1. Compromise of 1850 The new territories gained from Mexico caused new political problems in the United States. Southerners wanted slavery to expand into the new territories, but people in the North did not want it to expand. Texas also claimed that it owned part of New Mexico, including Santa Fe even though the people living there did not consider themselves Texan.

2. Compromise of 1850 The U.S. Congress came up with a solution called the Compromise of 1850. The State of California would join the U.S. As a free (non-slave) state. Voters from the other states in the Mexican Cession would get to vote on if they wanted to have slaves or not. To settle the issue of Texas' border with New Mexico, part of the Compromise of 1850 gave Texas $10 million to use to pay off their debt. This part of the Compromise was called the Pearce Plan.

3. Compromise of 1850 In 1852, Franklin Pierce became President of the United States. The next year, he made a deal with Mexico to buy a section of land in what is now southern Arizona and New Mexico. He had James Gadsen, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, carry out the deal. This would become known as the Gadsen purchase and the government planned to use it to create a railroad to the Pacific Ocean.

4. Reasons for Secession Slavery-Slavery was an important part of the Southern economy. It had been banned in most parts of the North and the Republican Party wanted to limit slavery. The South was worried it would be banned. Tariffs-The Federal government placed an export tariff on cotton and an import tax on manufactured goods from Europe. The South did not have many factories so it only meant that things would cost more for Southerners.

5. Reasons for Secession Sectionalism-Differences in lifestyle and economy (industry vs agriculture) and division based on the issues led people in the North and South to focus on what would benefit their state and not the country as a whole States’ Rights-Southerners thought the Federal government should not interfere with their states and they shouldn’t have to follow laws made by the Federal government that they did not agree with.

6. Texas Secession Southern leaders argued that the states joined the United States voluntarily and could secede (leave) if they felt their rights were threatened. When Abraham Lincoln was elected President, Southerners thought their way of life was in danger. Six states chose to secede before Texas did. Texan leaders wanted Sam Houston (now the governor) to call a convention to discuss leaving. Houston, however, wanted to be part of the U.S. and did not want Texas involved in another war.

7. Texas Secession Without Houston, the supporters of secession held the meeting anyway. They wrote the Ordinance of Secession, a document that said the U.S. government was interfering with Texan interests and that Texas was leaving. They also sent delegates to the new Confederate government to join the other Southern states that seceded. The states that seceded formed the Confederate States of America, a government that gave more power to the states and protected slavery in their Constitution. Jefferson Davis, from Mississippi, was elected President of the CSA. Sam Houston, who would not declare loyalty to the Confederacy, was removed from office as Governor of Texas in April of 1861.

8. The Home Front Once the war started, the Union (North) Navy blockaded Confederate ports and made getting supplies from Britain and France almost impossible. Most of the goods used in the South before the war were made in the North, so clothing, including uniforms, now had to be made by hand by Southern women. Along with making clothing, women had to do many of the jobs that the men had done now that they were off fighting the war.

9. The Home Front Along with clothing shortages, the blockade meant a shortage in paper, coffee, and tea. There was also a lack of enough medicine, especially because most of what medicines the South did have went to supplying the Confederate Army. Plantations had to stop planting cotton and switch to wheat and corn to try to feed both the soldiers fighting the war and the civilians back home. There was not enough and many people in the South were malnourished.

10. Conscription and Unionists To get enough soldiers for the Confederate Army, Jefferson Davis ordered all men from 18 to 35 to serve in the army. Around 70,000 Texans fought for the CSA, most as cavalry soldiers because Texans were used to working on horseback. Some Texans supported the USA instead, and about 2,000 Unionists from Texas fought for the Union army. Some Tejanos also fought for the Union because they were still upset at how Texans treated them. Some Unionists were arrested for not joining the Confederate Army and others were killed by vigilante groups.

11. Texans in the Civil War One of the most well known Texan units of the war was Hood’s Texas Brigade, an infantry unit that was with Robert E. Lee’s army in Northern Virginia for most of the war. It was commanded by John Bell Hood, the man Fort Hood is named after. They were regarded as one of the best infantry units in the Confederate Army. The unit did suffer very high casualties, starting the war with 3,500 soldiers and ending it with around 600 even with reinforcements during the war. Another famous Texas unit was Terry’s Texas Rangers, which was a cavalry unit. Each soldier provided his own firearms, a Bowie knife, saddle, bridle, and blanket. Horses were provided for the soldiers. The unit fought throughout the war in Tennessee and Georgia.

12. Battles in Texas The Union’s plan to win the war involved invading Virginia (to take the capital), capturing the Mississippi River (to split the rest of the South off from Louisiana and Texas), and blockading the Confederate coast (to cut off supplies by sea). Texans tried to defend the coast against Union Navy attack, but Galveston was still weakly defended. Union forces captured it in 1862 and losing Galveston made it even harder for Confederates in Texas to be supplied. John B Magruder, the commander of all Confederate forces in Texas, attacked the port on January 1, 1863 using steam ships that were armored using cotton bales to give their crews and the landing soldiers cover from Union bullets. The Confederate forces retook the city and Galveston was in Confederate hands for the rest of the war.

13. Battles in Texas In 1863, Union forces hoped to gain access to Texas by capturing Sabine Pass, where the Sabine River flows into the Gulf of Mexico. This would allow Union soldiers to attack the rest of Texas. Sabine Pass was defended by Fort Griffin, built by Confederate forces. The Union assault there, which began on September 8, 1863, included 4,000 soldiers and four gunboats. The soldiers were supposed to land there then capture Beaumont and Houston. During the assault, the Confederate guns at Fort Griffin opened fire on the Union gunboats. Several Union ships were damaged and the Confederates captured about 350 Union soldiers. The Northern force retreated.

14. The War in the rest of the Country April 12, 1861- Confederates fire on Fort Sumter, war starts July 21, 1861- First Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), first major battle and huge Confederate victory March 8, 1862- Confederate ironclad ship “Merrimac” sinks two Union wooden ships and fights Northern ironclad “Monitor” September 17, 1862- Battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam), deadliest day in entire US military history January 1, 1863- Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves in Confederate states July1-3, 1863- Battle of Gettysburg, Union victory April 9, 1865- General Robert E Lee surrenders his Army of Northern Virginia, essentially ending the war.

15. Battle of Palmito Ranch After Lee had surrendered, some Confederate units were determined to keep fighting. On May 13, 1865 Union and Confederate armies fought near Palmito Ranch in South Texas. Neither side could gain a victory until the Confederate cavalry arrived. Northern forces surrendered and then informed the Confederate Soldiers that the war had ended. A few days later, the Confederate Governor of Texas told the CSA forces to surrender.

16. Juneteenth With the technology of the day limiting the speed of communication, enslaved people in Texas did not find out about the Emancipation Proclamation until June 19 th, 1865. This day is now referred to as “Juneteenth” and is celebrated in Texas and throughout the rest of the South as a holiday marking the end of slavery in the United States.

17. Effects of the War on Texas Raising large armies and the end of the plantation system meant Texas was in severe debt and the economy had changed. Several thousand Texans died in the fighting, leaving families without fathers, husbands, and sons. Northern armies occupied Texas and the rest of the South to impose Reconstruction, the process of bringing the South back into the country. Many Texans resented this.

18. Freedom for All After the war, the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. This Amendment to the Constitution banned all slavery in the United States and therefore freed everyone who was a slave. The Fourteenth Amendment gave all former slaves American citizenship, and the Fifteenth Amendment gave all males, regardless of race, the right to vote.

19. Reaction to Reconstruction Texans and Southerners as a whole deeply resented Carpetbaggers (People from the North who came to profit off of Reconstruction) and Scalawags (Southerners who supported Reconstruction). Many Southerners also did not support freed slaves getting voting rights. The Ku Klux Klan, commonly called the KKK, formed in Tennessee in 1866 and spread to Texas in 1868. The Klan attacked Freedmen, workers of the Freedmen’s Bureau, Carpetbaggers, and Scalawags while wearing white hoods to conceal their identity. Most Klan violence in Texas happened in Northeast Texas, where people were beaten, shot, and murdered and homes, schools, and crops were burned.