The Civil War

Texans proudly talk about the six flags that have flown over the state; one of those was the flag of the confederacy. During the Civil War Texas would fight on behalf of the Confederacy even though today few people think of it as being a southern state. There are various reasons that the Confederate legacy is less pronounced in Texas than in other states.

Texas would secede from the Union in 1861 and join with the confederacy however the decision to do this was somewhat controversial. Unlike most of the other southern states there was considerable support for remaining in the union. One of the leading members of the pro-union faction was the governor Sam Houston. Ultimately it became clear that the majority of the population did support joining the confederacy however this required removing Sam Houston from his position as governor since he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy.

Once the war started Texas served mainly as a supply state as there was very little actual fighting in the area. At the time Texas was still fairly sparsely populated, it also didn't have the large cotton plantations that the other southern states had. This meant that the state suffered less than the other states in the confederacy did during the war. Nevertheless there was a naval blockade of Galveston that made it impossible to Texas to export anything.

Over the course of the Civil War opposition to it increased in Texas in large part because of the attempt to conscript Texans as soldiers. Most Texans supported the war in principle as a way to assert states rights but they were not all that interested in going off to fight on behalf of the wealthy plantation owners in other states. A significant number of Texans would actually join the Union army which is an indication of just how divided the state was on the issue.

As it started to become clear that the Union were going to win the Civil War a large number of soldiers from Texas began to desert from the Confederate army. The state was soon occupied and reconstruction began. This went fairly quickly for Texas since there had been little fighting in the area. In addition since cotton production had made up a relatively small part of the state's economy they were able to adapt to life without slaves better than most of the other southern states.

Ultimately Texas would be readmitted to the Union in 1870 although this was done despite the fact that they didn't meet the requirements that had been set out. Mostly this was the result of the way that the freed slaves were treated. Since Most of the Texas was actually settled after the war ended there is considerably fewer people who take pride in the states Confederate history than there are in the other southern states.