Kerrville Civil War massacre?

3,456 Views | 11 Replies | Last: 4 yr ago by expresswrittenconsent
jickyjack1
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I was talking to a fifth-generation Texan of German descent whose immigrant forebears settled around Kerrville nine years before the Civil War (all this, of course, as related by him). He said that following Texas secession a certain number Germans in that area declined to assume the Southern cause and determined to leave Texas and remove to Mexico. They were just south of Kerrville and upon the march when set upon by Southern sympathizers (not soldiers) and massacred, with the survivors being later executed.

I had never heard of this and wondered if it actually happened? I told the fellow I know of some people who will have the real poop, and that I'll let him know what did -- or didn't -- happen.
MGS
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The Nueces Massacre
who?mikejones
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AG
Yancey Quimper himself led the way
p_bubel
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BQ78
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AG
The citizens of Texas were quite on edge at the beginning of the Civil War. The entire south was put on edge by John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid but it got ratcheted up in Texas. In the summer of 1860 there were mysterious fires in Henderson, Denton and Dallas that were blamed on slaves or abolitionists. In Dallas, three slaves were arrested for arson with no real evidence. A gallows was erected where the railroad tracks are behind the Grassy Knoll of JFK fame. The three slaves were hung and buried somewhere where the tracks are today.

Of course the Germans kept to themselves and weren't real Americans in the eyes of the Texans so when the Germans left for Mexico, the rumor got around that they were going there to organize an attack of Texas from Mexico. Since much of Texas' manpower was gone or going to the war, Texas felt vulnerable and the massacre occurred.

All the paranoia culminated in the Great Gainesville Hangings in 1862 in Cooke and Wise Counties as over 43 suspected Unionists were lynched or executed after kangaroo courts in October of that year. It remains the largest mass lynching in US history.




Trench55
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AG
There were also a number of lynchings of "Union sympathizers" in Texas during the Civil War. I've read that several occurred in the north central Texas area. In Gillespie County (Fredericksburg) there was a gang known as the The Haengerbande (Hanging Gang). On March 9, 1864, they dragged three German settlers from their homes in Gillespie County and lynched them. One of those was my great-great grandfather Wilhelm Feller.


Rabid Cougar
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AG
Trench55 said:

There were also a number of lynchings of "Union sympathizers" in Texas during the Civil War. I've read that several occurred in the north central Texas area. In Gillespie County (Fredericksburg) there was a gang known as the The Haengerbande (Hanging Gang). On March 9, 1864, they dragged three German settlers from their homes in Gillespie County and lynched them. One of those was my great-great grandfather Wilhelm Feller.



Not Germans but Unionist. Great Hanging in Gainesville, Cooke County in October 1862. Unfortunately, I had relatives that took part in it.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jig01

Names of victims

Sorry BQ78, I saw your post after I posted mine.
Trench55
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AG
Rabid Cougar - Yes, they were Union sympathizers, but they were also German immigrants. The German immigrants who settled Fredericksburg and Gillespie County were not monolithic in their thinking on the secession issue. Some served in the Confederate Army, while others hid out during the day to avoid conscription. As late as the late 1940s and early 1950s, some children of the descendants of these immigrants were taught German (and 1850s version) as either a first of second language, and some still speak English with a slight German accent.
Rabid Cougar
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AG
Not many German names on that list in Gainesville. As far as speaking English as a second language.. I grew up in Cameron, Texas were English was second to Czech. Lots of parents and grandparent were still speaking Czech at home in the 70's. The entire Sunday afternoon radio broadcast on KMIL was in Czech.
BQ78
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AG
The Gainesville Hangings were more like the Hatfields Vs. the McCoy's but one family controlled the local law enforcement and and were also big in the Militia. The Bourlands I think are their names of the hangers and the two feuding families are still well represented in Cooke County today and not the best of friends.
Martin Cash
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AG
Trench55 said:

There were also a number of lynchings of "Union sympathizers" in Texas during the Civil War. I've read that several occurred in the north central Texas area. In Gillespie County (Fredericksburg) there was a gang known as the The Haengerbande (Hanging Gang). On March 9, 1864, they dragged three German settlers from their homes in Gillespie County and lynched them. One of those was my great-great grandfather Wilhelm Feller.



Similar group near Marble Falls called the Fire Eaters.. [url]https://www.google.com/maps/@29.666207,-97.6507399,3a,28.6y,329.64h,90.94t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOmWbuTPqI1LYocPDSeaEqA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192[/url]

My great-great grandfather came from Prussia in 1853. He opened a tannery in Yorktown. When the war started, the Confederacy tried to force him to make saddles, holsters, belts etc. for the Confederates. He didn't believe in the war, so he packed up his family and went back to Prussia until the war was over. Then he came back and reopened his tannery.
P.H. Dexippus
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AG
The war they call civil had barely begun
Me and my cousins decided we'd run
Up through Louisianan to meet up with Grant
But one hundred damn rebels shot us there in the sand
At Indianola
"[When I was a kid,] I wanted to be a pirate. Thank God no one took me seriously and scheduled me for eye removal and peg leg surgery."- Bill Maher
expresswrittenconsent
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the cancer will get him if anythings fair
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