This Date In Texas History - January 8
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 5:24 pm
1815 - The Pirate, Jean Laffite, had to delay a far-flung plot to attack Texas and Tampico, and sailed to New Orleans to help the forces led by Andrew Jackson to secure an overwhelming victory for the Battle of New Orleans. He returned from this trip in November 1816. During his absence the New Orleans plotters had broadened their plan to open a port on the Texas coast that would serve as a haven for privateers and as a base for an attack against Texas. At his brother's request, Jean Laffite prepared to take over at Galveston, having spent several thousand dollars, for vessels and supplies. Laffite remained the master of Galveston after his return in September 1817, and made it a center for smuggling and privateering. Laffite abandoned Galveston early in May 1820 and sailed to Mugeres Island, off the coast of Yucatán due to American government's determination to end the Galveston establishment as a raiding base against them.
1836 - A flag created by Johannan Troutman depicting a blue start on a white background with the words "Liberty of Death", was flown over the American Hotel in Valasco. William Ward's Georgia Battalion, in Texas to help with the Revolution, brought the flag with them. On March 8th, the flag would be flown over Goliad by Colonel James Fannin.
1864 - Seventeen-year-old David Owen Dodd was hanged. The Texas native was captured as he tried to cross Federal lines near Little Rock, with notes in Morse code hidden in his shoe. After a military court found him guilty, he confessed that he had been sent to gather information about Union troops. Dodd may have been the youngest person hanged as a spy in the Civil War.
1865 - About 160 Confederates and 325 state militiamen lost a battle against the Kickapoo Indians about twenty miles southwest of present San Angelo. A militia force under Capt. S. S. Totten and state Confederate troops under Capt. Henry Fossett set out, but the two forces lacked a unified command and full communication. When the troops and militiamen finally rendezvoused near the timbered encampment of the Kickapoos along Dove Creek, the forces concocted a hasty battle plan. The Confederate force was splintered into three groups caught in a heavy crossfire. Three days later the battered Texans retreated eastward, while the embittered Kickapoos, once peaceful, escaped to the Mexican border. Thus began a violent period of border raids on settlers along the Rio Grande.
1869 - Major Eugene Carr gave up his attempt to establish a resupply depot for Bvt. Brig. Gen. William H. Penrose, who was ordered to pursue and capture recalcitrant Cheyennes who had been raiding in the Canadian River area of the Texas Panhandle, and marched back to Fort Lyon, Colorado with the loss of 181 animals and two men from exposure. Among the civilian scouts accompanying his "Dandy Fifth" were James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok and William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, whom Carr highly commended after Cody made a ride to Camp Supply in Indian Territory to deliver dispatches and obtain maps; this was the only foray these legendary frontiersmen ever made into Texas as army scouts.
1870 - Edmund Davis became the first Republican governor of Texas. Davis, a Union Army officer and political ally of Sam Houston, won a disputed 1869 election to become Reconstruction-era governor of Texas. He was described by a contemporary as a "tall, gaunt, cold-eyed, rather commanding figure." After a controversial term in office, Davis lost a re-election landslide to Richard Coke in 1873. It was 105 years before Texas had another Republican governor: Dallas oilman Bill Clements.
1884 - The state legislature made fence cutting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison. In 1883, fence cutting had become a major source of friction between landless cattlemen who wanted to retain practices of the open range and those who fenced their land with barbed wire. The fence war was precipitated by the drought of 1883. Governor John Ireland called a special session of the legislature to meet on January 8, 1884, to address the issue. The ensuing legislation ended most of the fence troubles, although sporadic outbreaks of nipping continued for a decade, especially during droughts.
1836 - A flag created by Johannan Troutman depicting a blue start on a white background with the words "Liberty of Death", was flown over the American Hotel in Valasco. William Ward's Georgia Battalion, in Texas to help with the Revolution, brought the flag with them. On March 8th, the flag would be flown over Goliad by Colonel James Fannin.
1864 - Seventeen-year-old David Owen Dodd was hanged. The Texas native was captured as he tried to cross Federal lines near Little Rock, with notes in Morse code hidden in his shoe. After a military court found him guilty, he confessed that he had been sent to gather information about Union troops. Dodd may have been the youngest person hanged as a spy in the Civil War.
1865 - About 160 Confederates and 325 state militiamen lost a battle against the Kickapoo Indians about twenty miles southwest of present San Angelo. A militia force under Capt. S. S. Totten and state Confederate troops under Capt. Henry Fossett set out, but the two forces lacked a unified command and full communication. When the troops and militiamen finally rendezvoused near the timbered encampment of the Kickapoos along Dove Creek, the forces concocted a hasty battle plan. The Confederate force was splintered into three groups caught in a heavy crossfire. Three days later the battered Texans retreated eastward, while the embittered Kickapoos, once peaceful, escaped to the Mexican border. Thus began a violent period of border raids on settlers along the Rio Grande.
1869 - Major Eugene Carr gave up his attempt to establish a resupply depot for Bvt. Brig. Gen. William H. Penrose, who was ordered to pursue and capture recalcitrant Cheyennes who had been raiding in the Canadian River area of the Texas Panhandle, and marched back to Fort Lyon, Colorado with the loss of 181 animals and two men from exposure. Among the civilian scouts accompanying his "Dandy Fifth" were James Butler (Wild Bill) Hickok and William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody, whom Carr highly commended after Cody made a ride to Camp Supply in Indian Territory to deliver dispatches and obtain maps; this was the only foray these legendary frontiersmen ever made into Texas as army scouts.
1870 - Edmund Davis became the first Republican governor of Texas. Davis, a Union Army officer and political ally of Sam Houston, won a disputed 1869 election to become Reconstruction-era governor of Texas. He was described by a contemporary as a "tall, gaunt, cold-eyed, rather commanding figure." After a controversial term in office, Davis lost a re-election landslide to Richard Coke in 1873. It was 105 years before Texas had another Republican governor: Dallas oilman Bill Clements.
1884 - The state legislature made fence cutting a felony punishable by one to five years in prison. In 1883, fence cutting had become a major source of friction between landless cattlemen who wanted to retain practices of the open range and those who fenced their land with barbed wire. The fence war was precipitated by the drought of 1883. Governor John Ireland called a special session of the legislature to meet on January 8, 1884, to address the issue. The ensuing legislation ended most of the fence troubles, although sporadic outbreaks of nipping continued for a decade, especially during droughts.
