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R 135 6 Fighting in a New Land Why Foreign Immigrants and Minorities in Texas Fought One has to wander around the world, even though I could be so comfortable in Texas. No matter what happens, I want to go back to Texas. That is my life’s ambition. I have started to build a home there, and I would be enjoying it now, if the awful war had not broken out. I have my savings there, several hundred dollars. If I were to use them here, I would have to sell them for a few gold dollars. I want to go back to Texas and start fresh again. Ferdinand Boesel, German soldier in the 4th Texas Mounted Volunteers A section of Texas society that was difficult to ignore but often overlooked were the recent immigrants into the state.In the antebellum period, Texas experienced a major population increase through migrants from the eastern United States and immigrants from other countries. During the 1850s, the foreign population in the state more than doubled, from 16,744 in 1850 to 43,422 in 1860. The majority of these immigrants came from Germany and Mexico (included in the census numbers are a native Hispanic minority called Tejanos); almost half the immigrants were Germans.With just over 7 percent of its population having taken their first breath outside the United States, Texas was second only to Louisiana for the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in a Confederate state. Since many of the immigrants had recently settled in the state, they had not had enough time to assimilate the culture and habits of the South. These demographics had a major impact on the Lone Star State during the Civil War; ultimately, Texas was the only Southern state where foreigners openly opposed the war and the Confederacy. When foreign immigrants arrived and where they settled in Texas determined their degree of assimilation into the dominant culture of the region and their attachment to 136 Chapter 6 their locality. These influences direct affected their decision to either fight for the Confederacy or oppose it. The experiences of these Germans and Mexicans in the decades before the Civil War also helped determine their loyalty during the war.1 The largest and most influential group of Texas foreign immigrants during the Civil War were Germans. They played major roles in Texas and were one of the most divided groups during the war. Texas had approximately half of the Germans who settled the South, 90 percent of whom came directly from Europe. This large population of Germans made Texas different from the rest of the South. Such large numbers, along with the fact that nearly all European immigrants to Texas came directly from Europe without an intermediate stop in the eastern United States, contributed to their resistance to completely assimilating Southern culture.2 Overall, German Texans did not fully support the war. Their cultural beliefs and ideas of freedom kept them from willingly joining the Confederacy or the Union in large numbers. One factor that influenced their decision to join either side was local attachments. When they arrived and where they settled in Texas determined their degree of acculturation and attachment to Texas, the South, or the United States. Germans who settled in Texas before the 1850s, had more time to adopt Southern culture and to become attached to their locality in Texas. Later German immigrants were less acclimated to the prevailing culture and had less time to develop loyalties to their new state.Where they settled also had an impact on their decision to fight. If they lived in a section of Texas dominated by Anglos, then they had more contact with Southern customs, better integrating them into society and making them more willing to join the Confederate army. Less contact with Southern culture allowed them to maintain their distinct society and distanced them, though temporarily, from the conflict facing the state. Though many Germans retained their customs, their population was divided on the issue of secession and the Civil War.3 Germans immigrated from various places in Germany and for many different reasons. Most came from the middle and high German provinces of Nassau , Electoral Hesse, Upper Hesse-Darmstadt, Alsace, far western Thuringia, and the Heilbronn area of Württemberg; the low areas of Oldenburg, southern Hannover, Brunswick (Braunschweig), Münsterland, and Mecklenburg; and the Watteran. The first significant wave of German immigrants to Texas began in 1831. They left Germany for various reasons including overpopulation...

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