Texas and the Civil War State Military Board

Texas held $800,000 in U.S. indemnity bonds left from its 1850 boundary settlement, and the board used some in trade with England and in 1865 sold others to George W. White of Tennessee and other buyers. After the war the state sued to stop payment, arguing that its Confederate government had been illegal, and won in Texas v. White (1869). The factories fared unevenly: the Confederate Army rejected the Austin foundry's two cannons for poor quality, both contracted gunpowder mills failed, but the percussion factory made about a million caps in 1865.

What the plaque says

Texas and the Civil War State Military Board The only new agency created by legislature to deal with wartime emergencies. Original members were the Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer. The last two in 1864 were replaced by appointees of the Governor. Purpose was to establish industry and purchase essential military and civilian supplies. Texas was largely dependent on imports for factory goods, so the Board had to sustain foreign trade, despite a Federal coastal blockade. This was done through neutral Mexico and by use of swift blockade runners. The Board sold and exchanged state bonds, U.S. indemnity bonds and cotton--which had a ready cash and exchange value abroad--for guns, powder, copper, lead, hats, boots, shoes, clothing, cloth, rope, blankets, cotton cards and machinery to start local industry. Agents of the Board operated in Mexico and Europe. A percussion cap factory and a state foundry for cannon were built. By contracts, land grants and cash, private enterprise was aided and encouraged to manufacture rifles, pistols and gunpowders. Lack of funds, poor transportation, competition for cotton and other wartime difficulties hampered effectiveness, but the Board did much to make Texas "the Storehouse of the Confederacy". (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — 0.3 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.7 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Harry Ransom Center — 1.0 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.

More markers nearby

• Swedish Consulate and Swante Palm Library — steps away
• Organization of First Protestant Worship in Austin — steps away
• Original Site of First Baptist Church of Austin — steps away
• Governor Elisha Marshall Pease — steps away