Why Did Texas Fight In The Civil War Essay

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You’ve probably heard of the Civil War, but do you really know the motivation behind the fighting? Just imagine, the year is 1861 and a war starts to break out. However, it is not just any war, it is the Civil War. This war dragged on over 4 years, taking down nearly 15,000 young men with it. These men were in their twenties and thirties, as young as thirteen, and were turned into soldiers. How did it start? It started on April 12 at the Battle of Fort Sumter when the South attacked the North, soon to bring 65,000 Texans to service. Then 4 years later on May 12 the war finally ended at the Battle of Palmito Ranch, after every soldier had fought for their lives. So, I bet you are wondering, why did these Texans fight in the Civil War? Texans fought in the Civil War for three reasons: to protect their states rights, to preserve slavery, and the main reason, their love for Texas. …show more content…

Texans strongly believed that a state should be allowed to make their own decisions on what goes on in that state. The people of Texas were not the only ones who thought this way. The newspaper, Texas State Gazette, and O.M. Roberts, the president of the Texas Secession Convention, also believed in states rights. However, Abraham Lincoln did not believe in states having the majority of the say on what happens inside that state. He said himself, “No state upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union,” evidently meaning the state does not have the right to drop out of the Union. Texans were willing to fight over states rights because they had a strong belief in the act of states rights, but many people in the North, including President Abraham Lincoln, are against