Despite those tensions, after an uneasy five years, Texas was readmitted to the Union in March of 1870. And despite the formal end of slavery in the United States, Texas and other former Confederate states enacted restrictions for African Americans that severely limited their rights. Texan voters did not help to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment (abolishment of slavery) or the Fourteenth Amendment (declaration of citizenship for African Americans). Freedmen became the primary targets of widespread violence that followed the war’s end. For many former slaves, freedom from bondage provided limited opportunities for building new lives.Īnger at the war’s outcome simmered in Reconstruction-era Texas. Residents had to pledge their loyalty to the United States, abolish slavery, and declare that secession from the union was illegal. Reconstruction was not an easy time for Texans. They had arrived to occupy the state, and to order the emancipation of all slaves in Texas. It arrived on J– a day now celebrated as Juneteeth – when General Gordon Granger and Union forces landed in Galveston. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, the official news did not reach Texas for weeks. When the war ended with Confederate General Robert E.
A monument was erected in their honor in 1866, and can still be seen today. In 1862, three dozen Union sympathizers - most of them German Texans - were massacred near the Nueces River while they were trying to flee to Mexico. In some cases, those views led to violence. Opposition to secession was common among recent German immigrants in the Hill Country, in some north Texas counties, and among many Tejanos and Mexican Texans. For women whose husbands died during the war, that role often continued after the war’s end.ĭifferences in political belief also created problems for many Texans during the war. Women were tasked with taking care of their families alone, in a time of hardship and shortages. Throughout the state, the absence of men pushed women left at home to take on significant new roles in the household, including that of farmer and provider. In cities and rural areas, women stepped in to do work formerly done by men who were away at war. Although many men from slave-owning families were serving in the military, slaves’ work and bondage remained very much intact during the war. For some, there was an awareness of the fight for their freedom – an awareness captured in memories like those of Mose Smith, a former slave from Texas who spoke of hearing about the conflict but being too far away to have direct knowledge of the war. The Civil War years saw an increase in the number of slaves in the state. Many traveled to Texas as refugees, often bringing slaves with them. Still, for many people fleeing the Deep South, Texas was safer ground. But without larger trade networks, the residents of Texas suffered from shortages of many kinds. Imports of goods from northern factories ceased, transportation networks were damaged, and Union blockades made it difficult for cotton growers to export their crops. But by New Year’s Day of 1863, Confederate forces had retaken the city, which remained in Confederate hands for the remainder of the war.īarriers to trade continued until the war’s end. Union troops seized the port in the fall of 1862. Traffic through the state’s major port at Galveston was halted by a Union blockade early in the war. Although only a few battles were fought in the state, the effect of the war was widespread.
A small number joined the Union army.įor Texans on all sides, the war brought hardships.
Many others joined but stayed in Texas, with some defending the coastline, some guarding against possible Union attack, and others pushing into New Mexico Territory.
Many Texas men immediately joined the war effort, traveling east to fight with other Confederate soldiers. Although only about one in four Texas families owned slaves, support for secession was strong, with about three quarters of voters supporting secession. Texas responded to the election of Abraham Lincoln by joining the Confederacy in early 1861, a few weeks before the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter. Explore Texas by Historical ErasCivil War and Reconstruction 1861-1870 by Katie Whitehurst
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