Texas and the Civil War and Reconstruction

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Texas and the Civil WarandReconstruction

• Civil War (1861-1865)
• Reconstruction (1865-1874)

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MAJOR ERAS IN TEXAS HISTORY

• WHY HISTORIANS DIVIDE THE PAST INTO ERAS
• Civil War (1861-1865)
• Reconstruction (1865-1874)
• Historians divide the past into eras so it is
  easier to identify cause and effect of the great
  events/people in history.

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Civil War (1861-1865)

• States Rights
• Slavery
• Confederate States of America
• Last battle fought of the Civil War
• Blockade

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Reasons for Texas to Enter the Civil War

• States Rights
• Texans believed that states should be able to
  make their own political, economic, and social
  decisions.
• Slavery
• Texans believed that slavery was vital to the
  economy.

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Reasons for Texas to Enter the Civil War

• Sectionalism loyalty to the interests of one's
  own region or section of the country, rather than
  the nation as a whole
• The Texas economy, social structure, customs, and
  political values was much like other southern
  states.

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Reasons for Texas to Enter the Civil War

• Tariff a tax on trade
• Texans were for low tariffs to continue to trade
  cotton with European nations. Southern states
  produced 80 of the worlds supply of cotton.
• The federal government imposed protective tariffs

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Civil War in Texas

• Political effects
• Texas joined the Confederate States of America
• Houston removed from office because he failed to
  sign an oath to the Confederacy
• Conscription Act 60,000 Texans joined
  Confederate army
• Some Texans sided with the Union and joined the
  Union forces

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Civil War in Texas

• Economic effects
• Shortages of commodities, such as coffee,
  medicine, clothing, salt, paper
• Trade along Mexican border continued and supplied
  some of these items to Texans
• Cotton production declines and corn and wheat
  production increases
• Shortage of free labor
• Inadequate production in agriculture and business
• Shortages were also due to the Union blockade
  along the Texas coast

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Civil War in Texas

• Social effects
• Greater responsibilities for women and children
  during the war
• Loss of family members
• Union supporters were treated with hostility

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• John Bell Hood
• Leader of the Confederacys Hoods Texas Brigade
• Most notable battle Seven Days Campaign and
  fought at Gettysburg
• Ft. Hood in Killeen is named for him
• John Reagan
• Served in the cabinet of Confederate President
  Jefferson Davis as Postmaster General

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Francis Lubbock
• Governor of Texas in 1861
• Assistant to Confederate President Jefferson
  Davis
• John Magruder
• Commanded Confederate forces in Texas
• Recaptured Galvesto

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Thomas Green
• Led the troops that were on the steamboats
  converted to gunboats by General John B.
  Magruder, who commanded the Confederate forces in
  Texas
• Gunboats attacked Union ships in Galveston Bay
  and took back control of Galveston

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross
• Served as the 19th governor of Texas, a
  Confederate States Army general during the
  American Civil War, and a president of the
  Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, now
  called Texas AM University

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Battle of Galveston
• July 1861 the Union Navy began to blockade
  Texas ports
• October 1862 a Union fleet sailed into
  Galveston Harbor and Confederate forces
  retreated.
• Confederate General John B. Magruder recaptured
  it by converting two steamboats into gunboats by
  lining their sides with cotton bales, earning the
  nickname Cotton Clads
• January 1, 1863 General John B. Magruder and
  his men captured several hundred Union soldiers.
• The city of Galveston was again under Confederate
  control

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Battle of Sabine Pass
• 1863 The U.S. made plans to invade Texas.
• Union General William B. Franklin and 5,000
  troops hoped to land his army near Sabine City,
  and then march overland to attack Houston and
  Beaumont
• Ft. Griffin at Sabine Pass was guarded by
  Confederate Lieutenant Richard Dowling and Davis
  Guards
• September 8, 1863, Union soldiers attacked, but
  the Davis Guards fought back, marking a complete
  victory for the Confederacy

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Important People and Events of the Civil War

• Battle of Palmito Ranch
• Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered on
  April 9, 1865, but Confederate forces did not
  stop fighting for another month because word
  spread slowly.
• May 12, 1865 the Union army moved inland to
  occupy Brownsville.
• They collided with Confederate troops led by John
  S. Ford, who captured over 100 Union troops, and
  battled with them
• Union troops informed the Confederate troops that
  the war was over.

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Reconstruction (1865-1874)

• 13th Amendment ended slavery
• 14th Amendment citizenship given to African
  Americans
• 15th Amendment suffrage given to all males
• Radical Republicans
• Military Districts
• Removal of Native Americans on the frontier
• Cattle Industry booms
• Constitution of 1876

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Reconstruction (1865-1874)

• Political effects
• Martial law the military polices the state
  under Governor Edwards
• Constitution of 1876 written at the end of
  Reconstruction this is the constitution Texas
  still follows today
• Indian wars the government removes Native
  Americans from the frontier.
• Passage of the Reconstruction Amendments
• 13th Amendment ended slavery
• 14th Amendment citizenship given to African
  Americans
• 15th Amendment suffrage given to all males

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Reconstruction (1865-1874)

• Economic effects
• Growth of tenant farming and sharecropping
• Expansion of railroad
• Cattle industry booms

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Reconstruction (1865-1874)

• Social effects
• Concern over future of freedmen
• Juneteenth June 19, 1865 Emancipation Day in
  Texas (African-Americans learn they are free)
• Freedmens Bureau established
• Black Codes (state laws that limited rights of
  African Americans
• Ku Klux Klan (terrorized African American voters
  and kept them away from the polls)

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Effects of Physical and Human factors on Texas

• End of the Civil War in Texas and freeing of
  Texas slaves
• Communication during the 19th century was very
  slow. The war ended April 9, 1865. 
• Confederate soldiers were still fighting May 12 -
  May 13, 1865 in Texas because they had not heard
  that Robert E. Lee surrendered and the war was
  over
• Texas slaves did not hear about their
  emancipation until June 19, 1865
• Texas is not devastated after the war because few
  battles were fought in Texas in comparison to the
  rest of the southern states.
• Crops were still planted/sold through Mexico and
  circumvented the Union blockades

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Texas Timeline

• Texas in the Civil War and Reconstruction
• 1861 Sam Houston resigns as governor of Texas
• 1861 Texas secedes
• 1865 The Civil War ends and Abraham Lincoln is
  assassinated
• June 19, 1865 Texas slaves find out they are
  free from General Gordon Granger in Galveston
• 1870 Texas is readmitted to the United States
• 1874 Reconstruction ends in Texas

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Texas Timeline

• Texas in the Civil War and Reconstruction
• 1876 the Constitution of 1876 is adopted. (This
  is the constitution used in Texas today.)
• 1861 Civil War begins (Texas joins the
  Confederate States of America, seceding from the
  U.S.)
• 1876 adoption of current state constitution
  (Texans did not want a strong central government
  and opted to rewrite the constitution and include
  limitation of the governors powers and voting
  rights to African Americans)