Original House of Santa Gertrudes
Property of James & Judy Ware


 
Santa Gertrudes
photo owned by James & Judy Ware

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Captain Richard King (inside the buggy) in front of his home
Photo owned by James & Judy Ware
Given to the King Ranch Museum

 
Captain Richard King and Henrietta Chamberlain King
All photos on this page were owned by James & Judy Ware.
They now are housed in the King Ranch Museum.

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Capt. King had an uncanny knowledge about business opportunities, and he ended up creating a ranch that was so large it was considerably bigger than the state of Rhode Island.  As one visitor commented, “King’s Rancho is distant from Brownsville only 125 miles, and we have been six days in reaching it.” (Ref. 3302)

The Civil War did three things for Richard King:  it gave him the opportunity to make a vast fortune, it added to his already formidable character, and it led to the opening of the markets for beef that confirmed his faith in ranching.  (Ref.  William Broyles)

When cotton became the main source of revenue for the Confederacy, King provided livestock for the soldiers and a perfect location for trading purposes.  His well known ranch was a haven for weary travelers and soldiers alike.  “By far the most important cotton depots were Allytown, San Antonio, and the King Ranch . . ."  which Captain King had named Santa Gertrudis. (Ref. 2679)

In all likelihood, the stop by the King Ranch in June had something to do with the cotton trade going on in Texas. “Despite the best efforts of the Union blockade, Lincoln could not stem the flow of cotton out of the Lone Star State.  If one thing could keep the Confederacy alive, it would be its ability to export cotton.” (Ref. 1008)  The Confederacy in Texas seemed to always suffer a diminished supply of goods for their troops – everything ranging from food, to ammunition, to the bare essentials.  There were not many lush farmlands in South Texas like those in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that provided supplies for Lee’s army.  “Cotton became the most important commodity in Texas." (Ref. 721)  The climate and soil in this southern section of the country made growing cotton a lucrative business.  One of the most important jobs for the soldiers in the area was to make sure that the cotton bales made it safely to the Rio Grande for shipment to Europe.  The Federal Army, knowing the importance of this cotton trade, was always on the lookout to capture wagons en route, interrupt any trading going on

inland, and put an end to this vital Confederate supply line.  “The very life line of the Confederacy, the cotton road, lay across Neuces County.  The ever increasing flow of fleecy cotton crossed the Neuces River at Santa Margarita, crossing near San Patricio and rolled southward through Banquete toward Matamoras and the mills of England.” (Ref. 3240)

Elizabeth (Bessie) Ware Britton
Photo owned by James and Judy Ware

James Ware became associated with the King family through his service in the military, and possibly even through his legal business before the war.  The family ties grew tighter when his sister, Elizabeth Alexander Ware (Bessie), “joined her brother, James, in Texas about 1858, and there married Dr. Britton.” (Ref. 3344) The couple wed in Galveston on March 10, 1864, and Bessie shortly had a baby boy they named after her and her brother’s Virginia father - Josiah Ware Britton. 

Dr. Britton “enlisted in a Confederate state militia company, W. S. Shaw’s Light Infantry of Nueces County, as a surgeon.” (Ref. 3282)  It was not long before his services were desperately needed and, sadly, he was often separated from his young wife and their small baby.  Things became worse in 1865 when a yellow fever epidemic broke out.  Fearing for his wife and child, “he put them both on a boat at Corpus Christi and they ran the blockade.”  (Ref. 3344)  A relative,

Cornelia Ware Anker, later wrote that Elizabeth “showed me, probably sixty five years later, a little purse which he had handed her when he told her goodbye, in it was two hundred dollars in gold.  He told her not to use it except in case of emergency.  She never used it.  I remember figuring what she had lost in interest, by keeping it for sentimental reasons.”  (Ref 3344)

Maria von Blucher, a friend in Corpus Christi who lost a daughter due to the fever, wrote the following account of what happened to Elizabeth on the trip home:

“Dr. Britton, who was with Anna [her daughter], soon followed her.  He was only 28 years old and was married to the best and most amiable lady.  They had a little son, two months younger than Anna.  Mrs. Britton was about to visit her parents in Virginia.  On the journey the little one fell ill at the same time that her husband did here.  And both of them died on the same day, November 9th, and were buried at the same time; one in Corpus Christi, the other in Virginia.  The doctor had overexerted himself during the illness of Otto Noessel, who died at the end of October, and he got brain fever, which swiftly ended his life.”  (Ref. 3172)

Cornelia Anker also wrote about the incident in her family history.  “She [Elizabeth] arrived home [Springfield] and shortly thereafter her baby died and on the same day she received the news of the death of her husband of yellow fever.  Her great grief made a deep impression on Father, as a little boy.”  (Ref. 3344)

 
Grave for baby Josiah Ware Britton
son of E. W. Britton and Elizabeth Ware Britton

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When James was growing up, he was especially close to both of his two younger sisters, Elizabeth (Bessie) and Lucy Balmain Ware, who married E.P.C. Lewis – a descendant of the Washington family.   In 1866, Bessie was back at home in Virginia when Lucy (who had previously already lost five children) gave birth to her last child, named appropriately for her mother.  Sadly, she died at the birth of this baby.  It was only natural that her sister, who had just buried her own child less than a year earlier, would offer to raise baby Lucie until Edward Lewis remarried about five years later.

    
Lucy Balmain Ware Lewis  |  Lucy Lewis with Aunt Bessie Britton
Photographs owned by James and Judy Ware

    
Bessie Ware Britton

Since Dr. Britton died in Corpus Christi and Bessie was home in Virginia at the time, his funeral was handled by his twin sister, Lizzie Davis.  His marker not only mentions that he was a twin, but draws attention to the fact that he was only 27 years old at the time of his death. 

Grave marker for Dr. Edward W. Britton

According to Cornelia:

Bessie “took Lucy and cared for her til her father remarried, about five years.  They both went to Texas in this time where Aunt Key [Bessie] was governess for the King children on the famous King Ranch.  I have heard Aunt Key and Lucy both talk so much of their stay in Texas.  Old Captain King was quite a character.  Aunt Key said the first day she was teaching the children, about ten o’clock, Capt. King came in and said ‘Come, children, I want you to ride with me.’  Aunt Key said that the children couldn’t be excused from school.  Anyone knowing what an absolute ruler he was would be amazed that anyone would question his authority.  He was, but Aunt Key told him ‘while the children are in school, they

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are under my rule, you can send me away, but that is the way it is.’”  He admired her very much for her stand and she and the Kings were friends for life.   In speaking of Dr. Britton, Annie Moore Schwien, a local resident of Corpus Christi, wrote that Dr. Wharton’s “widow was later a governess in the home of Mrs. Henrietta King.”  (Ref. 2602)  Author William Broyles also noted that “life on the ranch became steadily more civilized. There was a cook and a Virginia governess.” (Ref. 753)  When James came to the King Ranch in early June of 1863, however, his sister had not even married yet. 

His orders read:

The following are requisition orders James placed during June.

Ref. 2086

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This invoice is dated September 30th to October 31, 1863

As invasion “tension mounted in 1863, the 1st Texas cavalry remained on constant patrol.”  (Ref. 1008) The Federal Army continued to want to “put a union presence in Texas - - [and] a campaign began in September 1863 with the Union’s ill-fated assault against Sabine Pass.”  (Ref.1008)  Sabine Pass is a narrow, six-mile long gorge that channels the Sabine River, the boundary between Texas and Louisiana, into the Gulf of Mexico.  “The union army officer assigned the task of invading and conquering Texas in 1863 was Major General Nathaniel P. Banks.”  (Ref. 1008)   On September 8, 1863, the Union Navy, with 5,000 men, attempted to enter one of the channels.  There were four Union gunboats in play – the Sachem, the Clifton, the Granite City, and the Arizona.  General Magruder had become aware of the enemy's intention to attack the Pass a few days earlier and had ordered several regiments to Beaumont and to the Pass.  “Magruder went personally to Sabine Pass to supervise the continued preparations for defending his district.” (Ref. 757)   Under Lt. Dick Dowling’s direction, the Confederate troops had hidden in bunkers all morning to escape Union shelling.  When they emerged to begin their own bombardment of the Union gunboats (as they came within firing range), the Confederates fired with tremendous accuracy.  Two of the Union gunboats, the Clifton and the Sachem, were disabled or forced to surrender within minutes.  The Confederates continued with devastating fire and after only 45 minutes, the Union boat retreated.  “The Confederate victory was

total.  As one captured Union officer said to Lt. Dowling after the battle, ‘You and your 46 men in your miserable little fort in the rushes have captured two gunboats, a goodly number of prisoners, many stands of small arms, and plenty of good ammunition, and that is not the worst of your boyish tricks: you have sent three Yankee gunboats, 5,000 troops, and a major-general out to sea in the dark.’  The Battle of Sabine Pass has often been described as the most one-sided Confederate victory of the entire war.”  Bibliography:  Handbook of Texas Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/SS/qes2.htm

“After the defeat at Sabine Pass, Banks determined that he would attack Texas by an overland path.”  (Ref. 2008) 

The following letter sent from Lt. Col. Giddings shows us with certainty that James was serving in the area.

Captain A. N. Miller
 
Assistant Adjutant General

“I have the honor to bring to the notice and consideration of the Commanding General in order to properly defend Sabine Pass I have found and still find it necessary to keep troops, scouts, and pickets on the Louisiana side of the channel . . . I have already instructed Captain James A. Ware, commanding the cavalry squadrons, to keep scouts on the Louisiana shore and to capture all parties of Federal depredators upon or landing upon the coast.”
I have the honor to be very respectfully,

W. H. Griffin, Lieutenant Colonel commanding Sabine Pass   (Ref. 3234)

Scouting became the main business for James for the next few weeks.  “On October 14, 1863, Colonel Augustus Buchel of the 1st Texas Cavalry was ordered to take command of Niblett’s Bluff.  He was instructed to keep scouts out as far as the Calcasieu River.”    (Ref. 757)  As of November 1st, “Bee had another fifteen men of company F [James’ company] positioned at Point Isabel.  Both companies reported on November 2nd that they had sighted fifteen vessels off the island of Brazos Santiago.” (Ref. 1008)  In a letter written by General Bee on November 5, 1863, he reported that he had been forced to evacuate Fort Brown but had destroyed items that the enemy might use.  He wrote, “I shall await orders at King's ranch.  My small command of 100 men are much exhausted, as we have been constantly on duty for ten days.”  By November 8, 1863, it was clear that Bee had indeed arrived at King’s Ranch because he sent a lengthy telegram to headquarters in Houston from there.  “He issued orders that all cotton wagons bound for Brownsville be rerouted to Eagle Pass.” (Ref. 2008)

"Corpus Christi was abandoned by the regular Confederates in the latter part of November 1863, and the defense of the line of the Nueces was left to the few units of State troops remaining in that area.  Principal among these was the 3rd Texas Cavalry (State troops), one battalion of which was composed of Refugio County companies, under Major Lieuen M. Rogers, who during most of the time commanded the regiment.  Another battalion was commanded by Major Matt Nolan, who had participated with Dick Dowling in the defense of Sabine Pass.  With Nolan was Captain James A. Ware’s (Cavalry) company.”  (Ref.  3296)

Conditions for the cavalry were horrible at this time.  In a letter dated November 18, 1863, the writer explained: “The country is dried up – the cattle and horses are starving for want of water – the river being too salty for them to drink.  The Corpus Christi people are moving out into the country to get away from the Yankee and the country people moving to Corpus for fear of the Mexicans.”  (Ref. 333)

Colonel James Duff reiterated these facts in a letter he sent to Headquarters on November 21, 1863.  According to him: “This place is absolutely untenable for cavalry; there is neither water, grass, nor corn, and the camp must be made father east.  From the best

information received, I will have to approach within a few miles of the San Antonio River to obtain grass, so barren and parched is the country.”  (Ref. 3248)

We know that sometime in the fall of 1863, “James was wounded and returned home to recuperate.” (Ref. 775)  It would make sense that his injury must have occurred around November 21st or 23rd  since records show him being ‘absent with leave’ for 35 days with the application being approved by Maj. General Magruder.  The dates would also coincide with the fact that Jane became pregnant in late November.  It must have been wonderful for the couple to be together again, even if the reunion was caused by an injury and ended up being all too short.  James fully recovered and was able to report back to duty after the 35 days.

While James was home with Jane in December recuperating from his injuries, General Magruder found this to be his busiest month.  On December 7, 1863, he "moved his headquarters to the plantation home of John C. McNeel.” (Ref. 2008)  On December 8th, the “1st Texas Cavalry along with the rest of Buchel's Brigade found itself assigned to Brig. Gen. James E. Slaughter’s Division for about a week and then transferred to Bee’s 2nd Cavalry Division” (Ref. 201)

 
Furlough for James Ware

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Then, on December 13, 1863, James found himself at the Santa Gertrudis Ranch of Captain King.  He was still on furlough but had found some interesting news that he wanted to get to headquarters as soon as possible.  He wrote the following long letter to Captain Turner, the Acting Attorney General:

    
  
Original letter of December 13, 1863
transcription on the following pages done by Judy C. Ware
Bold lettering done by Judy C. Ware for research purposes.

Santa Gertrudis
Kings Rancho
December 13, 1863
Captain E. P. Turner, A.A.G

Captain,

Coming down to this section of the state on furlough and not finding any organized Confederate forces except two companies of state troops (in the Nueces) and the people in great alarm and consternation, I take the liberty of communicating to you what information I have, after diligent inquiry, been able to gather as to the movements and locality and numbers of the enemy on the Rio Grande.  The General may have information of a later and more reliable character and if so, he must excuse this liberty on the grounds of my desire to render a service.

From the best information which Captain King can obtain which is corroborated by everything myself have been able to ascertain, the entire force of the enemy including Yankees, Negroes, refugees, and Mexicans does not exceed 3,000 men distributed in about equal numbers at Point Isabel, Brazos Santiago, Brownsville, and the command under Davis which ascended the river as high as Ringgold

barracks and, after having taken possession of Rio Grande City and Roma and remaining at Kingsville for (4) days, fell back to Edinburg where they are last reported 400 strong.  They were compelled to fall back from a failure to get their supplies up the river higher than Edinburg, a steamer being reported aground at that point.  The horses of Davis’ command are reported completely exhausted and the commandant at Brownsville is endeavoring to collect 900 fresh ones with what success I have not been able to learn.  I am told they have about 18 pieces of field artillery parked at Freeport with a number of horses picketed near the park and that these horses are not in a condition to render any service in an active company in a county destitute of grain - that they are much bruised and stiffened by the sea engagement.  Much of this information I obtained from Henry Scott, a citizen of Refugio County - well known to us all - a good scout and a reliable man who was detained in Matamoras and made his escape by crossing the Rio Grande about 12 miles below Brownsville passing around and between the enemies outpost.  The most advanced of the enemy’s pickets in this direction is at the Corricitas Rancho about 60 miles from Brownsville and the same distance from this place and just beyond the sound on the lower unit (?).  It consists of forty (40) men - Yankees and twelve (12) Mexicans.  The next picket of twenty (20) men is at Los Indios fifteen (15) miles this side of Brownsville.  Below Brownsville on the Brazos Road and about 12-15 miles is a strong picket probably numbering two or three hundred men.

Major Benavides, I have this morning learned, is at Laredo and has at yet had no engagement with the enemy as was announced.  The enemy has grown negligent from overconfidence and their trains have been seen to pass backward and forwards without escort.  They have, in small parties, been gathering beeves and stock as far east as the Santa Rosa and this Rancho (on its outer limits).

Captain Doughty of the militia proposes, in conjunction with Captain Rabb and with the assistance Captain Richardson’s company of minutemen and with a few men I have been enabled to collect of my company, to attempt the capture of the pickets this side of the Brownsville and drive the others into Brownsville destroying what trains may be able to find unguarded on the road, intercepting

communications, etc.  We commence the march from here tonight with five day rations cooked, and ten rounds of ammunition to the man.  Altogether we will be enabled to muster about one hundred and ten or twenty men.  We have called the minutemen of Karnes, Live Oak, and Bee Counties.  By superior knowledge of the county and by great clarity of movement and a little audacity to march our forces so as to hold a position around Brownsville until reinforced by the aforementioned minutemen and still farther until the general will send a few companies of our Western men to our assistance.  We expect to subsist upon what we may capture or upon beef and to accomplish a neutralization of the enemy’s immediate advance into the county, of his attempt to hold the upper Rio Grande by so a significant a force and to keep open his communications, and neutralize and stampede his Mexican auxiliaries.  In Matamoras are hundreds of refugees who are devoted to the interests of the Confederacy and who have rejected all overtures of the enemy - but who, from one cause or another, have abandoned the service and who now sincerely repent and would return but for the penalty of their desertion.  We have open communication with these men and should any of them return to their allegiance and render us valuable service in their behalf, I would ask that such services should be the price of their restoration of position as soldiers in the Confederate Army.  We have notified Major Benavides of our intention and have requested his cooperation.  There are hundreds of valuable horses between our lines and within the enemy’s lines - these we may be enabled to bring off and prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy.  As a citizen (and apart from my position as a soldier) and in accordance with the request of most of the citizens where I have seen (who are, almost without exception, firm in their devotion to the cause), I would ask that some officer of known ability as a partisan leader with a knowledge of the county and the people with a few such companies from the Confederate service as he might select be sent to operate West of the Nueces and would suggest the names of Colonel John S. Ford who unites in a most imminent degree the qualifications of this command and my own colonel - Colonel A. Buchel - either

of whom would be enabled to draw out the whole strength of the people.

My furlough will expire on the second of January and if successful I may be detained here until after the expiration of that time, but will report for duty as soon as I can reach the regiment after assisting Captain Rabb and Doughty in organizing this and carrying it out.
 
Respectfully, 
Your Obedient Servant,

James A. Ware    Captain, Company F, First Texas Cavalry

From the decisions being made at the King Ranch that winter, James seemed to have his finger on the pulse beat of where confederate activity was heading.