To add to BQ78 comments... The use of the commanders name was very common during the revolutionary war specially amongst local militia units. You see a lot of Rev War companies referenced as such.HollywoodBQ said:
Very cool stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Question about the naming of the Brigades after a person. Was that a common custom during the Civil War, and before or after?
If the commander changed, did they rename the unit?
NPS- Soldiers and Sailors Databasesonnysixkiller said:
Would like to look up some of my relatives who fought on the confederate side what is a good website to get started ?
Quote:
1st service Henry J. "Long Henry" Heinen 18441927 Private, Comfort 1862 Militia and Company A/B, 3rd (Luckett's) Texas Infantry (Confederate). In the 1860 U.S. Census, he lived with his brothers in Comfort, listing his occupation as farm laborer. The third of the four Heinen sons of immigrant Johann Heinen and Anna Heinen, at seventeen years of age, he was the first of the brothers to enlist, on June 13, 1861, at Camp Verde, in Capt. Buquor's Company A for one year. In a deposition (July 15, 1901) by sister Louise Heinen Lamm in the pension file of Henry Heinen, Henry's sister stated, "He went and enlisted himself. He and my brother August enlisted at the same time. They were not forced to go into the Confederate Army. They went of their own free will."
In May 1862, he transferred to Capt. Kampmann's Company B. He was in Houston General Hospital for a week in September 1862. The company muster roll at Fort Ringgold for November-December 1862 is the last record in his file. The pension file of Henry Heinen has affidavits and depositions from Heinen himself and his friends about the early days of the war:
At the outbreak of the Civil War, the general population of Comfort and vicinity was intensely loyal to the Union and bitterly opposed to secession. They were therefore the objects of bitter hatred from the secession element, by whom they were surrounded, and were closely watched to prevent their escape from the boundaries of the Confederacy. So bitter was the sentiment against the Union-loving element that in 1862 the flower of the population of Comfort and surroundings was murdered on the banks of the Nueces. Their bones bleached the ground for years, till after the war they were gathered and they sleep today under a monument erected to their memory in the town of Comfort. . . . This will show that it was impossible, at that time of intense excitement, to escape the Confederate authorities, and the only way left to the Union-loving men was to apparently acquiesce in the order of things then existing, enlist in the Confederate Army to allay suspicion, and then to watch for the first opportunity to escape across the Rio Grande to Mexico. (Henry Heinen, May 31, 1894)
I [Henry Heinen] was compelled to join Capt. Kampmann's Company of the Confederate Army at Camp Verde, the latter part of 1862. His company was changed to the Rio Grande, and at the first opportunity I had, I deserted the organization, about the latter part of January 1863. I crossed the Rio Grande, went into Mexico, but after a short stay returned to the United States again and enlisted in New Orleans in Company C, 1st Texas Cavalry. (Henry Heinen, April 2, 1897)
I [Thomas Ingenhuett] saw Heinen at Ringgold while he was in Kampmann's Company, and in about two weeks he deserted and came to us in Mexico, and
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Civil War Soldiers of Kendall County, Texas
we went to New Orleans together. . . . It was very dangerous here at that time whether to be hung or go into the Confederate Army. (Thomas Ingenhuett, July 13, 1901)
After this fight and our loss [Affair on the Nueces River] had become known to our friends remaining at home, they were afraid to undertake a similar escape, and nearly all joined the Confederates, and when near the Union Army, and when they considered it safe, would make their escape. (Henry Schwethelm, August 7, 1897)
2nd service Henry J. "Long Henry" HeinenFirst Sergeant, Company C, 1st Texas Cavalry (Union). Heinen was 18 years old when he enlisted on February 5, 1863, at New Orleans, for three years. He became a corporal in October 1863, and sergeant in March 1864. Captured at Rancho Las Rucias June 25, 1864, he remained a prisoner until exchanged. He was back with his company for the January-February 1865 muster roll, and became the company first sergeant April 1, 1865.
Col. John Ford, in spring 1864, formed a Confederate force to drive Union troops from the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Leaving San Antonio, he first occupied Laredo and Rio Grande City. On June 25, 1864, he defeated a Union outpost defended by the 1st Texas Cavalry (Union)the Skirmish at Rancho Las Rucias (Wooster 1995, 136). Ford reported, "The Yankees occupied the jacals (Mexican houses), a large brick building, and fought from the cover of a large pile of bricks. They also had the advantage of heavy fences. Very soon after Showalter engaged, Cater's and Benavides's battalions were led in, and the Yankees were driven from all their cover. They fell back to the edge of a large laguna, and maintained a heavy fire, which was replied to, but with little effect. . . . Thirty-six of the enemy surrendered. A good many escaped across the laguna, many of them wounded. Some of them crossed the Rio Grande and secreted themselves in the cane" (U.S. War Dept. 1891. Series 1, vol. 34, pt. 1, 10531056).
Heinen's 1896 application for a pension was initially rejected on the grounds of prior voluntary service in the Confederate Army. If such service was coerced, however, an exception could be granted, so he was later approved at $8 per month. His obituary did not mention his Confederate service, just that "he enlisted in the Union Army and served until the close of the war."
Cen-Tex said:
I have a relative that was an early volunteer with the Plum Grove Rifles (near Plum, Tx). The Texas State Historical Assn states it was formed in July, 1861 as a training unit under the command of Capt Thomas C. Moore. It's members were drafted or volunteered to join other regular units. I've run into a dead end when trying to find out what eventually happened to the unit or what happened to the men in the unit.
Cen-Tex said:
I have a relative that was an early volunteer with the Plum Grove Rifles (near Plum, Tx). The Texas State Historical Assn states it was formed in July, 1861 as a training unit under the command of Capt Thomas C. Moore. It's members were drafted or volunteered to join other regular units. I've run into a dead end when trying to find out what eventually happened to the unit or what happened to the men in the unit.
The museum at Hillsboro Junior College has records of Confederate soldiers!sonnysixkiller said:
Would like to look up some of my relatives who fought on the confederate side what is a good website to get started ?
Whiskey Before Breakfast said:
Griff Ginn and my GGGF James Morris looked to both be in the 15th GA. see my post below
Watson (Watt) CollinsJABQ04 said:Cen-Tex said:
I have a relative that was an early volunteer with the Plum Grove Rifles (near Plum, Tx). The Texas State Historical Assn states it was formed in July, 1861 as a training unit under the command of Capt Thomas C. Moore. It's members were drafted or volunteered to join other regular units. I've run into a dead end when trying to find out what eventually happened to the unit or what happened to the men in the unit.
Can you give his name? I'll see what I can dig up this evening.
Thanks for looking.JABQ04 said:
Not coming across really anything pertaining to your relative or the Plum Grove rifles. Found some similar names but nothing that really points to any one person in particular.
