During the Civil War, cattle were driven east from Texas to supply Confederate troops with meat
Over the weekend I finished reading Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John M. Barry. It is amazing how similar some of the tactics in use today were those used in 1927 and even earlier. Hopefully, there are more humanitarian influences today then were in place in the 1920s. With that said, I highly recommend the book. It is a fairly easy read. I found myself wanted to keep reading to see what happened next; much like a work of fiction.
The Mississippi River has connected parts of the United States and divided those regions at other times. One hundred fifty years ago, Governor Sam Houston of Texas told the Texas Legislature he was adamantly opposed to secession. One of his reasons was that the United States would realize how vital the Mississippi River was to the Confederacy and would move to control the entire length of the river. That didn’t happen as soon as Houston predicted but by the summer of 1863, the Mississippi was conquered and Texas, along with Louisiana and Arkansas were on their own, so to speak.
Earlier in the war, Confederate commissary officers bought beef from Texas contractors who drove herds east of the Mississippi through Donaldsonville, Louisiana. At the time a drought affected much of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. The Mississippi River was at its low level in the fall of 1861 when herds were moved to Virginia from Texas. Later, packing plants were started at several points in the Trans-Mississippi to avoid the hazards of the river crossing. In the end, the drought in Texas and the fall of Vicksburg ended the cattle drives.