Texas Hill Country in the context of "Granite dome"

In the United States, Southern Unionists were white Southerners living in the Confederate States of America and the Southern Border States opposed to secession. Many fought for the Union during the Civil War. These people are also referred to as Southern Loyalists, Union Loyalists, or Lincoln's Loyalists. Pro-Confederates in the South derided them as "Tories" (in reference to the pro-Crown Loyalists of the American Revolution). During Reconstruction, these terms were replaced by "scalawag" (or "scallywag"), which covered all Southern whites who supported the Republican Party.

Tennessee (especially East Tennessee), Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, North Carolina, and Virginia (which included West Virginia at that time) were home to the largest populations of Unionists. Other (primarily Appalachian) areas with significant Unionist influence included North Alabama, North Georgia, Western North Carolina, the Texas Hill Country, northern Loudoun County in Virginia, North Mississippi, North Texas, the Arkansas Ozarks, and the Boston Mountains in Arkansas. These areas provided thousands of volunteers for Union military service. Western North Carolinians, for example, formed their own loyalist infantry, cavalry, and artillery regiments, while West Virginians formed a new Union state admitted in 1863.

Austin (/ˈɔːstɪn/ AW-stin) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census, it is the 13th-most populous city in the U.S., fifth-most populous city in Texas, and second-most populous U.S. state capital (after Phoenix, Arizona), while the Austin metro area with an estimated 2.55 million residents is the 25th-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Austin is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it has been one of the fastest-growing large cities in the United States since 2010.

Located in Central Texas within the greater Texas Hill Country, it is home to numerous lakes, rivers, and waterways, including Lady Bird Lake and Lake Travis on the Colorado River, Barton Springs, McKinney Falls, and Lake Walter E. Long. Evidence of human activity in the region is estimated to date back at least 11,200 years ago, with early habitation by Clovis peoples and later by American Indian groups such as the Tonkawa. Austin and San Antonio are approximately 80 miles (129 km) apart, and both fall along the I-35 corridor. This combined metropolitan region of San Antonio–Austin has approximately 5 million people. Austin is the southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States and is considered a Gamma + level global city as categorized by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas roughly bordered on the west by San Saba, to the southeast by Bryan-College Station, the south by San Marcos and to the north by Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part of the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a physiographic section designation within the Edwards Plateau, in a geographic context.

Central Texas includes the metropolitan areas of: Killeen-Temple, Bryan–College Station, Waco and Austin–Round Rock (also part of the Capital region). The Austin–Round Rock and Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood areas are among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the state. In the south, the Greater Austin and Greater San Antonio areas are separated from each other by approximately 80 miles (129 km) along I-35. It is anticipated that both regions may form a new metroplex similar to Dallas-Fort Worth. The largest U.S. Army installation in the country, Fort Hood, is located near Killeen.

U.S. Route 290 (US 290) is an east–west U.S. Highway located entirely within the state of Texas. Its western terminus is at Interstate 10 southeast of Segovia, and its eastern terminus is at Interstate 610 in northwest Houston. It is the main highway between Houston and Austin and is a cutoff for travelers wanting to bypass San Antonio on Interstate 10. Throughout its length west of Austin, US 290 cuts across mountainous hills comprising the Texas Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau; between Austin and Houston, the highway then travels through gradually hilly grasslands and pine forests comprising the Gulf Coastal Plains.

In its original designation in 1926, US 290 originally traveled from US 80 in Reeves County to terminate in San Antonio; though the highway still retains its designation from southeast of Segovia to Fredericksburg, I-10 and US 87 replaced much of the old routing in 1935. US 290 also received several minor re-routings east of Austin in 1951 that moved it further north, eliminating the old SH 20; the old routings were replaced by SH 71 and SH 21. While US 290 does not directly connect to its parent route of U.S. Route 90, ramps at its eastern terminus lead to US 90 and I-10.

Texas's 10th congressional district of the United States House of Representatives stretches from the northwestern portion of the Greater Houston region to the Greater Austin region. It includes Houston suburbs such as Katy, Cypress, Tomball, and Prairie View, cities in east-central Texas including Brenham and Columbus, and northern Austin and some suburbs including Pflugerville, Bastrop, Manor, and Elgin. The current representative is Michael McCaul.

For most of the time from 1903 to 2005, the 10th was centered on Austin. It originally included large portions of the Texas Hill Country. Future President Lyndon B. Johnson represented this district from 1937 to 1949. During the second half of the 20th century, Austin's dramatic growth resulted in the district becoming more compact over the years. By the 1990s, it was reduced to little more than Austin itself and surrounding suburbs in Travis County.