April 6 2015 Flames After Midnight o Thesis o Eula and her family o Horace Milton Mayo o The lynching of the three African Americans o Alternative account The Growth of the Secession Movement John Brown Massacre at Pottawatomie Creek o May 24 1856 o Hacked 5 men to death in front of their families Raid on Harpers Ferry o October 1859 o John Brown wanted to take weapons from the arsenal and give them to slaves to end the wicked curse of slavery o Local militia and townspeople quickly surround Brown and his men Shots are exchanged One of Brown s sons is badly injured and begs his dad to end his life He said No if you re going to die die like a man o Robert E Lee and his men capture John Brown and he will be tried for treason o He is convicted and sentenced to be hanged He retorts Let them hang me because I am considerably worth more to hang than for anything else He becomes a martyr for the abolitionist cause o Rumors circulate that Brown s final supreme gesture was financed by the North Increased tensions between the North and South Texas Troubles o July 1860 o Concern a series of fires in North Texas Seem to be coordinated fires The most serious happened in the small town of Dallas Burned down most of the downtown section o Rumors began to spread through the newspaper that this was an abolitionist plot to destroy most of East Texas o Vigilante committees gathered to talk about who may have done it There is no hard evidence to support the claim At least 30 African Americans and whites died by the hands of these vigilante committees o Historians have looked at these events and given an alternative explanation Prairie match Highly combustible Matches caught fire It was 110 degrees in Dallas o Incident is important because the Texas Troubles explains why Sam Houston was elected as governor in 1859 on a Preserve the Union platform Voted for secession the following year Encouraged Texans to secede from the Union The country was completely divided o For slavery o Against slavery o Free states in the north and slave states in the south with the likelihood that they would meet in the middle at the neutral states 1860 o 0 votes for Abraham Lincoln in Texas in this election Not a single person Sam Houston wants Texas to stay in the Union o He feels like there is going to be a civil war o Calls Secession Convention of 1861 Wants to explain the stupidity of seceding from the Union Wanted to talk some sense into the people o However slave owners were attending this convention They argued that if you can be annexed you can be seceded o The people overwhelmingly vote for secession from the Union Secession March 5 1861 o Texas secedes from the Union o Texas was not the first state to secede That was South Carolina Texas was the seventh CSA Explaining secession in Texas o The southern states create their own nation called the Confederate States of America o Txas defended southern culture and lifestyle o Wanted to protect their peculiar institution of slavery and retain states rights o There is also the perception that the Union and its values have decayed beyond repair The federal government has become tyrannical o Refocusing of nationalism toward the Confederacy o Slavery Fear of economic strife and social chaos if the slaves are freed Texas and the Civil War o Relations with the Confederacy 1861 cotton embargo Decided to embargo cotton exports Mostly to Great Britain Decided to use cotton as a negotiation point and placed an embargo Embargo was effective at first Shut down hundreds of textile factories in England and put thousands of workers out of work Ended up being a disaster because England found another supplier Egypt 1863 Southern economy crippled with no alliance with Britain Number of runaway slaves increased when the war started Slaves were often impressed from their slave owners not to fight but to work on the protection of the Texas Gulf Coast Could be in service for 60 days and their owner would be paid 15 each month Impressed slaves in Texas would construct stockades drive cotton wagons and build fortifications Currency Military units Mode of currency will collapse Problem with establishing military units o Confederate or state unit Texans wanted to serve in Texan units and serve in Texas Men were needed so the Confederacy introduced conscription the draft o 1862 could draft males 18 35 for a three year term o Need for men increased o 1864 age range is changed to 17 50 School teachers professors miners and those who owned more than twenty slaves were exempted from the draft The Civil War was a rich man s war and a poor man s fight o Unionism of Texans had voted against secession The Great Gainesville Hanging October 1862 Suspected unionists usually included abolitionists Vigilante committees rounded up 40 suspected unionists and hanged them in Gainesville 4 000 desert the Confederate army and return to their families and farms Desertion 2 000 Texans enlist in the Union 60 70 000 enlist in the CSA o Disadvantages Economy is not diversified Has to import most of its manufactured goods To import manufactured goods ships had to get past a Union blockade of the major ports Approximately 15 of white males will have to see military service Higher taxes are introduced to pay for the war Because of the blockade there were shortages in Texas and the rest of the South o Advantages Texas borders Mexico so trade can cross the Rio Grande There are no large military units to occupy Texas The Defense of Texas o 1863 Battle of Galveston Part of the Union blockade of Texas Union ships sail into the harbor in October 1862 Union troops will occupy Galveston December 25 1862 The CSA district commander plans to recapture Galveston Major General John Magruder Planned to reclaim Galveston on New Year s night o January 1 1863 Confederates opened fire before dawn and retook Galveston Port remains under Confederate control for the rest of the war o 1863 Battle of Sabine Pass Turn back a Union attempt to occupy Texas U S General Nathaniel Banks Sailed down the Sabine River with 4000 men and 4 gunboats Confederates using their cannon repel the Union gunboats forcing them back to New Orleans Fort Griffin o The Battle of Palmito Ranch May 12 13 1865 Battle actually occurs more than a month after the surrender of the CSA and Robert E Lee April 9 1865 CSA Colonel John Rip Ford vs U S Colonel Theodore Barrett Blockade the Rio Grande and Brownsville Ford forces the Union soldiers to retreat Claimed as a Confederate
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