The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 41
641 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Battle of the Nueces
and coyotes." The remains of the Germans killed on the Nueces
were recovered in August, 1865, and enshrined at Comfort,
Texas, where a monument and the inscription "Treuer der Union"
commemorates their firm devotion to the cause of national unity.88
The only Confederate reference to the German wounded is
found in McRae's official report: "They offered the most deter-
mined resistance and fought with desperation, asking no quarter
whatever; hence I have no prisoners to report. .... My officers and
men all behaved with the greatest coolness and gallantry, seeming
to vie with each other in deeds of daring chivalry."34 The lieu-
tenant either overlooked Luck's work or was never informed of it.
No list of wounded or killed has been found above McRae's
signature.
The Confederates left the scene on August i2 or 13.88 The
journey to the nearest military establishment, Fort Clark, was
most hazardous. Lieutenant Luck, together with a number of men
and horses, deserted, claiming to have been lost while looking
for water; the wounded (eight were removed from the field, five
of whom subsequently died) were carried on litters over the
rough country without water, weapons, provisions, or horses.
Several hours after evacuating the battle site the Confederates
came upon wagon tracks leading to Fort Clark. Later in the same
day two wagons and ambulances arrived to transport the veterans
south, where the diet of prickly pears which had sustained the
survivors was given up for the more palatable fare of Fort Clark.6
Of those unionists to escape eight were killed in October, 1862,
while attempting to cross the Rio Grande; nine others were killed
elsewhere by Confederate troops. Still others served in the First
Texas Cavalry Regiment (Union) until their discharge in 1865.
One survivor, August Hoffmann, returned to Gillespie County and
subsisted on "pear fruit and bear grass" while hiding until the
spring of 1863 when the hill country crisis waned.7
saSchutze, Souvenir Book of Comfort, Texas, 48.
84Report of Lieutenant C. D. McRae, August 18, 1862, Oficial Records, Series
I, Vol. IX, 615.
3Kuechler account in Ransleben, A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas, 97.
88Williams, With the Border Rufians, 258-259.
37Survivors are referred to in Sansom's, Schwethelm's, and Hoffmann's accounts
in Ransleben, A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas, 87-89, 92-93, 114.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963, periodical, 1963; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101196/m1/55/?rotate=270: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.