 |
Naval Gazing Way up yonder in the top shelves of the Panhandle, just north of the bend in the Canadian River that backs up behind Sanford Dam to form Lake Meredith, lies Moore County. Moore County is north of just about every significant body of water in Texas, and a very long way from the Gulf of Mexico. That's strange when you think about it, because Moore County was named after Edwin Ward Moore, Commodore of the Texas Navy; the intrepid, inventive, never-say-die naval commander who single-handedly built the fledgling Republic's naval forces from scratch despite being perennially under-funded, understaffed, and to this day, underappreciated. Besides miraculously keeping his shoestring navy afloat on a day to day basis, Moore achieved at least one victory that most would have called impossible. On April 27, 1843, while Texas' still simmering troubles with Mexico were threatening to boil over into another full-scale war, Moore led a two-ship force consisting of the Stephen F. Austin and the Wharton -- both wooden sailing ships -- against two brand new, vastly superior Mexican warships, the Montezuma and the Guadaloupe. Both the latter were steam-propelled and armed with powerful new Paixhans guns, the first naval guns to fire explosive shells. But under Moore's command, the Texas ships outmaneuvered and out-shot the Mexicans, winning an important victory against incredible odds -- not the least of which was Sam Houston's constant efforts to destroy the Texas Navy through willful neglect, non-appropriation, chicanery, and finally, court-martial. Houston, in fact, charged Moore with disobeying orders during the April 1843 battle and had him tried for disobedience, contumacy, mutiny, piracy, and murder. The court-martial proceedings, however, acquitted Moore on all but four minor charges. Besides its unique commander, the Texas naval forces had at least one other ace up their sleeve: the Texas Navy's official flag so closely resembled that of the United States' that many a Mexican ship sailed within range of the Texans' guns before realizing the error, an error that had just cost them their ship and its valuable stores of booty. You can read more about Moore and the Texas Navy, and all sorts of historical happenings off the Texas coast in two new books slated for publication in March by University of Texas Press. From Sail to Steam: Four Centuries of Texas Maritime History, 1500-1900, by Richard V. Francaviglia, reaches all the way back to the Spanish flotilla that wrecked off Padre Island in 1554, La Salle's expedition to Matagorda (see early February's Texana Ranger), and includes the latest archeological discoveries about these and other shipwrecks. The book also covers the Texas Navy, the Civil War battles at Galveston and Sabine Pass, and the major maritime developments of the late nineteenth century, concluding with the disastrous Galveston hurricane of 1900. More limited in scope but just as highly anticipated is Battle on the Bay: The Civil War Struggle for Galveston, by Edward T. Cotham, Jr. Also employing onsite research and archival material such as maps and rare historical photographs, Cotham chronicles the Civil War experience in Galveston, including battles in the Bay and in the city, and of course, includes the very exciting Battle of Galveston Bay on New Years Day 1863, in which the spunky Confederate "cottonclads" whipped the Union navy and retook the city. Before sailing away, I'd like to point out that trivia king L.M. Boyd, a literary hero of mine, echoed the theme of my last column in his syndicated column in the Austin American-Statesman (2-13-98). He said: "Not many people outside Texas thinks of that state as one of the great coastal quarters of the nation. But it is." It's good to know I'm not alone at sea. (2/15/98) |
|
The Internet is literally awash with Civil War history stuff; some of the particularly good naval sites are listed below:
Become a virtual pirate. Join the Jean Lafitte Society Visit USS Lexington, one of the hardest working aircraft carriers of WWII, now anchored in Corpus Christi Bay. 
Index of Civil War naval forces Civil War Ironclads page (A five-star site with great, informative and reliable content and tons of links).
|
