Texas in the American Civil War

Common card · No. 279134

The American state of Texas declared its secession from the Union on February 1, 1861, and joined the Confederate States on March 2, 1861, after it had replaced its governor, Sam Houston, who had refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. Houston had tried to forestall any steps the state might take towards secession but the State Legislature threw its support behind a secession convention, whose decision was approved by a statewide plebiscite overwhelmingly. No major battles or campaigns occurred in Texas during the Civil War, as compared to the rest of the South. The state instead supplied men (between 70,000 and 90,000) and material to the war effort. Troops from Texas saw service in every theater of the war, from the New Mexico territory to the eastern seaboard. Ports such as Galveston and cities along the Rio Grande such as Brownsville and Matamoros became the primary exporters of Southern cotton, bypassing the Union blockade. Domestically the state government struggled...

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