is determined to preserve this Union.”
The Civil War Begins
A Call to Arms
• The Confederate attack on Fort
Sumter in April 1861 marked the
beginning of the war
• Civil war – is a war between factions,
or opposing groups, within the same
country
• President Lincoln called for volunteers
to put down the rebellion
• VA, AR, TN, and NC seceded
A Call to Arms
• 25,000 Texans were in the Confederate Army
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Joined regiments (1,000 soldiers)
Terry’s Texas Rangers
Hood’s Texas Brigade
Ross’s Texas Brigade
• Many officers contributed to the
Confederate army also
– Albert Sidney Johnston
– James W. Throckmorton
Texas Readies for War
• Texas troops were ill equipped
• A force led by Ben McCulloch was able to
capture military supplies from the U.S. Army
general in San Antonio
• Industries to get ready for war
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Gunpowder mill (Austin)
Cannons and ammunition (Tyler)
Iron foundries (Jefferson and Rusk)
Cloth – prisoners at Huntsville
Saddles, tents, uniforms, and wagons
Cattle, cotton, and food crops (corn)
Resources and Strategies
• North advantages
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Larger population
More railroads
More factories to produce weapons and supplies
Established government to raise money for war
• South advantages
– Experienced military leaders
– Experience in riding horses and using firearms
(cavalry)
Total U.S Population:
31,443,321
Total Texas Population:
604,215
South: 9,101,090
Resources and Strategies
• South strategy
– Beginning – stay on the defensive, wear down the
Union
– War supplies from Europe
– Gain foreign support (Great Britain) – cotton
diplomacy
• North strategy
– Naval blockade (to conquer the large amount of
territory)
– Take control of the Mississippi River and cut the
Confederacy in two
Resources and Strategies
• Three theaters (or regions) of war
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East (Washington D.C and Richmond, VA)
Tennessee and Mississippi
West of the Mississippi River
Texans fought in all three
The Major Battles
of the Civil War
• The major battles took place east of the Mississippi
River
• July 1861 – Union troops marched south to capture
Richmond; First Battle of Bull Run
• Confederate troops held off Union attacks for the
following year
• Battle of Antietam – Robert E. Lee’s army clashed
with Union forces in Maryland, Union victory (Sept.
1862)
• Gettysburg – PA, Union victory (July 1-3, 1863)
• Lee was on the defensive for the rest of the war
The Major Battles
of the Civil War
• Mississippi River Valley
– Battle of Shiloh (April 1862) – Ulysses S.
Grant; Union victory
– Vicksburg, Mississippi – important because
of control of the traffic on the river
– Grant began the six-week Siege of
Vicksburg
– Ironclads – ships heavily armed with iron
– The town surrendered on July 4, 1863
– The Confederacy was split in two
Campaigns in Texas and the
Southwest
The New Mexico Campaign
• Texas forces had claimed the New Mexico
territory
• Fall 1861 – General Henry H. Sibley took three
Texas regiments to seize the Southwest
• Sibley’s troops won a battle against Union
soldiers at Valverde, NM
• Texans seized Albuquerque and Santa Fe
• The army was weakened by disease and lack of
water
• Battle of Glorieta Pass (March 1862) – forced
Sibley and his troops to retreat to Texas
• Union forces kept control of the Southwest for
the rest of the war.
Fighting at Galveston Island
• By the summer of 1862, the Union navy had blockaded
Texas ports
• General John G. Magruder, the commander of
Confederate forces in Texas, made plans to recapture
Galveston
• Magruder’s men converted two steamboats to
gunboats
• Lined the sides of the boats with cotton bales –
cottonclads
• Troops commanded by Tom Green boarded the ships
• Other soldiers prepared for an attack from the
mainland
• January 1, 1863 – the attack began
• The Confederacy was able to defeat the Union forces
and regain control of Galveston
The Battle of Sabine Pass
• In September 1863, Union troops set
sail from New Orleans
• General William B. Franklin and about
4,000 troops planned to invade Texas
through Sabine Pass, march overland to
Houston, and the capture
Galveston
• Confederate lieutenant
Richard Dowling and about
45 soldiers (Davis Guards)
were to protect the pass
The Battle of Sabine Pass
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Fort Griffin
September 8, 1863
Confederate victory
Helped restore southern confidence
The Coast and South Texas
• Union General Nathanial Banks captured
Brazos Island
• Wanted to capture Brownsville and stop
trade between Texas and Mexico
• Texans transported cotton into Mexico
and from Mexico shipped the cotton
overseas in order to get supplies
• Union troops captured Brownsville in
November 1863
The Coast and South Texas
• Banks split his forces
• One group captured Matagorda Island and
occupied Indianola
• Colonel Edmund J. Davis of Texas, led the
other group of Union soldiers to capture Rio
Grande City
• Davis’s attack on Laredo failed
• Santos Benavides – the highest
ranking Mexican American to
serve in the Confederate army,
turned back to attack
The Coast and South Texas
• Union forces were called away from
Brownsville and Colonel John S. Ford
quickly recaptured the town for the
Confederacy
The Red River Campaign
• Union troops had left Brownsville to
take part in the Red River Campaign
• Union leaders wanted to invade
northeastern Texas from Louisiana
along the Red River
• April 8, 1864 – General Richard Taylor
intercepted Banks at Sabine Crossroads
• April 18, 1864 – Confederate forces also
turned back Union attacks at Poison
Springs, Arkansas
The Texas Home Front
The Wartime Economy
and the Draft
• Texas faced hardships during the Civil War.
• Goods became expensive and scarce
• Newspapers stopped operation because lack
of paper
• Short supply of medicines
• Used thorns for pins and wallpaper for writing
papers
• Instead of coffee, used corn, okra, parched
peanuts, or sweet potatoes to make drinks
• More homespun clothing
The Wartime Economy
and the Draft
• Farmers grew corn and wheat and less cotton
to feed the army
• Crop production increased because
slaveholders sent their slaves to Texas to
prevent their being freed by Union troops
• Women and children ran farms and plantations
• Women also worked in small factories, made
items at home, and created groups to support
the war efforts
The Wartime Economy
and the Draft
• Politicians also focused on the war effort
• Francis R. Lubbock was elected governor in
1861 and joined the Confederate army in 1863
• Pendleton Murrah was elected governor in
1863
• Both governors struggled with state debts,
defending the frontier against raids by
Indians, and raising troops for the
Confederacy.
The Wartime Economy
and the Draft
• In April 1862, the Confederate
Congress passed a draft, or requirement
of military service
• All white males between the ages of 18
and 35 had to serve (later 17 to 50)
• Men could buy their way out of service
or provide a substitute
• “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight”
Unionists in Texas
• Many German Americans and Mexican
Americans remained neutral
• Some Unionists fled Texas to avoid the draft
• Confederate officials placed some towns with
large Unionist population under martial law, or
rule by armed forces
• Unionists were attacked and even killed when
trying to protest
• Unionists in North Texas
The End of the War
The War Draws to a Close
• After the Battle of Gettysburg and the
fall of Vicksburg in July 1863, Union
forces moved into the South
• In 1864, Lincoln ordered Grant to take
command in the eastern theater
• Grant moved his army into eastern
Virginia and engaged Lee’s troops in a
series of battles
• Grant continued to Richmond
The War Draws to a Close
• Union General William Tecumseh
Sherman led an army south from
Tennessee toward Atlanta, an important
railroad center
• Sherman captured Atlanta and set out
for Savannah
• As his troops marched through Georgia,
they destroyed crops, livestock, and
railroads
The War Draws to a Close
• General John Bell Hood of Texas was unable
to stop Sherman
• Sherman completed his March to the Sea in
December 1864
• Grant was pursuing Lee
• In April 1865, Union forces surrounded Lee’s
army near the town of Appomattox
Courthouse, VA.
• Lee met with Grant on April 9 and agreed to
the Union’s terms of surrender.
Battle at Palmito Ranch
• Word of Lee’s surrender reached Brownsville in May
1865
• Many soldiers left to return home
• General E. Kirby Smith urged the war to continue
• On May 12, Union soldiers moved inland to occupy
Brownsville
• The next day, Union and Confederate soldiers clashed
at Palmito Ranch
• John S. Ford
• The Confederate troops won the battle and took 100
prisoners
• The last land battle of the Civil War was a
Confederate victory, but the South had already lost
the war.
Consequences of the War
• 620,000 Americans lost their lives in
the Civil War, making it the deadliest
conflict in U.S. history
• 90,000 Texans served
• Many soldiers suffered serious injuries
Consequences of the War
• Economy:
– Cotton trade nearly stopped
– Deaths of many men put hardships on
businesses, farms, and plantations
• Politics:
– Governor Murrah and other officials fled
to Mexico after the war
– State government collapsed
– No order
Consequences of the War
• Social:
– Enslaved Texans saw the war as a struggle
for freedom
– African Americans in Texas wondered
about their future
– In 1863, President Lincoln had issued the
Emancipation Proclamation – stated that
slaves were free in those areas rebelling
against the U.S.
– 250,000 freed slaves in Texas were
uncertain what would happen next
Francis Lubbock
John Reagan
John Magruder
John Bell Hood
Thomas Green
Civil War
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Fort Sumter
Anaconda Plan
Texas in the Civil War
Lee Surrenders to Grant