This Day In Texas History - March 12
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:31 am
1685 - The warship Joly, departs LaSalle's settlement near Matagorda, and sets sail for France, leaving La Salle and his remaining settlers stranded in the wilderness. France never returned with more supplies. Just three years before, LaSalle traveled down the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes, and claimed the river and it's tributaries for France. Now, landing in Texas, and searching for the mouth of the Mississippi, LaSalle explores much of Texas, as far east as the Piney Woods, west as far as the Pecos River, and south all the way to the Rio Grande.
Because of his explorations throughout Texas, many held that Texas belonged to the French rather than the Spanish. The matter was not settled when Louisiana was sold by the French to the United States in 1803. Many still held that Texas was part of that Louisiana Purchase, and migrated from Louisiana into Texas under that belief. It was not until 1819, that the United States gave up it's claim to Texas (under the Louisiana Purchase), in exchange for Spain relinquishing claim to Florida. Early expeditions and settlements in East Texas and the coastal areas, were due in great part to LaSalle's ill fated landing at Matagorda and his establishment of Fort Saint Louis.
1829 - A grant was awarded to Lorenzo de Zavala to begin settling families in Texas.
1834,- BEALES'S RIO GRANDE COLONY was founded. On November 11, 1833, the Amos Wright sailed from New York for Texas with fifty-nine men, women, and children aboard, the vanguard of a proposed colony backed by the Rio Grande and Texas Land Company and under command of John Charles Beales. The site chosen for the colony was on Las Moras Creek, a short distance down the Rio Grande from Presidio del Rio Grande and a few miles up the creek from its confluence with the river. The emigrants–American, English, German, and Spanish American–planted their settlement here.
1836 - The Battle of Rufugio begins. Fannin dispatched William Ward(commander of the Georgia Battalion; about 120 men) to Amon B. King's( Kentucky volunteers) aid on March 12, a move that disastrously split his forces to near Refugio. Although Ward and the Georgia Battalion successfully reinforced King, both commanders unwisely elected not to return directly to Goliad, a decision that resulted in King and Ward's defeat by Urrea and an army of 1,500 men in the battle of Refugio.
{Note: At this point in time the Texan armed forces are in a state of confuson. Word is being spread that the Alamo has fallen, at a time when Gen. Houston is organizing, training and preparing for a strike against the Mexicans. The time line is compressing...again)
1836 - The general convention of the provisional government adopted a resolution offered by George C. Childress providing for "a single star of five points, either of gold or silver" as the "peculiar emblem" of the Republic of Texas. There is no known record that this emblem was ever used as an actual seal. The Constitution of the republic provided, "There shall be a seal of the republic, which shall be kept by the president, and used by him officially; it shall be called the Great Seal Of The Republic Of Texas."
1836 - Luke A. Falvel was commissioned captain of the Flash. On the same day, the crew was sworn in. The vessel was a privateer fitted out for service in the Texas Revolution. Privateers, private ships carrying letters of marque from the Republic of Texas, were used to supplement the small Texas Navy. The Flash was ordered to proceed to the Brazos River to pick up victims of the Runaway Scrape, take them to Morgan's Point, and defend that place in case of a Mexican attack. The ship sailed on several more missions before it ran aground and was lost in May 1837.
1836 - Charles Edward Hawkins, commander of the newly acquired Independence in the Texas Navy(formerly the United States revenue cutter Ingham), took The Independence to New Orleans for refitting. He then returned to Matagorda and was promoted to the rank of commodore and command of the entire Texas Navy.
1860 - Columbus Dad Joiner, who finds the East Texas Oil Field, is born in Alabama.
1864 - The Red River campaign began. The Union goal was to capture everything along the Red River in Louisiana and continue into Texas. None of the objectives were achieved.
1914 – The battleship USS Texas was commissioned for service. It was 573 feet long with a beam of ninety-five feet, and it displaced 27,000 tons. It had two four-cylinder steam engines developing 28,100 horsepower, driving two three-blade propellers with diameters of nearly nineteen feet. The ship had fourteen coal-burning boilers and was designed for a speed of twenty-one knots in a four-hour speed trial and nineteen knots in a twenty-four-hour endurance trial. The USS Texas served in the Atlantic Fleet during World War I. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the USS Texas was the flagship for the bombardment group supporting the Allied landings on Omaha Beach. By February 1945 the battleship was in the Pacific and supported the landings at Iwo Jima, remaining offshore until March 7. On March 26 it supported the landings at Okinawa, and on May 17, 1945, returned to the Philippines.
1920 - Approximately 1,600 dockworkers in Galveston went on strike as part of a nationwide walkout. The ensuing battle between organized labor and open-shop factions stretched on for months. The Mallory and Morgan steamship lines used scab workers to combat the strikers, who were members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). The company employed white scabs to replace black ILA locals and black scabs to replace white ILA workers to inflame racial tensions.
In an effort to prevent violence, Governor William P. Hobby deployed a detachment of Texas Rangers, and the Mallory company, fearful of conflict, suspended its Galveston operations. In June the governor declared martial law and dispatched 1,000 national guard troops. Eventually negotiations between the city of Galveston and the state government led to the withdrawal of the national guard, and Galveston ILA locals finally resumed work between December 1920 and July 1921, but with a smaller pay increase than they had sought. Ultimately, the dispute was a factor that helped foster antilabor attitudes among business and political entities in the state. [for more info: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /oeg2.html ]
1941 - On this date in 1941, the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi was commissioned.
1967 - A record number of visitors went to the Diamond M Museum in Snyder, Texas, to see Peter Hurd's official portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson, which Johnson had rejected and declared "the ugliest thing I ever saw." The Johnson portrait episode inspired the punning comment that "artists should be seen around the White House--but not Hurd." The Diamond M Museum put the portrait on display just before it was moved to the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where it hangs today.
Because of his explorations throughout Texas, many held that Texas belonged to the French rather than the Spanish. The matter was not settled when Louisiana was sold by the French to the United States in 1803. Many still held that Texas was part of that Louisiana Purchase, and migrated from Louisiana into Texas under that belief. It was not until 1819, that the United States gave up it's claim to Texas (under the Louisiana Purchase), in exchange for Spain relinquishing claim to Florida. Early expeditions and settlements in East Texas and the coastal areas, were due in great part to LaSalle's ill fated landing at Matagorda and his establishment of Fort Saint Louis.
1829 - A grant was awarded to Lorenzo de Zavala to begin settling families in Texas.
1834,- BEALES'S RIO GRANDE COLONY was founded. On November 11, 1833, the Amos Wright sailed from New York for Texas with fifty-nine men, women, and children aboard, the vanguard of a proposed colony backed by the Rio Grande and Texas Land Company and under command of John Charles Beales. The site chosen for the colony was on Las Moras Creek, a short distance down the Rio Grande from Presidio del Rio Grande and a few miles up the creek from its confluence with the river. The emigrants–American, English, German, and Spanish American–planted their settlement here.
1836 - The Battle of Rufugio begins. Fannin dispatched William Ward(commander of the Georgia Battalion; about 120 men) to Amon B. King's( Kentucky volunteers) aid on March 12, a move that disastrously split his forces to near Refugio. Although Ward and the Georgia Battalion successfully reinforced King, both commanders unwisely elected not to return directly to Goliad, a decision that resulted in King and Ward's defeat by Urrea and an army of 1,500 men in the battle of Refugio.
{Note: At this point in time the Texan armed forces are in a state of confuson. Word is being spread that the Alamo has fallen, at a time when Gen. Houston is organizing, training and preparing for a strike against the Mexicans. The time line is compressing...again)
1836 - The general convention of the provisional government adopted a resolution offered by George C. Childress providing for "a single star of five points, either of gold or silver" as the "peculiar emblem" of the Republic of Texas. There is no known record that this emblem was ever used as an actual seal. The Constitution of the republic provided, "There shall be a seal of the republic, which shall be kept by the president, and used by him officially; it shall be called the Great Seal Of The Republic Of Texas."
1836 - Luke A. Falvel was commissioned captain of the Flash. On the same day, the crew was sworn in. The vessel was a privateer fitted out for service in the Texas Revolution. Privateers, private ships carrying letters of marque from the Republic of Texas, were used to supplement the small Texas Navy. The Flash was ordered to proceed to the Brazos River to pick up victims of the Runaway Scrape, take them to Morgan's Point, and defend that place in case of a Mexican attack. The ship sailed on several more missions before it ran aground and was lost in May 1837.
1836 - Charles Edward Hawkins, commander of the newly acquired Independence in the Texas Navy(formerly the United States revenue cutter Ingham), took The Independence to New Orleans for refitting. He then returned to Matagorda and was promoted to the rank of commodore and command of the entire Texas Navy.
1860 - Columbus Dad Joiner, who finds the East Texas Oil Field, is born in Alabama.
1864 - The Red River campaign began. The Union goal was to capture everything along the Red River in Louisiana and continue into Texas. None of the objectives were achieved.
1914 – The battleship USS Texas was commissioned for service. It was 573 feet long with a beam of ninety-five feet, and it displaced 27,000 tons. It had two four-cylinder steam engines developing 28,100 horsepower, driving two three-blade propellers with diameters of nearly nineteen feet. The ship had fourteen coal-burning boilers and was designed for a speed of twenty-one knots in a four-hour speed trial and nineteen knots in a twenty-four-hour endurance trial. The USS Texas served in the Atlantic Fleet during World War I. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the USS Texas was the flagship for the bombardment group supporting the Allied landings on Omaha Beach. By February 1945 the battleship was in the Pacific and supported the landings at Iwo Jima, remaining offshore until March 7. On March 26 it supported the landings at Okinawa, and on May 17, 1945, returned to the Philippines.
1920 - Approximately 1,600 dockworkers in Galveston went on strike as part of a nationwide walkout. The ensuing battle between organized labor and open-shop factions stretched on for months. The Mallory and Morgan steamship lines used scab workers to combat the strikers, who were members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). The company employed white scabs to replace black ILA locals and black scabs to replace white ILA workers to inflame racial tensions.
In an effort to prevent violence, Governor William P. Hobby deployed a detachment of Texas Rangers, and the Mallory company, fearful of conflict, suspended its Galveston operations. In June the governor declared martial law and dispatched 1,000 national guard troops. Eventually negotiations between the city of Galveston and the state government led to the withdrawal of the national guard, and Galveston ILA locals finally resumed work between December 1920 and July 1921, but with a smaller pay increase than they had sought. Ultimately, the dispute was a factor that helped foster antilabor attitudes among business and political entities in the state. [for more info: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /oeg2.html ]
1941 - On this date in 1941, the Naval Air Station at Corpus Christi was commissioned.
1967 - A record number of visitors went to the Diamond M Museum in Snyder, Texas, to see Peter Hurd's official portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson, which Johnson had rejected and declared "the ugliest thing I ever saw." The Johnson portrait episode inspired the punning comment that "artists should be seen around the White House--but not Hurd." The Diamond M Museum put the portrait on display just before it was moved to the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where it hangs today.