1857

Jan 26-year-old First Lieutenant John Bell Hood returns to Texas after two years observing the Turkish military in operation in Egypt. He drafts a report to his superiors suggesting that camels might be of benefit to operations in the arid western portions of the Republic. By June, the Army has promoted Hood to captain, purchased sixty camels, and created the Troop A of the 1^st Texican Camels as an experiment. The Camelry works so well that Hood is again promoted (this time directly to colonel) and the remainder of the 1^st Camels is fitted out and headquartered at Fort Davis.

1858

May28 The first class of fifteen Academy cadets graduates and receives their commissions as 2^nd Lieutenants in the Republic Army.

Nov 20 Waco-Santa Fe Railway completed. Track laying delays caused by inclement weather, poor terrain and hostile Indians cause the completion of this section to be more than a year behind schedule.

1859

Jan 01 Gannon Military College opens its doors in Seguin, San Jacinto. The college is established for Anglos and Hispanics who do not have the aptitude for one of the service academies and to men of color who are of influential families.

Dec 12 Edward Clark elected president. He has pro-Southern leanings in foreign relations. This will lead to Texas’ involvement in clandestine aid for the Confederacy.

1860

May The first cadets graduate from the Naval College and gain their commissions as ensigns in the Navy.

Nov 06* Abraham Lincoln, Republican from Illinois, is elected President of the United States. He receives no electoral votes from the South.

Dec 20* South Carolina secedes from the Union in protest of the election. Five other states follow soon after.

1861

Feb 04* The seven states of the Upper South that had previously seceded in protest of Lincoln’s election form the Confederate States of America.

Feb 05* The CSA elects Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as their first president.

Feb 28 The Republic of Texas decides to maintain relations with both parties of the American Civil War.

Apr* Confederate gunners fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Lincoln calls for volunteers. The lower South secedes in protest. The American Civil War begins.

May The US Navy blockades the South. Confederate agents begin operation in the Republic. Federal agents also infiltrate the Republic. A shadow war between the competing intelligence services takes place, centered on three cities: the important port of Galveston, the capital in Houston, and the important railroad nexus of Waco.

Jun 14 Great Britain passes the Neutrality Act of 1861. British ships are legally barred from attempting to enter Confederate ports. All shipping directly to or from the Confederacy will have to be in Confederate ships. Parliament also passes the Freedom of Commerce Act, which authorizes the Royal Navy to ensure that British merchant vessels trading with Texas, Mexico and the other nations of the Caribbean and Gulf are not stopped by US warships.

Jul 08 Alfred Woodard of Victoria is sent as consul (not ambassador!) to the Confederate government.

Oct 12 The first shipment of British armaments bound eventually for the Confederacy arrives in Texas. Paid for in Confederate cotton, the rifles are quickly shipped east.

Oct 15 Confederate agent William Hallwell departs for India from Galveston aboard a British vessel.

1862

Jan* Spanish, French and British troops land in Veracruz, intent on forcing Benito Juarez (the President-of-the-Month) to pay his nation’s debts. With the United States engaged in a bitter civil war, the Monroe Doctrine is not enforced. Spanish and British forces withdraw in a few weeks after assurances by Juarez that Mexico intends to pay her debts. French troops remain.

Apr* Intent on expanding French power and prestige, especially in the New World, Napoleon III sends additional troops to Mexico.

May 05 French troops marching from Veracruz arrive outside the fortified town of Puebla. One French commander suggests attacking the town, but the overall French commander wisely listens to the advice of Mexican officers who have both defended and assaulted Puebla in the recent past. Mexican Republican troops holding out in Puebla surrender two weeks later without a shot fired.

May William Halwell arrives in Bombay, India. He successfully completes his mission: introduction of the boll weevil to Indian cotton plantations. Cotton harvests from India over the following decade are severely damaged as the Raj attempts to deal with this new pest. British industrial demand for Confederate cotton increases as a result of the losses.

1863

Jun* 30,000 French troops enter Mexico City and begin pacifying the capital region. The French install Juan Almonte as president of the new puppet government, with the ultimate goal of installing a European-style monarchy. After 22 years of nearly continuous civil strife, Mexico finds itself with a strong central government.

1864

Jan Napoleon III convinces Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Hapsburg, younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, to accept the throne of Mexico. Maximilian is crowned Emperor Maximilian I of Upper and Lower Mexico on February 28^th. Popular former president Juan Almonte becomes Prime Minister.

Mar In an effort to consolidate his hold on Mexico, Maximilian I begins planning a re-conquest of Texas. The Emperor feels that with French assistance and the distraction of the United States in their own Civil War, his people will unite to take back their lost lands.

Jun 08 The Maximilian War begins as Mexican conscripts and tough French Foreign Legion troops cross the Rio Grande into the Republic, catching Texican President Edward Clark and his military by surprise. Their initial attacks bring Imperial troops as far north as Santa Fe and east to the outskirts of San Antonio.

Jun 09 Routine border patrols from Fort Clark encounter a battalion of French Foreign Legion and Imperial Army troops, at Eagle Pass. Shots are exchanged and most of the patrol is lost during the encounter. Four men race into the Fort at almost midnight; the fort commander immediately sends a coded telegraph message to Army Headquarters in Houston.

Jun 10 The telegraph from Fort Clark reaches Houston, detailing the Imperial invasion of Texas. President Clark calls an emergency session of Congress to demand a declaration of war. Congress unanimously supports the call for war with Imperial Mexico.

Jul 19-20 The Battle of Veracruz takes place. A fleet of French and Imperial ships sail from Yucatan Naval Base with the intent of an assault landing at Brownsville.

Jul-Dec Siege of San Antonio. Imperial troops surround the city and attempt to starve the defenders into submission. The siege fails only after continued guerrilla-style attacks on long Imperial supply lines by the Deep Desert Troops of the 1^st Texican Camels Regiment cause serious logistical problems for the invaders.

Oct General Sherman invades Georgia in a daring amphibious landing. His lightning fast attack on Atlanta leaves the city in ruins and a wide swath of destruction through the state as his troops press on towards Tennessee.

Nov* Buoyed by the success of Sherman’s March from the Sea, Lincoln easily defeats George McClellan in the Federal elections.

1865

Jan Although the Siege of San Antonio has failed, Texican forces are in disarray. President Clark negotiates a deal with Great Britain, resulting in the first of the so-called Bowie Amendments, promising an eventual end to slavery in Texas. In exchange, Great Britain agrees to a formal alliance and mutual aid treaty.

Feb The Royal Navy blockades Mexican ports, cutting off reinforcements from France. Final orders from Emperor Napoleon III to Foreign Legion: “Do nothing that will embroil France in a war with Britain at this time.”

Feb 28 Jannisary Law passes House and Senate, is enforced as an emergency measure. Constitutional conflicts are smoothed by eventual passage of Janissary Amendment.

Apr 14 Failed assassination attempt on President Lincoln at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Would-be assassin John Wilkes Booths’ pistol misfires. Booth himself is arrested while trying to escape. Eventually 22 people will be tried for conspiracy and hanged.

May 2 2,000 British soldiers, including the First Battalion, Royal Highland Regiment (Black Watch) arrive in the Port of Galveston.

May 27 US forces capture the strategic city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. From this point on, Confederate supplies begin to dwindle as the lifeline running through the Republic is cut.

Jul 20 On the first anniversary of the naval victory at Veracruz, President Clark declares a day of national celebration. This is the first Veracruz Day holiday, although it will not become an annual event until 1871.

Aug 18-23 Second Battle of Goliad. Imperial troops are forced out of their positions in Fort Goliad, site of the infamous Goliad Massacre during the War of Independence. Newly raised Jannisary troops are used in battle for the first time; although casualties are still high, performance is better than anticipated following a mere two months of training.

Dec 11 Robert Byington Mitchell elected to presidency.

1866

Apr General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia is surrounded and cutoff at Glasgow, Virginia. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant in the chapel of the Episcopalian Church in Glasgow. Other Confederate forces will hold out for several months, but the Civil War has essentially ended.

May Thousands of displaced Confederates immigrate to Texas, searching for a new start. Many of the men will join the Texican Army in exchange for a land grant bonus of 320 acres.

Oct 7 Lyne T. Barrett finds small oil field outside of Nacogdoches. Development is abandoned due to lack of financial interest during the war.

Nov 12 Allied counterattacks push Imperial forces back to the Rio Grande in Texas.

Dec 20 The 2^nd Battalion, 1^st Infantry Regiment, totaling four hundred men, is ambushed and forced to retreat to the north, taking heavy loses from Imperial forces comprised mostly of the 3^rd Regiment, French Foreign Legion.

Dec 24-26 The Battle of Paquime Walls in Chihuahua. 231 Texican men hold off an Imperial regiment.

1867

Mar-May Strong Allied push across northern Mexico captures states of Chihuahua and Sonora.

Aug The United States, still trying to recover from their Civil War, see an opportunity to gain land west of the Indian Territory by sending troops to assist the Republic of Texas against Imperial Mexico.

Oct The US Army offers a Major General’s commission to Robert E. Lee to help re-assimilate Southern forces into the Army. General Lee declines, claiming he is tired of war. Instead, the US appoints Joshua Chamberlain of Maine as a Major General with an active commission as the commander of US troops for the campaign. Chamberlain re-commissions former Confederate William C. Oates as a colonel to help raise troops from the former Confederate states. Oates has little success and is viewed by many Southerners as a turncoat.

Nov 6,000 British soldiers land in the port of Guayamas on the Gulf of California. After securing the port, they march south along the coastline, supported by elements of the Royal Navy.

1868

Jan The United States lands troops in Veracruz. General Chamberlain fortifies the city and sits tight.

Feb Texican and British forces push towards Mexico City from two directions. As British shells land in the outskirts of the city, Maximilian I sues for peace through his French sponsors.

May 27 The Treaty of Paris of 1868 ends the Maximilian War. Texas receives the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua and the French-held Pacific island of New Caledonia in the treaty. The British receive Baja California. (Details of Treaty are in Appendix 2).

Jun 01 The United States claims all Mexican territory north of Sonora and Chihuahua, which has been separated from the rest of Mexico through the loss of Sonora and Chihuahua to Texas. Exhausted from four years of war, Mexico can do nothing more than write angry letters to the US Congress. Sentiment in the Republic runs against Americans for “seizing lands that Texican boys died winning.” Eventually, the United States will make a token payment of $15 million to Mexico in exchange for a treaty recognizing the United States’ legal possession of the territory in question.

July 14 Provinces Amendment proposed on House floor by Rep. Juan de Castro of Santa Fe County. The amendment will pass for ratification on Jun 29, 1868, and is presented for referendum on Nov 03, 1868.

Nov 03 Provinces Amendment passes referendum in landslide. Modern political scientists studying this referendum believe that the landslide is a function of voter apathy – only those who cared voted.

Nov 24 Franklin-Cline Expedition departs from El Paso. Two engineering officers, Lieutenants William Franklin and Roger Cline (TAM ’64) and 40 men begin surveying the newly acquired Provinces of Chihuahua and Sonora for mineral wealth and rail lines.

1869

Jan 15 President Robert Byington Mitchell sends mapping/surveying and engineering construction crews along with an infantry battalion consisting of 373 men, in two brigs (the Nacogdoches and San Salvador) to establish military and naval bases on New Caledonia

Mar 01 The Republic flag is hoisted in the Zephyrs (formerly Noumea) town square, as the Republic takes control of the island of New Caledonia. The people are friendly and welcome their new countrymen.

1870

Dec 20 Construction is completed on the new Navy base located at Zephyrs and the new Army base located at Fort Hood (formerly Mont-Dore) on New Caledonia. Maps and representatives of the island return to the capital in Houston.

1871

Sep 12 Franklin-Klein Expedition returns to El Paso after almost three years of exploration and surveying. Reports of the vast mineral wealth in the new provinces start the Sonoran Gold Rush. Hundreds of thousands of prospectors from the Republic and the United States rush into the new Province with their families, hoping to stake a valuable claim. Many are recent Irish immigrants; thanks largely to a shared Roman Catholic religion, in a few decades intermarriage between Irish and Sonorans leads to children named Maeve Hernandez or Juan O’Flaherty.

Dec 11 Richard Coke elected to presidency.

1872

Mar 07 New weapons trials held for Republic armed forces. Army and Navy adopt British-patent Martini-Henry breech-loading rifles and carbines as standard issue weapon. The new Santa Fe Arsenal begins to build Martini-Henry rifles under contract for Republic forces. The Colt Revolver Company wins a contract to provide the Model 1872 Single Action Revolver to the Republic. The 1-inch Gatling gun is approved for naval and field artillery service, and sixty are purchased as ‘surplus to service requirements’ from the United States.

May 12 Comanche tribal leaders ask Republic government agents to prevent the migration of whites across tribal lands as they travel to the Sonoran gold fields. While the government agrees to help, little real effort is made to slow the tide of gold rushers crossing tribal lands.

Oct 14 A group of white prospectors violates a sacred Comanche burial ground in Hutchinson County. Fed up with the lack of response from the government, a war party of young Comanches ambush and kill the gold rushers.

Oct 17 ‘A’ Troop of the 2^nd Rangers Squadron finds the remains of the victims of the Hutchinson County Massacre while on routine patrol. The troop immediately tracks the braves (who were not too careful to avoid leaving tracks) back to their village of Tekwapu Iniwa, and attempt to arrest the killers. The Comanches resist, and A Troop is forced to retreat, leaving one dead Ranger and four dead Comanches behind. This embarrassing incident sparks what has come to be called the Comanche War.

Nov 10 Red Bull, a Comanche war chief, takes control of the Tribal Council and starts what amounts to an undeclared war against whites in all of western San Jacinto Province. He uses roving bands of surprisingly well-armed warriors (some of them decorated veterans of the Maximilian War) to hunt for whites trying to cross Comanche lands. Railroad tracks are a favorite target.

Nov 30 The Provincial Governments of San Jacinto, Chihuahua and Santa Fe petition the Republic government to use troops to put down the Comanche uprising. Congress passes the Comanche Pacification Act, which finances the operations against the Comanche and sets forth terms for ending the hostilities.

1873

Jan 26 The Texican Rail Corporation begins to add armed and armored cars to their trains to discourage attacks by Comanche war bands.

May 31 Congress enacts the Compulsory Education Act. It creates a permanent agency to oversee public education in the Republic. It also requires that all children aged 6 to 16 attend public schools at least eight months a year. Property taxes are increased to pay for additional schools and teachers. Schools remain racially segregated, divided between whites and ‘colored’ schools.

1874

Feb 28 Large Comanche war party of 347 warriors begins raiding along the frontier areas of western San Jacinto. A large force of Republic Camelry and Cavalry drive the Comanches into a trap, where two regiments of infantry are waiting. Virtually every warrior is killed in the short battle. This is the last significant action of the Comanche War.

Mar 16 Following the loss of his largest remaining war party, Chief Red Bull agrees to a new treaty. His people are disarmed and forced onto reservations in northwestern San Jacinto. Comanche citizenship is revoked until 1914.

1875

May 05 The five ships of the Chilean Navy fire upon the four ships transferring to the newly established Guayamas Naval Base (former CSA and USA ironclads sold to the Republic for $5,000 a piece). The new ships (former CSS Stonewall (Guayamas), Mississippi (Chihuahua), North Carolina (Sonora), and the USS Dunderberg (Hermosillo)) returned fire and sunk the five inferior Chilean vessels.

Sep 15 Chile and the Republic sign a cease-fire and two days later the conflict ends.

1876

Jun 25 Colonel George Armstrong Custer, believing he only needs one more great victory to secure his bid for president, dies at the Battle of Little Bighorn, along with a good number of Seventh Cavalry troopers at the hands of 2,000 Sioux warriors.

Jul 04 United States celebrate their Centennial, marred slightly by the news of the recent deaths of Colonel Custer and 200 of his troopers at the hands of the Sioux.