The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962 Page: 234
663 p. : ill., maps (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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re<axs iy tie Uloia Ariy,
1861-1865
FRANK H. SMYRL
BY FEBRUARY 1, 1861, it was clear that the secessionists were
in control of Texas,' despite an anti-secessionist governor
and other public figures known to have Unionist sympa-
thies. Throughout the war, Confederate Texas would be unable
to ignore the strong feeling within the state in favor of an un-
divided nation, but secession ended the opposition of several in-
fluential Unionists: Governor Sam Houston retired peacefully
to his Huntsville, Texas, home where he gave lip-service to the
Confederacy but hoped somehow to separate Texas from the
Confederacy and re-establish the Republic of Texas;2 James Webb
Throckmorton supported the Confederacy for the same noble
reason that animated Robert E. Lee; former Governor Elisha
Marshall Pease, never recognizing the Confederacy, simply kept
quiet. But for some Texans, secession was a call to arms on the
side of the United States, and it is to these men and their subse-
quent service in the Union army that this article is devoted.
By Texans of the Confederacy and die-hard Confederate sympa-
thizers of the century following the Civil War, these men have
been considered vile and despicable traitors, worthy of nothing
more pleasant than a military firing squad-preferably a Confed-
erate one. From a more detached point of view, it appears that a
Texan who voluntarily gave his services to the Union in support
of an undivided nation must have been a brave man either seek-
ing adventure or willing to die for his beliefs. Unionists made of
weaker stuff stayed at home or on the run. No one forced these
Texans to choose the Union side, and each must have been aware
'The vote on the Ordinance of Secession was 166-8. E. W. Winkler (ed.),
Journal of the Secession Convention of Texas, r86r (Austin, 1912), 48-49. Elsewhere
(p. 408n) Winkler states that the vote was 167-7.
2Claude Elliott, "Union Sentiment in Texas, 1861-1865," Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, L, 452.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 65, July 1961 - April, 1962, periodical, 1962; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101195/m1/264/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.