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Battle of Gonzales
The Battle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. It was fought near the Mexican Texas town of Gonzales on October 2, 1835 between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army troops. Four years previously, Mexican authorities had given the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. As Mexican president Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna assumed more dictatorial powers, federalists throughout the country began to -
Battle of San Antonio
The entire Texas army was camped at Concepcion. This force was at least a thousand men. After remaining at Concepcion until the 2nd of November, 1835, the army marched, by way of the powder-house, on the slope of a gentle ridge, east of the San Antonio river, near to its head, and camped on the east bank. Here they remained for four or five days, keeping up a constant patrol around the town. From intelligence received, it was supposed that Mexican General Cos would surrender upon demand. Althoug -
Battle of the Alamo
The Battle of the Alamo (February 23 – March 6, 1836) was a pivotal event in the Texas Revolution. Following a 13-day siege, Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launched an assault on the Alamo Mission near San Antonio de Béxar (modern-day San Antonio, Texas). All but two of the Texian defenders were killed. Santa Anna's perceived cruelty during the battle inspired many Texians—both Texas settlers and adventurers from the United States—to join the Texian Army. -
Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo
The treaty was signed by Nicholas Trist on behalf of the U.S. and Luis G. Cuevas, Bernardo Couto and Miguel Atristain as plenipotentiary representatives of Mexico on February 2, 1848, at the main altar of the old Basilica of Guadalupe at Villa Hidalgo (within the present city limits) as U.S troops under the command of Gen. Winfield Scott were occupying Mexico City. -
America goes to war with Mexico
The Mexican–American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution.
In the U.S. the conflict is often referred to as the Mexican War and sometimes as the U.S.–Mexican War. In Mexico, terms for it include intervención estadounidense en México , -
Beginning of the Civil war
Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of 1860 triggered South Carolina's declaration of secession from the Union. By February 1861, six more Southern states made similar declarations. On February 7, the seven states adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States of America and established their temporary capital at Montgomery, Alabama. A pre-war February Peace Conference of 1861 met in Washington in a failed attempt at resolving the crisis. -
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Civil War
The American Civil War (1861–1865), also known as the War Between the States as well as several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America, also known as "the Confederacy". Led by Jefferson Davis, they fought against the United States (the Union), which was supported by all the free states and the five border slave states. -
Texas Rangers
• July 13 - Violent clashes between Juan "Cheno" Cortina and Anglo lawmen begin in the Brownsville area in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Texas Rangers and federal troops eventually halt the so-called "Cortina War" in 1875.
• July - Indians on the West-Central Texas reservations are moved by the federal government to reservations in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). -
Galveston Island capured by Union troops
In the fall of 1862, Pres. Lincoln stepped up Union military operations in the Trans-Mississippi areas. Cotton was running through Texas's blockaded ports and Mexico's unblockaded ports in exchange for arms and supplies to support Confederate armies. But even more important to Lincoln was a show of force in the area, both to counter France's invasion of Mexico and to discourage that foreign power from aiding the Confederacy. -
Confederate troops retake Galveston island
As part of the Union blockade of the Texas coast, Commander William B. Renshaw led his squadron of eight ships into Galveston harbor to demand surrender of the most important Texas port on October 4, 1862. Brig. Gen. Paul O. Hébert, commanding the Confederate District of Texas, had removed most of the heavy artillery from Galveston Island, which he believed to be indefensible. -
Sam Houston Dies
Samuel Houston was a 19th century American statesman, politician, and soldier. Born in Timber Ridge, just north of Lexington in Rockbridge County, Virginia, in the Shenandoah Valley, Houston was a key figure in the history of Texas, including periods as the first and third President of the Republic of Texas, Senator for Texas after it joined the United States, and finally as governor. -
Battle of Sadine pass
The First Battle of Sabine Pass was a naval battle during the American Civil War in Texas which, in addition to strengthening the Union naval blockade on the Texas coastline, also intended to open the way for a possible amphibious assault. -
First battle of Adobe walls
The First Battle of Adobe Walls, was one of the largest ever battles between U.S. soldiers and Indians. The Kiowa and Comanche tribes and their allies drove from the battlefield a U.S. Expeditionary Force that was reacting to attacks on white settlers moving into the Southwest, before retreating to escape the American army. -
General Robert E. Lee surrenders
On April 9, 1865 after four years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the town of Appomattox Court House , Virginia. General Lee arrived at the Mclean home shortly after 1:00 p.m. followed a half hour later by General Grant. The meeting lasted approximately an hour and a half. -
Last Civil War battle in Texas
The Battle of Palmito Ranch, also known as the Battle of Palmito Hill and the Battle of Palmeto Ranch, was fought on May 12 – May 13, 1865, during the American Civil War. The battle was fought on the banks of the Rio Grande about twelve miles east of Brownsville, Texas. In the kaleidoscope of events following the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army on April 9, Palmito Ranch was nearly ignored. It was the last major clash of arms in the war. -
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was the last Chief of the Commanches and never lost a battle to the white man. His tribe roamed over the area where Pampas stands. He was never captured by the Army, but decided to surrender and lead his tribe into the white man's culture, only when he saw that there was no alternative.
Quanah, was born about 1850, son of Comanche Chief Peta Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, a white girl taken captive during the 1836 raid on Parker's Fort, Texas. -
Bufflao Soldiers
• Black "Buffalo Soldiers" are first posted to Texas, eventually serving at virtually every frontier fort in West Texas from the Rio Grande to the Panhandle, as well as in other states.
• Houston and Texas Central Railway reaches the Red River, connecting there with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad and creating the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the East. -
Seccond battle of adobe walls
The Second Battle of Adobe Walls was fought on June 27, 1874 between Comanche forces and a group of twenty-eight U.S. bison hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas.
