Militia - Texas

Texas

The most important previous activity of the Texas Militia was the Texas Revolution in 1836. Texans declared independence from Mexico while they were defeated during the battle of the Battle of the Alamo in March 1836. On April 21, 1836, led by Sam Houston, the Militia attacked the Mexican Army in the early morning as they camped at the Battle of San Jacinto, near the present city of Houston.

Following the war, some militia units reorganized into what was later to be known as the Texas Rangers, which was a private, volunteer effort for several years before becoming an official organization.

After Texas joined the Union of the United States in 1845, Texas militia units participated in the Mexican-American War.

In 1861 Texas joined the other Confederate States in seceding from the Union, and Texas militias played a role in the American Civil War, until it ended in 1865.

Texas militiamen joined Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, a volunteer militia, and fought with him during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Some of the training of the Rough Riders took place in San Pedro Park, in the north central part of San Antonio, near the present site of San Antonio College. When a muster of the Militia proposed to train there on April 19, 1994, they were threatened with arrest, even though the charter of San Pedro Park forbids exclusion of activities of that kind. This threat led to a change of the meeting site to Highway 151.

Note that like many other American States, Texas maintains a recognized State Militia. See the Wikipedia entry for the Texas State Guard.

Purposes: ...to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; — U.S. Constitution, Art. I, Sec. 8, Clause 16.