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

Jesus F. De La Teja and the contributors to this fresh volume set out to challenge the set of mythologies that make up the Lost Cause narrative that remains a prevalent interpretation of the history of Texas in the Civil War period. They unwrap the interlocking myths about Southern white unity, Tejano disengagement, German resistance, African American passivity, and chivalry. The essays demonstrate that unionism provided an oppositional framework around which dissent could crystalize and, at times, succeed in thwarting Texas and Confederate authorities.

The volume makes clear that the underlying conflicts of the Civil War years were rooted in the antebellum period and continued through Reconstruction. Also significant, Texas emerges as a unique Confederate space, shaped as much by its frontiers as by the issues of slavery and states' rights that drove the rebellion. To Confederate Texans, Indians and Mexicans were nearly as threatening as Yankees. The authors also dispel illusions that the Civil War in Texas was anything but violent, brutal, and malicious. The authors demonstrate that the Civil War, especially at the hands of Confederates on the northern frontier, became one of extermination.

The primary goal of the volume, however, is to use this context to illuminate the efforts of dissenters to rally around the Union as a counter to white Confederate dominion. Tejanos, understanding fully the issues at stake, attempted to stop secession as an elite power grab. Failing in that, they found ways to resist Confederate authority throughout the war. Poor whites turned the "Big Thicket" of East Texas into a stronghold for unionists and deserters, then remained dissident voices during Reconstruction. Refugee slaves used their masters' flight to Texas to run away to achieve freedom. And prewar advocates of slavery, such as Edmund J. Davis, based on their experiences during the war, might move decisively to a unionist position and into the Republican Party.

The volume might be enhanced in certain ways. For example, it would benefit from a consistent definition of Texas unionism. Most often it is portrayed as a catchall for dissenters with various agendas. Yet unionism appeared to entail common ideas about citizenship, equality, race, gender, and ethnicity that positively drew historical actors to it. In addition, the emphasis on the frontier makes the near silence of Native Americans in the essays surprising; it is difficult to discern the actions they took in creating the civil war in Texas. These observations notwithstanding, the volume is an important contribution to our understanding of the Civil War in Texas and the Southwest.