Reflections on the Past: The Southwestern Historical Quarterly and the Civil War Era

Abstract

Reflections on the Past:The Southwestern Historical Quarterly and the Civil War Era Robert Wooster (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution The first page of Guy M. Bryan's "Address to the People of the State of Texas," published in the January 1954 issue of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. University of North Texas Libraries, the Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu. [End Page 464] From its inception, the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) and its quarterly publication, The Southwestern Historical Quarterly (titled The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association from 1897 to 1912), have had close links with the American Civil War. The Association's first president, O. M. Roberts, had presided over the Texas secession convention, and among the first vice presidents was Guy M. Bryan, a planter and politician who had served during the war as de facto chief of staff to General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. The first Executive Council also included Francis R. Lubbock, the state's wartime governor until 1863. Other former Confederates closely involved in the Association's formation were John S. (Rip) Ford, the renowned Texas Ranger who led Confederate forces in the last battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch, Texas; John H. Reagan, postmaster general of the Confederacy; and Battle of San Jacinto veteran William P. Zuber, who fought with the Twenty-first Texas Cavalry Regiment from 1862 to 1864.1 This historical connection was quickly evidenced in accord with the TSHA constitution, which identified its goals as including "the discovery, collection, preservation, and publication of historical material, especially such as relates to Texas." The Quarterly would soon publish biographical [End Page 465] sketches of Bryan, Reagan, and John Marshall, commander of the Fourth Texas Infantry Regiment killed in the fighting at Gaines' Mill, Virginia (June 27, 1862). More significant were the direct contributions on Civil War-era subjects by these early leaders. Lubbock penned a short biography of Confederate general Hamilton P. Bee, a long-time Texan who had served in South Texas during his administration. In a similar vein, the Quarterly's second issue featured Ford's description of a July 1865 skirmish with Kickapoo Indians along the Frio River. Reagan also recalled his conversation on the eve of secession with then-Governor Sam Houston, and Roberts described his unsuccessful efforts as an ex-Confederate to take a seat in the postwar United States Senate.2 Publication of primary source materials became a vital element of the Quarterly's early contribution to scholarship on the Civil War era. Especially notable was Guy Bryan's correspondence with his old Kenyon College friend, Rutherford B. Hayes, published in twenty issues of the Quarterly between 1921 and 1926. These letters, mostly written after 1865 by a Confederate Democrat and a Federal Republican, offer extraordinary insights into the nation's efforts to reform itself in the wake of its bloodiest conflict. Bryan's formal call for secession, written following Abraham Lincoln's election as president, would also be published three decades later.3 During these early years, primary materials related to the Civil War usually featured the letters and reminiscences of soldiers who either fought against the Union or joined frontier companies to protect the interests of non-Indians in the state's western borderlands. They often described their Civil War experiences in the context of their broader lives in Texas. Especially illustrative were the letters of William P. Rogers, a Mexican War veteran and ardent secessionist who commanded the Second Texas Infantry Regiment. Writing to his wife, Rogers admitted that "we lost many of our best and noblest" in the bloody defeat at Shiloh, Tennessee (April 6–7, 1862), and revealed a misconception shared by many Southerners: "Two to one we can whip them but if we contend with greater odds the result will be doubtful." The Quarterly also secured J. K. P. Blackburn's lengthy [End Page 466] reminiscences of his service with one of the state's most famous Confederate units in the war's Western Theater, Terry's Texas Rangers (officially the Eighth Texas Cavalry Regiment).4 Early secondary works appearing in...