92 HISTORY OF TEXAS.
,February 21 he crossed the river and engaged
the Texans, but was repulsed. This
was the battle of Valverde, in which General
Sibley had 1,750 men to 3,810 on Canby's
side; but only 900 of Canby's men were regulars,
and the others were of but little service.
Encouraged by success so signal, Sibley
immediately marched on to Albuquerque,
sending a detachment on to Santa Fe, and
easily took those places, but, a part of his
army meeting with defeat by Colonel Slough,
he had to begin a retreat which did not end
until he reached Texas. In this bootless campaign
the Texans lost 500 men; and even
General Canby afterward reported that that
portion of the country was too unimportant
to hold by the expenditure of blood and
In May, 1862, Commodore Eagle, of the
United States Navy, demanded the surrender
of the city of Galveston, but could not enforce
his demand. October 4 following he
was re-inforced and easily took the place
without much resistance. The Texans criticised
General Hebert for giving up that city,
and he was superseded during the next
month by General Magruder, who forthwith
made preparations to recapture the island.
He made good preparation, with great secrecy,
to attack the island by both land and
water, and he was successful in regaining the
point, after an engagement that cost the
Federals great loss. But the port continued
to be blockaded.
At first, and during the earlier part of
Governor Lubbock's administration, the Texans
enlisted freely and cheerfully, believing
that the contest would soon end in victory
for them, but ere long they began to feel
the tedious burden of war in wany ways.
Trade was interfered with, military law proclaimed,
conscription resorted to, etc. All
males from eighteen years of age to forty-five
were made liable to service in the Confederate
army, with the exception of ministers
of religion, State and county officers and
slave-holders, the possession of fifteen slaves
being the minimum number entitling to exemption.
Governor Lubbock was an extremist
in regard to this system. In his
message to the Legislature in November,
1863, he suggested that every male person
from sixteen years old and upward should be
declared in the military service of the State;
that no one should be permitted to furnish a
substitute, and in the same message informed /
the Legislature that 90,000 Texans were
already in the field. When one calls to mind
that the greatest number of votes ever polled
in the State was but little over 64,000, it
will be seen what a tremendous drain had
been made on the strength of the country!
August 31, 1861, the Confederate congress
passed a law confiscating all the property of
Union men, and banishing the men themselves.
Many persons who had spent their
lives in Texas thus lost their property, and
even temporary absentees in the North, who
would have found it difficult, if not impossible,
to return, were likewise deprived of their
possessions. Many unionists, in their attempts
to escape to Mexico, were caught and
put to death. Says the San Antonio Herald,
a paper loyal to the Confederacy: '- Their
bones are bleaching on the soil of every
county from Red river to the Rio Grande,
and in the counties of Wise and Denton their
bodies are suspended by scores from the
By the close of Lubbock's administration.
in 1863, the tide of public opinion and feeling
began to ebb, as the 'Confederate armns
had met with serious reverses, and the dark
Lewis Publishing Company, publisher. History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties : containing a concise history of the state, with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens of the above named counties, and personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families. Chicago. The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth29785/. Accessed December 9, 2013.