The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969 Page: 494
498 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Even in the matter of the emancipation of Texas slaves, the people
of the capital city were more moderately hopeful. Frank Brown, a
longtime resident and county official, noted that while there was
great concern that the freedmen in other parts of Texas "would
become an intolerable burden on the public," in Travis County "a
large proportion . . . went to work with a will [on contract]
and proved to be laborious, thrifty, and faithful."'"
There were not enough federal troops to garrison Texas im-
mediately after Gen. Gordon Granger landed in Galveston on June
19. It was not until July 25 that the first soldiers in blue arrived
in Austin. The Texas State Gazette reported:
A portion of Gen. [Wesley] Merritt's Cavalry command . . . passed
through our city this morning. . . . Just as we go to press, the U.S. flag
has been raised on the Capitol building, and a salute is being fired from
the guns at the foundry. Gen. Merritt and Staff . . . have established
Headquarters at the Governor's Mansion.'Y
One incident of Union sentiment that day involved a famous
flagpole which stood at the corner of Congress and Pecan (West
Sixth) . The pole, said to have been ninety feet tall,"4 was erected
by George Hancock, whose store and residence at the site made
Hancock Corner the unofficial Unionist headquarters in Austin.
From the tall pole, Hancock had defiantly flown the U.S. flag all
during the days when Texas was seceding. Only with the firing on
Sumter was he compelled to take it down.'" An Austin resident
described the 1865 episode:
When the first United States troops entered Austin . . . they halted at
that flagpole, for Hancock had again hoisted his flag, and the troops
called on him for a speech. He was no speaker, but a man of fine common
sense, and George W. Paschal and E. B. Turner did the speaking.'"
An enthusiastic turnout was organized for the arrival of Governor
Hamilton on August 2. "A large concourse assembled on East Pecan
"Brown, "Annals of Travis County," Ch. XXIV, 31, 37.
"Austin Texas State Gazette, July 25, 1865.
"'Mary Star Barkley, History of Travis County and Austin 1839-z899 (Waco, 1963), 8o.
1'Alex Terrell, "The City of Austin From 1839 to 1865," Quarterly of the Texas State
Historical Association, XIV (October, 1910) , 121.
'6Ibid. Accounts conflict as to the date of the flagpole incident. Amelia Barr, in
her autobiography, All The Days of My Life, says it took place July 28, as does the
Texas State Gazette. Frank Brown not only sets July 25 as the day but specifies the
time as 5 p.M. Brown says the flag raised was the same one Hancock had been forced
to lower in i861. Terrell says Brown was present at the event.494
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969, periodical, 1969; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117146/m1/566/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.