Texas Navy Page: 26 of 43
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Cl- I `rSthroughout the existence of the Lone Star Republic.
Moore returned Austin and Wharton to Galveston
where the public gave him a tumultuous reception
and President Houston dismissed him from
the Navy. Ironically, Captain Marin was awarded
a special Cruz de Honox.
Texas maintained its precarious existence for
three more years, primarily under the protection of
United States soldiers and sailors. Men of the Texas
Navy were discharged without pay and the remaining
ships were allowed to deteriorate. Moore and
Lothrop, Wharton's commander, pressed for a trial
on the charges contained in the piracy declaration.
Lothrop died before being vindicated, but Moore
was exonerated by a court martial.
When Texas entered the Union, Austin, Archer,
Wharton and San Bernard were transferred to the
U.S. Navy; however, because of their poor condition,
all were scrapped by 1848. Moore and many
of his fellow officers attempted to enter the American
Navy, but they had to be satisfied with half pay for
five years. One midshipman, Edwin F. Gray, entered
the Naval Academy in 1846 and served in the
United States Navy until 1857. It is also likely that
some of Texas Navy's enlisted men shipped into the
U.S. Navy.
The contributions of the Texas Navv to the Republic
were more important than contemporarily
understood. During the critical first months of revolution,
the Navy fought off blockaders, interrupted
Mexican supply lines, and provided the opportunityfor the victory at San Jacinto. Later, aided by American
and French quarrels with Mexico, it prevented
a sea-borne or sea-supported attack of Texas. And
finally in 1843 the Navy thwarted a well-organized,
full scale invasion of Yucatan which, if successful,
would have led inevitably to reinvasion and possibly
reconquest of Texas.
Moreover, the Texas Navy set a tradition for
bold, aggressive, and imaginative action which
paved the way for future American action in the
area. Following the admission of Texas to the Union
in late 1845, the Nation became embroiled in
its own war with Mexico. Once again, seapower was
the key to victory. When General Zachary Taylor's
Army in northern Mexico was thwarted by logistics
problems similar to those which had earlier prevented
Mexico's reconquest of Texas, the United
States adopted a maritime strategy. In addition to
general mastery of the seas, it involved successful
amphibious attacks on Mexican ports in the Gulf of
Mexico and in California. The Navy closely coordinated
its operations with those of the Army in
achieving victory in the nation's first large-scale battle
on foreign soil.
These operations, to which the action of the Texas
Navy served as a prelude, provided a pattern for
future joint operations which continue to be a point
of pride to the Navy and Army-and an essential
part of the nation's power as has been witnessed repeatedlv
in cold and hot war since World War II.25
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U.S. Navy Department. Naval History Division. Texas Navy, book, January 1, 1968; Washington D.C.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2419/m1/26/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.