Texas Far Wide by E.R. Bills

Author:E.R. Bills [Bills, E.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781625859181
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing SC
Published: 2017-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

12

KAISER BURNOUT

Regarding the history of the Civil War in Texas, Lone Star textbooks over the years have strained mightily to describe the decision to join the Confederacy as one characterized by unanimity. The Kaiser Burnout and other incidents suggest otherwise.

In 1860, the state of Texas comprised 154 counties (today there are 254). Everything west of present-day Abilene (which wasn’t settled until 1881) was basically unincorporated frontier to the Pecos River, which formed the eastern boundary of the two giant, original counties in the Big Bend, Presidio and El Paso.

When the statewide secession vote was held on February 23, 1861, 103 counties voted for secession; 19 (Angelina, Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Collin, Cooke, Fannin, Fayette, Gillespie, Grayson, Jack, Lamar, Mason, Medina, Montague, Travis, Uvalde, Williamson and Wise) voted against; and 32 reported no returns. Of the latter, 30 counties had been established but had yet to be organized; 2 counties, McCulloch and Presidio, were organized but showed no vote. And 3 counties narrowly affirmed secession, Kerr County doing so by nineteen votes, Lampasas by ten and Bandera by one.

All in all, 46,129 Texans voted “yes” to joining the Confederacy; 14,697 voted “no.” The 76 percent majority was caught up in a powerful wave of pro-secession fervor, but the 24 percent minority was fierce in its own right, and its constituency was legitimized by the sitting governor and first president of the former republic himself, Sam Houston.

Houston spoke out against secession repeatedly before the vote, warning Texans that the Confederacy would be made to heel and Southern sons, fathers and husbands would be “herded at the point of a bayonet.” When Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederate States of America after secessionists held sway in the statewide election, his governorship was declared vacant. Lieutenant Governor Edward Clark was installed as chief executive.

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