The Hidden History of Texas

Welcome to a new series from the Hidden History of Texas. In this series I will be discussing the various Extreme Weather Events that have taken place in Texas History. This episode is an introductory one, in which I talk about Texas, what a hurricane is, and then I talk an in-depth look at what took place before, during, and after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane struck the Texas Coast. Texas is a land of extremes. From the dry deserts of the Trans-Pecos to the humid Gulf Coast, from the rolling Hill Country to the flat prairies, no state in America faces such a wide spectrum of natural fury. The very size and diversity of Texas mean that when disaster comes, it comes in many forms, hurricanes that drown entire cities, flash floods that sweep away homes in the night, tornadoes that reduce downtowns to rubble, droughts that starve farms for years, and even man-made catastrophes born of fire, gas, and explosives. In no other place is the saying “everything’s bigger in Texas” truer, or more tragic. Disasters here are not just local events. They ripple outward, changing laws, inspiring massive engineering feats, and reshaping the way communities think about safety, survival, and resilience. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the drought of the 1950s, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and the Kerrville floods of 2025—each stands not only as a story of loss, but also as a turning point in Texas history.

That's the question. Was Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, a great Texas leader or a terrible human being? And are the two ideas necessarily incompatible? Can a person be a terrible human being and still be considered a great leader? Who was Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar? He was the 2nd president of the Republic of Texas and served from 1838 until 1841. His tenure stands out, at least to me, for two totally contradictory issues. On one hand he absolutely despised the indigenous peoples of Texas and on the other he was a major support of funding public education. Well, public education for white children not all children, but I digress. Lamar was a product of his time. The story is in the podcast ---

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas I’m Hank Wilson, and I’m talking about the presidios (or forts) the Spanish established alongside the missions.  I’ll also talk about how the French became involved with Texas and their influence on the Spanish expansion of both missions and presidios. Before I go further, please if you don’t mind subscribing to the podcast, it’d be greatly appreciated. Once the Spanish decided to expand their territory northward from its base in central Mexico, they knew that in order to be successful, they needed to send more than just missionaries, and so they created the  missions.  They also understood that they needed to send soldiers to protect the missions and they needed civilians to build towns.  The combination of presidio, the mission, and the civil settlement became the major foundation the Spanish used for colonization. Martín Enríquez, who was the fourth viceroy of New Spain (1568–80), is generally given credit with being the first to build presidios in the Southwest. He ordered the construction along the main road from Mexico City northward to Zacatecas of casas fuertes (which is translated to "fortified houses"). Over time the name was changed to presidio (from Latin praesidium, "garrisoned place"). The pattern of the early presidios was learned from the Moors and by the early eighteenth century, when Spaniards settled Texas, the patterns had not changed much.

The Spanish Build Missions In this episode I want to talk about the missions that the Spanish established when they colonized Texas. I’ll talk about the reasons for the missions, how many were established, and some of the good and the bad that took place in and around the missions. Spanish explorers operated under the philosophy of the three G’s, God, Gold, and Glory, the Spanish missions in Texas are a direct result of that philosophy. How did that come about? When Spain began to colonize the Americas, it was a Roman Catholic nation. That meant that while there was a King and a Queen (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) , they in fact owed their power to Rome and the Catholic Church.  They had received Papal Dispensation for Marriage: Ferdinand and Isabella were second cousins, and under canon law, their marriage required a papal dispensation (special permission). They obtained this from Pope Sixtus IV. Once they were in power they established what we know as the Spanish Inquisition. It was founded in 1478 with the aim of suppressing heresy within Spain and its territories. While initially focusing on individuals suspected of practicing non-Catholic beliefs, the Inquisition later targeted forced converts from Judaism and Islam (conversos and Moriscos) who were suspected of secretly practicing their former faiths. They were granted this power to establish the Inquisition in Castile, when Pope Sixtus IV published a bull granting them the exclusive authority to name inquisitors, although the papacy retained the right to formally appoint the royal nominees. As defenders of the Catholic Church, they believed that whenever they encountered new peoples, and that goal was to convert the natives to Catholicism.  Missions played a major role in that effort. Once the Spanish had established settlements in Mexico they turned their vision north, in search of fabled cities of gold and between 1632 and 1793, in order to establish a foothold in their northern most territory, they sent expeditions which all had at least one Spanish friar as a member.  These teams traveled north from Mexico into present-day Texas, where they built dozens of missions and presidios.  A presidio is a military fort and usually was built in very near proximity or at the same location as the mission in order to provide security to the friars and those who lived and worked at the mission. In all, 26 missions were established and maintained in Texas with various results. According to the Spanish belief system at the time their goals were somewhat noble. Establish Christian enclaves with communal property, labor, worship, political life, and social relations all under the guidance and supervision of the missionaries.  The missionaries and Spanish authorities sought to make life within the mission communities resemble that of any Spanish villages and echo Spanish culture.  To do so, the priests not only taught the Indians religion but also life skills, they felt the native peoples lacked. They introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into the Texas area.  The introduced a very structured format for day-to-day living including a highly organized routine of prayer, work, training, meals, and relaxation. Now of course in order to round out the training the missionaries also made certain to celebrate religious holidays and they held other types of celebrations.  As I mentioned, the Spanish plan was for the natives to become productive Spanish citizens and to meet that goal they were taught several vocational skills, such as blacksmithing, masonry, carpentry, weaving, and more. Unfortunately the results didn’t meet the expectations, for several reasons.  The day-to-day life in the missions wasn’t anything the Native Peoples had ever experienced.  The priests supervised all activities in the mission; however, when we look at their methods from our current social beliefs,

The Hidden History of Texas Looking for Gold and Glory – Before I get too far into it today, how about subscribing to the podcast. Tell your friends that you’ve found the coolest place on the net to learn about Texas history. Well maybe not the coolest, but a pretty cool place, thanks I’d appreciate it. As I’ve discussed in the past, the Spanish presence in the Americas was pretty much an accident. Until Columbus bumped into the islands of Guanahani (Watling Island in the Bahamas) which Columbus named "San Salvador", Cuba, and Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). They had no idea anything or anyone was between them and Asia, remember they were looking for a shortcut route to India. Even then it wasn’t until 1519 when Alonso Álvarez de Pineda mapped the Gulf Coast for the first time that they began to realize they had stumbled upon something far different than what they originally thought. So, what intrigued the Spanish so much about this new continent they encountered? I’ve talked about how in 1528 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, explored the Gulf Coast and his exploration fell apart. He got shipwrecked and he and some of his crew wandered across present-day Texas and northern Mexico. During their journeys and capture they heard stories from the people about cities or places that were “wealthy”. Now we don’t know exactly what the indigenous people meant by wealth or how they described the various locations, but de Vaca’s later telling of those encounters sparked an interest in what the Spanish called or were labeled the "Seven Cities of Gold" or “the Seven Cities of Cibola” But why? Why would these stories matter to the Spanish? In the early 8th century Muslims had conquered what is now Spain and Portugal. The story goes that in 714 seven Catholic bishops and their faithful followers fled across the Atlantic to a land known as Antilia, the name of which, incidentally, was the source of the name Antilles, which was initially applied to the West Indian islands of the Caribbean. The story was that when they fled, they took with them vast amounts of wealth, especially in gold and silver and each of the bishops had established a city. The story, or fable, was that those 7 cities were to be found in this ‘new’ country. However, the Antillean islands failed to produce large quantities of gold and silver, but by 1539 the lands that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions reported on were thought to contain an El Dorado (or The Gold) known as Cíbola. In that year, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza dispatched Fray Marcos de Niza and the African Estevanico to search the area. This exploration cost the life of Estevanico at Háwikuh, the southernmost of the Zuñi pueblos in western New Mexico. On his return to New Spain (today’s Mexico), Fray Marcos reported that he had seen golden cities, the smallest of which was larger than Mexico City. Today we know that the good frier exaggerated what he saw, why I have no idea, but he definitely didn’t see any golden cities and certainly not one larger than Mexico City would have been at that time. In 1539, Mexico City, then known as Tenochtitlan, was a large and populous city. Estimates for its population ranged from 200,000 to 400,000, so as I said, the good frier was a, as we say, a teller of tall tales. However, in 1540 a follow-up expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado captured Háwikuh and learned the true nature of it as well as other nearby pueblos. In the following year, disappointed over the failure to find the Seven Cities of Cíbola Coronado launched a futile search for Quivira-(another legendary wealthy city) an undertaking that crossed the Panhandle. His toute took him from Arizona to New Mexico into Texas up to Oklahoma, and finally Kansas. It was there that he did find Quivira, it was situated in what is now central Kansas, now nobody is really certain of its exact location, and most think it was near present-day Lyons or Salina. What did he find?

Welcome to Episode 67 of the Hidden History of Texas – I’ve been discussing the 1st peoples of Texas, those who were here when the Spanish arrived and today, I’m going to discuss The Comanche, Kiowas, Tonkawas.Remember how I discussed some of the differences between the Hunter-gathers tribes (mostly nomadic lifestyle) and the farming tribes (mostly stationary lifestyle). I brought up some of the religious beliefs and how the majority of tribes embraced the idea of a supreme being or multiple gods, and they had creation stories. For agricultural tribes, various ceremonies accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game, which served as food for the tribe. One of the major tribes of hunter-gatherers was the Comanche. The Comanches started out in the Great Plains and began to migrate south due to pressure from other tribes such as the Blackfeet and Crow. It’s important to remember that throughout human history, groups of people have consistently been replace by other groups who were more powerful. Eventually the Comanche ended up in Texas, where there was abundant game, a warm climate, and an animal that would eventually become almost synonymous with them, the wild mustang.The Comanche inhabited most of the South Plains including much of North, Central, and West Texas, this part of Texas was known as Comanche country, or Comanchería. Once they arrived and settled on the Southern Plains the Utes called them Komántcia, which means "enemy," or, literally, "anyone who wants to fight me all the time." However, they called themselves Nermernuh, or "the People." We know of as many as 13 different Comanche groups and most likely there were others that were never identified. Several major bands played important roles in recorded Comanche and Texas history. The southernmost band was called Penateka, or "Honey Eaters" and their range extended from the Edwards Plateau to the headwaters of the Central Texas Rivers. A band named Nokomi or “Those who Turn Back” lived in an area north of the Penateka, they roamed from the Cross Timbers region of North Texas to the mountains of New Mexico. Their range was shared by two smaller bands, the Tanima ("Liver-Eaters") and the Tenawa ("Those Who Stay Downstream") and are often referred to as the Middle Comanches. The Quahadis ("Antelopes"), roamed the high plains of the Llano Estacado. One interesting fact about the Llano Estacado is that the Southern end of the plateau lacks a distinct physical boundary; it blends into the Edwards Plateau, (in Central Texas, where this program is recorded) and the Johnson Creek branch of the Colorado River, east of Big Spring, which is most likely its boundary. The Llano Estacado comprises all or part of thirty-three Texas and four New Mexico counties and covers approximately 32,000 square miles, a larger area than all of New England. It is part of what was known to early explorers and settlers as the Great American Desert, a semiarid region with average annual precipitation of eighteen to twenty inches. The Comanche weren’t the only tribe that lived in that area, the Kiowa also shared territory that was mostly in the Panhandle and Oklahoma. The Kiowas originally came from the Montana area around the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. As they migrated southward, they quickly learned to adapt to the South Plains by acquiring and using horses, especially in their hunting of buffalo. They gained their horses from the Spanish who also supplied them with slaves and guns and over time they became almost a completely nomadic group, and eventually they became one of the most feared and disliked of the Plains tribes. They entered into peaceful co-existence with the Comanche and with help from the Wichitas and Taovaya received guns and ammunition from the French and British. The Kiowa camps were designed to be broken down and moved quickly, often within 30 minutes.

This is a more in-depth look at the First Peoples of Texas. Why” because there were people here long before the Spanish and any other Europeans set foot on the land, First, allow me to try and clear up some terminology especially one word and that word is “Indians”.  The people Columbus encountered when he first reached the shores of the continent where misnamed, because Columbus thought he had reached India and as we know, he was wrong.  That’s all I’m going to say about the subject. The inhabitants themselves did not refer to themselves in any specific way, other than often using the term “the people”, they did refer to other tribes with names. For example, the early Spanish encountered a group of nomadic buffalo hunters, they called Querechos.  That group was later named Apache, which came from the Zuni word for enemy “apachu” which is what they were called by the Navajo.  While some tribes were “farmers” the Apaches were hunter-gatherers and didn’t do a lot of agriculture.  When we speak of the tribes, it is important that we remember that those tribes that were hunter-gatherers had a certain lifestyle dictated by necessity as did those who were farmers.  There is no one broad brush we can paint all tribes with; however, there are certain characteristics that many tribes have in common with one another. One area that was of particular importance to all tribes was in the area of religion or spirituality. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the tribes that lived in the area that is now Texas maintained a variety of religious practices.  The majority of them embraced the idea of some type of supreme being and they all had creation stories.  They were usually not monotheistic; many held a belief in a variety of powers often organized in a form of hierarchy. For agricultural tribes, there were various ceremonies that accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game which served as food for the tribe. Most tribes saw the universe in three levels.  The upper level was one of predictability, lower level of chaos, and the level where humans lived which was a mixture of both of the other levels.  The world was divided into 6 regions, north, south, east, west, up, and down and the year had a cold period and a hot period. All believe there is a spirit in everything, including animals such as buffalo, wolves, bears, etc. Spiritual leader shaman,AKA medicine man while all shamans were medicine men, not all medicine men were shamans. Shamans in addition to using plants and instructions from spiritual helpers, they also went into trances to visit land of the dead, where they gathered information on the sickness. What were some of the Hunter-Gatherer Tribes and where did they live? Comanches – North Central / Northwest Texas Kiowas – Panhandle – shared territory with Comanche Held a summer Sun Dance – to insure regeneration of the Buffalo Tonkawas - Gulf Coast (Houston area) Venerated the Great Wolf Karankawas – Gulf Coast (shared territory with Tonkawas – inner gulf coast) Apache – (Lipan) South and Southwest Texas – (Mescalero) West Texas – El Paso Coahuiltecans (KOE-ha-HWEE-ta-kanz) Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico Farmers Farming groups tended to revere the earth, corn, rain, sun, and developed their beliefs based on fertility, and crop cycles. Spiritual leader priest – The medicine man or woman, acted like Shamans even going into trances for healing help.  Priests, who most often were men, were religious specialists, had a long period of training valued not for healing abilities but because they knew the rituals and ceremonies to ensure bountiful harvests and healthy people. They also had witches who were evil.  Could change their appearance, become animals, or even sparks of a fire. They stole people’s lives and souls.

Previously I talked about the world in the 14 and1500s and how the early Spanish explorers while looking for a path to India bumped into Texas, and a little bit about the Native peoples they encountered.  Today, I will further explore some of the trials and Tribulations of The Early Spanish Explorers of Texas.  I’ll also touch on the geography of Texas because that plays a major role in how Texas was explored, and it affected the lives of those who lived here.  There is an old Texas saying, “the sun has rose, the sun has set, and I ain’t out of Texas yet”  Texas is huge, if you are going to drive from Louisiana through Texas to New Mexico, you will travel at least 982 miles (or 1,580 km for our non-American listeners).  When you look at a map of Texas, you can see it does take up a whole bunch of the middle of the country; in fact, it takes up over 250 thousand square miles, and that’s a lot of real estate.  Texas has four distinct physical or geographical regions and, in my opinion, those regions played an important role in the exploration and early settlements in Texas.  How the early Spanish explorers dealt with the physical conditions and the people who were native to the various regions often decided if they lived or died.  The four regions are the Gulf Coastal Plains, the North Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Basin and Range Province. Not a complete trancript

(Partial Transcript) Episode 64 -Texas isn’t Texas, Mexico isn’t Mexico and Europeans go exploring and bump into a continent and are surprised to find people already there. When Europeans first encountered Texas, the world was a very different place. Well, maybe not too different because countries were fighting over land, gold, religion, natural resources, and political power much like we do today.  However, it was still different; there were no cars, planes, trains, buses, electricity, fast food joints, and certainly no TV, Radio, and Internet. Moreover, without modern technology, it took a whole lot more courage to go exploring than it does today. In the late 1400s, around 1488 Portugal became the first country whose sailors were brave enough to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean. Actually they weren’t, the Vikings were. Vikings sailed the  Northern Atlantic around 1100 AD; but for the sake of this story, we’ll give the Portuguese some credit. The Portuguese exploration was primarily along the coast of Africa.  Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern tip of Africa and made it to Asia.  OK, remember that most of the history you learned in school was originally written by Europeans and then turned into something that Americans could relate to so it is all very Americanized. It turns out that the Chinese admiral Zheng He, sailed all around Africa and Asia around 1404. Still though Dias’ trip was important because otherwise, to travel to Asia for trading purposes to pick up all the goods that society wanted required a lengthy overland trip.   His success lead mariners from other nations to wonder if there might be a shorter way to Asia that did not encroach on Portuguese routes.  Even though people wondered about a shorter route, there were few nations with the capability to send ships out into the Atlantic to find an answer.  Things changed when Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon succeeded in driving out the Muslims who had ruled Southern Spain for over 300 years and united the country under a Catholic flag.  The conquest was complete by 1492 and it was at that time, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs that by finding a Western route to India, Spain would have increased military, economic, and just as important, religious power.  As many remember from American history classes in grade school children are taught that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. In truth, while he was one of the first Europeans (right now I won’t talk about the Vikings who landed on the Coast of Canada 300 years earlier) to reach what, in his time, was the “New World”.  The islands he encountered are the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492 and in 1493; he landed in our current Puerto Rico.  All islands inhabited by people as they had been for thousands of years.  Columbus claimed all the land he encountered for Spain, and three years later in 1496, the Spanish put their first settlement in Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic.  From those early arrival points and settlements, the Spanish began to explore the region, usually going up and down the coast and mapping the shorelines, still looking for a short cut to India.  By 1501, Spanish sailors had explored all the way, up to what is now Newfoundland and Labrador in present day Canada.  To reach North America from the islands, it was inevitable that the ships would bump into Florida, and they did. However, they thought that Florida was just another island.  In 1519, the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, sent out an expedition to explore what was considered an unknown country between the Río Pánuco of Mexico (which empties near current day Tampico, Mexico) and the "island" of Florida.  Lt. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda set out with four ships and 270 men to explore, and he sailed into the current Gulf of Mexico. Upon reaching the west coast of Florida and sailing nort...

This is Episode 63 – They were known as the “black Codes” . Remember now in the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but the issues that had caused the war in the first place were still around. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and Black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. If we’re being honest if you look around today, you’d swear there are people who want to take us back to those days, people who are still threatened by any and all minorities. Why do I say that, well, it’s because of two things that took place in America after the civil war and actually weren’t undone until the mid-1960s. And even though laws have been passed, the prejudice that existed before the mid-60s still exists today, because today’s boomers were raised and lived under what was known as Black codes and many of them passed their old prejudices down to their children. So, what were Black Codes?  After the war, white southern leaders were in no mood to give their newly freed slaves any rights. Now they couldn’t just re-enslave them, so they did what legislators do, they passed laws that severely restricted the rights of their black citizens. For example, here in Texas the Eleventh Legislature produced a series of laws in 1866 whose sole purpose was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in the south and to regulate black labor. In Texas, the codes clearly reflected the unwillingness of White Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. To ensure this happened, the codes were written so that the state was able to continue legal discrimination between whites and blacks. One measure they took, was to amend the 1856 penal code in which they emphasized a definite line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law. The basic cornerstone of the codes was an "Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free Persons of Color" passed in 1866. Which some did declare that it was a ‘civil rights’ law, and while this law did give blacks, some basic property rights; for instance, they could make and enforce contracts; sue and be sued; make wills; and lease, hold, or dispose of real and personal property. The state further guaranteed blacks the rights of personal security and liberty and prohibited discrimination against them in criminal law. Some people then, and even some politicians today claim that what they passed was a civil rights bill, but was it? Actually, no it wasn’t. Why? It specifically left in effect a multitude of legal restrictions that had been passed in earlier bills. For example, blacks were not allowed to vote or hold office, they could not serve on juries. Now they could testify in court, but only if the case involved another black person. Interracial marriage was specifically outlawed. In case, these restrictions weren’t enough to ‘as the saying went’ keep them in their place, other restrictions were added through different laws. Railroads were required to keep blacks separate from whites and that gave an opportunity to create segregated facilities in almost all public buildings. What about education, after all it is the cornerstone for a strong society. Texas created an education law that specifically excluded blacks from sharing in the public-school fund. Well,

The Hidden History of Texas. Episode 62 – The civil war has ended part 1. We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes there isn’t an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South.  Today I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it’s not a pretty picture. The Civil War is generally thought to have ended on April 9th, 1865, when General Lee surrendered the army of Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. However, it was not officially ended until over a year later when President Johnson on August 20th, 1866, declared "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."  President Johnson’s belief that since the war was over then “peace, order, and tranquility” would be seen throughout the United States was soon to be dashed. In the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but also by the issues that had caused the war in the first place. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. The period of Reconstruction provided a massive challenge to the old establishment. Texans always took pride in their independence so when in 1865 the U.S. Army moved into the state, tensions arose. The Army felt it was their duty to ensure that the State government stayed loyal to the Federal government. Additionally, they were there to protect the rights of the recently freed slaves. Gen. George A. Custer, (later to die at the battle of the Little Big Horn) was stationed at Austin, declared that the army should have complete control of the state until such times, as the Federal Government was "satisfied that a loyal sentiment prevails in at least a majority of the inhabitants." This was of course unacceptable to the locals and continued insistence upon loyalty was a threat and promised an indefinite loss of power among antebellum and wartime political leaders. To make matter worse, in September of 1865 the federal government created the Freedman Bureau. The bureau was led by Maj. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory. The bureau’s primary responsibility was to take control and make certain that freedmen (that is former slaves) were able to transition from slavery to freedom. While this was a laudable goal Gregory, and his successors failed miserably in implementation. They believed that they had to make certain that former slaves were able to work were-ever they desired. Since the same people who had owned the slaves still owned the plantations, which were almost the only place work was available, that meant that many Blacks had to work in places they had once been slaves. Due to black codes, they were unable to own land, and were forced to sign contracts that paid low wages or gave them shares in the harvest. Even though many of the while planters complained about how hard their new employees worked most of them were privately happy with the new system, since it lowered their cost even below what owning slaves cost. This also insured that their “tenants” remained in dept to them, much like peons or serfs. The bureau also attempted to provide educational opportunities ...

This is Episode 61 – Battle of Galveston, the battle of the Sabine Pass, and the battle of Palmito Ranch - I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes there isn’t an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, which I talked about last episode, and today I want to look at the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865.---- Next time I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it’s not a pretty picture. If you get a chance, please subscribe to the podcast. If you want more information on Texas History, visit the website of the Texas State Historical Association. I also have four audiobooks on the Hidden History of Texas, The Spanish Bump Into Texas 1530s to 1820s,  Here Come The Anglos 1820s to 1830s, Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. You can find the books pretty much wherever you download or listen to audiobooks. Just do a search for the Hidden History of Texas by Hank Wilson and they’ll pop right up. Or visit my website https://arctx.org. By the way if you like audiobooks, visit my publisher’s website there’s an incredible selection of audiobooks there. In addition to mine you’ll find the classics, horror, science fiction, mental-health, and much more. Check it out visit https://ashbynavis.com Thanks for listening y’all

Episode 60 – –The Civil War and Texas – The Battle of Glorieta I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson and as always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. We are smack dab in the middle of telling about the history of Texas during the Civil war. There’s no exact count of how many battles and skirmishes that were fought in Texas. In fact, most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South. There were however four notable battles that did take place in Texas, well the first actually was in New Mexico, but it started in Texas. They are on March 28, 1862, Battle of Glorieta, the Battle of Galveston October 4, 1862. the battle of Sabine Pass, on September 8, 1863, The Battle of Palmito Ranch, was the last battle of the civil war on May 13, 1865. What I want to talk about today is one of what many historians consider to be a key (while not necessarily a major battle) is known as the Battle of Glorieta, which occurred on March 28th, 1862. Now it actually took place, not in Texas, but in New Mexico at Glorieta Pass which is in Far West New Mexico. The Confederate force, named Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Army of New Mexico, actually consisted primarily of men from Texas. The “army” invaded New Mexico, which was Union Territory and captured Fort Fillmore which was located close to the  settlement of Mesilla. The “army” then won another skirmish at Valverde in February of 1862. After that they moved northwest, moving along the banks of the Rio Grande, and by early March they occupied Albuquerque and Santa Fe. After their successful mini invasion, they stopped to gather supplies and rest while they planned their attack on Fort Union which was the Federal Supply Center. It was about 100 miles northwest of Santa Fe and was a major stop for travelers who were on their way to the gold fields in Colorado. Meanwhile, Colorado attorney Colonel John Slough put together a group of volunteers from the gold fields and joined together with detachments of cavalry and infantry from Fort Union to create a force of about 1,300 men. Then on March 22nd, Slough led the group on a march to engage the Texans near Santa Fe. Simultaneously, Sibley moved his main column of men towards Fort Union. Meanwhile, a confederate force of men led by Major Charles Pyron who stayed in Santa Fe, decided to move towards the east along the Santa Fe trail.in an attempt to find and engage with the union forces. He led his troops from Cañoncito in the early morning hours of the 26th of March and almost immediately ran into Slough's advance guard. Slough guard had just about 420 men and was led by Maj. John M. Chivington.  The two forces see each other, the Texans decide to form a traditional straight ahead battle line that blocked passage. The Union forces simply outflanked them by climbing up the hills that bordered the trail. Seeing they were about to lose, the confederate forces retreated back towards a small valley that is known as Apache Canyon. This valley had multiple fields that had been cultivated for farming and it was there they decided to setup another similar battle line, much like the one they had abandoned. Once again Chivington simply ran a flanking action and  this time, since it was more open, he also had his cavalry charge the Texans. As a result, at least 70 Confederates were captured, it is estimated that 4 others were killed, and about 20 were wounded. After this setback, Pyron retreated back to his main camp at Cañoncito from where he dispatched a messenger asking the main Texan force to send him reinforcements. Meanwhile Major Chivington, who also suffered some casualties, 5 men killed and 14 wounded, decided to return to the main Union camp which was 12 miles away at a station known as Koslowski's Ranch. A couple of days later,

Episode 59 –Tejanos during the civil war The Rio Grande, since it was the border between Texas and Mexico was important to both the Confederacy and the Union. The Confederacy wanted to use it to bring in supplies and the Union wanted to keep it bottled up. Regardless of their reasonings, both the North and the Sount did their best to recruit and draft Mexican Texans. The confederates set up camps in Laredo, Brownsville, Victoria, and Corpus Christi and trained approximately 2,550 Mexican Americans from Texas. They primarily served inside the state with the regular confederate army or with various companies of the state militia. José Agustín Quintero, who was actually a Cuban American and hailed from New Orleans, joined the Quitman Guards of Texas. That group saw action in Virginia and Quintero was later appointed by President Jefferson Davis to serve as the confidential agent (a sort of ambassador) of the Confederate government in Mexico. While the majority of those who joined were either in their teens or early twenties, there were some who were in their sixties. The majority did join the confederate army, still an estimated 960 joined the Union army. In many cases, their reasons for joining came about partly because they or their family members remember how they had been treated during some of the events of the Texas Revolution and in particular how Mexican were treated after the revolution. (Check out my books Years of Revolution 1830 to 1836. And A Failing Republic Becomes a State 1836-1850. For more about those time periods and what took place.)     One such union group was the Second Texas Cavalry (U.S.), which was comprised largely of Texas Mexicans and Mexican nationals; not sure why, but this unit suffered a high desertion rate.    Much like people everywhere Mexican Americans of Texas (Tejanos) were divided over the whole issue of secession. Before the war even started there were accusations of subversion and disloyalty being thrown about, which made many reluctant to even become involved. Part of the reasons that almost everyone who signed up to serve in a militia unit, especially from South Texas or from the frontier,  was a healthy fear of being sent to serve in the deep south and thus away from their families. Several people avoided conscription simply by claiming that they were actually residents and citizens of Mexico. There were at least 2,500 Mexican Texans who actually signed p to serve in the Confederate Army. Santos Benavides was perhaps the most famous of them, and he was eventually put in charge of the 33rd Texas Cavalry with the rank of colonel. The 33rd Texas Cavalry was never defeated in battle even though they did not have the best equipment or supplies. In fact, Colonel Benavides, and his Refugio and Cristóbal, put together what can only be thought of as an incredible record in defending the border. In May of 1861, they became folk heroes to southern sympathizers, after they defeated a band of anti-Confederates who were led by Juan N. Cortina at Carrizo (Zapata) . They also led incursions into northern Mexico seeking revenge for Unionist-inspired guerilla raids into Texas. In March of 1865, they also succeeded in repulsing a small group of Union solders that attacked Laredo. A few of the Tejano’s who joined Hood's Texas Brigade actually were sent into Virginia where they fought in the battles of Gaines' Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Some Thirty Tejanos from San Antonio, Eagle Pass, and the Fort Clark area signed up and joined Trevanion T. Teel's artillery company, and thirty-one more joined Charles L. Pyron's company, and ended up marching across West Texas to help in the fight to secure the Mesilla valley. Some Tejanos from San Antonio served in the Sixth Texas Infantry and fought in several of the eastern campaigns, including the battles of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta,

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 58 – Texans Join The Confederate Army I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson, As always, the broadcast is brought to you by Ashby Navis and Tennyson Media Publishers, Visit AshbyNavis.com for more information. Remember how, I talked about how prior to the actual vote for secession Texas created what was called the Committee of Public Safety? Well, in 1861 from late February through March, they authorized the recruitment of volunteer troops, to go fight for the confederacy. This was in addition to all the troops that had been recruited by Ben McCulloch, and the regiments of cavalry that were signed up by Ben’s younger brother, Henry E. McCulloch, and longtime ranger captain and explorer John S. Ford. Once the war really began with the confederates firing on Fort Sumter in April of 1861 Confederate president Jefferson Davis put out a call for volunteers. This spurred Texas authorities to begin to raise more  troops for the confederacy. Then Governor Clark initially officially divided the state into six military districts which was later raised to eleven. This was designed to help encourage recruiting efforts and also to organize all the troops requested by Confederate authorities. As 1861 drew to a close there were just about 25,000 Texans in the Confederate army. Of those, almost two-thirds of the ones who signed up served in the cavalry, which made sense due to how many Texans rode horses. In fact, it is noted that Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle of the British Coldstream Guards, who visited Texas during the war, observed this, he said, "…it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it." Governor Clark even noted "the predilection of Texans for cavalry service, founded as it is upon their peerless horsemanship, is so powerful that they are unwilling in many instances to engage in service of any other description unless required by actual necessity." That love of horses is still evident today, and many Texans will either ride a horse or drive a truck rather than walk. As the war expanded, Francis R. Lubbock, who became governor by defeating Clark by a narrow margin, worked closely with Confederate authorities to meet manpower needs. As it often is during any conflict, recruitment became more difficult as some of the early enthusiasm began to fade. Most historians agree that the primary driving force behind the secession movement and the desire for war was the upper economic echelon of the old south. Those were the plantation and slave owners and not the regular people, much like today, it was the rich and powerful who wanted to have their way. One of the results of this was, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, there wasn’t much enthusiasm for signing up and thus in April 1862 the Confederate Congress passed a general conscription. The conscription act declared that every white male who was between the age of 18 and 35 had an obligation to serve in the military. There was still a shortage of bodies and so in September they raised the upper age limit to 45. Then again in February of 1864, they had to expand the age limits to 17 and 50. There were few exemptions, but one of the most contentious was that if a man was conscripted then he could hire someone to serve in his place. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 90,000 Texans served in the military and they were involved in every major skirmish except for First Manassas and Chancellorsville.  At least 37 Texans also served as officers, In November of 1863, then Governor Lubbock reported to the legislature that 90,000 Texans were in the Army. However, many historians doubt the accuracy of that number and deem it to be high. In fact, the 1860 federal census only listed 92,145 White males between the ages of 18 and 45 as state residents. Even if an allowance is made for a population increase during the war years, there may have been somewhere between 100,

Welcome to Episode 57 – The Civil War starts and Texans Start Killing Each Other In the previous episode I talked about the path to secession. How Texas called a convention to consider the issue and how, even though some resisted the whole idea, it still went through. In fact, President Lincoln did tell then Governor Sam Houston that if he wanted to resist the convention, then Lincoln would be willing to send in Federal troops. However, Houston rejected that idea because he did not want to turn what was already a tense situation into an outright violent conflict among Texas citizens. Remember that during  the convention, the Civil War Committees of Public Safety was formed. Even though secession had not formerly been approved by the rest of the citizens, the committee  started to negotiate with Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs, who was the commander of United States troops stationed in Texas. Twiggs, originally from Georgia was in poor health and at the end of his career. On the morning of February 16, Benjamin McCulloch, a veteran Texas Ranger and Mexican War hero, led a force of about 500 volunteers into San Antonio. Once there, they surrounded the garrison at their headquarters and demanded Twiggs surrender. Twiggs did not put up any resistance and readily agreed to the  surrender of all federal property in Texas. He also agreed to evacuate all 2,700 Union troops that were stationed in the various frontier forts. This resulted in Camp Charlotte, Camp Colorado, Camp Cooper, Camp Davis, Camp Del Rio, Camp Montel, Camp San Saba, and Camp Verde all becoming forts for Texas Confederates. It's important to remember that even though a significant majority of Texans approved of the efforts of Texas politicians to support and join the Confederacy there were Texans who were loyal to the Union. After all, more than 14,000 Texans voted against secession. Who were those opposed? Members of various political parties including the Whigs, Know-Nothings, Democrats, and others all maintained some degree of support for the Union. Texas had also seen a very steady stream of German immigrants and from those who originated in the northern (or free) states. These were people who were inclined to support the union. In fact, as 1860 came to a close German immigrants who lived in the Fredericksburg and New Braunfels areas formed the Union Loyalty League. To become a member a person had to swear loyalty to the United States, of course, over the next several years members of the league faced violent reprisals from Confederate sympathizers. In 1862 then Governor Lubbock declared martial law for several counties in the Hill Country (which is where this program originates from and where my ancestors settled) and the confederate legislature passed the Confederate Conscription Act that specifically targeted German Unionists. These actions had the effect of increasing desertions and draft dodging as people did their best to get out of the confederate army. While some German immigrants from the Austin County region did join up and helped to form three companies of Waul’s Texas Legion, once they were captured at the battle of Vicksburg, they  quickly took the oath of allegiance to the United States. However, certain of the early Texas Union supporters such as James W. Throckmorton (I spoke about him in the previous episode), and Ben H. Epperson, who was once one of the leaders of those in East Texas who opposed secession, did in fact accept and endorse the Confederacy after Fort Sumter.  Others, such as David G. Burnet, E. M. Pease, and Sam Houston, rather than stay in the public eye, withdrew from public life and did their best to avoid controversy. Some of those opposed to secession either left the state or tried to leave. There were some, such as S. M. Swenson, the man who led or started the immigration of Swedes to Texas and William Marsh Rice, who came to Texas from Massachusetts and who made a fortune in the mercantile busi...

Episode 56 - Texas Votes and it’s War Remember from the last episode that those who wanted to leave the union forced the state to call a special convention. In that election the separatists pushed through their agenda and quite frankly ignored any semblance of legitimacy. The procedures they followed were not even remotely close to having any type of standards.  Many delegates were elected by a simple voice vote at a public meeting, and since there was so much fervor for secession, those who supported the union often didn’t even attend. The delegates they selected were much like the folks around them. They averaged 40 years old, and virtually every one  of them had originated from one of the states in the south where slavery was accepted. Some of them had more money than most Texans, but you can’t say the extremely wealthy dominated things. However, about 40 percent of them were lawyers and about 70 percent of them were slaveholders. The convention opened on Monday afternoon, January 28, and the presiding officer offered these words, "All political power is inherent in the people. That power, I assert, you now represent." The next day, January 29 John A. Wharton made a motion "that without determining now the manner in which this result should be effected, it is the deliberate sense of this Convention that the State of Texas should separately secede." His motion was seconded by George M. Flournoy, and needless to say it passed 152 to 6. Over the next 2 days, the delegates wrote out the formal ordinance of secession, which called for a popular vote. This was different from the lower southern  states, who simply passed a resolution and declared they had seceded. Of course, there was opposition to having a popular vote, but that motion was easily defeated, 145 to 29. Since Texans had held a referendum before they joined the union, most of the delegates insisted that the same procedure should be followed if they were to leave the union. Because he knew the significance of what was taking place Governor Houston and other members of the legislature asked for a referendum. They believed that a popular vote would end all doubt and questions over the legality of secession. The final vote was taken in the morning of February 1st. It was a roll-call vote taken in alphabetical order. The final vote was 166 for secession and 8 against. One of the first steps the convention took after the vote was to form the Civil War Committees of Public Safety. They also sent delegates to Montgomery, Alabama, who took part in officially establishing the Confederate States of America. On February 4th, they adjourned. Before the popular vote took place, the Committee on Public Safety, using power it had been given by the convention authorized the seizure of all federal property in Texas. This included the arsenal at San Antonio, which would later become the headquarters for the H.E.B. grocery chain and that sits on the bank of the San Antonio River. This order resulted in the evacuation of almost 3,000 federal troops from Texas. These actions essentially made the secession referendum itself an afterthought. However, there were some people and counties in the state that did not consider the referendum to be insignificant. Those opposed to secession were primarily situated along the northern border of the state and in the counties that surrounded Austin. Some leaders such as Throckmorton and Benjamin H. Epperson in North Texas and Elisha M. Pease, Svante Palm, and George Paschal of Austin led the local fights against secession. Sam Houston continued to question whether it was necessity or wise to leave the Union. Federal United States representative Andrew J. Hamilton, who was also a resident of Austin, campaigned against secession. What were some of the common features of those opposed to secession? The areas it was most prominent in were culturally, geographically, and economically unlike the lower South.

In any discussion of Texas history, we have to understand how and why Texas Argued for Secession. So, it’s about time to talk about the one subject that is almost guaranteed to make someone, somewhere angry. Somone will absolutely tell me I’m wrong, or that I’m some kind of fanatic. What is the subject? Today the subject is what were the reasons Texas joined the Southern states to secede from the Union In 1861 the southern cotton-growing and slaveholding states decided to leave the union and to form the Confederate States of America. Texas was the seventh state to secede and the last to officially leave before the rebels opened fire on Fort Sumter.   Let me start with reading from the official “DECLARATION OF CAUSES” put forth by the Texas state government on February 2, 1861 "A declaration of the causes which impel the State of Texas to secede from the Federal Union. In view of these and many other facts, it is meet that our own views should be distinctly proclaimed.” We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States.” Those are the official words put forth, but what caused them to put slavery ahead of their previous oath to the union?  When Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the slaveholding states, feared that the executive branch would threaten their rights to own slaves. As an ancillary thought, they also did believe that if the federal government would outlaw slavery that meant they might also infringe on other rights. Some Texans were slow to accept secession, however, or never accepted it. They did not simply react to the election of Lincoln and emulate South Carolina. Indeed, the timing of the secession of Texas and the motivation behind it are of continued interest because they open up a series of questions about the nature of the Texas economy, the population, political parties, local needs, the role of such Unionists as Sam Houston, and the effects of public pressure to conform. Regardless, a common thread running through all of these questions is the role of slavery. As I have mentioned in previous episodes, in the 1850s, there were many Texans who were absolutely convinced that the institution of slavery was not only important, but it was also vital to keep the Texas economy going. It had become such an important part of the Texas economy that in the 15 years after Texas became a state, by 1860 approximately 30 percent of the total population were slaves. However, slaves were not dispersed equally throughout the state. In fact, the vast majority of them were concentrated in and along the rivers in East Texas and along the Gulf Coast near Houston and Galveston. The primary reason for this was something we mentioned in an earlier episode, they had easier access to markets. That concentration of slaves in a narrow geographic region, while economically powerful, meant that other parts of Texas had economies that depended upon livestock,

This is Episode 54 - Antebellum Texas - Ready to Secede. – the state and stage is set for secession.  We are getting closer to Civil War. In the previous episode I discussed how important slaves and slavery was to the economic engine of Texas during the antebellum period. However, it is interesting to note that the majority of Texans did not own slaves and had no participation in the cotton or cash-crop industries. It’s estimated that about only one in four families actually had even a single slave and most had fewer than five. The planters who owned more than ten slaves actually held over half of all those people that were held in bondage in the state.  A percentage of these people also made large profits from their investments in land, labor, and cotton and they played a major role in driving the Texas economy.             Antebellum Texas gave birth to what would become agricultural Texas.  Agriculture began to develop quickly and steadily with an ever-increasing number of farms being established. Those farmers worked hard to expand  the land that was tillable, which in turn helped to increase the value of their livestock and the total yield of their crops. Of course, slave labor was an important asset and contributor to that economic growth. Unfortunately, during this same time period, industry, finance, and urban growth stagnated. During the decade of the 1850s approximately 1 percent of the heads of households in Texas worked in manufacturing. In 1860, Texas industries produced a meager 6.5 million dollars’ worth of goods, as opposed to the northern state of Wisconsin which produced close to 28 million dollars’ worth of manufactured goods. Due to the Texas constitutional prohibition on banking, the finance or commerce industry also lagged behind other states and less than 5 percent of the citizens worked in it. Due to the limitations on industry and commerce, the urban areas of Texas were sparsely populated and in 1860 only San Antonio, Galveston, Houston, and Austin could actually be considered cities. Their combined populations of about 23,000 was less than Milwaukee’s. When we look at antebellum Texas and wonder why there was a failure to create a more diversified economy we find several valid reasons. Geography is one, Texas has a great climate and in both Central and East Texas the soil is very suitable for crop production. The continued reliance on slaves also served to slow down the growth of any type of manufacturing, since plantation production was much more profitable due to lower labor costs. With the plantations being profitable there was no real incentive to expand outside of agriculture. Because the plantation owners were some of the richest most powerful people in Texas, they would have had to lead Texas in any move to diversify the economy. They could see no possible return on their investment that would make them more money than their current system, so they made no effort to change. The one part of the Texas experience the plantation owners did have a vested interest in seeing improved was transportation. The early settlers of Texas had always used the rivers as their primary transportation routes. While the rivers could be an excellent way to travel during most of the year, heavy rains, or the opposite drought and low levels which helped to expose sand bars, made the rivers very unreliable. The roads, which were nothing but dirt trails turned into massive mud pits during the rainy season, (even now they still become  that way in some parts of Texas)  and so wagon transportation was slow and cumbersome.  In fact, I was often told of how my great-grandfather William Ollie Wilson who was born in 1860 and drove a freight wagon in the 1880s, would normally make the trip from Johnson City Texas to Marble Falls Texas in about 3 days, yet in the rainy season it could easily take him more than a week to cover the same 23 miles. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).