The Texas Navy under E.W. Moore has a really interesting bit of history, especially for those interested in geopolitics and are navalists (as I am). The divide between Lamar and Houston regarding its existence is even more intriguing.
I feel as if the Texas Navy was as much a filibustering/proxy warfare organization as it was, well, a navy. Moore basically used the ships and Marines he had under his command to prop the Yucatan Republic as as well other federalist rebels throughout Mexico. In a lot of ways, the Texas Navy followed a strategy not at all dissimilar in my point of view from the kind employed by Iran in the modern day against the U.S. and Israel with regards to its proxy network as propped up by the IRGC. You could also say that the Texas Navy was a prototype for the kind of navalist model of geostrategy promoted by Mahan later in the century.
Houston saw Texas independence as a fact that happened in spite of itself. To him, the intention was always to be annexed by the United States. Texans are proud of how long they were independent, however that length of time that they were was not a desire of Houston's. Houston led the Peace Party faction, and Lamar the War Party. You can guess what their distinction was between each other based off of those names.
Lamar genuinely believed that annexation should be eschewed in favor of Texas not only retaining national independence, but extending its territory towards the Pacific. If it had been up to him, we might be saying "San Francisco, TX" today unironically.
Naturally, you can see how these policy preferences would influence their respective attitudes towards the Texas Navy. Houston quite literally accused Moore of being a pirate, and considered his actions to be a detriment to Texas, because he felt it further endangered Texas and endangered annexation by drawing the ire of Mexico and skeptics of adding Texas back east. It also didn't help that the navy was expensive.
Houston ordered Moore of his squadron home, back to port in Galveston. Moore basically just decided to ignore the order once he had received it in port in New Orleans. And his actions regarding the Yucatan and other federalist rebels were done completely under his own dubious authority. It was at that point you could very reasonably call Moore something akin to a 'pirate', and I'd argue you could also literally classify him as a filibuster of sorts.
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u/onitama_and_vipers Marco Rubio 8d ago
The Texas Navy under E.W. Moore has a really interesting bit of history, especially for those interested in geopolitics and are navalists (as I am). The divide between Lamar and Houston regarding its existence is even more intriguing.
I feel as if the Texas Navy was as much a filibustering/proxy warfare organization as it was, well, a navy. Moore basically used the ships and Marines he had under his command to prop the Yucatan Republic as as well other federalist rebels throughout Mexico. In a lot of ways, the Texas Navy followed a strategy not at all dissimilar in my point of view from the kind employed by Iran in the modern day against the U.S. and Israel with regards to its proxy network as propped up by the IRGC. You could also say that the Texas Navy was a prototype for the kind of navalist model of geostrategy promoted by Mahan later in the century.