The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 33
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Texas Militia during Reconstruction
With the arrival of Coke in Austin on January 8, 1874, tension
in the capital mounted alarmingly."
On Monday, January 12, Davis warned the assembling Demo-
crats not to attempt to assume the position they claimed. As this
warning was deliberately ignored, Davis, impressed by the gravity
of the situation, sought aid from the Federal authorities. In an-
swer to his urgent appeal, President U. S. Grant refused flatly to
send troops, suggesting with a touch of hypocrisy, that Davis
"yield to the verdict of the people."" Thus abandoned by the
national Republicans, Davis, left to his own devices, barricaded
himself in the State House protected by a hastily improvised
negro militia force.41 On that same night, a Coke supporter, see-
ing that the lower floor of the State House was occupied by Davis'
troops, secured a pass-key and surreptitiously took possession of
the legislative chambers on the second floor.42 On the following
morning, the newly-elected Fourteenth Legislature was organ-
ized. Davis refused to recognize this body, claiming that the
Thirteenth Legislature, then meeting in the basement of the
same building, was the official state legislature. The already con-
fused situation was appreciably worsened when, on January 15,
Coke was officially inaugurated.43 Texas then had not only two
legislatures but two governors as well.
The forty-eight hour period following Coke's inauguration
was one of continual crisis as partisan feeling reached an ominous
level. Reinforcements for Davis continued to arrive in the city
and were issued arms from the state arsenal.44 The Travis Rifles,
a local volunteer military company, were called out by Davis but
further confounded the confusion by offering their services to
Coke instead," thereby transforming Austin into an armed
camp. Davis wisely closed down all saloons in the city,46 an act
3nlbid., January 9, 1874.
4ONew York Herald, January 13, 1874.
41Ibid., January 17, 1874.
42For an excellent account of the Coke-Davis struggle see William Curtis Nunn,
Texas During the Administration of E. J. Davis (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Texas, 1938), 164.
4aDaily Democratic Statesman (Austin), January 16, 1874.
44Ibid., January 17, 1874.
451bid.
"4New York Herald, January 17, 1874.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/46/?rotate=270: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.