Lone Star Unionism, Dissent, and Resistance: Other Sides of Civil War Texas ed. by Jesús F. de La Teja (review)

Just as the motion picture The Free State of Jones jumpstarted a national conversation debunking the myth of a South united behind slavery, secession, and the Confederacy, Jesús de La Teja offers this excellent collection of essays exploring the significant dissension in Texas during and after the American Civil War. This volume serves as an antidote to the strong impression that “persists in the popular imagination of a monolithically pro-Confederate Texas that largely escaped the destruction that occurred in the rest of the South” (3). Subjects range from outright Unionists to those whose support of the war was less than enthusiastic, demonstrating a tremendously wide range of attitudes, opinions, and actions rather than an unswerving support for Confederate ideals.

In the volume’s first essay Laura Lyons McLemore argues that in memorializing the Civil War, Texans were less likely to embrace a Confederate identity and more likely to use Civil War memory to carve out a specific Texas identity. Andrew J. Torget, examining the actions of slaves in Texas, and W. Caleb McDaniel, examining the experiences of slaves brought to Texas from other southern states, successfully challenge the myth of loyal slaves, showing that the everyday acts of resistance during the war, especially running away, convinced even white Texans that slaves were not the “natural Confederates” they believed them to be (56).

Victoria E. Bynum connects the Big Thicket Unionist, Warren J. Collins, to Newt Knight of the Free State of Jones, showing how family connections and political and ideological similarities contributed to each leading significant resistance to the Confederate cause. Walter D. Kamphoefner re-examines German Texans’ positions during the war and finds not only significant pockets of Unionists, but less-than-enthusiastic support among those Germans who did side with the Confederacy, while Omar S. Valerio-Jiménez’s essay explores the divided opinions of Tejanos, arguing that they made decisions about which side to support for complex and contradictory reasons. Richard B. McCaslin revisits the horrific anti-Unionist violence in North Texas that included the Great Hanging at Gainesville.

Rebecca A. Czuchry and Elizabeth Hayes Turner find significant evidence of resistance to former Confederates and of Union support among former slaves after the war ended. Czuchry specifically examines African American women’s resistance to racial violence, while Turner traces the evolution and importance of “Juneteenth,” the celebration of freedom in Texas. Finally, Carl H. Moneyhon’s essay on Edmund J. Davis, the prominent Unionist and Republican governor of Texas during Reconstruction, demonstrates that individual opinions and experiences shaped the actions and decisions of Texans, whether they remained loyal to the Union or joined the Confederate cause.

Overall, the collection is highly successful in its intent to challenge the stereotype of a monolithic Confederate Texas by examining some of the many individuals and groups of people who resisted, dissented, or remained loyal Unionists.