Massacre on the Nueces River; story of a Civil War tragedy. Page: 32 of 39
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THE MASSACRE ON THE NUECES RIVER
29
gener, both of them expressed themselves as being convinced
that no strangers were anywhere around and as being in favor
of remaining in that present camp until morning. That settled
the question against an immediate start, and dropping the sub-
ject, all retired to their pallets to rest.
I was not called by the guard at two o'clock, but awoke about
three o'clock, and a few minutes later was called. I had not
undressed when I lay down, but had slept as soldiers express it,
"on my arms," so rising at once, I followed the guard, Mr.
Bauer. When we had gone about sixty yards, he in front and
I about twenty feet behind him, he entered a dense cedar,brake,
and, as he entered, was, without being hailed, shot dead by a
Confederate lying in ambush at the point. I replied to the shot
by firing instantly at sixty or more Confederates who at the
sound of the first gun rose from their blankets and rushed pell-
mell over a space of open ground to a part of their command
which lay under the cedars some sixty yards south of the place
where Bauer was killed. The shot that killed'Bauer alarmed
the camp, and fast and furious firing began between contend-
ing parties. At its very beginning, Ernest Bosler, a Unionist
guard, who unluckily stood between the two fires, was killed,
but whether by friend or foe will never be known. I saw him
fall and know that he fell fighting. A moment later the Con-
federates made a charge against the Unionists which was gal-
lantly repulsed, and a counter-charge. Major Tegener was
seriously wounded in three places, and two members of his
command received wounds. I think that up to this time there
were a hundred shots exchanged, and then came a lull of an
hour during which there was but an occasional shot fired.
The camp of the Unionists had been approached by the Con-
federates from the east and south. According to my watch the
battle began a few minutes after three o'clock a. m., two hours
sooner, I have reason to think, than the Confederates intended
it should begin.
As will appear from what I have already said, I was not in
the Unionists' camp at the time the firing commenced, but about
sixty yards from it. When I sought to join my friends there,
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Williams, R. H. & Sansom, John W. Massacre on the Nueces River; story of a Civil War tragedy., book, Date Unknown; Grand Prairie, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth2409/m1/32/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .