"Capturing the Val Verde Battery" - Jeanne Williams.Temple Daily Telegram:

Capturing the Val Verde Battery

Milam County men played key role in famous Civil War event

by Jeanne Williams - Temple Daily Telegram

June 13, 2011

CAMERON — Two Confederate Army war heroes were less successful in capturing Union

artillery as Milam County Courthouse souvenirs than General H.H. Sibley’s Brigade had

been in seizing the enemy cannons during the famed New Mexico Campaign of 1861-62.

Today, no cannons of any kind are exhibited on the Milam County Courthouse square, but

a Dec. 12, 1896, newspaper article reported that veterans “Long John” Williams and

Braxton Robinson were going to pursue getting one of the guns of the famous Val Verde

battery, captured in New Mexico, and place it in the courthouse yard in Cameron.

Williams served in the “Milam County Guards,” Company E, 4th Texas Cavalry, commanded

by Capt. Charles Buckholts, while Robinson fought with the “San Andres Light Horse

Company,” Company D, 4th Texas Cavalry, led by his uncle, Capt. Charles M. Lesueur.

Robinson, only 15 years old in 1861, lied about his age in order to enlist.

While the two Milam County war heroes did not see their dream of a Val Verde cannon on

the courthouse grounds, the war trophies are exhibited at the Freestone County

Courthouse in Fairfield and at the Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site near

Mexia, the Handbook of Texas Online reported.

The Val Verde Battery originated as new artillery for a Union Army garrison stationed

at Fort Craig at the time of the Confederate Army’s campaign in the New Mexico

territory.

But troops in Sibley’s Brigade captured the six cannons at the Battle of Val Verde on

Feb. 21, 1862.

The 4th Texas Cavalry, with two companies from Milam County, played a prominent role in

that battle and in the capture of the artillery pieces.

The capture of the Val Verde Battery was the highlight of an otherwise disastrous war

campaign. Volunteers from three cavalry regiments organized a Confederate battery with

the trophy cannons under the leadership of Capt. Joseph Draper Sayers, who later became

a Texas governor. The artillery company was officially designated as the 12th Texas

Field Battery, but was commonly known as the Val Verde Battery.

A Galveston Daily News article published May 1, 1893, reported that four guns were

inscribed in large letters with the names of favorite Confederate officers who had been

killed in battle, including Maj. John S. Shropshire and Maj. Henry W. Raguet.

The unit blasted its first shots as a provisional organization at the skirmish at

Peralta, New Mexico Territory, on April 15, 1862.

The battery was formally organized on June 1, 1862, at Fort Bliss. After the

Confederate retreat from the region, the Val Verde Battery accompanied Sibley’s brigade

to New Iberia, La.

There it was used against the Union Army in numerous battles and skirmishes until

Confederate forces disbanded in the spring of 1865. While camped at Fairfield, Val

Verde gunners decided to bury the cannons rather than surrender them to federal

authorities. The guns were buried at night and only a few men knew the location.

A Texas Historical Marker in Fairfield explains how six Union Army brass field guns

taken by Confederate Lt. Joseph D. Sayers’ company in the Civil War Battle of Val Verde

in 1862 wound up in Texas.

The guns were “brought back to Texas with incredible difficulty” to arm a new unit of

handpicked men.

The Val Verde guns in action set the pace for other outfits, and helped secure such

victories as the recapture of Galveston in 1863. “Unwilling to lose their guns when the

war ended, the men buried four of the weapons. The last commander, T.D. Nettles,

brought this one home to Freestone County.”

Not until the 1890s were the guns exhumed.

On March 30, 1964, the Val Verde cannons sounded again, but this time during a

celebration in Fairfield.

A group of descendants of veterans of the Battle of Mansfield mounted the old cannon, a

fixture on the courthouse lawn for many years, on wheels and a carriage so it would

shoot. The cannon had been fired several times in Teague and again in Fairfield in

observance of the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Mansfield.

Milam County had to settle for the Val Verde community, a small settlement near Davilla

that was named for the famous battle.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram

Photo by Shirley Williams, Telegram

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A Val Verde Battery cannon is on display at the county courthouse in Fairfield, TX.