50th Anniversary of Battle of Galveston

Galveston was already in Union hands when the Confederates came for it. Commander Renshaw's squadron took the harbor on October 4, 1862, and Massachusetts infantry occupied Kuhn's Wharf on December 25. Magruder struck on New Year's night 1863, with troops crossing the railroad bridge and river steamers fitted as cottonclads. The Union landing party failed because its ladders were too short. The Confederates took the Harriet Lane, Renshaw died blowing up his flagship, the Westfield, and the rest of the fleet sailed away. Magruder lost twenty-six killed. Texas's declaration of causes had named slavery as the reason for secession.

What the plaque says

50th Anniversary of Battle of Galveston 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.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lavaca County Courthouse — steps away
  A limestone Romanesque courthouse of 1897-99 on the square of a town founded by a widow trader, in a county seat that once printed the Socialist Party's state paper.
• Spoetzl Brewery — 14 mi
  The brewery a Czech and German railroad town started in a tin shed in 1909, run through Prohibition by a Bavarian who had brewed in Cairo, and then by his daughter.
• St. Mary's Church of the Assumption (Praha) — 17 mi
  The mother parish of the Czech settlements around Flatonia, a stone-fronted church of 1895 whose ceiling Gottfried Flury turned into a turquoise garden, with an August 15 feast since 1855.
• Nativity of Mary, Blessed Virgin Catholic Church (High Hill) — 19 mi
  A red brick Gothic Revival church of 1906 in a German farm settlement, where two San Antonio painters spent 1912 faking marble columns and stone vaults on wood.

More markers nearby

• First National Bank of Hallettsville — steps away
• Hallettsville — steps away
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church — steps away
• General John W. Whitfield — 0.4 mi