USA > Texas > History of Texas : from 1685 to 1892, volume 2 > Part 34
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
M. Norris of Gatesville, died during the war. 48. Enos W. Taylor of Jefferson. 49. Charles De Morse of Clarksville, died in 1889. 50. Wm. P. Rogers of Brenham, fell in mounting the breastworks at Corinth, in 1862. 51. James Duff of San Antonio. 52. Nicholas W. Battle of Waco. 53. Robert B. Young of Bosque, killed at Chicamauga. 54. John C. Burks of Clarksville. 55. Almarine M. Alex- ander of Sherman, died after the war. 56. Robert H. Taylor of Bonham, died since the war. 57. James G. Stevens of Greenville, died in Dallas, in 1888. 58. Hugh McLeod of Galveston, died in camp at Dumfries, Va., in 1862. 59. Gustave Hoffman of New Braunsfels, died in
Austin. 60. James Reiley of Houston, fell at Franklin, La., 1864. 61. John H. Broocks of San Augustine. 62. John R. Baylor of Weatherford. 63. John Marshall of Austin, killed at Gaines' Mill, Va., in 1862. 64. Isom Chis- holm of Kaufman. 65. Joseph Bates of Brazoria died after the war. 66. Reuben R. Brown of Velasco. 67. George W. Carter of Houston, died after the war. 68. Clayton C. Gillespie of Galveston, died since the war. 69. F. C. Wilkes of Waco, died since the war. 70. Alfred M. Hobby of Goliad, died in New Mexico. 71. - Woods of San Mar- cos. 72. Lee M. Martin of Collin. 73. John P. Bayne of Seguin. 74. John P. Bass of Jefferson. 75. R. M. Powell of Montgomery. 76. John W. Daniel of Tyler. 77. Harry McNeill of the U. S. Army, died since the war. 78. Clinton M. Winkler of Corsicana, died as judge of the appellate court. 79. Benjamin F. Carter of Austin mortally wounded at Gettysburg and died in Baltimore. 80. James H. Jones of Rusk County. 81. George W. Guess of Dallas, died after the war, in Memphis. 82. H. M. Elmore of Walker County. 83. Overton Young, Brazoria County, where he afterwards died. 84. W. H. Griffin, died since the war. 85. Benjamin W. Watson of Ellis County. 86. Giles S. Bogges of Rusk County, killed in 1864, at Mansfield. 87. James E.
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McCord of Hays County. 88. Nat Benton of Guadalupe County. 89. Robert H. Watson of Jefferson, killed at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas, in 1864. 90. - Madison. 91. Robert H. Cumby of Rusk, died since the war at Sulphur Springs, Texas. 92. Philip A. Work of Woodville, Tyler County. 93. F. I. Malone of Bee County, died in 1891. 94. - Stone (successor to J. G. Stephens), killed at Yellow Bayou in 1864. 95. D. C. Giddings of Brenham. 96. Robert S. Gould of Leon. 97. James E. Shepard of Brenham.
COMMANDERS OF BATTALIONS, AS , MAJORS OR LIEUTENANT- COLONELS.
Edwin Waller, John Ireland of Seguin, Thomas J. Brecken- ridge of Texana, Lee Willis of Gonzales, George H. Giddings of San Antonio, - Morgan of Bastrop, Stephen H. Darden, of Austin, - Yeager, - Taylor ( blended into Buchel's regi- ment), Fulcrod of Goliad, Wallace W. Peake, was major of Hawpe's regiment and died in Dallas. Z. E. Coombes and Thomas Flinn of Dallas, and J. P. Gregg of Travis, are the only surviving captains of Hawpe's.
TEXIANS IN THE FEDERAL ARMY.
The official records, as published some years since, show that there were nineteen hundred and twenty, claiming to be from Texas, enrolled in the Federal army during the war. They seem to have constituted two regiments, whose service was confined chiefly to Louisiana. Of one, Edmund J. Davis, of Laredo, was colonel. Of the other, John L. Haynes, of Brownsville, was colonel. They were organized at or near Matamoros, in Mexico, proceeded by water to New Orleans, and thence to the army of Louisiana. On several occasions they met the Texas Confederates in battle, and there is abun-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
dant evidence that they were good soldiers. Col. Davis was promoted to brigadier-general. The name of his successor as colonel cannot be given.1
STATE TROOPS.
In 1861 two State regiments were organized, as has been already stated. Of the first, Colonel John S. Ford, with one battalion, occupied the Nueces and lower Rio Grande country. Lieut .- Col. John R. Baylor, in command of the other battalion, proceeded to the Mesilla valley above El Paso and held that country. This regiment passed into the Confederate service. A second regiment, under Henry E. McCulloch as colonel, occupied the various posts along the Indian frontier and served one year. He became a brigadier-general in April, 1862, and was succeeded as colonel, by first, James M. Norris, and, later, by James E. McCord.
Among the State brigadier-generals, serving in the latter part of the war as such, were, James W. Throckmorton of Collin, John D. McAdoo of Washington, Wm. Hudson of Cooke (these three serving principally on the frontier), Nathaniel W. Towns of Lamar, James G. McDonald and. James W. Barnes of Grimes, and Tignal W. Jones of Tyler.
Among the colonels were Thomas J. M. Richardson of Brazoria, Brice Welmeth, and Ed. Chambers of Collin, Wm. S. Herndon of Tyler and Gideon Smith of Fannin.2
1 NOTE. Edmund J. Davis was born in Florida, and came with his widowed mother, brothers and sisters to Galveston, about 1848. Later he settled as a lawyer on the Rio Grande and became successively district attorney and district judge. When the question of secession arose'he became a candi- date as a delegate to the secession convention, but was defeated. To this defeat his old friends attribute his alienation from the southern cause.
2 Note. The service was periodic and irregular, hence the names of com- manders cannot be given, without a thorough inspection of records. Doubt- less in both this and the Confederate lists minor errors occur, chiefly by omission, as, by deaths, promotion and resignation. Some regiments had from two to four different colonels.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Of the thirty-eight Confederate generals, whose names are given, thirty-three were colonels before attaining a higher rank. In 1864 the frontier was divided into three dis- tricts, northern, central and southern, the direct command- ers of which were - of the northern district ( Red River to Palo Pinto), Major Wm. Quails of Tarrant. Of the central district (Palo Pinto to Lampasas ), Major George B. Erath of McLennan. Of the southern district (from Lampasas to the lower Nueces and west to the Rio Grande ), Major John Henry Brown.
CHAPTER XLII.
RECONSTRUCTION OF TEXAS.
Immediately following the general surrender, a large division of the Federal army was landed on the coast of Texas, under command of Gen. Gordon Granger, at Sabine, Galves- ton, Indianola, Corpus Christi, and the Rio Grande. A por- tion were hurried to Austin, San Antonio, and, as rapidly as possible, detachments were scattered widely over the country and the posts on the frontier were garrisoned. Immediately on arriving Gen. Granger, a high-toned and honorable officer, previously well known on the frontier of Texas, by proclama- tion, announced the freedom of the slaves, and the suspension of all State and existing military authority in Texas as a State of the southern Confederacy ( under instructions from Wash- ington). This announcement of the freedom of the slaves was, in most instances, communicated to them by their former owners. The idea was not new to them, and they received the news with very little outward demonstration, many of them remaining for a while at their old homes, and, in adopt- ing surnames, many kept the names of their former masters. There were at the time no scenes of violence as had been ap- prehended by those ignorant of the true status.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Mr. Lincoln in the presi- dency, issued an amnesty proclamation, restricted in its terms and prescribing an oath to be taken by the people, before they should be allowed to vote. He also appointed as Pro- visional Governor of Texas, Andrew J. Hamilton of Austin, who, being a Union man, had left Texas in 1862, and been commissioned by President Lincoln as a brigadier-general,
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
but had never exercised the functions of that office. He re- turned to Texas with the Federal troops, and on the 25th of July, 1865, assumed the duties of Provisional Governor. It devolved upon him to appoint provisional officers throughout the State, and, in doing so, agreeably surprised the people, by selecting in a large sense, men enjoying their confidence. He appointed James H. Bell, Secretary of State ; Wm. Alex- ander, Attorney-General; Albert H. Latimer, Comptroller, Sam Harris, Treasurer ; Robert M. Elgin and Joseph Spencer, successively Commissioners of the Land Office. Governor Hamilton sought the enforcement of the existing laws of the State, excepting those connected with the changed condition. He ordered an election to be held on the 8th of January, 1866, to elect members to a convention to form a new constitution for Texas.
Those only were allowed to vote who, on registering their names, could take the oath prescribed by President Johnson's. amnesty proclamation. The vote was exceedingly small, a fact which Governor Hamilton, in his message, said, " filled him with deep concern."
The convention met on the 10th of February, and elected James W. Throckmorton, president, and Lee Chalmers, secretary.
They sat until the 2d day of April, and formed a constitu- tion for the State, which, if ratified by the people, was intended to restore Texas as a State of the Union, under her own constitution and laws. They provided for an election to be held on the 4th of June on the adoption or rejection of the constitution, and the election of State, district and county officers. At that election there were 48,519 votes, for the constitution, and 7,719 against it. James W. Throckmorton received 48,631 votes for Governor, and Elisha M. Pease 12,051; George W. Jones of Bastrop, received 48,392 votes for Lieutenant-Governor, and L. Lindsay, of Fayette, 8,714.
On the 13th of August, 1866, the legislature having assem-
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bled, Governor Throckmorton was duly inaugurated. Lieut .- Governor Jones became President of the Senate and Nat. M. Burford, of Dallas, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
The legislature enacted such laws as were deemed necessary to place Texas in entire harmony with the Union and the new constitution. Gov. Throckmorton, who possessed the unbounded confidence of the people, devoted his eminent powers to the restoration of confidence and harmony, and to so administering the government as to avoid any further interference, civil or military, by the government of the United States, and it was vainly believed by the people that his efforts would be successful, and that the future would verify this fact.
The Governor and the people were in a few months made to realize the fallacy of these hopes. A disagreement between the methods of President Johnson and Congress grew up, chiefly on the bill granting the right of suffrage to negroes. This caused a new ordering of affairs in several of the south- ern States, including Texas.
In February, 1867, Congress declared " the present pre- tended " State governments of these States to be " null and void as," it was declared, " they are under the control of unrepentant leaders of the Rebellion; " and, further, that it was necessary that peace and good order should be enforced by the military, in the so-called States until loyal and Repub- lican State governments should be legally formed.
Texas, with Louisiana, was created Military District No. 5, under command of General Sheridan, with headquarters at New Orleans, and, locally, Texas was placed under command of Gen. Griffin, with headquarters at Galveston.
The Congress declared that as a sufficient number of States (two-thirds) had voted favorably on the constitutional amendment granting to the negroes equal political rights with white male citizens, it was thereby ratified, and thenceforth, became a part of the constitution of the United States.
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
In order to secure representation in Congress, Texas was required to ratify the amendment, as'a part of her constitu- tion and submit it to the acceptance or rejection of Congress.
The government of Texas was again declared provisional, by order of General Sheridan. It was his wish, he said, to make as few changes as possible in the incumbents in office, only requiring that they " exert all their influences in the aid of military authorities in executing the acts of Congress with promptness and fairness."
A new registration law became necessary. Texas was divided into fifteen registration districts, and the new law was to accommodate itself to the new class of voters. The new law was incumbered with restrictions, secretly imposed, which excluded many thousands who had previously voted.
Governor Throckmorton exerted himself to co-operate with the military authorities in the execution of the laws and urged upon all legal voters to register and vote, and in no wise to place an obstacle in the way of the newly enfranchised in the exercise of their new privileges. He said, " Hereafter they (the negroes) are to be to the people of the south an element of political power and strength, if wisely and prop- erly treated." The slave population in Texas had been greatly increased by refugee slaveholders from other southern States pending the uncertain struggle as the Federal army advanced.
On the 30th of July, 1867, General Sheridan issued a special order removing Governor Throckmorton from office under charges in the report of Gen. Griffin, of being " an impediment to the reconstruction of Texas under the law," and appointing E. M. Pease in his place, who immediately commenced his official duties.
President Johnson wished for the reconstruction of the seceded States as soon as their State governments were estab- lished in conformity to the United States Constitutional amendments. Congress, however, determined to continue
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
military rule until the new State governments should be created as nearly as possible by the votes of Union men, including the newly enfranchised negroes.
Gen. W. S. Hancock succeeded General Sheridan, and, with regard to the secret instructions to boards of registration, de- clared it to be his belief that by them, the names of many voters, properly registered, would be displaced and the per- sons denied their rights at the polls. He pronounced these instructions " null and void," and ordered registrars to be guided directly by the laws of Congress on this subject. He instructed registrars to hear complaints and report them for a hearing and a remedy. He was soon removed from his position and General Reynolds, commanding in Texas with headquarters at Austin, succeeded him.
A convention was called June 1st, 1868, to frame a new constitution conformable to the new conditions, by election by the registered voters. Such were the restrictions by boards of registration it was believed that between 25,000 and 30,000 names of those entitled to vote were denied registra- tion or erased after having been registered ; 56,678 whites registered and 47,581 negroes. The convention met June 1st and elected Edmund J. Davis, president, and W. V. Tunstall, secretary. They were officially recognized by Governor Pease, who coincided with the acts of Congress against Pres- ident Andrew Johnson. In his address he recommended : " You will temporarily disfranchise a number of those who participated in the rebellion sufficient to place the political power of the State in the hands of those who are loyal to the United States Government."
In his address to the convention Governor Pease drew pub- lic attention to the want of co-operation between the civil and military powers, by which the execution of the laws and the preservation of the public peace had been hindered ; a fact which he averred, had emboldened and encouraged the vicious so that, in many instances, sheriffs had found it im-
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
possible to obtain the aid of citizens in making arrests - because they feared retaliation from the accused or some of their friends. This state of things he declared led to scenes of violence and mob law.1
The members of the convention were not in harmony among themselves with regard to the constitution. A consid- erable party were in favor of the existing constitution of 1866, with some exceptions which they proposed to amend, and of restoring all citizens to their rights of franchise with the exceptions made in 1866. A strong party were for declar- ing every enactment by the State since secession, null and void, and making all of new material, - disfranchising all original secessionists, and those who had borne arms for the Confed- racy. The convention continued in session three months at an expense to the State of $100,000, and adjourned to meet again on the 7th of December, having exhausted their appropriation, without forming a constitution. At the adjourned session the convention proceeded with its work. Ex-Governor Hamilton succeeded in defeating the schemes of the extremists by securing the adoption of a clause as a sub- stitute for a report of a committee, providing for the enfran-
1 The author of this work, who knew Gov. Pease well for fifty years as an honest and upright man, feels impelled to say that, while he was origi- nally a Union man, he was a non-combatant and so continued throughout the struggle, remaining quietly at his home in Austin. That in the times now under consideration he was gravely misled and deceived by designing men is abundantly proven by the fact that he resigned the office of Governor, and that, two years later, in 1871, he sat in a convention of the tax-payers of the State, assembled at Austin, and was the author of the protest fulminated by that body, against the wild and oppressive measures of the Davis administration, so rapidly tending to the bankruptcy of the State, and the impoverishment of the people. A further convincing fact is that, from 1873 to his death, in 1885, he was an honored and leading member of the Texas Veteran association, composed almost exclusively of men who had sus- tained the southern cause, by whom, together with nearly the entire older citizenship of the State, his death was lamented. It may be further stated that the Republican United States Senator Morgan C. Hamilton, sat in that tax-payers' convention and. joined in the "protest."
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
chisement of so large a number of white men as to provoke a " protest " by the minority, in which E. J. Davis, the presi- dent, joined. The convention ceased to have a quorum, and, on the 6th of February, 1870, adjourned without formally completing, dating, or signing the constitution. President Davis read to the remnant of the convention an order from General Canby, successor of General Griffin, requiring that the new constitution and archives should be given up to the Military Department at Austin, General Reynolds being in command. That officer took the incompleted, undated and unsigned constitution, and submitted it to the people for ratification or rejection. An election was ordered on the ratification or rejection of the constitution, and the election of State and county officers under it, to be held in July, 1869, but President Grant, in order to gain time for calm considera- tion, issued a proclamation postponing the election until the 30th of November and the first three days of December. After the resignation of Governor Pease, Texas remained under direct military control.
The election was held on the 30th of November, 1869, and continued four days. There were 47,000 colored voters and the constitution was adopted by a majority of 49,822. Edmund J. Davis was elected Governor, having received 39,901 votes while A. J. Hamilton received 39,092. The late Confederates declined to place a candidate in the field. J. W. Flanagan was elected Lieutenant-Governor, A. Bledsoe, Comptroller, G. W. Hoeny, Treasurer, and Jacob Kuechler, Commissioner of the General Land Office. Members of the legislature were likewise duly elected. A special order from General Reynolds of January 8th, 1870, declared these elec- tions provisional and ordered the legislature to meet on the 5th of February. After the election of Davis as Governor, General Reynolds appointed him Provisional Governor, to serve until the time should arrive for permanent organiza- tion. This provisional session of the legislature ratified the
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
amendments to the constitution of the United States, elected James W. Flanagan and Morgan C. Hamilton, United States senators, and adjourned to await the action of Congress. Congress accepted the new constitution on the 30th of March, 1870, and the senators and representatives from Texas took their seats. Texas then had four representatives in Congress.
The new, or twelfth legislature, after its provisional ses- sion in February, was called to meet in regular session on the 26th of April, 1870. The Governor was inaugurated two days later. Lieutenant-Governor James W. Flanagan, having been sent to the United States senate by the pro- visional session, Senator Don A. Campbell of Marion was elected president pro tem of the senate and served during that session. He died soon after, however, and at the next session, in January, 1871, Webster Flanagan, of Rusk, succeeded him as presiding officer. The inauguration of the new government being effected, Gen. Reynolds surrendered all authority over civil affairs, and thus Texas apparently was restored to her place in the American Union.
This new legislature thereupon entered upon its duties with power to give repose to the country. But how did it exercise the sacred trust ? Its acts must serve as the response.
It passed acts to create a State police, a State guard, a reserved militia, to regulate the registration of voters, to regulate elections, to establish free public schools, to regulate public printing, to protect the frontier, to build public school houses, to levy and collect taxes, to disarm the people, to enable the Governor to appoint officers, etc., and to establish thirty-five official newspapers.
The police was to consist of forty-eight officers and two hundred and forty-six privates, all to be appointed by the Governor. The State guard was, in fact, the State army, officered by the Governor and ready at any moment, at his
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discretion, to be placed in any service he might require. The registration and election laws required all voting to be done at county seats, under such restrictions as to be odious to the principles of all American and Anglo-Saxon freemen. As an illustration, on the 9th of August, 1871, in view of the November election, Governor Davis issued a military order attested by the adjutant-general declaring -
1. That all persons coming to vote, shall deposit their bal- lots with the least possible delay, and after this is done, they are forbidden under any pretext to remain about the polls or at the county seat ( unless it is their residence), during the time (four days ) of election; but shall return to their homes and usual employments; and peace-officers, State guards, or mil- itia on duty at the polls, shall see that this regulation is complied with.
2. All persons are forbidden to shout, jeer at, or in any way insult or annoy voters, or candidates for office, during the registration and election, and peace officers, State guards and militia on duty in any county where such disturbance may be attempted, are directed at once to arrest such per- sons, and to hold them to be dealt with according to the pro- visions of Section 11th of the Act, entitled : " An act to provide for the mode and manner of conducting elections, making returns, and for the protection and purity of the ballot box." Approved Aug. 15th, 1870.
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Section 6. The Governor, as provided by said act, hereby assumes command for and during the election of all peace officers in the State, including sheriffs and their deputies, and city or town police, or marshals and their deputies, and those officers are hereby directed to place themselves under direction of the officer, designated by the Governor, in circular orders from those headquarters, and to aid him in enforcing
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these regulations, and the laws of this State and the United States governing elections.
(Signed) EDMUND J. DAVIS, Governor. JAMES DAVIDSON,
Adjutant-General and Chief of Police of Texas.
Under laws enacted by this legislature, the Governor appointed, directly, three supreme judges, one attorney-gen- eral, thirty-five district judges, thirty-five district attorneys, one adjutant-general, one superintendent of education, two hundred generals, colonels, majors and staff officers ; thirty- five district-school supervisors ; two hundred and ninety- four regular State police ; two thousand six hundred and twenty special police, each time called out for an election ; State geologists; five officers of asylums ; two of the peniten- tiary; one hundred and twenty-three county registrars; three hundred county election managers, a secretary of State and three clerks; three hundred county surveyors, measurers and inspectors ; forty-nine pilot commissioners ; sixty-six ocean and bay pilots ; about three hundred county officers to fill so- called vacancies ; at least three hundred officers of towns and cities; and thirty-five official newspapers, being one in each judicial district and enjoying a forced monopoly of all legal, judicial and county advertising in the district. He also indirectly appointed, through special appointees of his own, three hundred and ninety-three county school examiners ; about three thousand two hundred and seventy-five local school directors, and one thousand two hundred school teach- ers. This is by no means all of the Governor's power and patronage, but here are nine thousand five hundred and twen- ty-eight persons appointed, directly or indirectly, by him to places of trust, honor or profit, or all combined. There was payable to such of them as received fixed salaries, an enor- ' mous sum, while one thousand three hundred and eighty of them were paid in fees. This is but a partial compilation of
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