In the winter of 1860, after the election of President Abraham Lincoln, the winds of secession and armed resistance were gusting through the slave states of the South.

In December, South Carolina seceded, and in a half-dozen other states, calls for secessionist conventions were heard. In Texas, which had become a state just 15 years earlier, the rebels were fully in charge.

Despite resistance by Gov. Sam Houston, a strong pro-Unionist, an ordinance to secede was approved by a 3-1 majority of Texas voters on Feb. 1, 1861.

Two weeks later in San Antonio — without a shot being fired — the Union lost the first military engagement of what would soon become the Civil War, a blood-letting that claimed the lives of more than 600,000 soldiers.

When U.S. Army Gen. David E. Twiggs surrendered all federal holdings in Texas to an overwhelming force of armed rebels on Feb. 16, 1861, he spared his 160 troops from a battle they could not win but at the price of personal infamy.

“It is the first time in the annals of our country, that a general of the United States Army has conspired with a revolutionary committee to overthrow and supplant Executive Authority, which it was his duty to sustain and defend,” declared Gov. Houston a month later.

As a condition demanded by Twiggs, the federal troops were allowed to leave their posts at forts around Texas with their horses and arms. The rest of the federal assets were seized by the secessionists.

The controversial surrender in the heart of San Antonio came after weeks of secret negotiations and feverish rumors, and proved a spectacle that citizens either celebrated or mourned, depending on their politics.

In a column beneath the headline, “A Sad Day to San Antonio,” a reporter for the pro-unionist Weekly Alamo Express provided an account of the dramatic departure of the U.S. Army soldiers from Main Plaza.

“The reality of all the sham, farce and incipient tragedy of Saturday did not develop itself until the evacuation of the U.S. troops which took place about 4 p.m.,” began the report.

“The two companies under the command of Maj. Smith and Capt. King marched out with colors flying and the band playing the national airs. And with the old bullet-riddled and war-stained banner of the 8th Regiment floating in the breeze, there was a most profound sensation among the people, strong men wept and hung their heads in shame,” he continued.

“The people cheered the troops all along the street and many followed them to the head of the San Pedro, where they encamped,” he wrote.

In late February, the Texas secessionists began recruiting volunteer troops. The firing on Fort Sumter in April accelerated the rush to war. By the end of 1861, more than 25,000 Texans were serving in the Confederate Army.

Eventually, about 90,000 Texans served in the Civil War, most around the Southwest, others in Arkansas and Louisiana. Some fought far to the east in the great battles of the war, including Shiloh, Gettysburg and Chickamauga.

And it was no accident that Texans served most conspicuously in the cavalry.

“It was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it,” noted a visiting British general.

Although Twiggs was denounced as a coward and a traitor to the Union after the surrender, the circumstances leading up to his bloodless capitulation in San Antonio were far too complex to justify such a neat historical verdict.

Months earlier, Twiggs had seen what was coming, and had repeatedly asked his superiors in Washington for guidance on how to handle the inevitable secession of Texas.

“Texas will certainly go out of the union the latter part of this month. I respectfully ask instructions as to what disposition will be made of the troops now in this department,” he wrote in early January.

Two weeks later, having received no reply, he asked to be relieved of his command in San Antonio by March 4. In a subsequent letter to Washington on Jan. 18, he noted, “After secession, I know not what will be done. I know one thing, and that is, I will never fire on American citizens.”

By early 1861, as he was writing anxiously to Washington, Twiggs was being pressured in San Antonio by secessionists to surrender. He was also in secret communications with Gov. Houston about turning the federal assets over to the state.

Ultimately, his superiors in Washington D.C. told Twiggs he was on his own in San Antonio, and eventually the secessionists forced his hand.

After meeting with Twiggs in early February, the four members of the Committee of Public Safety, including Samuel A. Maverick, became convinced he was playing for time, and decided on taking swift military action.

“We must obtain possession of that which now belongs to Texas of right by force, or such a display of force as will compel a compliance with our demands, and that without an hour’s unnecessary delay,” wrote the commissioners, calling for the speedy mustering of a large force.

Seeing the inevitable fast approaching, Twiggs, meanwhile, began negotiating the best terms available: His men would keep their arms and horses, and the paymaster would keep all money on hand, leaving the rest of the $2.6 million in federal assets in Texas to the rebels.

He also ordered his men in San Antonio to fire only in self-defense.

But tensions mounted, and when no agreement was reached, armed men on horseback began filtering into San Antonio on the night of Feb. 15, 1861. Some were posted on downtown rooftops and at other strategic locations.

One witness recalled the drama of the much anticipated showdown.

“(We were) suddenly roused about 4 o’clock by the screams of the negros, who were coming home from market, “We’re all going to be killed,” ' wrote Mrs. Caroline Baldwin Darrow, a union sympathizer.

“I grasped my revolver, and springing to my feet, looked out upon the plaza. In the dim light, I saw the revolutionists appearing, two by two, on muleback and horseback, mounted and on foot, a motley though quite orderly crowd, carrying the Lone Star flag before them,” she wrote.

Early the next morning, as he was headed to his troops at Main Plaza, Twiggs’ carriage was intercepted by the Texas Commissioners who demanded an immediate unconditional surrender.

Facing about 1,000 armed rebels, Twiggs acquiesed, reportedly saying, “I give up everything.”

By that afternoon, his troops had peacefully vacated Main Plaza, leaving everything for the rebels. Two days later, Twiggs issued an order that surrendered all military posts and property in Texas, and instructed all troops to speedily leave their posts.

“Thus, the first military engagement of the Civil War ended in a splendid little victory for the South,” wrote historian J.J. Bowden, in his book “The Exodus of Federal Forces From Texas 1861.”

And the surrender in San Antonio, Bowden wrote, coupled with the subsequent passage of a secession ordinance, “practically ensured the withdrawal of Texas from the Union and its joinder with the Confederacy.”

Twiggs, a soldier in the War of 1812 and the Indian Wars, and a hero of the Mexican-American war, was subsequently dismissed from the U.S. Army for treachery.

He soon joined the Confederate Army becoming its oldest general. But, because of his age, 70, and ill health, he never served. In July 1862, he died of pneumonia in Georgia.