Treue der Union Monument
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Treue der Union Monument
| nrhp_type =
| nrhp_type2 = cp
| partof = Comfort Historic District
| partof_refnum = 79002989{{NRISref|version=2010a}}
| image = Treue der Union Monument.jpg
| caption = Treue der Union Monument
| map_label = Treue der Union Monument
| locmapin = Texas#USA
| locmap_relief = yes
| location = High Street, between Third and Fourth
Comfort, Texas
| coordinates = {{coord|29|58|10|N|98|54|49|W|display=inline,title}}
| area = less than one acre
| built = {{Start date|1866}}
| added = November 29, 1978
| designated_nrhp_type2 = May 29, 1979
| refnum=78002966{{NRISref|version=2010a}}
| designated_other1 = TSAL
| designated_other1_date = January 1, 1996
| designated_other1_number = [https://atlas.thc.state.tx.us/Details/8200000407 8200000407]
| designated_other1_num_position = bottom
}}
The German-American Treue der Union Monument (Loyalty to the Union), is located in the Kendall County community of Comfort in the U.S. state of Texas. It was dedicated on August 10, 1866 to commemorate the German-Texans who died at the 1862 Nueces massacre. Thirty-four were killed, some executed after being taken prisoner, for refusing to sign loyalty oaths to the Confederacy. With the exception of those drowned in the Rio Grande, the remains of the murdered are buried at the site of the monument. This monument was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
The battle
In 1862, the Confederate States of America imposed martial law on Central Texas, due to resistance to the Civil War. Jacob Kuechler served as a guide for sixty-one conscientious objectors attempting to flee to Mexico. Scottish born Confederate irregular James Duff{{cite web|last=Shook|first=Robert W|title=James Duff|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fdu06|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|accessdate=2 February 2011}} and his Duff's Partisan Rangers pursued and overtook them at the Nueces River.
Thirty-four were killed, some executed after being taken prisoner. Jacob Kuechler survived the Nueces massacre. The cruelty shocked the people of Gillespie County and surrounding areas. Two thousand took to the hills to escape Duff's reign of terror.{{cite web|last=Kohout|first=Martin Donell|title=Gillespie County, Texas|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcg04|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|accessdate=2 February 2011}}
The monument
On August 19, 1865, Eduard Degener, Eduard Steves, and William Heuermann paid $20 for a lot in Comfort, for the purpose of building a monument. The bodies of those who drowned in the massacre were never recovered. The bodies of the remaining massacre victims were recovered for burial by local residents in a mass grave on the lot purchased by Degener, Steves and Heuermann. On August 20, 1865, at Comfort, Texas, three hundred people attended the funeral for the remains of the victims of the massacre. The funeral cortege was accompanied by Federal troops who fired a salute over the mass grave. Edward Degener, father of victims Hugo and Hilmar, delivered the eulogy.{{cite web|title=Marker-Treue Der Union Monument|url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=34985&Result=1|work=Texas Historic Markers|publisher=HMdb.org|accessdate=2 February 2011}}
File:Treue der union monumant 2009.jpg
With donations from local residents and families of the victims, the Treue der Union Monument was dedicated on August 10, 1866 in Kendall County. The obelisk stands twenty feet high and was constructed of native limestone by local stonemasons and several carvers.{{cite web|title=List of names- Treue der Union Monument|url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txchf/treue.htm|publisher=Comfort, Texas Heritage Foundation|accessdate=2 February 2011}} The main obelisk weighs {{convert|35,700|lb}}, with the top containing the original four name tablets. The United States 1865 flag has thirty-six stars, representing the number of states at the time of the monument dedication. On the lawn at the base are four name tablets in German. Inside the second course of the monument is a time capsule.{{cite book|last1=Pohlsander|first1=Hans A|title=German Monuments in the Americas: Bonds Across the Atlantic|date=2010|publisher=Peter Lang International Academic Publishers|isbn=978-3-0343-0138-1|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kCDYByxCSYC&q=%22Treue+der+Union%22&pg=PA16}}{{cite book|last=Herzog|first=Brad|title=States of Mind|year=2001|publisher=Pocket|isbn=978-0-7434-1782-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/statesofmind00brad/page/92 92]|url=https://archive.org/details/statesofmind00brad|url-access=registration|quote=treue der union States of Mind.}}{{cite book|last1=Evans|first1=Brent|title=Boerne (Images of America Series)|year=2010|publisher=Arcadia|isbn=978-0-7385-7943-6|page=26|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9zyYP2tRgcC&q=%22Treue+der+Union%22&pg=PA26}}
In 1994, the Comfort Heritage Foundation oversaw a restoration conducted by Boerne stonemason Karl H. Kuhn.{{cite book|last=Little|first=Carol Morris|title=A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in Texas|year=1996|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-76036-3|page=118|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NgEAMI9BjkYC&q=treue+der+union+%22A+Comprehensive+Guide+to+Outdoor+Sculpture+in+Texas%22&pg=PA118}}
Names on Treue der Union Monument
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="margin-right: 0;"
|+ Treue der Union Monument ! scope="col" | Name ! scope="col" | 1862 death ! scope="col" | Place of death ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | {{Tooltip|Ref.|References}} |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Bauer|Leopold Bauer}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
|---|
| scope="row"|{{sort|Behrens|Frederick Behrens}}
|August 10 |Nueces River |aka Fritz Beherens |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Beseler|Ernst Beseler}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Bock|Conrad Andreas Christian Bock}}
|Unknown |Fredericksburg | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Boerner|Louis Boerner}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Boerner|Wilhelm Boerner}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Bonnet|Johann Peter Bonnet}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Bruckisch|Theo Bruckisch}}
| | |New Braunfels carpenter |align="center"|{{sfn|Kiel|2013|p=13}}{{cite web |title=BRUCKISH, THEODOR (CLOSE UP) - Kendall County, Texas {{!}} THEODOR (CLOSE UP) BRUCKISH - Texas Gravestone Photos |url=https://texasgravestones.org/view.php?id=233130 |website=texasgravestones.org |access-date=12 April 2023}} |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Bruns|Albert Bruns}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Degener|Hilmar Degener}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Degener|Hugo Degener}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Diaz|Pablo Diaz}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Elstner|Joseph Elstner}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |align="center"|{{sfn|Kiel|2013|p=13}}{{cite web |title=ELSTNER, JOSEPH (CLOSE UP) - Kendall County, Texas {{!}} JOSEPH (CLOSE UP) ELSTNER - Texas Gravestone Photos |url=https://texasgravestones.org/view.php?id=233091 |website=texasgravestones.org |access-date=12 April 2023}} |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Felsing|Edward Felsing}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Flick|Herman Flick}}
|August 20 |Sources vary on when and where |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Herrmann|Henry Herrmann}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Hohmann|Valentine Hohmann}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River |Local cattle-rancher. |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Kallenberg|John George Kallenberg}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Lange|Fritz Lange}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Luckenbach|August Luckenbach}}
|Unknown | |One of the original Luckenbach family that settled in the hill country. |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Markwardt|Henry Markwardt}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Ruebsamen, A|Adolph Ruebsamen}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Ruebsamen, L|Louis Ruebsamen}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Schaefer|Christian Schaefer}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Schierholz|Louis Schierholz}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Schreiner|Aime Schreiner}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Steves|Heinrich Steves Jr.}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Stieler|Heinrich Stieler}}
|August 10 |Comfort | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Tays|Frederich "Fritz" Tays}}
|August 10 |Comfort | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Telgmann|Wilhelm Telgmann}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Vater|Adolph Vater}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Vater|Friedrich "Fritz" Vater}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Weirich|Michael Weirich}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Weiss|Franz Weiss}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Weiss|Moritz Weiss}}
|October 18 |Rio Grande River | |
| scope="row"|{{sort|Weyershausen|Heinrich "Henry" Weyershausen}}
|August 10 |Nueces River | |
In popular culture
The Treue der Union monument (1866) has been broadly asserted to be the first monument of the Civil War, and the first Union monument raised on "Confederate" soil. Other Union monuments in former slave states include the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial (Judsonia, Arkansas), the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial (Siloam Springs, Arkansas), the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall (St. Cloud, Florida), Union memorials and graves at Arlington National Cemetery, and numerous monuments at battlefields such as at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
- In an undated entry about the Nueces massacre in The Handbook of Texas Online, the Texas State Historical Association asserts ""It is the only German-American monument to the Union in the South where the remains of those killed in battle are buried, and where, since 1866, a thirty-six star U.S. flag is permitted to fly at half-staff."{{cite web|title=Nueces, Battle of the|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfn01|website=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|accessdate=September 11, 2016}}
- As recently as 2012, in the book Texans and War: New Interpretations of the State's Military History published by Texas A & M University Press, authors Alexander Mendoza and Charles David Grear make the claim that it is "the only shrine to the Union erected by inhabitants on former Confederate soil."{{cite book|last1=Mendoza|first1=Alexander|last2=Grear|first2=Charles David|title=Texans and War: New Interpretations of the State's Military History|date=2012|publisher=Texas A & M University Press|location=College Station, TX|isbn=978-1-60344-124-7|page=140|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5zybQXmUFYC&q=monument}}
- The 2008 book Civil War Sites: The Official Guide to the Civil War Discovery Trail, compiled by the Civil War Preservation Trust, lists it as "the only memorial to the Union (outside national cemeteries) in Confederate territory, and only one of six places in the nation permitted by Congress to fly the flag at half-staff in perpetuity (and the only one of these to fly the flag with thirty-six stars)."{{cite book|last1=Civil War Preservation Trust|title=Civil War Sites: The Official Guide to the Civil War Discovery Trail|date=2008|publisher=Globe Pequot Press|location=Guilford, CT|isbn=9780762744350|page=310|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ksajfpd8cawC&q=%22Treue+der+Union+Monument%22&pg=PA310}}
- In 2006, authors Walter D. Kamphoefner, Wolfgang Helbich Susan Carter Vogel and asserted in Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home that it is "the only monument of its kind in the South."{{cite book|last1=Kamphoefner|first1=Walter D.|last2=Helbich|first2=Wolfgang|last3=Vogel|first3=Susan Carter|title=Germans in the Civil War: The Letters They Wrote Home|date=2006|publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill, NC|isbn=978-0-8078-3044-4|page=437|url=}}
According to the National Park Service, the 32nd Indiana Monument at Cave Hill National Cemetery in Kentucky "is the oldest Civil War memorial in the country." The 32nd Indiana Infantry Regiment of the Union Army was composed primarily of soldiers of German ancestry. After the December 1861 Battle of Rowlett's Station, regiment private August Bloedner created the limestone memorial in the German language as a tribute to his regiment's fatalities. Also known as the August Bloedner Monument, both the monument and the bodies of those it honors are together in the cemetery.{{cite web|title=Cave Hill National Cemetery Louisville, Kentucky|url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Kentucky/Cave_Hill_National_Cemetery.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926021855/http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/national_cemeteries/Kentucky/Cave_Hill_National_Cemetery.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 26, 2015|website=nps.gov|publisher=National Park Service|accessdate=September 13, 2016}}
In a 2012 article for The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, physician and US Army veteran Frank Wilson Kiel sorted known facts from lore about the monument. Citing monuments to the Union on Southern soil, he names two memorials in Tennessee, Greeneville and Cleveland, as well as three others in Texas, Denison, Dallas and New Braunfels. The claim of Treue der Union being the oldest is discredited by the 1863 Hazen Brigade Monument at Stones River National Battlefield in Tennessee and the 1861 August Bloedner Monument in Kentucky. Kiel traces the trail of misinformation back as far as 1938. Accordingly, he states that there is no protocol for flying a flag at half-mast, but rather a matter of choice for non-governmental institutions such as the Comfort Heritage Foundation. The misunderstanding stemmed from personal communications between one congressman and two different individuals associated with the monument. Congress never passed legislation on the issue.{{cite journal|last1=Kiel|first1=Frank Wilson|title=Treue der Union: Myths, Misrepresentations, and Misinterpretations|journal=The Southwestern Historical Quarterly|date=January 2012|volume=115|issue=3|pages=282–292|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|doi=10.1353/swh.2012.0004|jstor=41617001|s2cid=143613462 }}
See also
{{Portal|National Register of Historic Places|Texas}}
=Bibliography=
- {{cite journal|last1=McGowen|first1=Stanley S|title=Battle or Massacre?: The Incident on the Nueces, August 10, 1862 |journal=Southwestern Historical Quarterly|date=July 2000|volume=104| issue = 1|pages=64–86|url=http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/93/|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|location=Denton, TX}}
- {{cite web |title=Treue Der Union Memorial Cemetery - Kendall County, Texas {{!}} Burial & Family History Records |url=https://texasgravestones.org/cemetery.php?cemID=17088#B |website=texasgravestones.org |access-date=12 April 2023}}
- {{cite book |last1=Kiel |first1=Frank Wilson |title=Civil War soldiers of Kendall County, Texas : a biographical dictionary |date=2013 |publisher=The Portal to Texas History |location=Comfort, Texas |isbn=978-0-9834160-1-2 |edition=First |url=https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth460183/}}
=References=
{{Reflist|colwidth=20em}}
External links
{{commons category-inline|Treue Der Union Monument}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Texas}}
{{Kendall County, Texas}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Treue Der Union Monument}}
Category:1866 establishments in Texas
Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1866
Category:Buildings and structures in Kendall County, Texas
Category:German-American culture in Texas
Category:Historic district contributing properties in Texas
Category:Limestone sculptures in the United States
Category:Monuments and memorials in Texas
Category:Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
Category:National Register of Historic Places in Kendall County, Texas
Category:Obelisks in the United States
Category:Stone sculptures in Texas
Category:Texas in the American Civil War