Colonel McCulloch, acting under orders of commissioners from Austin, demanded the surrender of all military posts and supplies in the State of Texas. General Twiggs on the 18th of February made a formal surrender of the department. The United States troops were paroled and marched to Indianola on the coast, where the Star of the West, an unarmed United States steamer, was waiting to take them home.
But when they reached Indianola (18th of April) the Star of the West and the gunboat Mohawk, which had been guarding her, had both disappeared. The officer in command was in a quandary. He did not know what to do. At length he placed his troops on two schooners and sailed across the Matagorda Bay to the Gulf.
In the meantime, on the 12th of April, at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, the first gun of the Civil War had been fired. The struggle between the States had begun.
General Earl Van Dorn, of the Confederate army, was at this time in command of the military department of Texas. His headquarters were at Galveston. The island which the pirate Lafitte had left lone and deserted when he sailed away in the Pride now teemed with a busy and prosperous people. The huts of Campeachy were replaced by stately mansions, and beautiful gardens bloomed where sandy wastes had been.
Several companies of soldiers were encamped without the city, awaiting marching orders. General Van Dorn entered the camp one day, and after a brief speech called for volunteers for an expedition which he was about to undertake. The Galveston Artillery, the Island City Rifles, and an Irish company called the Wigfall Guards, at once stepped forward, eager for duty.
The next night (17th of April), about midnight, the steamboat General Rusk, with these volunteers on board, drew up alongside the Star of the West, lying in the Gulf of Mexico, off Indianola. Captain Howe, of the United States steamer, hearing himself hailed, came on deck, and supposing these to be the United States troops he was expecting, he politely ordered the General Rusk to be made fast to his own boat. In a twinkling the Confederate soldiers were aboard of the Star of the West demanding its surrender.
“To what flag am I asked to surrender?” asked the astonished captain. Ensign Duggan of the Wigfall Guards displayed the Lone Star flag of Texas, and in his richest brogue exclaimed: “That’s it! Look at it, me byes. Did ye iver see the Texas flag on an Irish jackstaff before?”[38]
Captain Howe, having neither arms nor soldiers, surrendered, and the Star of the West followed the General Rusk to Galveston.
This was why the United States troops the next morning (April 18) found no steamer to carry them away. The two schooners upon which they embarked were also captured several days later, having on board eight hundred officers and men, with three hundred fine rifles and a large quantity of camp supplies.
But the Confederacy had no means of protecting the long stretch of Texas coast. In July a blockading squadron—that is, a fleet of armed vessels to prevent ships from entering or leaving the harbor—was stationed in the Gulf off Galveston, and in a short time the whole coast was closely guarded.