ETHJ Vol-47 No-2

East Texas Historical Journal Volume 47 Issue 2 Article 1 10-2009 ETHJ Vol-47 No-2 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (2009) "ETHJ Vol-47 No-2," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 47 : Iss. 2 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol47/iss2/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME.a...--- 2009 NUMBER 2 J;ranll ~ ._.'-1 I' c: HISTORICAL JOURNAl EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 2008-2009 OFFICERS Ted Lawe President Milton Jordan , First Vice President James M. Smallwood Second Vice President Deanna Smith Secrctary-Treasurer DIRECTORS Caroline Castillo Crimm Huntsville 2009 John Olgcsbee San Augustine .2009 Kenneth W. Howell College Station 2009 Tom Crum Granbury 2010 Ricky F Dobbs Commerce 2010 L. Patrick Hughes Austin 2010 Cynthia "Devlin z.avalla .2011 Mary Kelley Beaumont 2011 Bruce Glasrud Seguin 2011 Dan K. Utley Pflugerville ex-President Beverly J. Rowe Texarkana ex-President Archie P. McDonald Nacogdoches Life Director Cissy Lale ." " Ft. Worth _ Life Director EDITORIAL BOARD James Smaltwood , Gainesville Dan K. Utley Pflugerville Carol Taylor Greenville Kyle Wilkison Plano Dana Cooper Nacogdoches Gene Preuss Houston Charles Grear College Station Chuck Parsons Luling Charles Waite Edinhurg Steven Short Dallas Jere Jackson Nacogdoches M. Scott Sosebee EXECUTIVE DmECTORAND EDITOR MEMBERSHIP INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS pay $100 annually LIFE MEMBERS pay $300 or more BENEFACTOR pays $100 annually PATRON pays $50 annually STUDENT MEMBERS pay $12 annually FAMILY MEMBERS pay $35 annually REGULAR MEMBERS pay $25 annually Journals $7.50 per copy P.O. Box 6223 Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches, TX 75962 936--468-2407 e-mail: sosebeem@~fasu.edu http://www.easttexashistorical.org © Copyright 2009 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL 2009 NU~fBER 2 CONTENTS TRANS-MISSISSIPPI MIASMAS: <Q'<"':,T'l p" MAI,ARIA & YELLOW FEVER SHAPED T_ &;~sk;Q~ ~~.,:t CIVIL WAR IN THE CONFEDERACY'S ERN THW\tER 'j/'.}' By: Afuirew McJlwaiJ t., ~~ :.,G 3 ."_'"j 1 ,f, '_ ~..-... TOM OCHILTREE AND HENRY ADAMS' t\LT AT TEXAS CONG~ESS By: James F BraTc ~.-.:",r: .. ;:·":"''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''';: 14 THE "FATHER" OF TEXAS EDUCATION: ~.:. ,.'~' :. (;; AM. AIKIN AND T;~ ~~~~;~~:~~TI'}~~~~S~~~~I~ ..,~~S IJ '~~ ','" ~ ....... t""J1, THE BUILDING OF AN EAST TEXAS HARR10: -.<, "lfc,.':.1 iV2.~3 A BR1EJ-i OVERVIEW OF THE CREATION OF A MEXICAN' AMERICA:": COMMUNITY I:-.J NORTHEAST TYLER By: Alexander Mendom 26 TRUE BELIEVERS: TREASURE HUNTERS AT HENDRICKS LAKE By: Gary Pinkerton 38 UPPITY WOMEN RISE L'PAND HAVE BREAKFAST: THE EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION"S WOMEN'S HISTORY BREAKFAST By: Linda Hudson .48 PRIVATE TRIALS OF A PUBLIC MAN: JIMMIE ALI ,RED AND THE VICISSITUDES OF fAMILY By: L. Patrick Hughe., 61 EAST TEXAS NE\VS AND NOTES 74 BOOK NOTES By Archil' P. McDmwld 77 BOOK REVIE\VS .. , 81 M. Scott Sosebee, Executive Director and Editor STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY P.O. BOX 6223 NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS 75962 936-468-2407 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.easttexashistorical.org 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOKS REVIEWED Bryan, More Zeal than Discretion: The Wesru.Jard Adventures ofrt'alter PLane by Charles Waite Mendoza, Confederate Struggle For Command: General James Longstreet and the First Corps In The West by Stephen Taaffe Symonds, Lincoln and His Admirals by George R. Franks, Jr. Parsons, The Sutton-Taylor Feud: The Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas by Mike Godfrey Neal, From Guns to Gavels: How Justice Gre'r1,/ lJp in the Outlal'\! West by Bill O'Neal Wilson, Watt Matthe'rvs ofIamshead 2nd Edition by Kenneth E. Hendrickson, Jr. Michno I Michno, Forgotten Fights: Little Known Raids and Skirmishes on the Frontier by Gary Pinkerton Cruse, Battles ofthe Red River rt'ilr: Archeological Perspectives on the Indian Campaign of1874 by Andrew Lannen Robinson, The Fall ofa Black Army Officer: Racism and the l\1..1'th oflIenly 0. Flipper by Steve Short Wilkinson, Yeomen, Sharecroppers, and Socialists: Plain Folk Pmtest l/1 Texas, 1870-1914 by Mary L. Kelley Burrough, The Bif{ Rich: The Rise and Fall of Texas Oil Fortunes by Nathan Copling Burnett, Flash Floods in Texas by Lois E. Myers Light, Capturing .lVature: The Cement Sculpture of Dionicio Rodriguez hy James W. Steely Kean, Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South: Duke, Emory. Rice, Tulane, and Vanderbilt by Court Carney Black I Jordan, Earzv Texas Schools: A Photographic History by Jimmy Partin Untiedt, Death Lore: Texas Rituals, Superstitions. and Legends of the Hereafier by Chris Elzen EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 TRANS-MISSISSIPPI MIASMAS: HOW MALARIA & YELLOW FEVER SHAPED THE COURSE OF THE CIVIL WAR IN THE CONFEDERACY'S WESTERN THEATER By Andrew McIhvaine Bell By the autumn of 1862, Sabine City was arguably the most important Confederate seaport in Texas. Situated on a peninsula in the easternmost part of the state that separates Sabine Lake and a river of the same name from the GulfofMexico, the town had been transfonned by the Civil War from a sleepy frontier entrcpot with one hotel, newspaper, and sawmill into a magnet for bands of smugglers and speculators who ran cotton, weapons, and other sup plies between the Confederacy and the Caribbean. The U.S. Navy had only recently begun blockading the Texas coast and had most of its ships patrolling the waters around Galveston, the state's biggest port city at the time. Sabine, with its close proximity to the Gulf and a railroad line that ran into the Texas interior, became the next best option for blockade runners anxious to avoid entanglements with Union gunboats. Admiral David Farragut, the genius behind the North's capture of New Orleans, realized that his fleet could not stop the illicit trade without controlling the cities that offered smugglers safe harbor. When he encouraged his commanders to take initiative and seize these port cities wherever possible, forty-one-year-old Frederick W. Crocker, a for mer whaler from Massachusetts who had sailed around the world beforc he joined the Navy, decided to attack Sabine City. I At the fort protecting the city, Confederate Major Josephus Irvine had a battle on his hands even before Crocker's boats showed up. The previous July, a British blockade runner had arrived at the city's docks from the Gulfand dis gorged along with its smuggled cargo the virus which causes yellow fever, one of the most feared diseases of the nineteenth century. By September, a full blown epidemic was undenvay in Sabine with between three and six new cases appearing 'every 24 hours.' Panicked residents and soldiers alike evac uated the town. Those who fled to Houston and Beaumont were quarantined on the outskirts ofboth cities as Confederate authorities fretted about the pos sibility that the outbreak might spread. Mrs. Otis McGaffey lived in Sabine at the time and in later years recalled how her family's suffering was com pounded by the egregious incompetence of local doctors: "[They] seemed to know littlc ifanything about trealing the patients, some getting drunk, and use less (as they were afraid of it) [;] others not knowing what to do." The McGaffeys flcd to nearby Weiss' Bluff, but were turned away by neighbors who were afraid of contracting the disease. The Confederate force guarding Sabine dropped from about 1,800 troops to fewer than eighty. By the last week of September, Crocker's squadron, consisting of three vessels-the Kensington, the Rachel Seaman, and the Henry Janes·--arrived and opened fire on the fort. Irvine, realizing his position was untenable, ordered the guns Andrew Mcllwaine Bell is an t.m,istllnt professnr of hiSTory at the UniTed STares Coast Guard AWi/em}. His hook on disease during the Civil War. Mosquito Soldiers, will he published next year by LSU Pre.~s. 4 I:::AST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOC1ATrON spiked and withdrew his forces by eight o'clock on the morning of September 25, 1862.~ Crocker soon realized his enemies had retreated and went ashore to raise the Stars and Stripes over Fort Sabine. Onc of his subordinates, Lewis Pennington, who commanded the Hemy Janes and had once lived in Sabine, entered the city and learned from the few dozen residents left that yellow fever had killed "nearly one-half of the population" (including the town's mayor) and that the disease had forced several hundred rebel troops to withdraw to nearby Beaumont. Pennington and Crocker were shocked to find the dreaded "scourge of the South" raging in Sabine and kept their men "close to their hoats" as much as possible during the brief occupation, only sending them ashore to perfonn necessary tasks like capturing a family ofConfederate spies and burning the town's railroad depot. Thirty mil es away in Beaumont, the Confederates in Elmore's Twentieth Texas Regiment, who had been sent as reinforcements to drive the Yankees out of Sabine. were terrified at the prospect of entering an area plagued by yellow fever. The lieutenant-colonel in charge of the regiment raised such a ruckus about the danger of the disease that he was ordered not to mention the phrase "yenow fever" in the presence of his superior officer. With no one to challenge their landing at Sabine, the federals moved into Taylor's Bayou, tcn miles away, and fired a railroad bridge, which was saved temporarily by an alert Confederate private who doused the flames, though Union troops later returned to destroy it.

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