The Hawkins Ranch in Texas: From Plantation Times to the Present

Chapter 7. Effects of Civil War and Emancipation

Chapter 7 Effects of Civil War and Emancipation major events that marked the years  to , the Civil War and the Emancipation, affected the J. B. Hawkins plantation in opposite ways. During the Civil War the plantation thrived. But when the Emancipation took full effect (and it was not immediate), it ended the labor supply and the plantation system as well. Then the business of J. B. Hawkins changed from planting to raising cattle, and in that endeavor he would come to rely on his son, Frank Hawkins. J. B. Hawkins’s support of the Confederacy made him an even busier planter-merchant than he had ever been, because the demand for his sugar, molasses, cotton, beeves, lumber, and hides was now greater than ever. Texas did not suffer the same damage to its agricultural system during the Civil War as did the deep-south states that were overrun by Union foot soldiers. In Texas during the war years, slavery continued, as did the crop production in the plantation system. Sales receipts and other documents among the papers of J. B. Hawkins indicate that the Confederacy gave him favorable business opportunities. For example, J. W. Selkirk sent a notation on December , , from Camp McCulloch, confirming a shipping order: “I enclose you an order on Col Hawkins for  BBLS molasses,  of which we have sold the Department [Confederate Department of Texas] at $ per BBL. The other  we can sell here. I suppose the Col will not ask more than $ as he promised us. Send it as soon as possible.” J. B. Hawkins sent barrels of molasses and sugar to Port Lavaca by the paddle wheelers Anna Catherine and Lizzy Lee, instructing their captains to put his barrels as low in the vessel as possible. His notes in his memorandum book show sales of goods in addition to sugar and molasses. “For the government” there were shipments of leather, lumber, and hides that 56 plantation beginnings were sent “in vats” (of salt water). He made a note of  hides of # quality and  of # quality as well as four calf skins and eight goat skins. He had capital enough to buy cotton at the lower local price and transport it for sale at a higher price. His notes show that he bought  bales of cotton from Mrs. [Harris] Bowie and on September , , sent “the government”  wagon loads and  carts. The carts he mentions were probably drawn by oxen. Many ox yokes are still stored in a barn at the Hawkins Ranch. Organized shipments like these were sent to Brownsville, then to waiting foreign ships off Mexican ports, and ultimately to the textile industries in England or other destinations. In this way the periodic blockades of the Gulf Coast were circumvented, and trade benefiting the Confederacy was sustained. Texas during the Civil War was made relatively safe from the fighting by its distance from the main battle fronts, but along its almost fourhundred -mile coast there was nervousness about a possible Union landing and march on Galveston. On October , , the port of Galveston was taken by Union forces, but it was retaken on January , , in a colorful combined sea and land battle. The Confederates planned their move on Galveston for New Year’s Eve, when the attention of celebrants would be diverted by the holiday. Having few arms, heavy guns, or large ships, the Confederates made use of two river boats, the Neptune and the Bayou City, protecting their decks and gunwales with bales of cotton so that they became “cotton clads.” Behind these bales they positioned crack sharpshooters who fired on Union sailors on the decks of more traditionally equipped craft, forcing them to seek cover below and opening the way to a boarding operation and the recapture of the port of Galveston. At the same time ground troops advanced from the mainland over a railroad bridge to secure the port for the Confederacy. Gen. John Bankhead Magruder, commander of the Confederate Department of Texas, had masterminded the retaking of Galveston, but he continued to worry about the coastal defenses of Texas and was intent on protecting Galveston. Following the contour of the Matagorda County coastline is a thin string of barrier islands and peninsulas often collectively called “the peninsula.” This strip offered possible staging locations for Union forces if they intended to land and then march from west to east toward Galveston. To carry out such a plan Union troops would need to cross several creeks and...