The Civil War Touches Northern Harris County - Part 1

 In February 1861, the people of Texas voted to secede from the United States – thus joining the Confederate States of America. Texas was then promptly divided into 11 military districts and each district began recruiting soldiers. By the end of 1861, about 25,000 Texans were enlisted as Confederate soldiers.

Recently arrived German immigrants who had settled along Spring and Cypress Creeks in northwest Harris County had little interest in the war. Many were not citizens of their new country yet. However, since working hard and obeying authorities was a part of the German culture, most of these immigrants answered the call to serve the Confederacy. A few went north to serve in the Union army – perhaps to stay loyal to the United States or for moral reasons regarding slavery.

For decades afterwards, there remained strong tensions in the local community between those who fought for the North and those who fought for the South. G. Walter Brautigam remembered his grandfather, Christoph, believed to his dying day the South should have won the Civil War.

In April 1862, the Texas Congress passed a general conscription law, making all white males between 18 and 35 years old subject to military service. In September, due to an increasing need for more fighting men, and manpower losses from war casualties and sickness, the draft age was raised to 45.

Camp Cypress became the principle mustering station for troops in north Harris County. John Peter Christen, a long-time justice of the peace at Cypress, was a notary public and conofficer during the Civil War. Settlers from the area also enlisted at Camp Groce near Hempstead, and at Houston, Galveston, and even Brenham.

Emotions in the local community often ran high during the war. Hostility towards those who avoided military service was common. For example, Carroll Bonds had moved to Cypress Creek from southern Louisiana and owned an ample supply of food and cattle. And because of his wealth, he was able to hire a man to fight in the war in his place – thus allowing him to avoid serving as a Confederate soldier. When jayhawkers and cattle rustlers in the area tried to kill him, Bonds fled to the woods. He stayed in the woods by day and went to a neighbor’s home for food at night. He finally fled to Lake Charles, Louisiana for safety. His wife and 8 children soon followed him. They remained in Lake Charles until the war ended.

Others who opposed to the war simply packed up and left the state. William Marsh Rice, who later founded Rice University, quietly went to Mexico during the War. Others who tried to leave were not so successful. A large group of Germans from Fredericksburg, Austin, and Brenham tried to leave to avoid the draft. But they were caught and killed. Among them was Jost Heinrich Wied, who had immigrated to Texas with his wife, Maria, from Feudingen, Germany in 1855. They had settled south of Brenham near Bleiberville. Jost sent Maria to the Rosehill/Big Cypress area to stay with relatives while he tried to escape the war. He was killed in the attempt. What happened to Maria is lost to history.

While a few Texans fought for the Confederacy in the eastern theater of the war, most of the German immigrant soldiers from northwest Harris County were involved in defending Texas from Union attack - either from the sea along the Gulf coast or from Louisiana. As soon as the war began, Texans began fortifying Sabine Pass, Galveston, Matagorda Island, Aransas Pass, and Port Isabel.

One of the important Union strategies during the war was to blockade the Confederate coast. The goal of the blockade was to stop the importation of military arms and supplies by the Confederacy in addition to stopping their export of commercial goods, especially cotton, to deprive the Confederacy of funds that could be used sustain their war effort.

In October 1862, Galveston fell into Union control. But, under Major General John B. Magruder, the Confederates were able to retake Galveston on the 1st day of January 1863. In 1864, Union Major General Nathaniel Banks attempted to lead a mass of troops from Louisiana along the Red River into Texas. However, Confederate victories at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, Louisiana foiled Banks’ Red River Campaign – causing him to withdraw. Several soldiers from the northwest Harris County German communities participated in these coastal and land defenses of Texas. Many families had pairs of brothers fighting together in the war.

Source: The Settlers along Spring and Cypress Creeks face the Civil War by Diana Lynn Severance, Ph.D.