Briefing: Texas in the Civil War

In 1861, the United States faced a crisis over slavery and the power of the federal government. Slavery was central to the secession crisis: Texas’s secession convention declared that the state was leaving the Union in order to protect slavery. Texans voted on the secession ordinance on February 23, 1861; it took effect on March 2. Texas then joined the Confederacy. Governor Sam Houston opposed secession and would not swear an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. He was removed from office in March 1861. Texas saw fighting during the war, including a Confederate victory at Sabine Pass in 1863. The war’s end did not immediately bring freedom to enslaved people in Texas. On June 19, 1865, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced General Order No. 3, which informed Texans that enslaved people were free under federal law. Juneteenth commemorates this announcement and the delayed news of emancipation in Texas. After the war, the period when former Confederate states were brought back into the Union and their governments and societies were reshaped began. Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870. The end of slavery transformed Texas society and its economy, but freed people still faced discrimination and efforts to restrict their rights, including Black Codes. Black Codes were laws enacted after the Civil War to restrict the rights of freed people.