Moss Bluff Rebel: A Texas Pioneer in the Civil War

Chapter 1 Pioneer

Chapter 1 Pioneer william berry duncan rode into town from his house on the east bank of the Trinity River south of Liberty, Texas, on March 1, 1862, to nominate officers for a unit of Texas Volunteers in the army of the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.). It was the day before his fortyfourth birthday, the same birthday he shared with the Republic of Texas, created in 1836, and its first president, Gen. Sam Houston, born March 2, 1793. Commanding officer Capt. Ashley Spaight swore Duncan and twenty-six other men into Spaight’s unit a month later. It was two weeks short of a year after America’s Civil War began at Fort Sumter in South Carolina. Duncan marked the event in his diary on the day he took the Confederate army oath, “I was not willing but finally agreed.” The Provisional Congress of the C.S.A. authorized formation of a regular army on March 6, 1861. The same day, Confederate legislators called out C.S.A. state militias and authorized recruitment of 100,000 volunteers for a provisional army. Clearly hesitant to enlist twelve months after these bills became Confederate law, what finally prompted the middle-aged Duncan, shown in figure 1, to join Spaight’s battalion? With northern lawmakers in mind, was he a Jacksonian Democrat who dreaded big government and shared Thomas Jefferson’s sentiments written in the Declaration of Independence eighty-six years earlier, “We have warned our (British brethren) from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us”? Or was he simply one of many Southerners who reacted to war cries from secessionist politicians? Could Duncan’s response have been more measured, prompted less about defending states’ rights and preserving slavery, more by fear of an alien invasion? Was he in fact driven to secure his economic independence, concerned that Federal occupation might mean confiscation of the frontier land his father, father-in-law, and he had worked so hard to improve? What were his thoughts 01-A4950-PB1.indd 1 01-A4950-PB1.indd 1 10/17/08 9:21:11 AM 10/17/08 9:21:11 AM 2 Chapter 1 and how did life change for pioneer Texas cattleman, farmer, and public servant William B. Duncan when he served as a Confederate cavalryman in America’s Civil War? The town of Liberty, Texas, was established in 1831, named after the county seat of Amite County, twenty miles west of McComb in the Natchez district of southern Mississippi and the former home of several immigrants to Mexico’s Atascosito District in southeast Texas. To make the new town’s name politically palatable in imperial Mexico City, land commissioner J. Francisco Madero advised his government he had “proceeded to the formal creation of a town in this [Atascosito] District on the east bank of the Trinity River and on the road that goes from Bexar towards the Opelousas and which I have named Town of the Most Holy Trinity of Liberty,” or Villa de la Santissima Trinidad de la Libertad . From their point of view, Liberty’s colonists might have approved the name as a veiled signal to Mexico of how they felt about foreign domination. That independent attitude became a core value of Liberty County citizens as Texas won its freedom from Mexico in 1836, defended it against Mexico in 1848, and stiffened its neck with secession from the United States in 1861. The defense of liberty was an intrinsic aspect of William Duncan’s character. The town of Liberty, Texas was his home. Ashley Ward Spaight lived in the Moss Bluff community less than five miles south of Liberty, a short ride from Duncan’s house. Spaight was a lawfig . 1. William Berry Duncan. Photo courtesy Miriam Partlow Collection, SHRL, Liberty, Texas. A4950.indb 2 A4950.indb 2 10/17/08 8:54:04 AM 10/17/08 8:54:04 AM Pioneer 3 yer born in Wilcox County, Alabama, in 1821 and educated at the University of North Carolina. He moved to Liberty County in 1860 from Alabama, where he served one term in the state legislature and practiced law with Thomas J. Watts, later the attorney general of the Confederate States of America. Spaight, threeand -a-half years younger than Duncan, enlisted in the Texas Volunteers of the Confederate Army on July...