Jim Bevill, Texas Navy

 

 

 

 

 

Jim Bevill is serving as Guest Curator for an exhibit on "Broadsides in the Gulf" which opened at the Texas Seaport Museum in February 2015.

 

The Republic of Texas scrambled to build a second Texas Navy following a blockade by Mexican war ships in 1837. President Mirabeau B. Lamar responded to the treat by throwing his full support behind building a new navy.

 

They sought out a strong and capable naval commander and placed in command, Edwin W. Moore, a U.S. Navy veteran with an eagerness for battle and a reputation as an outstanding officer. The Texas fleet faced numerous hardships, including tropical storms, ship's crews ravaged by scurvy and fever, inept captains, a lack of funding, and a newly re-built Mexican fleet which was bent on aggression. But after Commodore Moore thwarted a seaborne reinvasion of Texas at the Battle of Campeche in 1843 by defeating a larger Mexican fleet with his two remaining ships, he was arrested on his arrival back in Galveston and subsequently put up before a court martial. It’s an interesting and exciting story that you will enjoy.

 

This is the story of how a lack of money and a need for national defense turned into bitter political battle over the navy – and the triumph and tragedies of this tiny but powerful fleet which ended up ruling the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Jim Bevill is the author of The Paper Republic: The Struggle for Money, Credit and Independence in the Republic of Texas, a non-fiction work on the social and economic history of Texas, from the colonial period through annexation by the United States in 1846.

 

His book was named as the 2010 winner of the Summerfield G. Roberts literary award

by the Sons of the Republic of Texas, and as the Best Specialized book on U.S. Paper Money by the Numismatic Literary Guild at the ANA World's Fair on Money in Boston.