Massacre on the Nueces River; story of a Civil War tragedy. Page: 36 of 39
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THE MASSACRE ON THE NUECES RIVER
33
of our wounded who fell into their hands, and put to death the
unwounded who surrendered to them.
Of the Unionists at the beginning, there were exactly sixty-
five men. About forty of these were fairly well armed with
muzzle-loading guns and six-shooters; the others were poorly
armed, one man having neither gun nor pistol.
As before stated, I estimated the number of the enemy at a
hundred or more. Every man was well armed, some of them
with breech-loading rifles. Besides, I have no doubt they had
been specially selected for the occasion. At no time were we
hailed by the Confederates-at no time was an inquiry made
as to who we were, where we were going, or what was our pur-
poses. Having read a proclamation from the Confederate
.government announcing that all persons not friendly to it might
leave the country, we believed we had a right to do so in large
or small bodies, as best suited our convenience, to the border
and there cross over into Mexico. We wanted to go peaceably
and would have gone quietly but for being followed and attack-
ed. Then believing that we had a God-given right to defend
ourselves from violence, come from what quarter it might, we
put up a fight of which not one of us need to be or is ashamed.
Major Tegener and the brave men he commanded fought as
heroes do for the right, and notwithstanding the Confederates
had largely the advantage in numbers, quality of arms, and
position, sustained themselves manfully. The Confederates
fought well and won, but twice during the engagement reeled
under the fire of the Unionists and staggered back to cover, and
seemingly felt no assurance of victory until the camp was
abandoned by able bodied defenders and resistance there was
useless.
Every man of the Unionists force, wounded or unhurt, who
surrendered on the 10th of August, 1862, or subsequently, was
put to death.
The Confederate force consisted of detachments from Captain
Donnelson's Company of the Second Texas Mounted Rifles,
Captain Duff's Company of Texas Partisan Rangers, Captain
Davis' Company of State Troops and Taylor's Battalion, all
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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/m1/36/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .