Committee on Public Safety

Texas and the Civil War Committee on Public Safety Created by Texas Secession Convention, Jan. 1861. A committee of 15 men to prevent public disorder and--in the face of open hostility from Governor Sam Houston--enforce Secession Convention mandates. On Feb. 18, 1861, in what might well have been first battle of the Civil War, minute men under committee orders surrounded the Federal headquarters for the State, in San Antonio, and effected surrender of the alien force. Over $3,000,000 worth of ammunition, guns, army vehicles, military goods and money were seized. Prompt action here postponed hostilities. The captured foe was sent north without bloodshed on Texas soil. This move was followed by occupation of a chain of frontier forts won in the San Antonio action and useful in defense of Confederate Texas. The committee set up 3 military districts, placing troops on frontiers, coast and Mexican border. Texas was the only Confederate state with the problem of defenses on the border of a neutral nation. Numbers of Texas counties also used for at least 2 years Committees on Public Safety, for protection against Indians and to obtain supplies. The seccession Convention and Committee on Public Safety did much to prepare Texas for War. (1965)

Committee on Public Safety is a historical marker in San Antonio, Bexar County, dedicated in 1965. It is one of 236 historical markers documented in Bexar County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 503 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 29.4465, -98.4995 near San Antonio. The nearest cataloged historic site is Old San Pedro Springs (historical marker), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Otto Koehler House, Clegg, L.B., and David J. and May Bock Woodward House.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5029005247. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.