The Texas Ports were Meaningless during The Civil War, Why?

Hmmm, all this talk of Texas and the Trans-Mississippi being irrelevant and never sending anything East of the Mississippi....

Yeah that's a hundred percent false, the ports of Texas were very important.

Everyone's belief in this falsehood is tiring, for Texas sent a lot east. The ports of Texas, along with Matamoros in Mexico were very important, they were blockaded, but never to the extent of ports back east and ships continued to run the blockade there till after Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Texas had many things going for it, I'll list some of the important facilities:

1. The Huntsville Penitentiary- Important for its manufacture of cloth, usually drab or white, both in Jeans and Kersey wools

2. The Houston Depot- Underway in late 1862, this facility manufactured huge amounts of uniforms, accoutrements, and many other goods from Texas leather, Huntsville made cloth, and the ENOURMOUS amount of blue-gray kersey from Britain run through the blockade.

3. Farms- Texas naturally didn't have Union Armies running wild through its interior, and became something of a breadbasket, so much so that before 1863 supplies of food were being sent east from Texas, and even after the fall of Vicksburg, could have still sent food east if the damage done to Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian Territory didn't necessitate sending food to those areas instead. By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory as loss of territory, and refugees to the CS controlled areas of those States.

It might seem inconsequential to someone who has never read anything of the Trans-Mississippi beyond a book or two on the Red River Campaign, but even after the fall of Vicksburg Texas was sending uniforms, accoutrements, etc. east of the Mississippi through a clever system of smuggling across the river at night in different areas. If it were not so, then how was it Richmond was still in contact, sending orders, and the occasional weapons shipment, and even transferring officers across the river in 1864, and transferring officers like Richard Taylor east into 1865! Sure Vicksburg may have slowed it down to a comparative trickle, but it still happened.

Heck right before the Red River Campaign Taylor's memoirs famously make mention of his troops being sent white uniforms, and him pirating a shipment of gray, (blue-gray kersey shipped from Britain to a TEXAS port) that was being sent to be smuggled across the Mississippi, him trading the shipments sending the white uniforms east instead keeping the gray for his army.

The best online resources I can recall offhand covering this is as follows:

http://adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/the-souths-white-uniforms.html

http://adolphusconfederateuniforms.com/free-article-downloads.html

On the second link, the read I'm recommending is "Confederate Clothing of the Houston Quartermaster Depot". They're uniform articles, but full of dang good information on how plenty of stuff was sent east of the river. Heck early in the war the Huntsville Penitentiary sent cloth to several different depots in eastern states for them to make uniforms.

Texas Ports being meaningless is a bunch of bull manure lol.
 
No railroads mean no beef for the Confederate army... I did not find any cattle drives to the Mississippi River...

It seems Texas did not supply much beef to the Confederate army as their ports did not supply any war materials... No cows for the boys in gray or butternut... It seems Texas only supply manpower to the war... you know one reason no trains...

The first cattle drives headed West from Texas to San Francisco to the area where gold miners could be found (1849). Cattle ranchers could sell their cattle for 5-20 times the amount they could in Texas. The cattle market in California dropped along with gold mining. When the Civil War erupted (1861), many cattle herds were left behind on the open range. Cattle ranching halted for a time; however, the longhorn population grew as they continued to graze and reproduce on the prairie. After the war (1865), large cattle herds and consumer demand in cities resulted in cattle drives to locations where the railroad had a railhead. These towns were called "cow towns." When the animals arrived they would be sold and sorted for distribution to cities for slaughter and market.

https://www.agclassroom.org/me/matrix/lessonplan_print.cfm?lpid=268


The cattle drive was not a novel concept. In the prewar years Texans drove beef on a small scale to the goldfields of California and the Rockies, and to the forts and reservations of the Southwest. But when the war ended in 1865, the South faced an economic collapse of staggering proportions, and Texas was no exception. One resource Texans had in plenty, however, was cattle. During the war, Texas cattle—almost exclusively of the temperamental, slab-sided, long-horned variety—had been roaming wild and procreating, with no local market in sight. One old-time trail drover recalled: “By the time the war was over they was down to $4 a head—when you could find a buyer. Here was all these cheap long-horned steers overrunning Texas; here was the rest of the country crying for beef—and no railroads to get them out. So they trailed them out, across hundreds of miles of wild country that was thick with Indians.”

https://www.historynet.com/long-trail-life-cattle-drive.htm

Some ranchers held contracts to supply beef to frontier forts and to Indian reservations in West Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico beginning in the late 1850s. Cattle ranching virtually halted during the Civil War years, as the frontier retreated. Beginning in 1866, however, ranching – and cattle trailing – expanded rapidly.

https://texasalmanac.com/topics/agriculture/cattle-drives-started-earnest-after-civil-war
 
Cattle ranching wasn't a big thing in Texas yet. Before the great cattle industry boom in after the war, the main economic cash came from farming. Cotton was a big thing of course, but outside of the King Ranch, and several smaller outfits, the cattle industry wasn't a thing, even before the war.

You want to know what Texas contributed? Pork, vegetables, cotton, cloth for uniforms, leather, leather accoutrements, brass buttons (T. Miller being the most famous), uniforms, hats, guns, (several gun makers sprouted up during the war), shoes, ammunition, gunpowder, and a ton of other things.

Texas didn't have the luxury of a railroad system, everything either moved overland in wagons, or in the case NE Texas everything produced at different operations in Tyler (guns, bayonets ammunition, shoes, belts etc.), Gilmer (hats mostly), Coffeeville, (iron ore), was moved overland by wagon to Jefferson, a then major inland riverport that produced its fair share of goods, put on a boat and carried doen the Big Cypress, through Caddo Lake to Shreveport where it was distributed from there.

This focus on cattle as the only thing Texas had and railroads and cattle drives is all to hunt for is ludicrous, Texas didn't provide much beef, because that industry's boom and fame was post-war. During the war Texas was producing everything else, and the Brits, and even a lot of Northern investors (into 1863) were running raw materials into the State through the blockade, which added to the large amounts of raw materials already produced within the State.

Texas pulled its own weight, after 1861 became sole supporter of Confederate control areas in the Indian Territory and after 1863 pulled its own weight and I.T.'s along with the weight of Arkansas, and Louisiana, while still keeping itself with a surplus of foodstuffs, and military supplies. Doing all that, and still smuggling food, and war material east of the Mississippi to that department.

Texas was a God send to the Confederacy, not a little island all by itself with nothing and starving.
 
The trans-Mississippi was irrelevant to winning or losing the war

So Harsh ...

Texas was a Godsend to the Confederacy, not a little island all by itself with nothing and starving.

I looked around and found that Manpower was the asset they had... but only a third went east to help the war effort most stayed home... I see an island forming... lol

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qdc02

By the end of 1861, 25,000 Texans were in the Confederate army. Two-thirds of these were in the cavalry, the branch of service preferred by Texans. Lt. Col. Arthur Fremantle of the British Coldstream Guards, who visited Texas during the war, observed this fondness for cavalry service: "it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas," he said, "as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it." Governor Clark observed that "the predilection of Texans for cavalry service, founded as it is upon their peerless horsemanship, is so powerful that they are unwilling in many instances to engage in service of any other description unless required by actual necessity."

Here:

Approximately 90,000 Texans saw military service in the war. Governor Lubbock reported to the legislature in November 1863 that the army numbered 90,000 Texas residents, but this figure seems high for Texans in service at any one time. The 1860 federal census lists 92,145 white males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years living in the state. Allowing for a slight increase in population during the four years of the war and considering that some Texans younger than eighteen and older than fifty served, one may say that between 100,000 and 110,000 Texans were potential soldiers.

Here:

Two-thirds of the Texans enrolled in the military spent the war in the Southwest, either defending the state from Indian attacks and Union invasion or participating in expansionist moves into New Mexico Territory. One regiment, recruited mainly in the Houston area, served under the colorful Rip Ford in South Texas. Ford commanded the military district of the Rio Grande, which extended from the mouth of the river for more than 1,000 miles to above El Paso. During the course of the war, Ford's men battled Union invaders, hostile Comanches, and Mexican raiders led by Juan N. Cortina.
 
history hype about the importance of Texas ports

I was just wondering if the Texas ports were so meaningless, why Lincoln and Farragut felt like they needed to station as many as 30 gunboats offshore to catch blockade runners and bombard coastal fortifications? These gunboats required supply ships for provisions and coal shipped from the east coast. Sounds like expensive hype to me.

If nothing else, the Trans-Mississippi distracted Federal resources and manpower from the all important war in the East.
 
What percentage of the Union Navy was devoted to the Texas blockade?

Could not find any numbers about the West Gulf Squadron...

Here: from wiki

The Navy Department, under the leadership of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, quickly moved to expand the fleet. U.S. warships patrolling abroad were recalled, a massive shipbuilding program was launched, civilian merchant and passenger ships were purchased for naval service, and captured blockade runners were commissioned into the navy. In 1861, nearly 80 steamers and 60 sailing ships were added to the fleet, and the number of blockading vessels rose to 160. Some 52 more warships were under construction by the end of the year.[9][10] By November 1862, there were 282 steamers and 102 sailing ships.[11] By the end of the war, the Union Navy had grown to a size of 671 ships, making it the largest navy in the world.[12]

By the end of 1861, the Navy had grown to 24,000 officers and enlisted men, over 15,000 more than in antebellum service. Four squadrons of ships were deployed, two in the Atlantic and two in the Gulf of Mexico.
[13]

Here: Hard to get coal...

Clearing the Mississippi was strategically important, but it had been at the expense of a more rigorous blockade. Nowhere was that more evident than along the expansive coast of Texas. The blockade of the Lone Star State was overly difficult because of its numerous shallow inlets, bays, and barrier islands. With the nearest permanent coaling station and repair facilities at New Orleans, maintaining steam vessels off these points was nearly impossible. Despite Union efforts to blockade the coast, small vessels were able to continually make their way into and out of port.

Here... These are number on the Attack on New Orleans...

http://civilwarnavy150.blogspot.com/2012/04/facing-forts-west-gulf-blockading.html

The Union plan of attack was not without its flaws. The major obstacle standing in the way of Farragut’s fleet, besides fortifications and river barrier chain, was David Dixon Porter’s mortar ships. Slow and relatively untested, each of the 21 mortar schooners had a single 13-inch seacoast mortar capable of hurling a 227-pound shell nearly 5,000 yards. The arched trajectory a lot the plunging fire to fall on top of the enemy target: ideal for shore-based fortifications. Although Farragut did not ascribe to the effectiveness of the giant cannons, he would use his fleet during the upcoming engagement regardless.

Unadilla-class gunboats, commonly referred to as the “90 Day Gunboats,” were employed in every naval theater of warfare during the Civil War, from the battle at Port Royal to the triumphant Vicksburg campaign. Each ship was lightly armed with one XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbore, two 24-pounder Parrot rifles, and one 20-pounder Parrot. The U.S. Navy used the wrought iron Parrot rifle extensively during the war, even if the design was flawed (Many of the guns burst throughout the war). It is hard to compare the "wholesale" design of the Parrot with the tested one of Dahlgren’s, who Spencer Tucker called “the most influential figure in the development of nineteenth century ordnance.” Of the 17 ships comprising the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, nine were Unadilla-class gunboats: Cayuga, Itasca, Katahdin, Kennebec, Kineo, Pinola, Sciota, Winona, and Wissahickon.

the squadron assembled below New Orleans totaled 188 guns to the 105 guns at Forts Jackson and St. Philip (75 at Fort Jackson and 30 at Fort St. Philip).
 
Could not find any numbers about the West Gulf Squadron...

Here: from wiki

The Navy Department, under the leadership of Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, quickly moved to expand the fleet. U.S. warships patrolling abroad were recalled, a massive shipbuilding program was launched, civilian merchant and passenger ships were purchased for naval service, and captured blockade runners were commissioned into the navy. In 1861, nearly 80 steamers and 60 sailing ships were added to the fleet, and the number of blockading vessels rose to 160. Some 52 more warships were under construction by the end of the year.[9][10] By November 1862, there were 282 steamers and 102 sailing ships.[11] By the end of the war, the Union Navy had grown to a size of 671 ships, making it the largest navy in the world.[12]

By the end of 1861, the Navy had grown to 24,000 officers and enlisted men, over 15,000 more than in antebellum service. Four squadrons of ships were deployed, two in the Atlantic and two in the Gulf of Mexico.[13]

Here: Hard to get coal...

Clearing the Mississippi was strategically important, but it had been at the expense of a more rigorous blockade. Nowhere was that more evident than along the expansive coast of Texas. The blockade of the Lone Star State was overly difficult because of its numerous shallow inlets, bays, and barrier islands. With the nearest permanent coaling station and repair facilities at New Orleans, maintaining steam vessels off these points was nearly impossible. Despite Union efforts to blockade the coast, small vessels were able to continually make their way into and out of port.

Here... These are number on the Attack on New Orleans...

http://civilwarnavy150.blogspot.com/2012/04/facing-forts-west-gulf-blockading.html

The Union plan of attack was not without its flaws. The major obstacle standing in the way of Farragut’s fleet, besides fortifications and river barrier chain, was David Dixon Porter’s mortar ships. Slow and relatively untested, each of the 21 mortar schooners had a single 13-inch seacoast mortar capable of hurling a 227-pound shell nearly 5,000 yards. The arched trajectory a lot the plunging fire to fall on top of the enemy target: ideal for shore-based fortifications. Although Farragut did not ascribe to the effectiveness of the giant cannons, he would use his fleet during the upcoming engagement regardless.

Unadilla-class gunboats, commonly referred to as the “90 Day Gunboats,” were employed in every naval theater of warfare during the Civil War, from the battle at Port Royal to the triumphant Vicksburg campaign. Each ship was lightly armed with one XI-inch Dahlgren smoothbore, two 24-pounder Parrot rifles, and one 20-pounder Parrot. The U.S. Navy used the wrought iron Parrot rifle extensively during the war, even if the design was flawed (Many of the guns burst throughout the war). It is hard to compare the "wholesale" design of the Parrot with the tested one of Dahlgren’s, who Spencer Tucker called “the most influential figure in the development of nineteenth century ordnance.” Of the 17 ships comprising the West Gulf Blockading Squadron, nine were Unadilla-class gunboats: Cayuga, Itasca, Katahdin, Kennebec, Kineo, Pinola, Sciota, Winona, and Wissahickon.

the squadron assembled below New Orleans totaled 188 guns to the 105 guns at Forts Jackson and St. Philip (75 at Fort Jackson and 30 at Fort St. Philip).
So, roughly (just for scale) 17 ships out of 671 were off the Western Gulf coast, ie 2.5%. I don't think this effort strained the Union.
 
Sirs, I would like to respectfully submit that one of the reasons the Texas coast was blockaded, along with the Florida coast, was to comply with the internationally understood and observed conventions of blockades. To be seen and recognized as complying with those '...rules and regulations...' by foreign governments, (so that they respected and abided by the Declaration of Blockade), was more valuable to the national government than the annoyance of any vessels that did slip through. This does not equate with any actual or implied value of individual ports. All port are created equal - just some ports are more equal than others...
(Yes - more BBBPPPPs for me!!!! From now on known as B3P4...)
303


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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No railroads mean no beef for the Confederate army... I did not find any cattle drives to the Mississippi River...

It seems Texas did not supply much beef to the Confederate army as their ports did not supply any war materials... No cows for the boys in gray or butternut... It seems Texas only supply manpower to the war... you know one reason no trains...

The first cattle drives headed West from Texas to San Francisco to the area where gold miners could be found (1849). Cattle ranchers could sell their cattle for 5-20 times the amount they could in Texas. The cattle market in California dropped along with gold mining. When the Civil War erupted (1861), many cattle herds were left behind on the open range. Cattle ranching halted for a time; however, the longhorn population grew as they continued to graze and reproduce on the prairie. After the war (1865), large cattle herds and consumer demand in cities resulted in cattle drives to locations where the railroad had a railhead. These towns were called "cow towns." When the animals arrived they would be sold and sorted for distribution to cities for slaughter and market.

https://www.agclassroom.org/me/matrix/lessonplan_print.cfm?lpid=268


The cattle drive was not a novel concept. In the prewar years Texans drove beef on a small scale to the goldfields of California and the Rockies, and to the forts and reservations of the Southwest. But when the war ended in 1865, the South faced an economic collapse of staggering proportions, and Texas was no exception. One resource Texans had in plenty, however, was cattle. During the war, Texas cattle—almost exclusively of the temperamental, slab-sided, long-horned variety—had been roaming wild and procreating, with no local market in sight. One old-time trail drover recalled: “By the time the war was over they was down to $4 a head—when you could find a buyer. Here was all these cheap long-horned steers overrunning Texas; here was the rest of the country crying for beef—and no railroads to get them out. So they trailed them out, across hundreds of miles of wild country that was thick with Indians.”

https://www.historynet.com/long-trail-life-cattle-drive.htm

Some ranchers held contracts to supply beef to frontier forts and to Indian reservations in West Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico beginning in the late 1850s. Cattle ranching virtually halted during the Civil War years, as the frontier retreated. Beginning in 1866, however, ranching – and cattle trailing – expanded rapidly.

https://texasalmanac.com/topics/agriculture/cattle-drives-started-earnest-after-civil-war
"By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory ... ."

Can you provide evidence that the above statement is true? I did not see it in your links.
 
"By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory ... ."

Can you provide evidence that the above statement is true? I did not see it in your links.

I do not understand the question you are asking or where "By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory ... ." these words came from.

So we have shown Texas has little to no Railroads, No Cows to sell, and only sent a third of their troops east to the war effort. The next nail is Texas had no manufacturing abilities before the war... When they expanded their abilities is was mainly to supply in state troops...

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dzc01

CIVIL WAR INDUSTRY. Texas possessed few manufacturing establishments of significant size when she joined the Southern Confederacy in March 1861, but tremendous military requirements and the federal blockade soon forced the state to make every effort to encourage and expand manufacturing. Four agencies endeavored to supply the state and its troops with manufactured necessities: (1) the state, through both the Military Board of Texas and the penitentiary cloth factory, (2) the Confederate Army's quartermaster and ordnance shops (see GUN MANUFACTURING DURING THE CIVIL WAR), (3) extant private establishments and newly chartered wartime corporations, and (4) household industry.

Here: Ending...

The legislature enacted several laws to encourage manufacturing. Two of these measures, passed on December 15, 1863, and November 7, 1864, respectively, granted 320 acres of land for each $1,000 worth of machinery set up by any concern before March 5, 1865. Few grants were made under these acts, however. In all, about forty manufacturing companies were chartered by special acts of the legislature during the war years, but little resulted from these paper incorporations. Typical of the companies chartered was the Fort Bend Manufacturing Company, authorized to manufacture cloth, fabrics, and wood, iron, or steel products. Companies designed to manufacture powder, iron, steel, bridges, cloth, and paper were chartered, but the results were disappointing.
 
"By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory ... ."

Can you provide evidence that the above statement is true? I did not see it in your links.

I think you quoted the wrong post...

The links I provided were articles covering other supplies for the most part.

The O.R.'s have it, also one just needs to read the memoirs of men in the area. Arthur Freemantle covered it in his 1863 trip through TX. For Louisiana the Shreveport Depot was the destination of goods from Texas, as for Arkansas early in 1865, the majority of their troops were sent to Marshall, TX where they were at when the War ended. They were sent there because Arkansas was incapable of feeding them, but Texas was, so Arkansas troops were sent there to be supplied and forage. Just read through the records concerning the Trans-Mississippi in 1865.

One tidbit from a memoir I'll throw out there. Actually one of my favorites when I hear folks talking abut Texas as a backwater and Trans-Mississippi troops starving and in rags. From Charles Squires, commanding General Forney's artillery, his command consisting of at various times:

1st Confederate Regular Battery, (a Louisiana battery for the most part, at one time commanded by Raphael Semmes' son)
1st Louisiana Field Battery
Winchester's battery ( A Louisiana Battery)
West's Battery (An Arkansas battery)
Gibson's Battery (A Texas battery)

"News from the east of the Mississippi was as bad for the Confederate cause as it could be. Some of our men, acting as individuals, had broken open stores and stolen goods. I assembled my command and told the men the news I had received from the East, but added that as for myself I would remain loyal to the Confederate flag until I was ordered to surrender. I denounced with all emphasis the conduct of the soldiers who had invaded the stores in Shreveport and I made an appeal to the men to stand true to the last. Resolutions were presented and unanimously passed to the effect that the officers and men of Squires' battalion would remain and obey all orders in the future as in the past, also resolving confidence in their commander.

Next day we marched in the direction of Marshall, Texas. From Marshall towards Houston, we kept about twenty-five miles northwest of the main road, that we might obtain forage more readily. The people of this country had seen little or nothing of the war, they had never seen an organized body of soldiers. Wherever we halted many visitor, especially women and old men came out to see us. My command in their new uniforms trimmed in red made a fine appearance, and the big guns, battery wagon and forges were a revelation to many. When I could do so I would have a drill and fire a few blank cartridges for the people. In return baskets of provisions were sent into camp by the ladies."


Another source I'd like to throw out, too many to list, is to look at the official histories of almost all Texas towns in Eastern Texas and that were around at the time, and almost always there will be a sentence making mention of the town's main claim to fame during the CW was supplying food to the Confederate Army throughout the War.
 
Another source I'd like to throw out, too many to list, is to look at the official histories of almost all Texas towns in Eastern Texas and that were around at the time, and almost always there will be a sentence making mention of the town's main claim to fame during the CW was supplying food to the Confederate Army throughout the War.

Their Cotton and Agricultural business avoid the ruination from the war due to Texas's isolation... I can see them supplying confederate states with none perishable food goods... most everything went overland by wagon...

https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/tx-in-civil-war.pdf

During the Civil War, the Texas economy was primarily agrarian and cotton was the main crop. The state represented the western edge of the Southern cotton culture and the supporting slave labor force. About 30 percent of Texans were enslaved African Americans in 1860. When the federal blockade disrupted coastal trade, Texans shipped cotton and other goods overland by wagons to Brownsville and across the Rio Grande to Matamoros, Mexico. As an international waterway, the river remained open to foreign traffic. It allowed ships carrying thousands of bales of Confederate cotton to sail to distant ports. In late 1863, federal occupation of Brownsville diverted Texas cotton hundreds of miles north to Laredo or Eagle Pass. A few industries existed in the state by 1861, but new ones soon opened to support the war effort. Texas companies manufactured guns, ammunition, cloth, uniforms, iron, salt, medicines, and other vital goods. Cotton provided the currency to purchase these items. Texas avoided major invasions by Union troops. This relative isolation protected new industrial growth and agricultural production from much of the devastation suffered by other Confederate states. ★
 
I do not understand the question you are asking or where "By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory ... ." these words came from.

So we have shown Texas has little to no Railroads, No Cows to sell, and only sent a third of their troops east to the war effort. The next nail is Texas had no manufacturing abilities before the war... When they expanded their abilities is was mainly to supply in state troops...

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dzc01

CIVIL WAR INDUSTRY. Texas possessed few manufacturing establishments of significant size when she joined the Southern Confederacy in March 1861, but tremendous military requirements and the federal blockade soon forced the state to make every effort to encourage and expand manufacturing. Four agencies endeavored to supply the state and its troops with manufactured necessities: (1) the state, through both the Military Board of Texas and the penitentiary cloth factory, (2) the Confederate Army's quartermaster and ordnance shops (see GUN MANUFACTURING DURING THE CIVIL WAR), (3) extant private establishments and newly chartered wartime corporations, and (4) household industry.

Here: Ending...

The legislature enacted several laws to encourage manufacturing. Two of these measures, passed on December 15, 1863, and November 7, 1864, respectively, granted 320 acres of land for each $1,000 worth of machinery set up by any concern before March 5, 1865. Few grants were made under these acts, however. In all, about forty manufacturing companies were chartered by special acts of the legislature during the war years, but little resulted from these paper incorporations. Typical of the companies chartered was the Fort Bend Manufacturing Company, authorized to manufacture cloth, fabrics, and wood, iron, or steel products. Companies designed to manufacture powder, iron, steel, bridges, cloth, and paper were chartered, but the results were disappointing.
Post #22: "3. ... By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory as loss of territory, and refugees to the CS controlled areas of those States. "
 
They did NOT move goods from Mexico to the east of the Mississippi River. Everything received from Mexico or the blockade runners was consumed in the Trans-Mississippi District. What DID go from Texas to the east was cattle, though we have no hint at the numbers, and horses, in very small numbers. The TMD also provided sugar and salt, both of which were lost when the Mississippi was closed with the loss of Vicksburg.

As long as the South could keep the number of Union warships between Vicksburg and Port Gibson small and located, the South could use the Mississippi and tributaries feeding that area for logistics support. There are many references to running supply steamers up the Big Black and other streams until Grant passed Vicksburg and started the land campaign from the south.

The loss of the Mississippi was more symbolic and psychological that military in its effect. Confederate harassment from the banks after the city's loss kept the merchant use of the Mississippi to rather small amounts as the Northern railroads picked up the commercial slack.

Grant deserves credit and praise for his tenacity in finally achieving a significant Union objective, for capturing an entire Confederate army, and for freeing his own army for other operations against an enemy that could not handle another enemy force.
It was long standing political goal of the Midwest to control navigation on the Mississippi. By the time they accomplished it, they did not need the river below Memphis.
Gaining control of the river was a huge boost in confidence in the west. For commercial traffic, I have never read that it was important. For military traffic down to New Orleans, and on the navigable portions of the Cumberland and Tennessee, it probably cut costs substantially.
 
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Post #22: "3. ... By 1865 Texas was supplying food for all four States/Territory as loss of territory, and refugees to the CS controlled areas of those States.

This is @Rusk County Avengers post 22, not mine...

But I did find this... https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/publications/tx-in-civil-war.pdf

The Civil War touched the lives of all Texans — civilian and military alike. Those who remained on the home front often dealt with food shortages, low currency values, refugee migration, frontier Indian raids, and rumors of Northern invasion. Despite hardships, they supported the war effort with taxes and increased production of industry and agriculture. Many served in local militia units and home guards to ensure security and promote unity. With tens of thousands of men in the service, new responsibilities fell to Texas women. Many homemakers and mothers also ran plantations and family farms, worked in plants, made uniforms, crafted clothing of homespun cotton, and promoted patriotism. Some women aided the military effort as spies, gunrunners, and nurses. A few, disguised as men, even served as soldiers. As the fighting intensified in the Southeast and along the Mississippi Valley, large numbers of civilian refugees poured into Texas, some passing through on their way to Mexico or the territories of the Southwest. Fear of invasion occasionally forced Texans to abandon their homes as well. The evacuation of Galveston placed a particular burden on resources in the Houston area. The influx of hundreds of displaced Southerners throughout East Texas strained food supplies and created housing and commodity shortages.

It seems food supplies over time became strained as well...

This forum has a thread on Texas and refugees...

https://civilwartalk.com/threads/refugees-gone-to-texas.129125/
 
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