Texas and the Civil War State Military Board
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The only new agency created by legislature to deal with wartime emergencies. Original members were the Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer. The last two in 1864 were replaced by appointees of the Governor. Purpose was to establish industry and purchase essential military and civilian supplies. Texas was largely dependent on imports for factory goods, so the Board had to sustain foreign trade, despite a Federal coastal blockade. This was done through neutral Mexico and by use of swift blockade runners. The Board sold and exchanged state bonds, U.S. indemnity bonds and cotton--which had a ready cash and exchange value abroad--for guns, powder, copper, lead, hats, boots, shoes, clothing, cloth, rope, blankets, cotton cards and machinery to start local industry. Agents of the Board operated in Mexico and Europe. A percussion cap factory and a state foundry for cannon were built. By contracts, land grants and cash, private enterprise was aided and encouraged to manufacture rifles, pistols and gunpowders. Lack of funds, poor transportation, competition for cotton and other wartime difficulties hampered effectiveness, but the Board did much to make Texas "the Storehouse of the Confederacy". (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Facing a Federal blockade of the Gulf coast, Texas created a single new wartime agency — the State Military Board — to arm and supply itself. Trading state bonds and, above all, cotton, the board ran goods through neutral Mexico and past the blockade by fast runners, buying guns, powder, and cloth and seeding local factories for cannon and percussion caps. Chronic shortages of money and transport blunted its reach, but it helped earn Texas its nickname as the Storehouse of the Confederacy.
Why it matters
The board is a case study in how a cash-poor, import-dependent state improvised an entire war-supply system around one commodity — cotton — when its ports were sealed.
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