Chapter 18: Texas & the Civil War
Section 4: The Texas Home Front
Bellwork
•How might the Civil war have affected
civilians?
•How do you think Unionists were
treated?
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
• Texas suffered less than other Confederate states
• Goods became scarce & expensive:
– Paper
– Medicine
– Coffee
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
• Texans adapted
• Farmers grew less cotton and more corn and wheat
• Slaveholders from other states sent their slaves to Texas to prevent them from being freed
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
•Women & children ran plantations
•Women worked to support the war
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
Gov. Francis Lubbock (1861-1863) Gov. Pendleton Murrah (1861-1865)
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
•April 1862: Confederate Congress enacted a draft
•Draft—law that was unpopular because some people received exemptions
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
•White males 18-35
•Later broadened to 17-50
The Wartime Economy & the Draft
•Exemptions:
–Certain jobs
–Buy way out of service or provide substitute
Unionists in Texas
•Confederate draft received opposition from Unionists
•Most joined war effort, but some refused to fight
•Unionists viewed as potentially dangerous traitors
Unionists in Texas
•Martial law—kind of rule sometimes established in parts of Texas that were Unionist
Unionists in Texas• Some Unionists violently attacked:
– August 1862: 60 Germans Texans attacked when fleeing to Mexico to escape draft
– 50 Germans hanged in Central Texas when they organized to protest war
– Oct. 1862: 40 suspected Unionists hung in the “Great Hanging” in Gainesville
Illustration appeared in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly Newspaper February 20, 1864
Problems for Unionists in Texas
Effects on Unionists
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