@Article{ ramsdell1924,
	author = {Charles W. Ramsdell},
	title = {The Texas State Military Board, 1862--1865},
	journal = {The Southwestern Historical Quarterly},
	volume = 27,
	number = 4,
	month = {April},
	pages = {253--275},
	year = 1924,
}

http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/30234897

Overview

Ramsdell begins by detailing the financial challenges facing the state immediately after secession, noting that commissioner E. B. Nichols had to borrow tens of thousands of dollars partly backed by his own credit just in order to buy ordnance and transport it in early 1861. Much of the money, according to the journal of the Secession Convention in Texas, was borrowed from Citizen’s Bank in New Orleans. On April 8, 1861, the state legislature issued $1m in state bonds, which Nichols went to New Orleans to sell, but there were few takers. This chaotic early situation sets the backdrop for the beginnings of the military board, which Ramsdell notes, “was the only new governmental agency devised in Texas for dealing with the exigencies of the war” (p. 254).

The First Military Board, 1862–1864

Members

• Francis R. Lubbock (Governor)
• C. R. Johns (State Comptroller)
• C. H. Randolph (State Treasurer)

Selling Bonds

In January 1862, the state legislature created a state Military Board and empowered it to:

1. Use up to $500,000 of the 1861 state bonds to sell or exchange for supplies
2. Organize a “foundry for ordnance and factories for small arms”
3. Dispose of U.S. “indemnity bonds” still held by the state from the boundary compromise of 1850 and replace them with Confederate bonds

The bond-selling efforts, whether in Texas, Mexico, or Europe, were disastrous according to Ramsdell.

Trading in Cotton

A second money-raising effort by the Board was to exchange state bonds for cotton and then try to sell it in Mexico. Ramsdell details the difficulty of transporting the cotton to the border and reports that “by September 30, 1863 … only about 5,000 bales had been purchased and shipped” (p. 263). This was, he explains, “a mere trifle,” both in terms of profits and in terms of the total share of the cotton crop purchased and traded by the government board (p. 267).

Supporting Manufacturing

The board also “displayed a willingness to give financial aid to private enterprise when there seemed a good prospect of success” (p. 268). These included:

• an Austin foundry which helped make machines for a percussion-cap factory
• contracts with four different firms for Mississippi rifles, located in Rusk (Whitescarver, Campbell and Company), Tyler (Short, Briscoe and Company), Bastrop (N. O. Tanner), and Dallas County (Tucker, Sherrod and Company)

The New Military Board, 1864–1865

Members

After April 12, 1864:

• Pendleton Murrah (Governor)
• James S. Holman
• N. B. Pearce

Activities

The board was reorganized in December 1863 so that it was composed essentially of the governor and two of his appointees. It faced new challenges with trading cotton because of federal occupation of Brownsville in the first half of 1864 and the civil war between Mexican liberals and reactionaries across the border. Moreover, it now had to compete with Kirby Smith’s “Cotton Bureau,” whose restrictions the state deliberately tried to circumvent.

The new board also gave little support to manufacturing, leasing the foundry in Austin to a private firm. The board claimed to the legislature it had supported woolen and cotton fabrics, but it was unclear how much. There never was a formal report by the board, which makes sorting out what it accomplished very difficult. Its own lack of transparency also made it a frequent target of criticism and suspicion in the state.