Southern hospitality went out the window when Sam Houston came to town in late 1860.

Houston, one of the more colorful and controversial figures in Texas history, won a hard-fought battle to be governor in 1859.

Sam Houston stumped across Texas after the Abraham Lincoln’s election, trying to persuade fellow Lone Star Staters to stay in the Union.
Library of Congress photo

Despite being a slave-holder, he’d adamantly opposed the extension of slavery into new territories when he was a U.S. senator. And on the cusp of succession, he’d railed against Texas leaving the Union it had joined in 1845.

Arguing that joining the Confederacy would result “in a sea of blood and smoking ruin,” Houston stumped across the state in his last-ditch effort to implore his fellow Texans not to reject the United States of America.

Contemporary accounts of his New Year’s Day 1861 speech in Waco noted many local listeners heckled him, shook their fists in the air angrily and chased him from the town square.

Run out of town

When he took refuge in Captain Shapley Ross’ hotel on Bridge Street, a mob blocked the door, and someone even lit a keg of gunpowder by the building in an assassination attempt, knocking down part of the structure.

Houston left Waco in a hurry — and was ejected from state office later that spring because he refused to take an oath of loyalty to the South.

Retired from public life to his estate in Huntsville, he died in 1863, never knowing that his beloved Texas would be part of the United States once more.

Holly Browning, curator of the exhibit “Time of Turmoil: Texas and the Civil War,” on display through November at Fort House Museum, said although Houston may have been the state’s most prominent Union backer, he was hardly its last.

An estimated 2,000 Texans served in the Union army. Many of these “Unionists” were European immigrants who found slavery morally reprehensible, or Tejanos (Mexican-Americans) some of whom donned the uniform of federal blue for the bounty money offered upon enlistment, according to several historians of the conflict.

Eventually, an estimated 90,000 Texans, more than 10 percent of the state’s population at the time, took up arms for the South, supplying the manpower for about 45 regiments of cavalry, 23 regiments of infantry, five regiments of heavy artillery and 30 batteries of light artillery.

Two youths aspiring to the colors posed for Waco’s Civil War-era photographers.
Texas Photography Collection at Southern Methodist University

Civil War displays

Browning said during the Civil War sesquicentennial observances in Waco, supplemental displays will be set up at the other Historic Waco Foundation house museums for visitors to view:

*  Earle-Napier-Kinnard House Museum will host “Texas Industry During the Civil War,” and “Chaplains in Service.” The 1864 Bible of D.C. Kinnard, a Confederate chaplain from Waco, will be included in the display.

*  East Terrace House Museum will host “Ross’ Brigade,” a mini-exhibit on “Sul” Ross and John Mann’s service to the regiment as blacksmith.

*  McCulloch House Museum will host a collection of artwork about the Civil War, such as photographs of soldiers and mourning jewelry, as well as three quilts made during the Civil War. 

Visiting hours are Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m. Browning said special tours are encouraged and can be arranged by calling 753-5166.

tjryan@wacotrib.com

757-5746

Summer camp to focus on Civil War soldiers’ lives

A Civil War summer camp, sponsored by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame in conjunction with Historic Waco Foundation, will take place June 20-25. Reservations for no more than 30 children, ages 8 to 11, are being taken at 753-5166.

The focus of the summer 2011 Civil War camp will be “Soldier Life,” according to HWF curator Holly Browning. Costumed period re-enactors will teach lessons on 19th-century life, and Doug Baum of Texas Camel Corps will bring some of his storied creatures to share the tale of the 100 or so camels imported in the 1850s by Uncle Sam to explore the Southwest.

Civil War lecture

T. Michael Parrish, the Linden G. Bowers Professor of American History at Baylor University, will give the spring lecture for the Historic Waco Foundation at 7 p.m. March 1 at Red Men Museum and Library, 4521 Speight Ave. in Waco.

Parrish, a scholar and author who specializes in 19th-century Americana, Southern history, the Civil War and Texas history, will weave his research interests into a public presentation about the conduct of the War Between the States.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call HWF at 753-5166.

Texas birthday celebration

Another important anniversary — the 175th birthday of the Lone Star State — will be celebrated at 6:30 p.m. March 4 in the newly renovated Knox Center at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum. The Texas Independence Day Celebration event will cost $80 per person, for a soiree featuring a gourmet meal, entertainment from musician and humorist Dave Tanner, the Jonquil Street Band and National Junior Fiddle Contest winner Mia Orosco as well as a silent auction.

Reservations are being taken through March 1 at 753-5166.