Shipbucket

Great work Redhorse! I'm looking forward to seeing the additional details you're planning for the Lone Star Republic that could have been.

My podcast, Come and Take It, did a two part episode earlier this year on the history of the Texas Navy, partially inspired by this thread!
http://brainstaple.com/comeandtakeit/ep ... y-part-one
http://brainstaple.com/comeandtakeit/ep ... y-part-two

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Sean McIver
Texan
Co-Host of Come and Take It, a podcast about Texas
brainstaple.com/comeandtakeit

Nice work with the firearms!

Can't wait for Red to get to the Aviation eras! Eagerly looking forward to the ACW Era as well!

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

Republic of Texas, 1860-69

I. Introduction

Texas faced enormous diplomatic, military, and economic challenges between 1860 and 1869. The American Civil War placed the Republic in an uncomfortable position between its strongest ally, the pro-abolition United States, and the fellow pro-slavery Confederate States. The Texas Army and Navy suffered resignations and desertions of many officers and men who were drawn into the conflict between the two, organizing units of expatriates fighting for both sides. The war also created problems on the frontier as Indians took advantage of the American Army’s absence on the plains.

The 1862 French intervention in Mexico increased the European presence in the Gulf of Mexico, and relations with that country were strained as Texas openly tolerated movement of Mexican Nationalists across the Rio Grande. Congress authorized increases in the Army and the Navy in response to the increased threats.

A massive economic depression struck the Republic between 1865 and 1869, driven by the end of the war in America (from which Texas had benefited monetarily), massive drought, and a drastic reduction in cotton exports to Europe. Pressured by European powers and the United States, Texas prohibited importing slaves, repealed the prohibition on freed blacks in the Republic, and enacted an emancipation process to eliminate slave labor altogether.

These changes created a great deal of internal unrest and lawlessness for several years, and social volatility continued as the Texas struggled with agricultural depression and labor issues.

II. Geography

• a. Area
  • • Total Area: 268,581 mi2/696,241 km2
    • Land: 261,866 mi2/678,835 km2
    • Water: 6715 mi2/17,406 km2
  b. Country Comparison to the World: 40
  c. Land Boundaries
  • • Total: 2845 mi/4552 km
    • Countries: United States, Mexico
  d. Coastline: 367 mi/591 km
  e. Climate: The size of Texas and location at the intersection of multiple climate zones gives it highly variable weather.
  f. Terrain: Gulf Coastal Plains, Interior Lowlands, Great Plains, and Basin and Range Province.
  g. Natural Resources: timber, arable land, coal, gypsum
  h. Natural Hazards: thunderstorms, tornados, and hurricanes

III. People and Society

• a. Ethnic Groups: White Texans; American, German, Irish and English Immigrants; Free and Enslaved Blacks, Mexicans, varied Indian tribes
  b. Language: English
  c. Population: 421,649 (1860)

IV. Government

• a. Type: Unitary Federal Republic
  b. Capitol: Austin
  c. Administrative Divisions: 30 Congressional Districts; 153 counties, expanded to 159 counties by 1869

V. Economy

• a. Budget (1860-69 average)
  • • Revenues: $3,082,743 TXD
    • Expenditures: $3,853,428 TXD
  b. Agriculture Products: cotton, corn, sugar cane, wheat, beef cattle, horses, sheep,
  c. Industries: iron
  d. Exports: cotton, hides, lumber
  e. Imports: iron, manufactured goods

VI. Transportation

• a. Roads: 31 stage coach lines
  b. Railways: 506 mi/809.6 km among 8 incorporated companies
  c. Waterways: 5 navigable rivers (Sabine, Trinity, Colorado, Brazos, Rio Grande)
  d. Ports: Galveston, Sabine Pass, Lavaca, Indianola, Brazos Santiago

VII. Military and Security

• a. Military Branches:
  • • Regular: Army (2700 personnel), Navy and Marines (1400 personnel and 10 ships)
    • Militia (37,948 available for service)
    • Rangers (irregular number of 56-100-man volunteer companies mustered for 6 months’ service)
  b. Military Service Age and Obligation: compulsory militia enrollment for all white males between the ages of 18 and 45
  c. Military Expenditures: $1,403,232 TXD (average 1860-69); 46% of Budget Expenditures

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

The brig Bosque was authorized in 1859 and commissioned two years later in 1861. She was identical to her sisters in the Angelina Class, except for her armament.

In 1860 the Ordnance Bureau tested breech-loading Armstrong guns, and found them to be superior in rate of fire and accuracy to the muzzle-loaders then in use. From 1862 on, all Texas Navy ships will utilize breech-loading guns.

But Bosque was armed with new ideas on an old hull. The worlds's navies were rapidly adopting steam propulsion and the Naval Staff wanted to keep pace. The opportunity came in 1860 when Congress doubled the authorized strength of the Navy. The basic plan was to double the size of the fleet in every respect and take advantage of the latest in technological developments.

The first of the new ships was the Invincible, the second ship to bear that name in the Texas Navy. But because the Navy Yard had no experience with building a vessel with a steam plant or a screw propeller and all the US yards were busy with war construction, she was laid down in England.



She resembled many of the Confederate commerce raiders also built in England at the same time, which caused considerable confusion and a few 'near incidents' with American ships.

Armed with one 110lb, one 68lb, and twelve 32lb Armstrongs, she was well armed. Her steam plant, under full sail, could push her along at 14 knots.

The budget crisis late in the decade will postpone the customary five year refit, which will ultimately end her service life early in the 1870s.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

Doubling the size of the Navy also meant doubling the number of dispatch vessels. A second Brutus was put on the slipways at the Galveston Navy yard and launched in 1863:



Like her sister, the Liberty, Brutus also functioned as a revenue cutter when embarked with Customs Agents instead of Marines.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

In 1862 the Texas Navy committed to its most ambitious project yet. Capitalizing on an emerging iron works industrial base, and after gathering practical knowledge of sail/steam operations on the Invincible, the Naval Staff proposed to construct a "composite" ship: iron frames, and a double layer wood hull under copper sheathing. Like her bigger cousin, this ship would also utilize a lifting screw propeller and make efficient use of breech-loading guns.

The design produced was the Brazos, a barquentine rigged ship, called a Corvette in the Royal Navy's vernacular.



Unfortunately, she came with a whopping pricetag: $370,000. The Invincible was a larger ship and had cost only $250,000. Congress balked when it could not fund the Brazos in a single fiscal year, and an agreement was reached to split the cost over two years. Expensive as she was, most Congressmen were unwilling to pass on the opportunity to support budding industries in Texas.

Though it delayed her commissioning by a year, Brazos was a handsome ship, and only two knots slower than the Invincible. Her armament of one 68lb RBL, one 32lb RBL, and six 20lb RBLs was more efficiently arranged than the Invincible.

A second ship, the Colorado, was authorized in 1864, but the economic crisis of the next four years rendered her incomplete when funds dried up. Her frames were scrapped on the ways and sold to recover as much of the $185,000 spent as possible.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

The most interesting ships of the decade were the two sidewheel casemate ironclads, Bayou City and Neptune. After the Battle of Hampton Roads, the Navy was very interested in developing a knowledge base around armored ships.

Bayou City and Neptune were originally mail packets of the Houston Navigation Company, which ran the 165' sidewheel steamers to and from Galveston in competition with other lines and the railroads. Both ships were purchased for $25,000 each and converted at J.H. Levingston's yard on the Sabine River. The process from purchase to commission took less than a year, and was the most economical of the building programs that decade.



They were armed with a pair of 110lb RBLs and a pair of 20lb RBLs. They were slow and "handled like pigs" according to their Captains, but their 5'-6" draft allowed them to operate in Galveston Bay and just offshore where conventional ships could not go. Effectively, they could out-range anything they could not out-shoot from the safety of shallow waters.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

When the Texas economy suffered severe depression from 1865-1869, the Navy's ambitions for a twelve-ship Navy lost to the Army's more important mission of securing the land borders with the US and Mexico. The French did not leave until 1867 and needed watching on the Rio Grande, the Comanche and their allies had driven the line of settlement back 100 miles in the west, and scores of Confederate and Union deserters poured over the Red River and the Sabine (closely followed by abolitionist troublemakers from Kansas called Jayhawks.)

The Navy cut costs wherever it could, selling off older vessels instead of replacing them, reducing the amount of time spent at sea, and delaying refits until revenue recovered. The end result was a disappointment - the Texas Navy ended its decade with the same number of ships as it had in 1860.

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Redhorse

Current Projects:
Republic of Texas Navy
FD Scale F-14s

Excellent drawings Redhorse. Good thread on-par with the previous one (though I think the drawings now are better in quality)

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Thank you Kim for the crest

"Never fear to try on something new. Remember that the Titanic was built by professionals, and the Ark by an amateur"