alternatehistory.com

Huh. Just got another short update finished, while watching the Rockies game and procrastinating on my homework.

Part Thirty-One: Ending the War's First Year

The Winter of 1862: The final months of 1862 saw a lull in the conflict as the two sides settled in for winter. In September, President Johnson authorized the creation of the Provisional Texan Army[1]. This army was an autonomous organization under the authority of the states of Tejas and Houston, and was created with the precedent of the Champoeg Provisional Government. The legislatures of Tejas and Houston met in San Antonio and chose Juan Seguín as Commander of the Texan Army. In late October, Seguín led a small contingent in an offensive which captured the southwestern corner of Arkansaw bound by the Red River. The force moved south along the river but was stopped shortly after crossing the Louisiana border and was unable to reach Shreveport.

The first year of the war also revealed how divided the individual states were. In the western territories, Ferroplano and Oregon Territory declared neutrality in the conflict. In addition, Northern New Mexico Territory had a large population increase during the war, as pro-Union supporters, many of them Dutch immigrants, traveled west after Calhoun joined the Confederacy. Some of these settlers founded the city of Nederland[2] in Colorado in the mountains west of Ferroplano. Mines near Nederland would later launch the Colorado silver boom in the 1880s and 1890s.

The war also brought the first income tax in United States history. In the Revenue Act of 1862 passed by Congress in November, the federal tax was set at 5% for all citizens who earned more than one thousand dollars per year. This tax would help pay for the war and while it was repealed by the Hancock administration in the early 1880s as the country's need for money lessened, the tax paved the way for future income tax laws passed in the 20th century.

[1] Locally, the army was referred to as the Army of the Second Texan Republic due to the greater autonomy granted to Tejas and Houston during the war.
[2] Same place as the Nederland in Colorado in OTL.