Jack of Harts

The firefight between the Texas State Guard and “certain undisclosed elements of the United States Armed Forces” in Dallas, Texas severely impacted the loyalty of federal troops all throughout America. It was especially disastrous for those stationed in Texas. It was a matter of faith with the troops that they could not and should not ever be deployed against American citizens, and the orders to do exactly that shook their faith in the government to a bone-deep level. So when their commanders chose not to follow those orders, there were very few dissenters. There were some. There will always be some, and they would cause a great deal of heartache. And there were many who simply walked away. But at every military base in Texas, there was a core of troops who remained loyal to their commanders. Some of those bases chose to join Texas in time. Some remained American bases, though worked with Texas. No major military base fought Texas. Some minor ones did, and they would also cause a great deal of heartache. But the most important thing to understand is that the vast majority of the American military could not and did not break faith with their oaths. And that, in the end, is why most historians never named this period the Second Civil War.