This weekend Comfort, Texas, is remembering Union soldiers from the Texas Hill County who died in the Battle of the Nueces on 10 August 10 1862. These men were Union sympanthizers in a Confederate State. They were on their way to Mexico and were camped beside the Nueces River when Confederate forces attacked them.
On 10 August 1866 the Treue der Union Monument was erected as a memorial to these soldiers and a place for their remains to be laid to rest. It wasn’t until after the war that family members were able to make the journey to the Nueces to gather their bones and return them to the Hill Country.
These men died on 10 August 1862: Leopold Bauer, Edward Degener, C. Schafer, F. Behrens, Pablo Diaz, L. Schierholz, E. Beseler, F. Vater, H. Steves, Ludwig Borner, A. Schriener, W. Telgmann, A. Bruns, J. G. Kalenberg, M. Weirich, Heinrich Degener, H. Markwart, H. Weyerhausen
These men escaped but were later captured and killed: W. Borner, H. Flick, L Rubsamen, T. Bruckish, F. Tays, A. Rubsamen, C. Bock, A. Luckenbach, H. Stieler
These men were killed on 18 October 1862 along the Rio Grande River: J. Elstner, Peter Bonnet, M. Weisz, E. Felsing, V. Hohmann, F. Weisz, H. Herrmann, Fritz Lange
The Handbook of Texas states, “It is the only German-language monument to the Union in the South where the remains of those killed in battle are buried, and where an 1866 thirty-six star American flag flies at half-staff.”
“NUECES, BATTLE OF THE,” Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfn01), accessed August 11, 2012. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
150th Anniversary of the Civil War Battle and Massacre at the Nueces River August 10th 1862. Commemoration Program for Events August 10th and 11th, 2012.
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