Bell County
Historical Commission
Newsletter
WWII exhibit at BCM to close August 21
Less than a month remains for visiting
Memories of World War II: Photographs from the
Archives of The Associated Press. The exhibit will
close on August 21.
Besides 126 historic photographs from the
global struggle pitting "good" against the "evil" of
fascism, the exhibit, hosted by the Bell County
Museum, features memorabilia from the conflict lent
by local residents, including a Japanese "rising sun"
flag, Nazi flags, uniforms, weapons, photographs of
youthful Bell County men in uniform, a life-sized
Betty Grable pin-up and, on the museum's second
floor, a spectacular wedding dress fashioned from a
parachute used by a medic on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Visitors to the exhibit have included multigenerational groups, as "Grandpa and Grandma"
share their memories with their grandchildren.
The exhibit began its nationwide tour in
May, 2004, just before the World War II Memorial
was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington.
The museum, located at 201 North Main in
Belton, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 12
noon to 5 p.m. Phone number is 254-933-5243.
DAR honors WWII paratrooper Bearden
Ensign Thomas Huling Chapter, Daughters of
the American Revolution, honored World War II
veteran Bob Bearden recently with the organization's
Medal of Honor – for service to his country.
Bearden was a 21-year-old sergeant in the
Army's 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment on D-Day,
June 6, 1944. He jumped onto the Normandy beach,
along with thousands of others invading Europe.
Wounded in the attack, he fought for four days before
being captured by Germans. Toward the end of the war
he was "freed" by Soviet armor units, then completed
a harrowing solo journey to Odessa on the Black Sea,
from where he eventually found his way back to Texas.
In 2010, in a ceremony at Fort Hood, Bearden
received 13 medals for his wartime service, including
the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Presidential Unit Citation
and his prized Combat Infantryman Badge, an honor he
was earlier denied.
Why the delay in receiving all those medals?
Bearden says he never got around to completing the
paperwork. His friends got busy, contacted Senator Kay
Bailey Hutchison and the Pentagon and made sure
Bearden received the medals he had earned – only 66
years late.
Summer 2011
Vol. 20, No. 4
Bell County Courthouse
Belton, Texas 76513
Great Bell County Quilt Crawl next winter
Cooler weather, even cold weather, surely
will return by January, just in time for the first Great
Bell County Quilt Crawl, a six-weeks' project
involving county organizations beginning January 14
and continuing through February 18.
Participating organizations will host the
Crawl in several county locations. Then, for one
weekend, each hosting entity will sponsor special
events, combining history, quilts and the interest this
craft continues to attract. The Crawl will begin at the
Cultural Activities Center in Temple on January 14.
The second weekend will feature two Belton
museums, the Bell County Museum and the
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Museum.
The Czech Heritage Museum of Temple will
present its program on the third weekend, and the
Salado Historical Society will host the Crawl during
the fourth weekend; the fifth weekend will be held at
the Railroad and Heritage Museum in Temple.
The Crawl will end at the Killeen Civic and
and Conference Center and the Killeen Arts and
Activities Center on February 18.
Crawl planners note that they hope each
participating organization will have its display in
place on opening day, January 14. More information
is available by calling Joyce Mayer at 254-554-2674
or any of the participating organizations.
Temple's hat history on display at 'Hat-itude'
Temple's Railroad & Heritage Museum is
currently displaying hats from its collection of
women's headgear dating from the 1900s to the
1970s. 'Hat-itude' will remain through September 15.
"The exhibit provides visitors with a
historical view of fashion from the beginning of the
20th century, focusing on how important hats were,
at one time, to the appearance of a well-groomed
woman," says museum curator Amy Mitchell.
Bell County Calendar
BCHC meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . July 25, 7 pm
Memories of World War II (BCM) . . . through August 21
BCHC meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . August 22, 7 pm
'Hat-itude' exhibit . . . . . . . . . . . . . .through September 15
BCHC meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . September 26, 7 pm
Gathering of the Clans (Salado) . . . . . . . . November 11-13
Bell County Quilt Crawl . . . . . . January 14-February 18
BCHC Newsletter
Bloody Bell County due soon at BCM
Rick Miller's long-awaited new book,
Bloody Bell County, will soon be available at the
Bell County Museum. Director Stephanie
Turnham says, "We hope to have it on our
gift shop shelf by the end of July."
Miller, who served as chief of police in
Killeen and Denton, spent three years as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division. He
holds a juris doctorate degree from Baylor Law
School.
Elected Bell County Attorney in 1992,
he is the author of Sam Bass & Gang, Bloody
Bill Longley: A Biography, The Train Robbing
Bunch and Bounty Hunter.
Miller researches outlaws, he says,
because he wants to "get inside the outlaw's head
and see what makes him tick." He recently bid
high on eBay for an unused pass to witness a
1907 hanging in Bell County, unused because
the governor commuted the convicted man's
sentence.
300 attend 'Battle of Temple Junction'
The "North" won the "Battle of Temple
Junction" on a recent Saturday, but the "South"
was victorious on Sunday during the local Sons
of Confederate Veterans third annual event.
Sponsors were members of the Major
Robert M. White Camp 1250, SCV, who have
announced that the 2012 "BTJ" is scheduled for
May 18, 19 and 20, 2012.
Although no Civil War battles were
fought in central Texas, SCV members attempt
to educate visitors about military life during that
conflict and invite area school students to attend
on the first day of the re-enactment.
About 100 re-enactors participated in
this year's event.
July 4, 1826: Two former Presidents die
Founding fathers of the American
Republic, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
reconciled via correspondence after years of
political animosity, died on July 4, 1826, 50
years after the adoption of the Declaration of
Independence. Jefferson, the nation's third
President, died first at Monticello, his Virginia
home. The second President, Adams, died a short
time later in Quincy, Massachusetts. Jefferson,
principal writer of the Declaration, was 83;
Adams was 90. The news was reported in
London more than a month later.
Summer 2011
Picnickers buy most of new SHS cups
This year's Salado Historical Society's
July 4 picnic guests purchased most of the
society's new "Historic Salado" coffee cups
designed by Pete Stebbins and based on the
society logo created by Maurice Carson.
More cups are being re-ordered,
according to Stebbins, SHS membership
chairman. A Killeen firm, Designer Awards,
assisted with the design, Stebbins said; the cups
were produced by Custom Printing of Belton.
Price of the cups is $9.50. SHS and Bell
County Historical Commission members may
buy them for $6 each.
The design incorporates an illustration
of Salado College, first used as the logo for the
Salado Historic District. The college was begun
in 1859 when Bell County leaders met and
organized the Salado College Joint Stock
Company, raising $5,000 through sales of stock.
Colonel E. S. C. Robertson, president of the
seven-member board, donated 100 acres of land,
of which 90 acres were sold to raise more
money, making Salado College the first college
in Texas to operate without state or church
funding.
The co-educational institution operated
from 1860 until 1885. In some years attendance
exceeded 300 students; from 1866 to 1872,
average enrollment was 250. Money troubles
then began plaguing the school, and by 1880 the
state failed to renew its charter. It closed in 1885.
Texas Terquasquicententennial half gone
So those who plan to celebrate with the
6,000-mile road trip to 175 sites that "made us
what we are," according to Texas Monthly, need
to get busy. 2011 is the 175th anniversary of the
year when Texas won its independence from
Mexico and declared itself the Republic of
Texas.
Those who began the journey in the
spring, when the TM road trip map landed in
mailboxes around the world, may have a head
start, but catching up is still possible.
With 23 weekends remaining this year,
all one has to do is drive 300 miles on each of 20
weekends, leaving three weekends to do the
laundry, mow the grass and clean out the garage.
The route begins in Glen Rose and ends
in Austin, with stops in every region of the state.
Doesn't that sound like more fun than chores?
A.L.
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
Professor's grave receives marker
James Lowry Smith
*****
Carter discusses career, Hex-Bug
Joel Carter of Innovation First entertained some 100 guests at the recent Wilmer
Memorial Lecture, sponsored annually by The
Institute for the Humanities at Salado.
In addition to describing his own career
and the development of robotic educational toys,
Carter, son of the late artist John Carter and Cae
Carter of Killeen, the vice president and chief
marketing officer at Innovation First emphasized the need for encouraging the nation's
youngsters to study math and science.
"High achievement comes from high
expectations," he said, adding that in Asia
"expectations are higher than they are here."
Among developed nations, young people in the
United States, according to Carter, rank 17th in
reading skills, 32nd in math and 23rd in science.
Everyone in the audience received a
Hex-Bug, a six-legged, beetle-like micro-robot
introduced in 2007. Carter and his assistants also
provided demonstrations showing how the latest
innovation works; HEX-BUG Micro Robotic
Creatures won Specialty Toy of the Year honors
at last year's International Toy Fair in New York.
Intended to inspire youngsters in the audience,
the display attracted more than a few adults. A.L.
The Texas Historical Commission has
recognized James Lowry Smith, 1827-1883 as a
"significant part of Texas history" by awarding
an official marker placed recently at his grave in
the Old Salado Graveyard.
The marker recognizes Professor Smith
for his tenure as the fourth president of Salado
College, from September, 1865, to July, 1874,
and from July, 1879, to July, 1880. During these
years, college enrollments averaged 250 students
annually; in addition, the college achieved high
standards for its excellent faculty.
As both president and professor of
metaphysics and natural sciences, Smith promoted two literary societies which demonstrated
"the general tone and morale of the school as
well as the progress and development of the
student body." One of these societies, known as
"Eupradian," was for men to study parliamentary
law, public speaking and debate. The other,
"Amasavourian," meaning "love of knowledge,"
was intended to elevate "womanly refinement
and literary culture" in the college and
community .
Smith was born in Raleigh, North
Carolina, in 1827, moved with his parents to
Texas in 1834, married Julia Catherine
McDowell and became the father of seven
children. He served as a captain in the
Confederate army and earned bachelor's and
master's degrees at Baylor College at
Independence. A charter member of the Salado
Baptist Church of Christ in 1864, he later served
as a deacon.
After his death on January 10, 1883, an
obelisk-shaped monument was erected at his
gravesite. An inscription on the monument is
said to have been hand-carved by former students. Smith is one of 16 Salado pioneers buried
in the graveyard who have been honored as
"Salado's Heroes."
The Salado Historical Society hosted
the dedication ceremony. Speakers included SHS
president, Dr. Wallace Davis, and Smith
descendants. – Bill Kinnison
______________
For those deprived of recent Internet offerings: "This
year July has five Fridays, five Saturdays and five
Sundays, a phenomenon occurring only once every
823 years. Another tidbit about 2011: Dates include
1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11 and 11/11/11."
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
'Citizens need information' – says Tribune's Smith
Journalist Evan Smith doesn't merely lament the decline in Americans' newspaper
readership, but in helping to establish the online The Texas Tribune, he is doing
something about this gap in the distribution of information.
After 18 years at national awarding-winning Texas Monthly, Smith described his new
responsibilities at the not-for-profit Tribune in a recent appearance at The Institute for the
Humanities at Salado . His motivation, he said, was to "raise the level of engagement"
between Texans and their leaders.
'People need to understand the issues with good information," he emphasized, describing
the decline in newspaper influence with statistics like these:
1) Twenty years ago Texas cities like San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and El Paso all had
two newspapers; today, none of them does.
2) The capital press corps in Austin is one-third the size today, compared with 1991.
Smith stressed that citizens need to know about their governments, their leaders and what
those leaders are doing. With the decline in newspaper readership, reliable information
has also declined as other media compete to attract Americans with limited attention
spans.
"What has disappeared, along with the newspapers," he said, "is transparency in public
policy decision-making, along with information that affects all Texans, including
immigration, schools, the judicial system and so on. These issues are difficult to follow
without good information." The Texas Tribune helps boost governmental accountability,
for example, by making available, so far, information about more than 200 elected
officials, including personal financial information, according to Smith, and the top 25
salaries earned by people who work for the state of Texas.
(The highest paid? Mack Brown, head coach, The University of Texas at Austin, annual salary of $2,511,667,
according to the Tribune's website. Included in the top 25 are five coaches and one athletic director, Clarence Byrne at
Texas A&M University, at $690,000, number 25. Nineteen of the best-paid officials are associated with the state's
medical institutions.)
On the Tribune's website is also Smith's statement about why the online medium provides
these salary figures: "Because they're already public. Because we're about transparency,
open government and greater access to information. Because you have a right to know
how your tax dollars are being spent."
Citizens need to know what the Legislature is doing during their sessions, Smith said.
This year's regular session, which adjourned in June, dealt with many critical issues, but
was forced to address Governor Rick Perry's "emergency" issues, which included the
(continued…)
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
time-consuming and still-controversial "sonogram" item. The special session that
followed had to deal with the question of sales taxes on purchases from out-of-state
internet businesses, among other issues.
Smith pointed out that other issues need attention, such as the state's enormous growth in
population (20 percent during the last 10 years, with 69 percent of that growth attributed
to Hispanic increase and 228 of Texas' 254 counties experiencing growth in their
Hispanic populations).
In commenting on a question concerning Perry's flirtation with national office, Smith
noted that the governor and President Obama have one thing in common: "They can both
campaign." He added that Perry would be a good vice-president in the role of "attack
dog."
"He can out-Cheney," he said, a reference to former Vice-President Dick Cheney.
Moving to another topic at the Institute's presentation, Smith discussed the "pervasive
polarity" that describes today's politics.
"But being a good citizen means sometimes talking to people you disagree with . . .
We all want Texas to be the best she can be."
As a non-profit institution, the Tribune does not depend on advertising to cover its costs,
giving it the freedom to discuss controversial issues but, of course, making it dependent
on contributions from members, who may join for $35 a year. Like public radio,
membership is not required to use the service.
Smith noted that Austin's KUT is the nation's most successful public radio source; with
17,000 members, the station raises $3,000,000 a year in contributions.
Smith's talk, sponsored by the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn Foundation was the first in a
new Institute program of underwritten presentations. A.L.
*****
This newsletter is published quarterly by the Bell County Historical Commission, Box 712 , Belton , Texas 765130712 . Editorial material may be sent to Annette Lucksinger, 811 Oakhill Drive, Killeen, Texas 76541. Telephone
number is 254-699-5916; e-mail: [email protected] The commission meets at 7 p.m. on the fourth
Monday of most months at the Bell County Courthouse. BCHC volunteers are available at the commission's office
on the first floor of the courthouse Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon to assist visitors and residents
with historical and genealogy research. The telephone number is 254-933-5917; e-mail: [email protected]
Current commission officers include Dorothy Button, chairman; Haroldine Early, vice chairman; Kim Kroll,
secretary, and Rae Schmuck, treasurer. Committee chairmen are Haroldine Early, advisory; Patty Benoit, bylaws;
Tom Heard, cemetery; David Yeilding, finance and budget; Joe Button, grants and membership; Beverly Zendt,
programs; Stephanie Turnham, historical preservation; Tom Hughes, historical appreciation; Annette Lucksinger,
newsletter; and Patty Benoit, historical markers coordinator.
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
Waskow's sister recalls brother's death, another's injury
"I was 21, the youngest child, and had been carried along my entire life on a pillow," says
Mary Lee Waskow Barr-Cox of Killeen, Bell County native and former Bell County Historical
Commission member. "Then, suddenly, I was having to deal with so many things!"
Barr-Cox, who now lives in Killeen, is the sister of Captain Henry T. Waskow, honored
again on July 4 for his sacrifice on a hill in southern Italy during World War II. A new exhibit on
Central Avenue in Belton gives residents and visitors the opportunity to learn about this Belton
High School graduate, whose story inspired the documentary The Battle of San Pietro and the
movie, The Story of G.I. Joe.
Waskow was revered by his men; that reverence, observed and recorded by famed war
correspondent Ernie Pyle, resulted in Waskow's becoming one of the war's most well-known
casualties. Waskow died on December 10, 1943. "The Death of Captain Waskow" was first
printed in the Washington Daily News on January 10, 1944.
Waskow's parents, Frank and Mary Goth Waskow, both of German descent, worked as
cotton farmers in Fort Bend County, Goliad County and DeWitt County, where their fifth son,
Henry Thomas, was born in 1918, then moved to Bell County in 1921. Mary Lee was born in Bell
County in 1922. A sister, Selma (Mrs. Estle Barr), now lives in Killeen. Henry graduated from
Belton High School in 1935, from Temple Junior College in 1937 and from Trinity University,
then located in Waxahachie, in 1939. While in college he joined the Texas Army National Guard
in the 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division with his brother August.
Majoring in history, English and Spanish in college, Henry was offered a position at
Belton High School, but turned it down because of the clear possibility that he would soon be
called to military service. The two brothers' unit was mobilized November 25, 1940, and left for
Camp Bowie in January, 1941. After learning that Henry had a college degree, Army superiors
awarded him a lieutenant's commission on March 14; he then went to Fort Benning for officers
training. The brothers were separated, Henry assigned to Company B, First Battalion, 143rd
Regiment, and August, to Company I.
Training for the 36th continued, including stints at Camp Polk, Louisiana; Camp
Blanding, Florida; and Camp Edwards, Massachusetts, before the division shipped out from New
York in April, 1943, to Oran, Algeria, and to Rabat, Morocco. On September 9, it landed near
Paestum, an ancient Greek city about 25 miles south of Salerno. On September 13, at Salerno,
August suffered serious head wounds and was captured by the Germans. Still, he was lucky: Two
American physicians were also captured, and the Germans allowed them to treat their comrade.
"They figured August, in his condition, couldn't fight Germans anymore," Mary Lee says.
He was left in a convent with nuns who continued his care. They were able to get a letter
to Henry through enemy lines. Writing in a code of sorts, August told his brother that he would
hear the Bell County Courthouse chime before Henry would. From this, Mary Lee says, Henry
would understand that August had been wounded and would be evacuated.
The 36th continued the fight up the Italian coast and inland, often on mountain trails, as
the Americans tried to dislodge stubbornly resistant German strongholds. In December Henry
Waskow's B Company, "now reduced to the size of a platoon in one of the most difficult
campaigns of the war," according to one account, was attacked on a ridge called Hill 730.
Shrapnel hit the men of Company B, including Captain Waskow, who died almost instantly. As
Waskow's assistant Riley Tidwell went down to inform higher-ups of the captain's death, he
encountered correspondent Pyle. Bringing Waskow's body down from the mountain took three
days; Pyle waited and listened to the emotional farewells Waskow's men muttered beside his
body, observing their grief at the loss of their commander, aged 25 at the time of his death.
(continued …)
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
Mary Lee Waskow Barr-Cox, right, and her sister, Selma Waskow Barr, admire proofs for a story
board about their brother, Henry Thomas Waskow, and the Ernie Pyle column about his death
during World War II. The story board will be placed in front of the Belton Area Chamber of
Commerce, 412 East Central Avenue. To the right is a photo of Waskow in uniform.
After a few days Pyle wrote the legendary column, but said of his work: "I've lost the
touch. This stuff stinks." An Associated Press colleague disagreed, urging Pyle to submit the
story. It appeared a month later on page one of the Washington Daily News.
Meanwhile, back in Belton, Mary Lee, whose mother Mary was not in good health, had
earlier taken the precaution of asking women employed at Belton's Western Union office to call
her if any telegram arrived for the Waskow family. Her brother Henry died on December 14,
1943. The telegram arrived December 29. Mary Lee immediately called a family conference with
brothers Paul and John, along with two nieces who lived nearby, in order to devise some gentle
way to inform Mary of her son's death. Then, just a few weeks after his death, Mary died. A
memorial service for Captain Waskow was held during his mother's funeral. Captain Waskow is
buried in the Sicily-Rome American cemetery in Nettuno, Italy. He was awarded the Legion of
Merit and Purple Heart posthumously. His parents are buried at North Belton Cemetery.
The movie, The Story of G.I. Joe, starred Robert Mitchum as Waskow. The film
premiered in Indiana near Pyle’s birthplace. Later a double memorial premiere came to Temple’s
Arcadia theater and the Beltonian in Belton.
Bell County sites named for Henry Waskow include Captain Henry T. Waskow High
School and Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall 4008, both in Belton, and a street in Fort Hood's
Walker Village. The high school has held Henry T. Waskow Remembrance Day ceremonies for
several years.
According to Barr-Cox, August Waskow suffered effects of his injury for the rest of his
life, but managed to remain on active duty, retiring as a sergeant major. Married to the former
Irene Whiteley, August, the father of two daughters, died in San Antonio in 1977 and is buried at
Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. A.L.
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
Remembering the Civil War in Bell County
Remembering the Civil War in Bell County
One hundred fifty years ago – the summer of
1861 – Bell County was preparing to send off
more than 1,000 young men to the Confederate
army. Ten companies would eventually be
formed (some say 13), commanded by men
elected by the soldiers themselves.
The three-month enlistment of Halley's company
having expired by the time their work along the
frontier was finished, the Salado Mounted
Troops disbanded, but many joined another
company at Fort Chadbourne under Captain
Samuel Green Davidson and were accepted in
May, 1861, as Company K, 1st Texas Volunteer
Cavalry, Confederate States Army. In late June,
1861, Davidson was killed in an encounter with
Comanche Indians on the upper Colorado and
was buried with military honors in Howard
County where Big Spring is now located,
according to Tyler. The company was then
commanded by First Lieutenant Robert C.
Myers, who was promoted to major and then to
lieutenant colonel. Finally, command passed to
Second Lieutenant James Swan Bigham, who
became captain commanded the company until
the end of the war.
In Judge George W. Tyler's 1936 History of Bell
County, the author lists the 10 companies for
which he was able ("after the most diligent
search") to find rosters – or portions of rosters as
remembered by Civil War veterans he
interviewed. These companies include names
familiar to Bell County residents today, names
that made history in their wartime efforts, as well
as in postwar pursuits. Not surprisingly, given
Texan preferences, seven of these 10 companies
served as cavalry units, although White's
company was "dismounted" in spring, 1862.
1) Captain James Swan Bigham's Company was
a sort of "second generation" company made up
of veterans of a ranging company organized by
Captain Robert B. Halley, according to Tyler.
Halley realized, as delegates to the Texas
secession convention were being chosen, that
some kind of military force would be needed in
case of war and offered his "Salado Mounted
Troops" to the convention on February 4, 1861,
by way of Major E. Sterling C. Robertson, one of
two Bell County delegates. (The other was John
Henry Brown of Belton; both men voted for the
Ordinance of Secession, later approved by Bell
County's male voters 468 to 198. The state's
voters then ratified the ordinance 46,129 to
14,697.)
The company served under Colonel Henry C.
McCulloch along Texas' northwest frontier to
facilitate the surrender of United States forces –
and, most importantly, the arms, ammunition and
other supplies -- Camp Colorado in today's
Coleman County, Fort Chadbourne in Coke
County and Camp Cooper on the Clear Fork of
the Brazos, already under control since February
21 by Colonel William C. Dalrymple of the state
troops serving under authority of Governor Sam
Houston, still in office though he would later be
forced to resign for his failure to sign the loyalty
oath to the Confederacy.
(continued …)
Tyler notes that, as of June 4, 1926, "Captain
Bigham, though much enfeebled by age, still
survives and is the only one of the Bell County
captains now living."
2) Captain Robert M. White's Company,
commanded by a well-known Bell County
militia leader, was, according to Tyler, the first
Bell County company to go directly to the war's
"fighting area." White, a Belton merchant, had
served as first lieutenant in the "Bell County
Rovers" and was captain and commander in
1859 of "Bob White's Ranging Company," both
groups organized to defend the county's settlers
from local Comanches.
This unit was eventually incorporated as
Company H into the Sixth Texas Cavalry
Regiment, which formed at Dallas in
September,1861. With this unit, White saw
action in Arkansas, the Choctaw Indian Nation,
Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. Promoted to
major in 1862, White was killed in action on
April 26, 1863, in an engagement along the
Tennessee River. He was buried in Bell County
at the South Belton Cemetery. White's unit
suffered 22 casualties including one at Corinth,
Mississippi, on October 4, 1862, in the aftermath
of the Battle of Shiloh.
(continued …)
BCHC Newsletter
Summer 2011
Remembering the Civil War in Bell County
Remembering the Civil War in Bell County
3) Captain Henry Eugene Bradford's Company,
an infantry unit, organized one afternoon in
September, 1861, "in a vacant lot on Pearl
Street," according to Tyler, north of the old Bell
County jail. Like other departing Bell County
companies,, Captain Bradford's unit received a
silk flag. stitched by local women, before
"marching away to Camp Henry McCulloch near
Victoria for training" (MapQuest: 182 miles by
car). The company became Company F, 6th
Texas Volunteer Infantry.
on the Louisiana-Arkansas front; in addition, it
was assigned to the Texas coast toward the end
of the war. Two of its five casualties died in
Louisiana. Saunders, a direct descendant of
Daniel Boone's sister, according to the Handbook of Texas, began the Belton Independent,
Bell County's first newspaper, which opposed
secession. Elected as Belton's first mayor in 1860
and "an ardent opponent of secession," Saunders
nevertheless joined the Confederate cause and
was elected commander of his company,
designated as Company A, 16th Texas Infantry.
After Reconstruction ended in 1876, Saunders
was elected to the post of district judge in Bell
County.
On January 11, 1863, during an engagement at
Arkansas Post (part of the Union army's
Vicksburg Campaign, a large number of the
company were captured by Federals, according
to Tyler, and imprisoned at Camp Butler near
Springfield, Illinois. Of the company's 29
casualties, 12 died in prison. The rest of the unit
saw "active service in Tennessee and Georgia,"
Tyler writes.
4) Captain Milton Wesley Damron's Company,
designated as Company D, 18th Regiment, Texas
Volunteer Cavalry, enlisted in fall, 1861, and
"mustered in" on January 20, 1862, according to
Tyler's record. The unit recorded 17 casualties,
including 12 prisoners who died at Camp
Douglas, Illinois, and one death on the steamboat
Nebraska. Except for two men, prisoners taken
by the Federals at the fall of Arkansas Post were
exchanged and served through the last year of
the war east of the Mississippi River under
command of Lieutenant William B. Blair. On the
muster roll of June 30, 1863, was this notation:
"Captain M. W. Damron of this company was
absent on furlough at the fall of Arkansas Post.
Lieutenant John Brown and five men made their
escape after the surrender. Of this company there
were 41 men and two officers captured. The
remainder are still west of the Mississippi
River." According to Tyler, the "remnant of the
company…were subsequently consolidated with
a similar remnant …from Ellis County and
served under Captain Damron west of the
Mississippi."
5) Captain X. Boone Saunders' Company, an
infantry unit, left in late fall, 1861, and trained at
Brenham and Hempstead. According to Tyler,
the company saw active service
(continued…)
6) Captain John F. Smith's Company, another
infantry unit, was organized by Captain Hilary
M. Bouldin in early spring, 1862. The unit
trained at Camp Terry near Austin, then transferred as Company I, 17th Texas Volunteer
Infantry, to the Arkansas-Louisiana front where
it served throughout the war. Captain Bouldin
became disabled, according to Tyler's record,
and was honorably discharged in December,
1862, after which Lieutenant Smith was elected
commander. The company suffered 13 casualties; Tyler's information states that, except for
two, all these deaths were due to "typhoid (fever)
and pneumonia."
7) Captain Robert Bonner Halley's Company,
which had enlisted late in the fall of 1862,
"bivouacked during the Christmas holidays at the
gushing Salado Springs where the citizens gave
them a big dance." The muster roll, dated
January 1, 1863, is, Tyler writes, the only Bell
County muster roll that reached both the
Confederate War Department at Richmond,
Virginia, and the U.S. War Department. The
company served on the Arkansas-Louisiana
front. The company was designated Company G,
Unorganized Battalion, Arizona Brigade. Having
served before the Civil War as a county
commissioner, Halley was elected sheriff of Bell
County in 1874 and served until he died in 1875.
8) Captain George W. Graves' Company left Bell
County in the early part of 1864, Tyler records,
and was assigned to the Rio Grande frontier for
the remainder of the war. Tyler
(continued…)
BCHC Newsletter
Remembering the Civil War in Bell County
notes that no official roster exists for this cavalry
company; Tyler's "Unofficial Roll of 1918" was
compiled by Lieutenant Samuel W. Bishop and
Privates J. Frank Carter, John W. Aiken, Eli B.
Baggett and others. Graves was "familiarly"
known as "Wat" Graves. The company was
designated as Company A, 4th Texas Cavalry
and also as Company D, 2nd Arizona Cavalry.
9) Captain James H. Weathersbee's Company, a
cavalry company originally raised by Captain
William Howeth in 1864 to serve in a "Home
Guards Battalion," was composed of men over
and under the draft age (45 and 18, respectively).
As the company prepared to leave Bell County,
Howeth was promoted to major, and Captain
Weathersbee then commanded the unit until the
end of the war. The company served in the
central parts of the state, preserved order and
arrested deserters, draft-dodgers, bushwhackers,
thieves and "lawless and suspicious characters,"
according to Tyler. Except for a few men who
served on "detached coast guard service" under a
Captain (Daniel?) McMillan, none of Company
B, Battalion Home Guards was sent to the war's
front lines, Tyler records.
10) Captain William Samuel Rather's Company,
a cavalry unit recruited and beginning service for
the Confederacy in 1864, "camped the first night
at Salado," Tyler writes, "and on the next
morning Mr. George H. Gassaway received an
order detailing him and others to buy beeves for
the Confederate government, to be sent to the
soldiers on the fighting front." The company,
according to Tyler, consisted of Privates J.
Bishop, Julius Brown, Dr. A. J. Embree, George
H Gassaway, Uriah Gould, W. Graves, Obe
Harris, Jack Huffman, Pope Peevey, A. J.
Willingham and Sam Young. Tyler continues:
"Most of the above named worked with Mr.
Gassaway in this beef gathering work and were
not with the main company anymore. The
company itself, while nominally a military
organization, seems to have been really a beef
supply (Tyler's italics) company, though some of
the company may have engaged in some military
duties and some fighting The field of their
operations was mostly in central, south and
southwest Texas." Beef supply company or not,
the unit was designated Company B, 4th Texas
Cavalry.
Summer 2011
Texans miss CW’s first land battle
After the attack by Confederates on the
United States Army garrison at Fort Sumter,
South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, men
throughout the South began volunteering for
service to the Confederacy.
Texans were no different. Some have
written that many Texans (still called "Texians"
in some parts of the country) were afraid the war
would be over "before we even got to shoot at a
Yankee."
Charles D. Grear in Why Texans Fought
in the Civil War (2010) writes: If one were to ask
a Texan today what motivated men from the
Lone Star State to fight in the Civil War, the
typical response would be a question: Do Texans
ever need an excuse to fight? Texans had a
reputation as fighters long before…Sumter."
One group was so determined to get
quickly to Virginia, where it was believed, in the
early months of 1861, the one decisive battle . . .
would be fought, that they "may be said to have
straggled to Virginia," according to J. B. Polley.
"They went singly, in couples and in triplets,"
wrote Polley in Hood's Texas Brigade: Its
Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements (1908).
"Although (they) all arrived in
Richmond by June 1, 1861, they were not
ordered to the front until July 21, the day the first
battle …of Manassas was fought, and so did not
reach the Southern army in time to take part in
that engagement," according to Polley.
The "stragglers" to Richmond were the
first companies of the first Texas Infantry
Regiment, raised in 12 East Texas counties and
mustered into service at New Orleans on May
16, 1861. The unit, followed by the Fourth and
Fifth Texas Infantry Regiments, would become
Hood's Texas Brigade. First commanded by
Texas politician L. T. Wigfall, the brigade was
next commanded by Brigadier General John Bell
Hood, who led the brigade for only about six
months, but whose name followed the brigade
for the duration of the war and beyond.
The First Texas Infantry was on its way
to Manassas Junction on July 21 during a heavy
rainstorm. Some 1,300 troops rode in a "doubleheader," a train with an engine in both front and
back. At about 9 p.m. the train ran into a washedout culvert, killing or injuring about 40 soldiers.
The First Texas then helped chase remaining
Federals back across the Potomac River. A.L.