HELENA, TEXAS The Toughest Town on Earth

by Barry Harrin

  The Civil War tore the nation apart sometimes pitting brother against brother, family against family and neighbor against neighbor. Although this war ended almost 150 years ago it traumatized the entire nation and its effects can be felt to this day throughout the nation, Texas and certainly in Karnes County.

  The seething anger of many African Americans and attitudes of some whites, are a direct result of the Civil War, the subsequent Reconstruction period and the racial angst that has festered like an open wound ever since.

  As discussed in the years leading up to the Civil War, the United States was beset with conflict and controversy over the issues of slavery and states’ rights. However nowhere in the south was the situation more complex than in Texas. Remember Texas had only been part of the United States for 15 years when the secessionists won their State wide election.

  Although a good number of Texans supported the Union the political attacks on Southern institutions and the undercover activities of the KGC helped the secessionists win the vote. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the KGC in the vote to secede let’s look at what happened in Karnes County. The final vote tally in Karnes County was 153 for secession and 1 against.129 There is no record of who the 1 vote against secession was or how quickly his family collected on his life insurance policy … if he had any.

  Many Union sympathizers paid a huge price for not supporting the secession. As an example let’s take the Singer family (as in sewing machines) who had a ranch on Padre Island before the war. Like many other Unionists they had to abandon their homes and leave. The rumor was that they had buried $80,000 in gold on their property but couldn’t find it upon returning in 1867 due to hurricane damage.130

  The federal arsenal at San Antonio was forced to surrender by the KGC and local militia on February 18, 1861 before the formal secession of Texas.131 After the start of the war San Antonio served as a Confederate depot and several units such as John S. “RIP” Ford’s Cavalry of the West were formed there.

  The formal secession of Texas occurred on March 2, 1861 as Texas became the seventh state in the new Confederacy. In that same month, when Governor Sam Houston refused to declare loyalty to the Confederacy he was removed by the Texas secession representative John Littleton.132

  In Texas this war began like most with great enthusiasm, patriotic fervor and overconfidence. By the end of 1861, more than 25,000 Texans had joined the Confederate army. During the war this number swelled to almost 90,000 Texans who served in the rebel army. They gallantly fought in every major battle of the war from New Mexico to Pennsylvania.

  Unfortunately for the Confederacy and Texas, the deck was stacked against them as you can see for yourself in this very revealing chart.

  Just prior to the Civil War in 1860 Karnes County had a population of 2,170 with a fairly large foreign born population (primarily Polish) totaling 450 or 21% of the total population. This part of Texas was different than many other parts of Texas and the south in general. Rather than a typical southern plantation economy Karnes County was better suited to raising cattle. This probably accounts for the relatively small slave population of 327 or 15% of the total population.134

  In spite of not being a plantation economy Karnes County residents voted overwhelmingly for secession as previously stated, 153 for to one against. This was apparently due to two factors: the high powered KGC “castle” in Helena and the fact that most Polish residents although opposed to slavery, could not vote because they had not resided in the state long enough to acquire citizenship.

  At the start of the Civil War the majority of the county’s residents actively supported the Confederate cause. Several companies of militia were organized in the county including the Escondido Rifles and the Helena Guards. The Helena Guards was a company of fifty-seven men organized on May 4, 1861 with Charles A. Russell elected as Captain, L.D. Cook, J. R. Cooke, and G.W. Brown, Lieutenants, John Ruckman as First Sergeant and Levi Watts as a Second Corporal.135

  Each man was required to provide his own arms and equipment. The guards were among the units that participated in the Rio Grande campaign. Some of the Poles joined a unit known as the Panna Maria Grays. However generally, the Polish and German immigrants were not supportive of slavery or of the Confederacy.136

  This anger and distrust of foreigners and pro-Union Texans became quite evident early in the war. In August 1862 many Germans were killed by Confederate forces in the Battle of Nueces as they tried to escape to Mexico and then to Union occupied New Orleans. In addition forty suspected Unionists were hanged in north Texas at Gainesville in October 1862. Two others were shot as they tried to escape.137

  Naturally this lack of support for the Confederate cause led to great suspicion and animosity towards the foreign population. The Poles and other foreigners resented being forced to serve in the army and always tried to avoid Confederate officials. The relationship between the Poles and the Anglos continued to deteriorate when it was discovered a number of Poles had deserted to the north. One example is Peter Kiolbassa who joined the Confederate Panna Maria Grays as a bugler, but ended the war as a Captain in command of a company of the Union Army’s 6th U.S. Colored Cavalry.

  Quite a few of Karnes County’s young men served honorably and with distinction during the Civil War. Captain John Littleton, Captain Thomas Raab Company A Frontier Regiment, LT. James P. King 3rd Frontier District TRT, Sergeant John Ruckman- Helena Guards, William G. Butler Private- Escondido Rifles, Monroe Choate raised the Escondido Rifles and served as its Captain. Captain Charles A. Russell and First Sergeant John Ruckman, Helena Guards 29th Brigade 24th Cavalry. Oliver Hazard Pearson Company I of the 2nd Texas Cavalry (AKA 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles). Those are but a few of the many men from the Helena area who served in the war.

  In addition Helena’s importance could be demonstrated by the fact that it was one of only seven towns in Texas with a Confederate Post Office authorized to print and issue its own stamps.138 A single one of these original stamps could be worth upwards of $10,000 today. The postmaster in Helena from 1861–1863 was David W. Dailey. You will hear more about him later.

  The fact that so many of its able-bodied men were serving in the army, caused an unanticipated problem for the citizens remaining in Karnes County. Deserters, desperados and all manner of bad guys took advantage of the relatively defenseless home front.

  Karnes County became increasingly endangered by bands of Mexican renegades and bandits which, according to one group of Karnes County residents in late 1863, were “alarmingly on the increase and threaten to devastate the Country.139 Unfortunately order could not be fully restored until the victorious Union Army established a military post in Helena long after the war ended.

  Another major problem arose for all the citizens in Karnes County and throughout the Confederacy. Toward the end of the war the paper currency notes of the Confederacy became nearly worthless. A common story at the time was that a man could go to the market with a basket full of Confederate notes and come home with his meat in his little vest pocket. The notes were hardly acceptable anywhere, and transactions were done the old fashioned way, by barter and exchange.

  Along with a worthless currency there were wartime shortages and inflation,140 causing hardships for those who remained on the home front. Compounding these problems was a protracted period of drought lasting from 1862 to 1865.

  The blockade of Texas by the Union Navy resulted in shortages of many basic commodities. Coffee, medicine, farm implements, paper, shoes and clothing were in short supply. Due to the lack of paper several Texas newspapers suspended or discontinued operations at various times and Governor Lubbock encouraged Texans to go back to their roots by making homespun clothing. Also during the war years, Helena was called upon to provide several thousand bushels of corn for Confederate troops stationed along the Rio Grande.

  However, Texas was better positioned than most Confederate States, due to its border with Mexico. Texas sent cotton to Mexico in exchange for military supplies, tobacco,
medicines, dry goods, food, iron goods, liquor and coffee.

  Large wagon loads of cotton passed through Helena and Karnes County to Matamoros, Mexico on the Rio Grande across from Brownsville and then to the Mexican seaport village of Bagdad. Here waited hundreds of ships from Europe and the United States taking advantage of this lucrative two way trade. As a result of this two way trade Helena and Karnes County residents were less affected by the shortages than most other areas of the Confederacy. However, as the war continued Texans were being devastated by the almost total loss of value of the Confederate currency and the huge price increases as demonstrated in the following commodities chart.

  SOURCES: Houston “Tri Weekly Telegraph,” Galveston “Tri Weekly News,” Marshall “Texas Republican”

  The Indian threat on the Texas frontier during the Civil War accelerated dramatically because of the shortage of manpower due to the war. Frontier troops did their best to keep the Indians in check with some success but couldn’t stop them.

  As an example a vicious raids by Kiowa and Comanche in the fall of 1864 left a dozen Texans dead and seven captured. The raid occurred along Elm Creek in Young County. Another problem for the frontier troops was they were given other duties in addition to the Indian threat. The frontier troops spent quite a bit of time arresting deserters, enforcing Confederate conscription laws, controlling Unionist activity and chasing outlaws and renegades.

  Things were so bad that even men of marginal ages had to be called up for service or they volunteered. Here is an example: In February of 1864 the men of Captain Creed Taylor’s company, a small group who had volunteered to serve in the Confederate “Provisional Army” began service. Taylor’s twenty-five man troop was mustered in at Helena, Karnes County.141 Remember Creed Taylor as you will be learning a lot more about him … and his family.

  As you can see by the following letter from Colonel RIP Ford more Helena men had to be called up by Confederate forces. One wonders if Captain Creed Taylor’s unit fought as part of Colonel Ford’s Confederate Expeditionary Force in the Rio Grande battles against the Union forces.

  Although some historians have claimed that the Taylor’s never fought for the Confederacy and that they only used pro-south rhetoric to cover their thievery and murder, it appears they may be incorrect regarding this fact.

  However by the spring of 1865 the situation was grim for the Confederacy. Mass depression swept over the Southern states with the news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.

  After Texas units of the Army of Northern Virginia dropped their weapons everyone in Texas knew the end was near. In spite of the horrible news from Virginia, General E. Kirby Smith, Trans-Mississippi Department commander and General John Magruder, in charge of the Texas district, ordered in-state troops to remain at their posts.142

  In early May Confederate units beginning in the eastern part of the state deserted en mass and began heading home. The civilian government also began to collapse quickly as many of the former Confederate officials left their jobs for the last time. Anarchy became rampant throughout the State as all authority disappeared … until the Union army occupation.

  The Civil War ended with a final gasp in Texas on May 15th 1865. The last battle of the Civil War was a land battle at Palmetto Ranch near Brownsville. Unbelievably, the battle came more than a month after General Robert E. Lee had surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

  Texas cavalry and artillery battalions commanded by Colonel John S. “Rip” Ford, along with troops such as Captain John Littleton of Karnes County, made the last battle of the war a resounding Confederate victory.143 However the die was already cast, and this victory could not change the reality of the South’s defeat. A few days after the battle, Ford disbanded his command and sent his troops home.

  General E. Kirby Smith surrendered the Trans-Mississippi on June 2, 1865 At Galveston with no army left to command. Only a few weeks after, on June 19 Union troops commanded by General Gordon Granger landed in Galveston. General Granger ended slavery in Texas by issuing an order that the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect throughout the State of Texas. The Texan emancipation date is celebrated across the country as Juneteenth.

  Chapter 17: Civil War Reconstruction

  Upon the defeat of the Confederacy and the occupation of Texas in the summer of 1865 a number of questions remained unanswered. The two key questions facing the U.S. Congress and Lincoln’s successor, President Andrew Johnson, were; How would southern states be readmitted to the Union? How would the newly freed slaves be assimilated?

  After the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth, a reputed K.G.C. agent, there was a rage throughout the north and calls for vengeance against the defeated Confederate states. Before his assassination Lincoln had a quite moderate and lenient plan for the readmission of the former Confederate states. However after his assassination moderation and leniency for the rebel states were no longer in the cards.

  President Andrew Johnson, a southerner, appointed A. J. Hamilton Governor of the state under his plan for reconstruction. He enacted a relatively lenient plan for the reconstruction in the former Confederacy.144

  His plan was for a convention process with provisional governors presiding over individual states to repeal secession ordinances, frame a new constitution and nullify the war debt. Voters in each of these states would then adopt the convention results and elect a governor and legislators who, in turn, would ratify the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  According to this plan elections were held in 1866 in Texas for state officials and a new state constitution. In these elections the conservative J. W. Throckmorton was elected as Governor of the State of Texas.145

  The Texas Constitutional Convention of 1866 tried to get by with the bare minimum of requirements for readmission to the Union. They gave newly freed male slaves the right to acquire and transmit property, to sue or be sued, to contract and be contracted with, to obtain equal criminal prosecution under the law and to testify orally in any case involving another African American.

  However the 1866 Constitution did not allow African Americans to hold public office or to vote. This 11th Texas Legislature meeting in August, 1866 refused to ratify either the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, or the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to African Americans. The legislature clearly tried to turn the clock back to a time before the war by restricting the rights of African Americans … definitely a deal breaker for the victorious Yankees.

  In late 1866 an anti-Johnson U.S. Congress was elected. They quickly passed the First Reconstruction Act in March 1867. So began the era of Congressional Reconstruction in which the law essentially wiped out the newly elected governments in the ten southern states. These states were then grouped into five military districts with Texas and Louisiana being placed in the fifth military district. Essentially Texas and the other former Confederate States were to be placed under the boot of the victorious Union Army … and it was definitely pay-back time!146

  Essentially from this point forward the former white slave owners, Confederates and sympathizers became less than second class citizens. In their opinion the newly emancipated former slaves were now their masters … virtually overnight. The former slaves along with the radical Republicans, northern carpetbaggers and “scallywags” (a white southerner who supported the Republican Party) were now in total control.147

  Using the power of the occupying Union troops, they controlled every aspect of the white former Confederate men, women and children’s’ lives and well being. This was the beginning of the second Civil War.

  Clearly not everyone in Texas and the former Confederacy were unhappy with the victory of the Union and the new Reconstruction Government. The emancipated African Americans were ecstatic that the inhuman system of slavery had been crushed and they were now to be treated like human beings. Here is an actual statement from a slave who achieved his freedom in San Antonio.

  FELIX H
AYWOOD REMEMBERS THE DAY OF JUBLIO148

  Felix Haywood, born a slave in Raleigh, North Carolina, gained his freedom in San Antonio, Texas, in the summer of 1865 when word finally reached Texas. In this interview Haywood recalls the day of emancipation.

  Soldiers, all of a sudden, was everywhere—coming in bunches, crossing and walking and riding. Everyone was a-singing. We was all walking on golden clouds. Hallelujah!

  Union forever

  Hurrah, boys, hurrah!

  Although I may be poor,

  I’ll never be a slave—

  Shouting the battle cry of freedom.

  Everybody went wild. We felt like heroes, and nobody had made us that way but ourselves. We was free. Just like that, we was free. It didn’t seem to make the whites mad, either. They went right on giving us food just the same. Nobody took our homes away, but right off colored folks started on the move. They seemed to want to get closer to freedom, so they’d know what it was—like it was a place or a city. Me and my father stuck, close as a lean tick to a sick kitten. The Gudlows started us out on a ranch. My father, he’d round up cattle—unbranded cattle—for the whites. They was cattle that they belonged to, all right; they had gone to find water ‘long the San Antonio River and the Guadalupe. Then the whites gave me and my father some cattle for our own. My father had his own brand - 7 B)—and we had a herd to start out with of seventy.