DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do my best to honor every word. This one's called Treue Der Union — that's German for 'Loyalty to the Union' — and friend, if you think a monument is just a slab of stone with some letters on it, this one's about to change your mind. Out here in Kendall County, there stands a monument erected in 1866.
That's just one year after the war ended, which tells you something about the urgency of the people who built it. They needed the world to know what happened. They needed it on record before the dust of history could settle over the truth.
The monument honors the memory of 68 men — mostly Germans — from this region who stayed loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Now think about what that meant out here. This wasn't a safe position to hold.
These men were surrounded by Confederate territory, and they knew it. So about 40 of them made a decision — a desperate one. They were going to try to reach U.S.
Federal troops by way of Mexico. Cross the land, cross the border, get to safety, get to their side of the fight. They didn't make it.
Confederate forces, described on the marker itself as vengeful and bent on annihilating them, caught up with the group. On August 10th, 1862, the two sides met at what became known as the Battle of the Nueces. About 40 of those men were killed — there, and in a later fight on October 18th.
And here is where the story turns its darkest corner. The bodies of the slain were left unburied. Those who had tried to swim the Rio Grande and drowned — they were left too.
Just left. For years, the remains of those men lay where they had fallen. Then, in 1865, a group of Germans came out to those killing grounds and gathered the bones of their friends.
Gathered them up and carried them back. And they buried them here, at this site, with whatever dignity could still be salvaged from so much loss. One year after that, in 1866, they raised this monument.
A German-language monument. Treue Der Union. Loyalty to the Union.
Sixty-eight names worth of loyalty. That's what's buried here. That's what that stone is saying, in German, in Kendall County, Texas — in a place that wanted nothing to do with that message when it mattered most.
What the marker says
("Loyalty to the Union") This German language monument, erected 1866, honors the memory of 68 men (mostly Germans) from this region who were loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Trying desperately to reach U.S. Federal troops by way of Mexico, about 40 of the men were killed by vengeful Confederates bent on annihilating them, in the Battle of the Nueces (on Aug. 10, 1862) and a later fight (Oct. 18). The bodies of the slain and those who drowned swimming the Rio Grande were left unburied. A group of Germans gathered the bones of their friends and buried them at this site in 1865. (1968)