Chapter One Hundred and Thirty One
Out of Egypt - Texas: The First Phase of the Great Exodus
From “Yankee Dawdle - the Memoirs of a Private of Pennsylvania”
Cadogan 1891
“We all thought we’d be off home at last after three long years. Off home to be returned to the bosom of our families. Then the orders came in. We were to march to Wilmington. Those fools had surrendered days before so we had no good ideas why we were off there though I heard a great many poor ones…
When we reached Wilmington we found it full of spinners. Oh how the good people of Wilmington spun. They’d been Unionists all the time, deep down and secret like. So secret in fact that most of them didn’t know it themselves till us Yankees came a calling. Some of the more ambitious types, those with a keen eye, big bugs, and fast dealers, spun so hard the stories would make your head spin for the all the lies, falsehoods, exaggerations and misdirections. If we’d dropped all the spinners in Wilmington into the sea we’d likely have created a whirlpool…
In Wilmington we finally received our orders and weren’t we knocked into a cocked hat. Our family bosoms in Pennsylvania would have to wait: the bosoms in New Orleans needed us something fierce first. We were off to sea to join the great force gathering about Texas for the final great heave to put the rebellion into its grave. The war wasn’t over yet, not by a jug full…”
Governor Pendleton Murrah of Texas was ill during the winter of 1863/64 and it would sap his will
From “The War Between the States” by Otis R. Mayhew
Sword & Musket 1992
“The trickle of Texans and displaced rebels from further afield would become a steady stream as fall turned to winter on the border. The death of Mrs Lincoln had been followed by the landslide re-election of the bereaved President Lincoln. The Texas papers were full of stories of incidents and atrocities across both the Northern states and the occupied Confederacy. Some were true. Most were not…
While some leading Confederates like Kirby Smith, Magruder, Reagan and others maintained a positive front, the Governor, Pendleton Murrah, was disseminating increasingly pessimistic opinions. By mid-November they had become apocalyptic…
With Union General James Blunt funneling guns to pro-Union German immigrants in West Texas and a ring of Union forces building up around and indeed in the state, the inevitable final blow could not have been far away. Many Confederates choose to flee south of the Rio Grande. Many of them hoped their exile would be temporary. Some few believed they would never see their old homes again. The first waves of what many would later call the Great Exodus had begun…”
From “Viva Magruder! – The Early Days of the Anglo Community in Mexico” by D. Foster Wilkins
University of Vancouver 1985
“The first waves of former Confederates fell into three categories: (i) Informal exiles, (ii) formally invited persons and (iii) hired bands…
(i) The informal exiles compromised the vast majority of the early exiles. Mostly Texans, their numbers did include a number of refugees from other parts of the former Confederacy who had been driven first to seek refuge in Texas. They crossed the Rio Grande at places like Laredo, Eagle Pass and Brownsville (until it was seized by United States troops) with their meager possessions on horses, mules and the occasional wagon (which could only be obtained at great expense)…
Many of them had sought to convert their land to ready cash, but prices collapsed, Confederate script was worthless and hard currency was difficult to come by. Scores of formally wealthy rebels passed into Mexico as paupers…
(ii) It had been quietly communicated to the Mexican Imperial Government that the United States Government would not take a hostile view if Confederate arms, supplies and personnel found their way into Imperial Service, so long as steps were taken to prevent them finding their way back…
The French Army had had several successes against the Juarista forces but the north and north west remained hotbeds of Juarista rebellion. Maximilian was keen to enhance the prestige and abilities of his own Imperial Mexican Army, reduce his reliance on the French, and as some would go on to suggest reduce his reliance on his own conservative supporters. Emperor Maximilian formerly offered employment at generous salary to several leading Confederate generals still at large in Texas. Foremost among them being General John Bankhead Magruder. For the time being Magruder demurred. However a few more pessimistic Confederate officers did resign their commissions to take up arms in the Imperial Service. In 1864 the most senior to do so was Brigadier General Jo Shelby...
Brigadier Jo Shelby of the Confederacy and of the Mexican Empire
This seeming alignment of the Confederates and former Confederates with the Imperial cause would cause a hardening of Juarista opinion against these gray exiles. The Mexican Republicans would make the life of many exiles, especially those crossing out of the west of the state, as hard as the most extreme American Republicans could wish…
(iii) With so many troops and armed bodies in Texas, serving now in a hopeless cause, both the Imperialists and the Republicans saw an opportunity. The various Confederate and State troops could expect poor treatment at the hands of Yankees, especially after the dreadful events of September. Furthermore the Northern newspapers were talking about executions, treason and land confiscation. Those who survived, the end of the war might only present the chance to live in poverty. For many the only portable assets they had were their arms, ammunition and training. From handfuls of squads in isolated border posts to a whole militia battalion hired by Santiago Vidaurri (himself an exile in Texas planning a return to Mexico, now as a committed Imerialist), troops began to seek employment south of the border. As the sentiment of leading rebels seemed to swing to the Imperial faction, so to did the “hiring” of Confederate troops falter among the Juaristas. At this stage in the war the Juaristas had little to offer or entice the rebel troops anyway…”
From “The Great Exodus Re-examined” by William H. Sugarbrook
Carlotta 1951
“Though it seemed at first as simply another blow to the Southern body, broken already under the weight of a thousand blows from its northern neighbor, the massacre at Ciudad Juarez would have an effect felt down the years in Mexico…
The massacre of a column of 150 men, women and children fleeing persecution in one country by the so called liberals and democrats of another was a blow too many. Once news leaked out into Texas, it became easier for men to forsake their duty to the Old Confederacy as “
a debt owed to a dead man” (Jo Shelby) and to seek honor in the service of Imperial Maximilian in a winnable war against Republican tyranny…”
From "The Mexican Adventure through American Eyes" by David Hofstedder
LUS 1996
“
I have sought all the information I can from every source, reliable and otherwise, to establish the facts about the fate of the El Paso column” reported General Canby. He concluded that the reports were muddled, contradictory and wildly exaggerated in equal measure. “
The column crossed the border in the second week of December and numbered no more than 50 souls” asserted his report and he quoted General Blunt “
we can no more establish whether its assailants were Juaristas, Imperialists, Frenchmen, Comanchee [sic], Apache or mere banditry than the Confederates can”. William Seward concluded that “
Maximilian’s government has a hold of the story and are telling it well to their best advantage on both sides of the Rio Grande”…
From “Viva Magruder! – The Early Days of the Anglo Community in Mexico” by D. Foster Wilkins
University of Vancouver 1985
“In those early days the rebel exiles divided themselves into two categories: the fire-eaters, who’s fierce hatred for the Yankee north still burned strong and who still dreamed of one day returning to the United States bearing their blood stained banners to final victory over Yankeedom, and; the Wets as they were known. Those who’s ardor for the cause had been extinguished by the waters of the Rio Grande. The Wets, who even in these early days formed a majority of the exiles in Mexico, wished only to live in peace and to begin to rebuild their lives…”
From “The War Between the States” by Otis R. Mayhew
Sword & Musket 1992
“It was with the turning of the year that the combined Confederate nerve broke. The tension was too much for Governor Murrah. He crossed the border with his extended family and, it was rumored, with a large but unspecified amount of government specie…
With the flight of the Governor the will of the remaining Confederate forces finally disappeared. General Kirby Smith confided to General Magruder that he could no longer rely on any formations in the Trans-Mississippi Theatre to follow his commands…
Before long General Kirby Smith, Postmaster Reagan and Secretary Mallory would join the Governor in Nuevo Laredo. General Magruder would himself finally enter Mexico and two months later he accepted the Emperor’s commission as a General in the Imperial Guard…
The stream of refugees at the border became a flood…
Lieutenant Governor Fletcher Stockdale
It was left to a very fearful and reluctant Lieutenant Governor Fletcher Summerfield Stockdale to make his way towards the Union lines in the north of the state. He had almost been compelled against his will to do so by the few remaining men of stature in Texas. He had been convinced to formally surrender the state of Texas to the Union forces before a full and final invasion was launched…
It was in the small town of Dallas that Stockdale met Major General James Blunt. He informed Blunt that he was authorized to offer the unconditional surrender of the State Government of Texas. General Blunt, a powerful and compelling figure with an overweening ambition, enquired, forcefully, whether Stockdale would admit that Texas was the last remaining outpost of the Confederacy. Stockdale admitted that it was. Blunt then enquired, that being the case, whether Stockdale would formally surrender in the name of the Confederate States of America.
Stockdale was in a room surrounded by Union troops. But a few miles away was one of several armies gathering to descend on Texas. Blunt’s was made up of Jayhawkers, negros and Indians among others. Stockdale represented thousands of fearful Texans…He confirmed he would sign the surrender document in the form proposed…
Major General James Blunt
So it was that Major General James Blunt scored at great coup, over several more senior generals like Hooker and Canby, in reporting by telegraph direct to War Office “
I have in my hand the signed terms of unconditional surrender for the remnant of these so called Confederate States. Glory-Hallelujah.” The last two words were typical of the eccentric Blunt…
The war officially ended, if Stockdale’s surrender was taken at face value, on January 18th 1865, much to the surprise and relief of many…”
From “Yankee Dawdle - the Memoirs of a Private of Pennsylvania”
Cadogan 1891
“After a few weeks of living high on the hog in New Orleans we marched west towards the Louisiana/Texas border as part of old Fightin Joe’s outfit. There was a great deal of wordplay from the regimental poets about leaving the arms of the sweet ladies of New Orleans for the grip of Old Hooker…
We had thought we’d be marching off into the dust of Texas in a few weeks time but then the word came down. Not a hint of it in camp canard. Not a word, a hint or a nudge. The rebels had surrendered and to a fellow called Blunt that no one had heard of. Glory Hallelujah he said. Well we all agreed on one thing, this fellow Blunt was alright by us and could drink at our expense at any time he pleased…”
