The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 70, July 1966 - April, 1967 Page: 623

Notes and Documents

623

Records of the Confedcrate Jlilitary Com#issio
iH SaH AlltoHio, /uly 2-October 10, 1862
Edited by ALWYN BARR
[The following is a continuation of the commission records,
the last section of which appeared in the October, 1966, Quar-

terly.]

rTiilv n 1i8Rfiol

Case No. 22 I ' . J
W. P. M. Means, a Prisoner arrested and confined by the Provost
Marshall of Bexar County on the following statement, marked "A."-
We the undersigned believe W. P. M. Means to be a disaffected
person opposed to the government of the Confederate States and
who should be confined as being dangerous to its welfare 8c credit
and having come within the limits of this County, under circum-
stances that fully justify the opinion that he must have taken such
an obligation to the Government of the U. States as makes him
a fair subject of doubt and suspicion to all Officers of the Con-
federate States. signed John Dobbin5
" James Duff~5
" B. R. Sappington
" C. S. Pyron54
" S. Sampson.55
[Means] was then called before the Commission.
52John Dobbin, born in Ireland about 1840, apparently was a soldier in the
United States army, stationed at San Antonio in 186o. U. S. Eighth Census, 186o
(Returns of Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, for Bexar County, Texas, microfilm,
University of Texas Library, Austin), lo9.
"5James Duff was born in Scotland about 1828 and was a San Antonio merchant
in 186o. In January, 1862, he helped organize the Texas Powder Company; in
February he was appointed a brigadier general of state troops and soon there-
after received a captain's commission in the Confederate army. He later rose
to colonel of the 33rd Texas Cavalry. His appearance seemingly varied ac-
cording to the observers' feelings about him, for one said that "on foot" Duff
"resembled a bullfrog, and on horseback Sancho Panza," while another described
him as "a fine-looking, handsome Scotchman." Ibid., 134; San Antonio Herald,
January 11, February 15, 1862; Williams, With the Border Rufians, 233; Walter
Lord (ed.), The Fremantle Diary (Boston, 1954), 9.
"5Charles S. Pyron was born in Alabama about 1819 and was educated in
normal schools. He became colonel of the 2nd Texas Cavalry in the Civil War
and was wounded in Louisiana in 1863. He died at his ranch near San Antonio
on August 24, 1868. Davis and Grobe, Encyclopedia of Texas, III, 19o6.
"Sam Sampson was born in England about 1816 and came to Texas from