DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. January first. Eighteen sixty-three.
New Year's Day — and the Southern Confederacy chose that particular morning to take back Galveston. Now, fifty years later, on January first, nineteen fourteen, folks gathered to commemorate exactly that: the capture of Galveston, half a century on. And they made sure the names were spoken out loud, the way names deserve to be spoken.
Gen. Arthur P. Bagby commanded the Neptune that day.
That detail alone ought to stop you for a moment — a ship named Neptune, on the first day of a new year, steaming into a battle that would decide who held one of Texas's most vital ports. The marker honors the heroes who wore the gray at the Battle of Galveston. It calls them out by name, rank and all.
Captain J. T. Whitfield.
Lieutenant J. W. Carson.
Private Jno. Buchanan. Captain Jas.
Walker. Sergeant W. H.
Turk. Captain J. W.
Whitfield. Six men from that fight, named and remembered. And then it reaches further back — into Lavaca County itself — to honor the men from that ground who fought in the Civil War.
Gen. John B. Magruder.
Col. Tom Green. Col.
Arthur P. Bagby. Com.
Leon Smith. Capt. James Walker.
And Co. G. W.
H. H. Brazier.
Lavaca County put its sons into that war, and this marker made sure, fifty years on, that nobody forgot it. The inscription closes with a line that doesn't need any help from me: Banners may be furled — but heroism lives forever. Some lines, you just let stand.
What the marker says
Jan. 1, 1863 --- Jan. 1, 1914 In commemorating the 50th anniversary of the capture of Galveston by the Southern Confederacy. Gen. Arthur P. Bagby commanding the "Neptune." Dedicated to the heroes who wore the gray at the battle of Galveston. Jan. 1, 1863 Capt. J. T. Whitfield Lieut. J. W. Carson Private Jno. Buchanan Capt. Jas. Walker Sergeant W. H. Turk Capt. J. W. Whitfield In memory of Lavaca Co. men who fought in the Civil War. Capt. James Walker Gen. John B. Magruder Col. Tom Green Col. Arthur P. Bagby Com. Leon Smith Co. G. W. H. H. Brazier Banners may be furled but heroism lives forever.