So far<\/a>, we looked at the First Nations that began coming to Texas approximately 14,000 years ago, Spain who claimed the land for hundreds of years, France who had a short but impactful stand on the land and Mexico whose rule lead to one of the state\u2019s most well-known historic moments: the Battle of the Alamo.<\/p>\nFollowing General Sam Houston\u2019s defeat of the Mexican troops at the Battle of San Jacinto, the Texans of 1836 claimed their independence and truly set out on their own. They raised the fourth flag over Texas: the Lone Star flag, originally designed for the Republic of Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 1836 to 1945, Texas is going to be its own nation,\u201d said Kathryn Siefker, curator at the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, where artifacts from that period are housed. \u201cThis gallery represents the enormity of that task.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enormous, Siefker said, is the best word to describe that era. The Texans of the time had just fought in a costly war, claimed their independence and were making the big choice to be their own country. However, they were truly alone in that endeavor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had no money. The only thing they had going for them was their vast land,\u201d said Siefker. \u201cA lot of the\u2026 identity of Texas is grounded in this period.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Texans of the Republic had to scrap and build from the ground up. The \u201cLone Star\u201d moniker may have been more real at that time than any other period.<\/p>\n
Yet, throughout those nine years, Siefker said many in the Republic were pushing to join the growing United States and become American. In 1845, that happened.<\/p>\n
A document at the Texas State Library and Archives shows the original vote tally from the counties in the Republic of Texas, where they voted \u201cyes\u201d to joining the United States. Right next to it is the U.S. resolution that solidified the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had to be accepted by the government, and it had to be accepted by the people,\u201d said Price.<\/p>\n
Those two documents officially raised the fifth flag over Texas: the American Flag. Texas was the 28th state to join the country and would make countless contributions to the American story.<\/p>\n
However, there was one more flag to precede the American flag.<\/p>\n
In 1861, fueled by the election of President Abraham Lincoln and signs that a nationwide end to slavery was on the way, 11 states, including Texas, banded together and made the choice to secede from the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Texas] withdraws from the United States and joins the Confederacy, which brings us to our sixth flag,\u201d said Siefker, walking into the Confederate exhibit at the Bullock Museum.<\/p>\n
It was a period that would only run for approximately four years, but those four years would have massive repercussions. The split would spur the Civil War, which remains the deadliest conflict in American history.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were approximately 90,000 Texans who fight in the Civil War on both sides, for the Union and the Confederacy,\u201d said Siefker.<\/p>\n
The period divided homes and a country, and it remains a divisive topic for many today. It also remains a part of Texas\u2019 story, remembered at monuments and parks throughout the state, both for what it was and for what followed.<\/p>\n
Following the Union\u2019s victory in the Civil War, slavery was abolished and Texas would, again, be the center of an important moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cJuneteenth will be declared in Galveston, which will free the remaining enslaved African Americans and end the Civil War for good,\u201d said Siefker.<\/p>\n
There was a period of reconstruction as the U.S. came back together, and the reunited country, with Texas in tow, would face plenty of hurdles. Texas remains under the American Flag \u2014 what Siefker calls our \u201cForever Flag.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state would slowly grow into the Texas we know today, fueled, Siefker said, by the stories of all those who laid the building blocks for the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe history of Texas is the story of these individuals every day,\u201d she said. \u201cMoving forward, making decisions, shaping their nation, building a better life for them and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is obviously a shorthand version of Texas\u2019 story. Historians encourage folks to visit sites like the Bullock Museum, the Alamo and other famous Texas history centers to hear more about the long journey to the Texas of today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Today, the Lone Star flag flies proudly over businesses, schools and homes in Texas, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14209,132,134,133,21403,1570,102,138,14210,223,82,27,26986,1569,835],"class_list":["post-356168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-human-interest","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-brian-scott","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-human-interest","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-editors-picks","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}