Ernst Raven (1804-1881) was a consul for the German Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in the State of Texas during the American Civil War. He was bookbinder to the Duke before moving to Baltimore, Maryland in 1838. [1] Raven moved to what was then the Republic of Texas in 1844 and settled in Milam County. In 1846 he was one of the signers of a petition to the Governor of Texas for the relocation of trading posts with the Indian tribes.[2] He relocated permanently to Austin, Texas in 1848, where he resumed bookbinding and served as a city alderman. In 1853 Raven was hired for contract work on furniture in the Texas State Senate chamber.[3] Raven was mentioned in Frederick Law Olmstead's 1857 account of his journey through Texas. At the time of Olmstead's visit to Austin, Raven was offering a $100 reward for return of a stolen horse.[4]

At some unknown point in time Ernst II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha appointed Raven--an American citizen--as consul in Texas. In 1861 Texas seceded and joined the Confederate States of America and Raven, as a citizen of Texas switched his loyalty to the Confederacy. Confederate Secretary of State Judah Benjamin reported that Raven requested permission to act as consul:

"Ernst Raven, esq., who was appointed consul for the State of Texas by his highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and who applied to this government for an exequator on the 30th of July 1861"[5]

Raven's appointment assigned him to Galveston, Texas, which was the largest port in Texas at the time.[6]

All other consuls in the south during the Civil War were appointed previously to the United States Government, and were expelled by the Confederacy in 1863 because they were foreign citizens and did not acknowledge the Confederacy. Raven was loyal to Texas and the Confederacy, and remained in Austin. Historian Eugene Berwanger explicitly states that Raven's request for an exequator did not in any way represent recognition. As a citizen of Texas Raven of course could not speak for the Duke, who apparently never heard of the episode. (Only the Duke could extend recognition to the Confederacy, and he was a strong supporter of the Union.) [Berwanger 111]

CSA Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin on Oct. 8, 1863 explained the status of consuls under international law:

When the Confederacy was first formed, there were in our ports a number of British Consuls and Consular Agents, who had been recognized as such, not only by the Government of the United States, which was then the authorized agent of the several States for that purpose, but by the State authorities themselves. Under the law of nations, these officials are not entitled to exercise political or diplomatic functions, nor are they ever accredited to the sovereigns within whose dominions they reside. Their only warrant of authority is the commission of their own government; but usage requires that those who have the full grade of Consul should not exercise their functions within the territory of any sovereign before receiving his permission in the form of an exequatur; while consular agents of inferior grade simply notify the local authorities of their intention to act in that capacity. It has not been customary upon any change of government, to interfere with these commercial officials, already established in the discharge of their duties, and it is their recognized obligation to treat all governments which may be established, de facto, over the ports where they reside, as governments de jure. [7]