PALESTINE — There is no record of the plot of ground of the old Palestine City Cemetery. It was probably set aside in 1846 when the 100 acres of land to establish Palestine as the county seat of Anderson County was purchased, along with the site for the courthouse and the jail.

No lots were sold in the early days; people selected a spot and buried their dead without the formality of city permits.  It was not until 1875 that a city ordinance required records be kept of burials there. The cemetery had many graves by the time of the Civil War, but there is no official record of burials during that period of time.

Arlington National Cemetery is well known for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier whose identity is known but to God.  Palestine's old city cemetery has a row of nine to eleven (same believe thirteen) Confederate soldiers buried off Market Street. Their graves have been there almost a century and a half. Who are they? Why are they buried there? Why have they been forgotten for so long? This is the story of those soldiers.

Allison Nelson of Bosque County organized the 10th Texas Infantry in the summer of 1861 and was its first colonel.  At Virginia Point on the Texas coast across from Galveston Island was the assembly point called Camp Herbert.  Between October 13th and October 31st 1861 Companies A through H mustered into service.  By February 1862 foul weather set in and there was a marked increase of the sick list.

The men (many just boys ages 15 and 16) trained and drilled at Virginia Point. Isaiah Harlan reports in a letter dated February 19, 1861 that he has a very bad cold and cough and that there has been some typhoid fever in camp and a few deaths, but none in his company (Co. G) however.

According to the diary of Pvt. Ben M. Seaton, the 10th Texas left Camp Herbert on the 29th and 30th of March 1862.  “On the 29th, one-half of the regiment moved up to Millican Station near the Brazos River and the remainder went up on the 30th to remain there until the teams can be fitted out.”   Millican was Texas' northernmost railroad terminus when the War Between the States began in 1861. It became a vital Confederate shipping point from the area extending to the Red River on the North.  Supplies and provisions moved from Galveston and Houston to Millican on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad.  Many Confederate troops came by rail to nearby Camp Speight and marched overland from here for duty in Louisiana and Arkansas.  On April 8th Seaton was appointed wagon master and on the 10th the supply train was ready with 22 wagons and 132 mules.  April 18th the regiment passed through Boonville in Brazos County, Texas (Boonville flourished until 1866 when Bryan was established on the railroad.)

They turned northwest passing through the towns of Wheelock in southern Robertson County, Springfield in Limestone County, and Fairfield in Freestone County, toward Palestine.  The regiment averaged 15-18 miles a day.  Their destination was Shreveport, Louisiana, then north to a place called Camp Texas near Little Rock, Arkansas.  The 10th had been assigned to General Hindman's command to the Trans-Mississippi Department.   Many would not survive this “death march” to the seat of war; many would not survive the march out of Texas.

On Wednesday, April 30, 1862 the Trinity River was very high and spread all over the bottom for about a mile.  The day was warm and the prairie countryside was beautiful.  The native cedar trees were abundant, dogwood blooms a vision of white, and a purple vine overran the old city cemetery in Palestine, and there were no graves that day of young soldiers all in a row.

It took the regiment two days to cross the big treacherous river between Freestone and Anderson Counties at Bonner's Ferry above the crossing now called Long Lake (where present day US Hwy 79 crosses the river).  Colonel Allison Nelson, absent since April 17th, had caught up with his regiment that morning and was cheered by his soldiers who were glad to see him again.   

According to papers in the Kate Hunter Collection (the result of years of work by Anderson County's leading historian), Granbury's Brigade passed through Palestine.  Many soldiers were sick and could go no farther.   Brigadier General Hiram Bronson Granbury led a brigade of Texans, fighting in the Army of Tennessee, for only nine months.  Others had preceded him, and others would follow - only to be snatched away by death, transfer or promotion.  But Granbury remained the most popular of the brigade's commanders - so much so that after his death, and well after the end of the Civil War, men referred to themselves as members of Granbury's Brigade - one of Texas' most famous fighting units.

In a statement of Mr. W. D. Small, interviewed by Kate Hunter, June 16, 1923 “During the fourth (sic) year of the war, a regiment of Confederate soldiers belonging to Granbury's Brigade, being transferred to the Mississippi Department, passed through here and left twenty-five soldiers, too sick to travel further.  Mr. David C. Hunter turned over a wing of the Hunter Hotel for a hospital, and some of the ladies of the town including my mother, Bee Small, and Mrs. Fannie Gooch, Mollie McClure, Mary Small, Mrs. John G. Stuart, Miss Mollie Stallcup, Mrs. George R. Howard, and others nursed these soldiers and contributed to their wants.  Nine of twenty-five died and are buried on the east end of the old cemetery - all along in a row.

James Neyland recalls these accounts in his book Palestine (Texas):  A History, as does historian Carl Avera in Wind Swept Land, a history of Palestine and Anderson County.  However, the most detailed report of this story appears in the “Palestine Daily Herald” in an article dated September 5, 1928 where an old timer recites the story and claims that in the summer of 1863 (sic) the men of Granbury's Division were detained in Palestine at one time on account of a serious illness among the soldiers.  A Committee was formed to take some steps for their immediate help.  The north wing of the old Hunter Hotel with four large airy rooms was engaged and work by the good ladies of the town began in earnest.  About 20 or 25 of these solders were taken in charge.  Nice cool beds were provided and a cistern of good water was right at the door.  Mrs. Joseph Stalcup, Mrs. J. D. Gooch, Mrs. John G. Stuart, Dr. H. H. Link, Dr. E. J. DeBard, Judge Perry and wife along with Aunt Bee Small as superintendent at the hospital were those who ministered to the ill soldiers.  Many other young ladies supplied delicacies and beautiful flowers at all times.  The writer says he was one of two young boys to run errands for the sick soldiers.  Out of the number enrolled, nine answered their last call and are buried along in a row in the old cemetery with small monuments marked “UCV” as a marker for their last resting place.

Credit should be given to those kind citizens of Palestine, Texas.  These caregivers or “good Samaritans” if you will, who came to the aid of some twenty-five ill soldiers, on short notice converted part of a hotel into a hospice.  Dr. H. H. Link was regarded as one of the best doctors in East Texas at that time.  Most of the other folks were merchants (or wives of) around the courthouse square.  All their names are well known in local history.  They were successful in helping restore the health of most of these soldiers, enabling them to return to duty.  To the nine who died here, these kind and caring townspeople were the last faces they would see.  These unselfish local citizens must have given much comfort and compassion to ease the suffering of the boys in gray.  In addition to attending to the medical needs of these men, some of the ladies may have read to them or written letters for them.  They may have sent notes of condolences to the families of those who died.  These women and doctors did their part to fight the battle on the Southern home front.  Today when traveling through Palestine, street signs can be seen bearing the names of Link, Gooch , Howard, DeBard, and Perry.

As patriotic men of the South, the soldiers were gallant in their desire to do their duty and rid their country of the invading Federal Army and to have a chance to do battle with the Yankee aggressors.  Willingness to fight and resolve to win was not a problem within the ranks.  However, the Confederate soldier was stalked relentlessly through the war by an enemy he was powerless to fight - disease and sickness.  Casualties during the Civil War are often evaluated in terms of trauma and death resulting from battlefield wounds and combat.  In truth, the major killer of the War Between the States was sudden and uncontrollable disease.  The most deadly killer of Confederate soldiers was not the Federal Army, but the invisible organisms that filled the camps with sickness.

Confederate medical regulations published early in the Civil War listed a total of 130 diseases under the main heading of “fevers.” The most common ailments of the southern fighting men were intestinal disorders, diarrhea and dysentery. Other deadly diseases were measles, malaria, yellow fever, small pox, scarlet fever, spurious vaccinia (repulsive looking ulcers caused by impure vaccine virus), pneumonia, consumption, tuberculosis, bronchitis, rheumatism, scurvy, camp itch, mumps, venereal disease and typhoid fever.

Typhoid made its appearance very early in the war and by August 1861 had attained epidemic proportions among troops.  It was an acute infectious disease characterized by intestinal disorders acquired through drinking infected water, milk, etc. and was usually fatal.  It caused about one-fourth of all deaths from disease in the Southern armies.  Joseph Jones made this statement several years after Appomattox:  “Typhoid progressively diminished during the progress of the war and disappeared almost entirely from the veteran army.”  Jones was one of the foremost authorities on Confederate medicine.  The 10th Texas would have a close encounter with typhoid in the spring of 1862.

Continued exposure and fatigue, bad and ill-prepared food, salt meat, insufficient clothing, lack of hygiene, poor shelter, exposure at night to sudden changes of temperature, and infected tents and camps formed a combination of causes which explains the high fatality rate of an army in the field.

The great number of insects and vermin found in camp played an important role in the promotion of epidemics.  One Johnny Reb swore that some of the flies and mosquitoes were of a “preposterous size - almost able to shoulder a musket.”  Almost invariably attacks by mosquitoes were followed in a few weeks by epidemics of chills and fevers.  The people of the time knew not the connection between the two events.  It was medically unknown that mosquitoes carried and transmitted yellow fever and malaria.  In 1861, malaria was still attributed to poisonous vapors that rose from the swamp.   Impure drinking water was also a cause of illness among troops.

Joseph Jones said there were five times as many cases of sickness as of injury.  He further stated that for every soldier who died as a result of battle there were three who perished from disease.  Many who managed to survive the war died within a few years from the effects of illnesses contracted during their service.

Return with me next week (Sunday, May 6 edition) to learn what men may be buried in our old city cemetery along side our own local citizens for the past 150 years. We also will discover how the War of Southern Independence ended for the “forgotten ones.”



Gary A. Williams is a charter member of the John H. Reagan Camp No. 2156, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Palestine, Texas. He holds the office of Historian and has served as 2nd Lt. Commander.  Mr. Williams also served on the Board of the Anderson County Historical Commission for eight years and held the office of Vice-Chairman for four years.