Texas held unique spot in Civil War

Granger's decree in Galveston freed the slaves years after Lincoln's proclamation

Photo of Andrew Dansby

Fitting for a man who hailed from a New York town called Joy, grave-faced Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston on June 19, 1865, and initiated a celebration that continues to this day.


More than two years had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation, and two months since Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered. President Abraham Lincoln had been dead two months. The Army of the Trans-Mississippi had surrendered just a few weeks earlier.

So news of freedom moved slowly, but the response by some of the quarter-million enslaved people in Texas to the arrival of Granger and 1,800 Union troops was that of joy loosened. Though even then, it loosened such that word would not spread quickly. Some plantation masters waited to deliver the news. Some waited for enforcement to take any action. But one year later, that date, "Juneteenth," became a point of celebration that has in the 150 years since marked the end of something and the beginning of something.

The lag between the Proclamation and General Order No. 3 speaks to Texas' unique space in the Civil War.

More Information

juneteenth emancipation celebration

When:June 18

Where: Emancipation Park, 3018 Dowling

What:Festival celebrates the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19 with a concert series in the city's largest public venue. The celebration showcases performers whose style of playing represents an element of the African-American musical tradition, which encompasses such genres as jazz,blues and funk.

on the bayou

Texas formalized Juneteenth in 1980, recognizing it as an official state holiday. The celebration has spread across the U.S., even as far north as New York. Last year, La Crosse, Wis., hosted its first Juneteenth event.

The first 10 years of Texas' statehood saw the peculiar institution become a formidable institution under the same justification as other states: economic necessity. An estimated 5,000 enslaved men and women were in the state in 1836, and six times as many a decade later. By 1861 the number had veered upward past 200,000. Some were captive in Houston and Galveston, though the majority were held in rural areas where cotton grew.

The starting point for slavery was later in this region, though, because Mexico abolished it in 1829. Six years and one revolution later, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas opened up business again for the practice, which quickly grew.

Sam Houston was governor in 1861 and opposed to violent conflict between the states, which he envisioned as spelling certain doom for the South. He oversaw the state's secession in February 1861 but refused to take an oath to the Confederate States of America the following month. This spelled his ouster: Houston was replaced in March 1861 by the lieutenant governor and Texas joined the Confederacy.

When war broke out between the states, Texas didn't have federal troops breach its border and into its interior until the war was declared over. Which isn't to say Houston - the city - had no part in the war itself.

Homegrown military companies flourished in the years after the Texas Revolution ended. By 1861, members of the Washington Light Guards, which transformed into the Bayou City Guards, and the Milam Rifles were leaving Texas for combat to the east.

A tough Kentuckian who later settled in Texas, John Bell Hood resigned his commission with the U.S. military in April 1861 and quickly shot up the ranks in the Confederate Army after distinguishing himself in several major battles. He briefly led a brigade in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia that came to take on his name - Hood's Brigade - which included the greatest concentration of Texas troops who fought in the Eastern Theater. Hood lost use of one arm at Gettysburg and later lost a leg at Chickamauga, which ended his leadership of that brigade.

He planned to resume his service back in Texas when the Confederacy came unraveled. That collapse occurred while Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith sat in Houston in command of a quickly disintegrating Army of the Trans-Mississippi (soldiers from Texas, Arkansas and parts of Louisiana). Confederate forces in Texas had been cut off from the east when Union naval forces took control of the Mississippi River. Morale deteriorated as news of the war's impending end traveled from the east to the west.

Hood and Smith surrendered about the same time in late May and early June 1865. Hood surrendered in Natchez, and Smith in Galveston. Smith promptly fled the country.

Days later, on June 10, Gen. Granger was placed in command of the U.S. Army's Department of Texas. He set up headquarters in Galveston and made the famed proclamation on June 19. He nullified Confederate laws, released Confederate soldiers and confiscated property like cotton as compensation. Granger urged freed men to continue working on plantations, but only after signing labor agreements.

While there was celebration on June 19, 1865, there were also acts of violence against freed men and women. But a year passed, and the day became a point of celebration, particularly to freed slaves who found hypocrisy in the celebration of July 4, which marked a dubious equality nearly 90 years earlier.

Juneteenth stuck around, an annual day of celebration. Awareness of the day would wane at times over the years, though it began to rise again during the Civil Rights era of the 1900s. Texas formalized the day in 1980, recognizing Juneteenth as an official state holiday.

Galveston and Houston, naturally, have long-running traditions with celebrations involving live music and food. But ripples from those celebrations have moved further away: Los Angeles and New York both host Juneteenth celebrations. Last year La Crosse, Wis., hosted its first ever Juneteenth event.

Juneteenth.com describes it as "a worldwide celebration," using an event 151 years ago in Galveston as a flash point for freedom.