"...expected the Texas Militia to have cut south via San Antonio. Instead, Ferguson's loyalists rode the train to Corpus Christi and attacked directly west, hoping to perhaps catch the dissidents off guard; if that was their intent, it did not work, and what is today regarded as the first proper battle of the Texan Civil War occurred on February 8, 1916 at Freer, about halfway between the coast and Laredo.
The group of men who had gathered at Freer to fight the Texas Militia - who, it should be noted, were sent south with little to no support from Confederate Army regulars stationed in Austin and among whom the weight of their forces were already engaged in keeping the US Army from marching further south than Texarkana or Dallas - were an eclectic lot, largely yeoman farmers, day laborers, Tejanos who had lived in the "Tex-Mex" for centuries, and even Mexican volunteers having streamed across the border, including some of Pancho Villa's men who were now bored (and not being paid) after the conclusion of the war between the United States and Mexico three months earlier. While amongst their number were a large amount of Militiamen, Texas Rangers and veterans of the Confederate Army, they were not a formal armed force, though the "Freer Boys" would within months form the nucleus of the Texas Republican Army.
If there is a theme to the events of 1915-16, it was Pa Ferguson's grievous mistakes that only served to accelerate Texan alienation from his administration and the Confederacy as a whole in the end. He had wasted crucial weeks in pursuing the Laredo Legislature to the border when he'd had the chance, choosing instead to wait for more reinforcements than the outgoing administration in Richmond was able to send. When he did finally realize how unseriously the Confederate Congress took the Laredo revolt and he did send a force, not wanting to leave the paths to Austin wide open, he instead pulled raw recruits who were keeping oilfield workers in the Port Arthur area in check, thus leaving his most talented cadres and veterans out of the battle. This delay allowed the Laredo Legislature to regroup and properly arm itself with the thousands of weapons flowing across the Rio Bravo from chaotic and lawless northern Mexico (indeed, the Texan Revolution can be viewed in some ways as an extension of the social conflict in postwar Mexico) and for its forces to not be badly outmatched when the Loyalists finally did arrive.
Contrary to much of contemporary and modern Texan historiography (especially in primary and secondary schools), the Battle of Freer was not some triumphant echo of Lexington and Concord or First Manassas; it was a largely inconclusive result playing out over the course of the day between two disorganized, inexperienced groups of men numbering about ten thousand apiece. Roughly five hundred casualties were recorded on each side and, after a successfully cavalry charge into the left flank of the Loyalists by Mexican volunteers scattered their defensive line, a retreat back to Corpus Christi and Laredo was ordered. Strategically, of course, it was a smashing success - the rebels had not been defeated and crushed, and that was all that was aimed to be accomplished at Freer.
Despite the tactically muddled fighting in cool, damp conditions, the news as it was reported across Texas, Mexico and the United States was that Laredo had held out and sent Ferguson's Loyalists packing, meaning that not only were there now two competing governments claiming legitimacy over Texas, but also that the dissident government had credibly defended itself with force, the first step in revolutionary legitimacy. Texas, a place whose history was deeply influenced not only by the American Revolution of 1776 but the Mexican, Texian and Confederate wars of independence, was exactly where such implications held a special meaning and struck a reflexive chord with many who over the past two months had been mostly perplexed by the breakdown of legal government in the state as the Yankees encroached from west and north.
Riots broke out not only in occupied Dallas and Wichita Falls, where the Lone Star Flag was waved without the Confederate Southern Cross [1], but also in the oilfields around Port Arthur, on the docks of Galveston, and in the railyards of San Antonio, Tyler, and College Station. Thousands more men, often with their families in tow, marched across the South Texas scrublands towards the camps around Laredo to volunteer, singing "The Yellow Rose of Texas" as their fathers and grandfathers perhaps once had decades ago. Legislators and makeshift soldiers alike had shown what was possible, each in turn - the spirit of rebellion was strong in the air.
In Laredo, this meant complications. Garner and Sheppard were still adamantly against any action aimed at Richmond, drafting a statement which laid out what came to be known as the Freer Demands: the immediate resignation of Pa Ferguson, the return of all Texans to their "native soil" to push out the Yankees, amnesty for all members of the Laredo Legislature, and full control by Texan politicians over political patronage. It was meant to provide both Richmond and Ferguson with a clear off-ramp from further violence, but the Yankee breakthroughs of the spring and summer in the East and Midlands had not yet occurred, and the new incoming Vardaman administration had been elected on a delusional platform of zero negotiation, with Philadelphia or anyone else, and the Freer Demands were issued a mere ten days before his inauguration on February 22, 1916. They would be dismissed out of hand, in full, and Vardaman's intermediaries further made clear that any "seditionist" would be shot, and his family if captured hanged, in retaliation for their revolt.
Gore, more so even than Garner and Sheppard who knew Vardaman and Martin personally (indeed, Sheppard had at one point considered Vardaman a good friend), understood that the new regime in Richmond would not be plagued by President Cotton Ed Smith's laziness and penchant for allowing political subterfuge to swirl around him and cut him off at the knees, especially not with the enemy at the gates of central Virginia and even Georgia. Much as the visit of the Yankee spies had caused him to ponder new opportunities, the depth of support for the Laredo Legislature in the wake of Freer led him to start thinking of what, exactly, the endgame was, especially with the Confederate Army having finally sent sufficient men to Austin to defend the capital but also potentially march south. Quoting John Adams, he told his colleagues that the time was upon them to make "a most fateful decision," and that if "we do not stand together, we will all hang separately." It was widely understood what he meant - it was no longer enough to hold out in Laredo. The fight had to be taken to Ferguson, and it was quite possible that it was no longer a dispute of Loyalists vs. Legitimists, but rather soon a battle of the Confederacy against Texan secessionists, whether they wanted it to be or not..."
- Republic Reborn
[1] Our in-universe term for OTL's Confederate flag, which I prefer using ITTL for the sake of familiarity to the "stars and bars" or whatever the lesser-known alternatives are called
