Commodore Edwin Moore

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The Texas Navy Association
Commodore Edwin Moore of the Texas Navy
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The Texas Navy Association

• The son of an aristocratic Virginia family, Moore
  joined the U.S. Navy in 1825 as a midshipman at
  the age of 15.
• Took him TEN YEARS to achieve the rank of
  Lieutenant - because the US Navy was filled with
  senior officers from War of 1812.
• Moore was sharp and ambitious and was likely
  looking at the Republic of Texas as a career fast
  track. 

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The Texas Navy Association

• MEANWHILE, Back in Texas..
• After the Texas Revolution was won, the First
  Texas Navy was disbanded, but Mexico refused to
  recognize Texas Independence and started
  launching raids into Texas.
• With the naval appropriations act of 1837, Texas
  began rebuilding its navy. 
• Sometime in April 1839, President and Brother
  Maribeau B. Lamar offered Moore the job as
  commander of the Texas Navy

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The Texas Navy Association

• MEANWHILE, Back in the USA..
• Before leaving the U.S. Navy, Moore recruited
  men at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York.
•   The U.S. Secretary of the Navy, John Forsyth,
  moved to court-martial Moore for violating the
  Neutrality Act of 1819, but Moore resign in July
  1839 before a trial could be convened. 

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The Texas Navy Association

• By June 1840, the largest fleet Texas ever
  fielded was ready to sail.  The Zavala (a
  paddlewheel steamer) the Austin (Baltimore
  Clipper) and the three schooners left Galveston
  for the Mexican coast, intent on persuading
  Mexico to accept Texas independence.
• (Strategy to disrupt supplies and harrass
  Mexican shipping)
• During this cruise, Moores fleet allied itself
  with federalist rebels in Mexico, particularly
  those fighting for the government of Yucatan.

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The Texas Navy Association

• This first cruise was, for the most part,
  uneventful. Unable to find any Mexican warships
  to fight, and with his provisions running low,
  Moore returned to Galveston on February 1, 1841.

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The Texas Navy Association

• POLITICS ! Things start to go BAD for the
  Texas Navy
• By the next year (1841) Maribeau B. Lamar had
  lost most of his political power, and Houston was
  about to be re-elected as President of the
  Republic.
• Lamar wanted TEXAS to be a strong Republic,
  Houston wanted statehood. A strong NAVY did not
  fit Houstons plans.
• Moore immediately left Galveston and took his
  fleet to New Orleans, and Houston immediately
  began doing everything he could to dismantle the
  Texas Navy.

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The Texas Navy Association
In January 1843, Houston convened a secret
session of Congress, convinced the legislators
that the fleet was a waste of resources, would
never go to sea again, and needed to be sold. 
On January 16, the Texas Congress passed a law
ordering the sale of the Texas Navy at auction,
and President Houston appointed James Morgan and
William Bryan to go to New Orleans, assume
command of the decrepit fleet, and sell it.
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The Texas Navy Association

• Moore met the commissioners and convinced them
  that Texas would have no defense against invasion
  if it sold its fleet and Yucatán joined Mexico,
  as Mexico made it clear that once it put down the
  Yucatán revolt it would turn its attention to the
  Question de Tejas. 
• Commissioner Morgan saw that Moore was right, and
  authorized Moore to take the squadron home to
  Galveston, via Yucatán.  Moores two-ship
  squadron, the 20-gun Austin and the 16-gun brig
  Wharton, set sail in mid-April 1843

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The Texas Navy Association
Battle of Campeche During this trip, the
Texas Navy ships encountered the worlds
mightiest warship, the 1,100 ton ironclad Mexican
steamer Guadalupe.  Mounting monstrous guns that
fired 68-pound exploding shells, the English-made
Guadalupe was the most advanced warship in the
world.  The Guadalupe was escorted by the equally
huge armed steamer Moctezuma and a squadron of
sailing ships.  Even when some small Yucatán
ships sailed to join Moores sloop and brig, the
Mexican fleet easily outgunned the Texans.
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The Texas Navy Association

• On May 16, 1843, the fleets met at sea
• The two smaller Texas Navy ships engaged the
  worlds most formidable warship, and a heavily
  armed Iron-Clad Steamer of war
• The battle went on for several days, until the
  Mexican ships stopped firing and sailed out of
  gun range of the Texas Navy ships. Moore ordered
  his ships to continue to Galveston.
• Both sides claimed victory, but the Mexican
  commander was relieved of duty and court martial,
  and the battle went down in history as the only
  time a sailing ship had bested a steamer of war.

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The Texas Navy Association

• Moore returned to Galveston, only to learn that
  Houston had ordered his arrest for piracy and
  murder, but the people of Texas loved him and
  gave him a heros welcome.
• Moore turned himself in to the sheriff of
  Galveston, who refused to arrest him.
• Houston promptly dismissed Moore and all the
  Texas Navy officers, and Moore spent the next
  years fighting for his day in court.

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The Texas Navy Association

• Moore finally received his court martial, and the
  court (a group that President Houston hand picked
  from among his best friends) acquitted Moore of
  all major charges and practically all minor
  charges that Houston made against him.

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The Texas Navy Association

• Moore spent the remainder of his days trying to
  get the Republic, then State, to reimburse him
  for nearly 50,000 in personal loans he made to
  keep the navy afloat. 
• He also worked to get himself and the other Texas
  Navy officers inducted into the United States
  Navy. The efforts failed, although in 1857
  Congress awarded the Texas naval officers five
  years pay in return for a release of all claims
  of rank in the U.S. Navy.

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The Texas Navy Association

• Brother Moore married Emma Cox of Philidelphia in
  late 1849.
• He lived to be 55 years old, and is buried in the
  First Presbyterian Church of Germantown,
• Pennsylvania
• Moore County, Texas is named for him.
  Ironically, this county is in the panhandle of
  Texas, about as far away for water as you can get.