USA > Texas > Tarrant County > Fort Worth > History of Texas : Fort Worth and the Texas northwest edition, Volume I > Part 53
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It will be noted that Governor Clark did not convene the legislature in extra session to aid him.
News of the attack upon Fort Sumter reached Austin April 17th. To the non-partisan these tidings were awe inspiring. War in any case is a calamity, but war between people of the same blood is abhorrent to all the instincts of our nature. On the other hand, there were those who brought forth cannon and made the hills surrounding the capital city ring with the echoes that to their minds were to usher in a new era. Governor Clark at once adopted every measure at his command to place the state in a condition for defense. He appointed an adjutant general to have charge of the organization, equipment, and instruction of volun- teer companies in every county of the state. The Federal soldiers, who had been stationed in Texas, were encamped near Indianola; it was reported that they would not be withdrawn but would maintain a foot- hold on the coast of Texas. The adjutant-general was instructed to cause their embarcation. Lieut-Col. John R. Baylor proceeded to occupy the posts west of San Antonio on the Rio Grande as far as the Messilla Valley in New Mexico ; he took a large number of prisoners, who were paroled. Col. Wm. C. Young raised a cavalry regiment for the pro- tection of the Texas frontier along Red River. He captured Forts Arbuckle, Washita and Cobb, compelling the Federals to withdraw into Kansas, and secured the friendship of the Choctaws and Chickasaws.
The Governor caused to be secured for the state all the ammunition that was carried in stock by the merchants; but the quantity was small. He also caused the chief justices of the counties to make inquiry con- cerning the number of arms in the possession of private individuals. The result showed about forty thousand guns of every description in private hands. He gathered information in regard to the number of able-bodied men in the state, and concluded that there were "more than one hundred thousand." Brigadier-generals were appointed in the thirty- two districts of the state and required to organize the militia. "No practicable means," said he, "have been left untried to form into com- panies all the able bodied men of Texas. The people have been appealed to directly by the Executive and by many individuals appointed by him for that purpose to organize into companies of some character, get the best arms they could obtain and inform the authorities of the state of their localities and condition."
Being successful in ridding its own territory of the enemy, Texas contributed with unstinted hand to the support of the Confederacy. On April 17th, Governor Clark received a requisition from the Secre- tary of War for three thousand men and on the 24th a requisition for an additional five thousand. Although these troops were to be infantry-
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a branch of the service most Texans thoroughly disliked-the call re- ceived a prompt response. Early in July, the Governor was called on for twenty companies to be sent to Virginia, to serve during the war. Thirty- two companies responded. They became famous as Hood's Texas Brigade. "One of the highest encomiums that can be bestowed upon the soldiers of that brigade," said O. M. Roberts, "is the fact that of the officers who commanded them in battle five were made brigadier-generals, two were made major-generals, and one a lieutenant-general."
In reviewing the situation, Governor Clark in his message November 1, 1861, said :
"Not regarding all the difficulties which have impeded the action of the state, and looking only to those results which have been at- tained by the spontaneous action of the people we have reason for congratulation upon the past and for additional self-reliance in the future. Twenty thousand Texans are now battling for the rights of our new-born gigantic government. They are waiting to win fresh laurels in heroic Old Virginia. They are ready to aid in lifting the yoke from Kentucky's prostrate neck and are marshalled in defense of the sovereignty of Missouri. They have covered with a brilliant glory the plains of New Mexico and are formed in a cordon of safety around the border of our own great state. If such positive results have sprung from the spontaneous action of the people, what may we hope will not be accomplished when the entire latent forces of the state are shaped into system and efficiency." * *
An election for governor would be held in August, 1861. An effort was made to hold a state convention at Dallas in May, but so few coun- ties sent delegates that no nominations were made. Governor Clark. F. R. Lubbock, former lieutenant-governor, and T. J. Chambers, chair- man of the committee that drew up the ordinance of secession, were candidates. "I wished to be the executive head of Texas," sad Lub- bock, "that I might support the Confederacy and assist in the vigorous prosecution of the war." This was the main question before the people ; each of the candidates was a supporter of the Confederacy. The result was a very close vote ; Lubbock received 21,854 votes, Clark 21,730, and Chambers 13,759.
Francis Richard Lubbock has been called the war governor of Texas. He had been an ardent advocate of secession. As soon as he was assured of his election he proceeded to Richmond to confer with the president in order that he might better inform himself how as governor he could strengthen the power and insure the success of the Confederacy. He never wavered in his opinion of Davis and believed that he "was pre- eminently fitted for the high position to which he had been elevated."
Governor Lubbock's term extended over the critical period of the war. During 1862 and 1863 the contest expanded with extraordinary rapid- ity and assumed enormous proportions. To have a man in the executive chair in so important a state as Texas, who was in hearty sympathy with the Confederate authorities, was of great importance. In view of the large disparity in the numerical strength of the contending parties, he recognized the fact early that success depended on quick and decisive action. He urged the enlistment of every man capable of rendering
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military service. In his message to the extra session of the legislature, February 5, 1863, he reported that :
"From accurate data, Texas had furnished to the Confederate military service thirty-three regiments, thirteen battalions, two squad- rons, six detached companies, and one legion of twelve companies of cavalry, nineteen regiments, two battalions, one detached company. and one legion of two battalions of infantry, and one regiment and twelve light batteries of artillery, thirty regiments, of which (twenty- one cavalry and nine infantry ) have been organized since the requi- sition of February 3, 1862, for fifteen regiments, being the quota re- quired of Texas to make her quota equal to the quota from the other states, making 62,000 men, which with the state troops in actual service, viz., 6,500 men, form an aggregate of 68,500 Texans in mili- tary service, constituting an excess of 4,773 more than her highest popular vote, which was 63,727. From the best information within reach of this Department, upon which to base an estimate of the men now remaining in the state between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, it is thought that the number will not exceed 27,000."
In his general message to the tenth legislature, November, 1863, the governor recapitulated the figures just quoted, and then continued :
"Since that time there have been added one brigade and several regiments to the Confederate forces, and several light batteries, which with the state troops now mustered into Confederate service have swelled the total number of Texas troops who have taken the field to about 90,000 men, exceeding the highest popular vote ever cast by many thousands. In addition to this roll so glorious to Texas, I an proud to say that minute companies, composed of those not liable under the present laws to military duty, are daily forming with the determination to defend the state to the last extremity."
Texas was permitted to contribute such large numbers of soldiers for the protection of sister states on account of its favorable position, that made difficult an invasion by a large Federal army :
"On our western frontier and on the north fronting Indian Terri- tory there were no means of supplying a large army for a considerable distance before reaching well-settled portions of the state, and upon our Gulf coast the sand bars at the entrance of our ports were a protection against the entry of large vessels or gunboats. If war vessels should force an entrance to our ports, there were no large rivers nor long railroads that would enable the enemy to penetrate the interior of the country. Texas, therefore, needed only such mili- tary forces as could furnish protection against Indian depredations, and expel from our ports any portion of the enemy that might force an entrance into them."*
There existed on the frontier of Texas what practically amounted to an Indian war when the state seceded. The United States troops had not been successful in putting an end to it. Texas had spent large sums in defense of her border settlers. Nominally the duty of protecting them now devolved upon the Confederacy, but Governor Lubbock frankly
*O. M. Roberts in "Confederate Military History," XI, 65, 66.
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excused it from this duty because it was itself engaged in a life and death struggle. In his inaugural he urged the legislature to make adequate provision for the protection of the frontier. Another regiment for pro- tection against the Indians was authorized by act of December 21, 1861. It was expected that the Confederacy would assume the cost of main- taining these troops, but those expectations were disappointed. Their support was a heavy burden upon the state finances, but the fear that they would be removed if turned over to the Confederacy restrained even Governor Lubbock.
"The frontier counties with their sparse population have nobly responded to the call of their country ; they should be sustained. Unless protection be afforded them the frontier must recede and give way before the inroads of the Indians; for just so soon as you fail to keep up a system of defense in your outer counties will they press forward upon the interior, murdering and robbing." (Lub- bock's message of February 5, 1863.)
Besides the soldiers from the frontier in the field, whose families suffered, would desire to return to afford them protection and thus de- crease the effective force of the Confederacy. This regiment had a line over five hundred miles in length to protect ; arms and ammunition were very scarce; but the soldiers were experienced in such service.
"I regret that for several months past the depredations upon the frontier have been very frequent. Murders have been committed and horses stolen."*
The absence of the husband in the army, where he was paid in de- preciated currency or not paid at all, soon reduced many families to a condition of want. During 1862 the counties afforded such relief as was possible to them. Governor Lubbock urged upon the legislature at the called session in February, 1863, that an appropriation of state funds be made for their relief. This was done; $600,000 was appropriated, and a joint resolution was adopted declaring that Texas stood pledged to its soldiers in the field to support their families. In November, 1863, the governor reported that this relief had been productive of much good and recommended its continuance. "The soldier battling for his country must feel the conviction that his family is well cared for; he will then stand by his colors to the bitter end." At the close of 1864 the number of dependents was estimated by Governor Murrah at 74,000. "The support of the family of the soldier," he said, "is as necessary as the support of the soldier. If his family suffers, he will suffer."
The blockade of the Gulf ports and the war operations to the north and east of Texas stopped trade, and the stocks of merchandise, etc., on hand gradually diminished with no opportunity to replenish them.
"So that by the first of 1862 the people in most parts of the state set about providing themselves with the necessaries of life. From that time to the end of the war a person traveling past houses on the road could hear the sound of the spinning wheel and the looms at which the women were at work to supply clothing for their families and for their husbands and sons in the army. Thus while the men
*Lubbock's message of November, 1863.
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were struggling valiantly with all their martial efforts in camp and in battle, the work of the women was no less heroic and patriotic in their homes. Nor was that kind of employment all; for many a wife or daughter of a soldier went out on the farm and bravely did the work with plow and hoe to make provisions for herself and little children. Shops were established extensively to manufacture do- mestic implements. Wheat and other cereals were produced where practicable, in large quantities ; hogs and cattle were raised more generally ; and before the passage over the Mississippi was closed by the Federal gunboats, droves of beef-cattle and numerous wagon loads of bacon and flour were almost constantly passing across that river from Texas to feed the soldiers of the Confederate army.
"An almost universally humane feeling inspired people of wealth as well as those in moderate circumstances to help the indigent families of soldiers in the field and the women who had lost their husbands and sons by sickness or in battle. There were numerous slave-holders who had only a few slaves, such as had been raised by themselves or by their parents as part of the family, and so regarded themselves. In the absence of the husband in the service, the wife ** * * assumed the management of the farm and the control of the negroes on it. It was a subject of general remark that the negroes were more docile and manageable during the war than at any other period, and for this they deserve the lasting gratitude of * their owners in the army. * *
"At most of the towns there were posts established with officers for the collection of the tithes of farm products under an act of congress for the use of the army, and wagons were used continually for their transportations to different places where the soldiers were in service. In addition, wagons under private control were constantly running from Texas to Arkansas to Lousiana loaded with clothing, hats and shoes, contributed by families for their relatives in the army in those states. Indeed, by this patriotic method the greater part of the Texas troops in those states were supplied with clothing of all kinds.
"Salt being a prime necessity for family use, salt works were established in eastern Texas in Cherokee and Smith counties, and at Grand Saline in Van Zandt county *
* In the west salt was * furnished from the salt lakes. Iron works were established for making plows and cooking vessels near Jefferson, Rusk and Austin. * * At jug factories in Rusk and Henderson counties were made rude earthenware dishes, plates, cups. * * * At other shops wagons were made and repaired, and in small domestic fac- tories chairs, tables and other furniture was made. Shoe-shops and tailor shops were kept busy all over the country. Substitutes for sugar and coffee were partially adopted, but without much success. * * *
"The penitentiary at Huntsville, under the control of the state government, was busied in manufacturing cotton and woolen cloth, and made each year over a million and a half yards of cloth, which
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under the direction of the government was distributed first to supply the soldiers in the army, second, to the soldiers' families and their actual consumers. * * *" **
A military board, composed of the governor, comptroller and treas- urer, was established by act of January 11, 1862. It imported from Europe over 40,000 pairs of cotton and wool cards, which were dis- tributed to families in Texas for home use at cost. Through its agents it purchased cotton which was exported to Mexico, the proceeds used to buy arms, munitions of war, machinery, etc. The board established a gun factory and a cap factory at Austin and encouraged the establishment of other factories. It also made contracts with private persons where- by they were permitted to transport cotton to Mexico in return for stipulated benefits to be rendered to the board for the state. The amounts received and disbursed by the board were estimated at $2,000,000.
No attempt was made to hold a state convention in 1863. Governor Lubbock declined to seek re-election. Pendelton Murrah and T. J. Chambers were candidates; both were supporters of the Confederacy. Owing to the absence of so many Texans in the field, the vote was very small: Murrah received 17,511 votes, Chambers 12,455, and 1,070 were scattering. Early in 1864 Lubbock traveled across the country from Houston to Shreveport. "The country along the roads," he said, "wore an air of desolation. Old men, boys, women, children, and a few crip- ples were occasionally met with, but no able-bodied men." The buoyant and hopeful spirit that prevailed among the people during the first two years of the war, as well as the resources of the country, were about ex- hausted. The military authorities had constantly encroached upon the powers of government; the civil authorities were respected in so far as they contributed to the success of the war. Governor Murrah had been schooled in the doctrine of state rights; he was a lawyer by profession. Although ready to aid the Confederacy, he was mindful of his oath of office and deemed it his duty to resist the encroachments upon the rights of the state by the military and by acts of the Confederacy. Confusion resulted from these differences, which added to the hardships of an exposed frontier and was seized upon by certain lawless elements to com- mit robberies and outrages in other sections.
"Governor Murrah's administration covered the last sixteen months of the Confederacy, when the clouds of disaster were hover- ing over the country. Suffering from consumption (of which he died in 1865) and impoverished as the country was, it was not in his power or that of any human agency to meet and fulfill the desires of the public mind."f
"The total net expenditures [of Texas during the war] amounted to $4,863,790, of which probably not less than $3,591,075 were of a military character. Receipts were mainly in depreciated Confed- erate notes and state treasury warrants and amounted net to $8,149,- 913. Approximately forty per cent. of receipts was from taxes, eight per cent. from the sale of bonds, thirty-eight per cent. from
*O. M. Roberts in "Confederate Military History." XI, 112-118 passim. +Brown, "History of Texas," II, 423.
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the sale of products manufactured at the penitentiary, and fourteen per cent. from miscellaneous sources. The ad valorem rate of the state tax was one-half of one per cent. in 1863 and 1864, but the arrearages of this tax were large. The innovations in taxation were a tax on occupations on the basis of gross receipts and a tax on salaries and professional incomes. The laws levying these taxes were laxly drawn, were evaded and except during the last year of the war produced little. Taxes collected in the state on account of the Confederate government amounted to $26,904 in specie and $37,459,- 950 in Confederate notes. Confederate and state taxation together. therefore, constituted a heavy burden.
"On October 30, 1865, the public debt [ of Texas] was estimated at $7,989,897. Of this amount $981,140 was funded, $2,208,047 was in the form of outstanding treasury warrants and cotton certificates, $1,455,914 was due the school and other special funds for loans and for evidences of state debt held by them. $3,150,000 was estimated as due to soldiers and for supplies, and the balance was miscellaneous. The cash balance at the close of the war was $3,368,510, but of this amount only $15,397 was specie. The remainder was valueless Con- federate notes and state paper. In addition to the above balance there was in the hands of the Military Board $129,975 in United States bonds and interest coupons."*
In this brief survey of the history of Texas during the war little need be said of the military operations within its borders. There were a number of minor engagements and a few brilliant fights like the re- capture of Galveston and the defense of Sabine Pass. But Texas lay outside of the path of the teriffic storm that laid waste her sister states While it was necessary to keep sufficient troops at home to meet any emergency, the enemy never appeared in great numbers and no decisive battles were fought.
"Yet those who endured the privations of the camp and the march, without being in battle, rendered good service by being part of the state guard, armed and equipped, and ready to resist any aggression of the enemy. Such readiness, with the force at command, secured our protection."t
"In taking a survey of the operations of the Texas troops in the numerous battles in which they engaged in Louisiana, Mississippi. Arkansas. Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia, the large number of promotions for meritorious conduct in them will attract attention as a remarkable result. Major John Henry Brown, who
* was an officer in the army from nearly the first to the last * * reported that of Texans in the army, one became a general. Albert Sidney Johnston, the highest rank ; one a lieutenant-general. John B. Hood : three major-generals, Samuel B. Maxey. John A. Wharton and Thomas Green; thirty-two brigadier-generals, ninety-seven colonels and fifteen commanders of battalions. Nearly all of those officers attained the ranks mentioned from lower ranks by their valor in battle.
*E. T. Miller, in "The South in the Building of the Nation," V, 538-39. +Roberts, in "Confederate Military History," XI, 68.
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"The officers are representatives of the sokliers commanded by them, who are too numerous to be separately named in the history of a great war. What, then, is to be said generally of the Texas soldiers? It is not proper to state that they have been more distin- guished in battles than their brother soldiers of the other states. It is enough to assert that they have stood equal to the most distin- guished in every battle where they fired a gun or made a charge. A common spirit of chivalric valor inspired them as soldiers of Texas * *
* Whoever led them in two or three hard fought battles secured promotion, so that the advancement of their com- manders was a public compliment to the Texas soldiers' prowess in arms."*
Although secession carried by a large majority in Texas, there were many who favored the Union-some of them men of great influence like Sam Houston, E. M. Pease, John Hancock, A. J. Hamilton, J. W. Throckmorton and E. J. Davis. When war was declared most of the Union men voluntarily gave their allegiance to Texas. Those who wav- ered were either coerced or obliged to leave the state. Those who at- tempted to remain, with some exceptions, were exposed to the malice of their enemies, and some who attempted to emigrate were waylaid and slain.
"The official records *
* * show that there were 1,920, claiming to be from Texas, enrolled in the Federal army during the war. They constituted two regiments, whose service was confined to Louisiana. Of one Edmund J. Davis was colonel ; of the other John L. Haynes was colonel. They were organized at or near Matamoras * * * proceeded by water to New Orleans, and thence to the army of Louisiana. On several occasions they met the Texas Con- federates in battle, and there is abundant evidence that they were good soldiers. Colonel Davis was promoted to brigadier-general."i Within six weeks after the surrender of General Lee, Texas and those parts of the adjoining states which had successfully resisted in- vasion throughout the war, "presented a scene of universal disorder and confusion * * and that. too, without the advance of a single
Federal soldier."
Soldiers who had given proof of their obedience and courage during the hardships and privations of several winters in camp and on numerous battlefields, now refused to heed the patriotic appeals as well as the orders of their officers. Seeing that success for the cause in which they had enlisted was utterly hopeless, they lost their fighting spirit, became difficult to manage, and were no longer dependable. Having received no pay for months they demanded a divi- sion of the Confederate property before setting out for their homes. Confusion ensued. Confederate property was seized wherever found, and state property in some instances was also taken. The country swarmed with men out of funds and out of employment. The civil au- thorities were helpless to deal with the situation that confronted them. Lawlessness began to increase, for jayhawkers, guerillas and highway-
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