Texas Gulf Coast in the Civil War
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The Texas Gulf Coast in the Civil War
On March 2, 1861, exactly twenty-five years after Texas declared her independence from Mexico, the secession convention meeting in Austin announced that the voters of Texas had over whelmingly approved an ordinance of secession and that Texas was no longer a member of the union of American States. In the Texas Gulf Coast country, scene of the thriving commercial center Galveston and its new, growing rival, Houston, as well as the rich sugar-cotton complex on the lower Brazos and Colorado rivers, the with drawl from the Union was an occasion for rejoicing. Not a single Gulf Coast county had voted against secession in the popular referendum and much of the impetus for secession had come from Gulf Coast radicals such as John A. Wharton, Guy M Bryan, and T. Jefferson Chambers. In nearby Beaumont William A. Fletcher was so exited about the prospect of seeing military service that he boarded a flatcar for Houston to enlist. As a border state Texas escaped many of the ravages of war borne by her sister states of the confederacy. Most of the state escaped military invasion and was spared the fangs of destructive battle. Not quite so fortunate was the Texas Gulf Coast because union military forces made repeated efforts to gain and maintain a foothold on the Texas Coast...