Re: Civil War in Texas
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In reply to:
Re: Civil War in Texas
Dana O'Meara 12/04/06
Louis miller didn't marry until after the war his wife was Clara S. Howard a widow, they married "abt" 1869. Louis was born "abt" 1833.
Louis Miller did end up in Texas after the Civil War but we don’t know where he was before the war. First of all, Ludwig joined the northern Union army and then was captured. If he joined the Union army, he would have had to have been somewhere north of Texas. If he had initially immigrated to Texas via Galveston or possibly New Orleans, then he would have to have migrated north from there to get into Union territory. The odds are that he had emigrated from Europe to a northern port initially and joined somewhere in the north, then going to Texas after the war. This was common. Some records have the annotation, "gtt," meaning "gone to Texas."
When the Civil War ended, the U.S. Army returned to Texas, this time to stay until the frontier was tamed. In 1867 and 1868, federal troops reoccupied Fort Davis, Fort Stockton, Fort Lancaster and Fort Quitman, this time building permanent housing and facilities of stone and adobe to replace the uncomfortable and unsanitary pre-war jacales.
Ludwig met and married Clara S. (Olmstead) Howard a widow with fourteen children. Her family lived at Fort Croghan another fort in the Fisher-Miller grant which was about three miles south of the town of Burnet TX. The Olmstead family removed to Burnet from Fort Ripley MN, where they connected with government contracts to supply food for the fort before the Civil War that may have been what they were doing for Fort Croghan.
Col. Benjamin H. Grierson of the 10th U.S. Cavalry lived at both Fort Concho (1875–1882) and Fort Davis (1882–1885). Ludwig followed him and the Buffalo Soldiers from one western frontier post to another, in Texas. Shortly before Col. Grierson left for New Mexico Ludwig and family followed the building of forts into Arizona. By this time Louis wasn't with the army he was working as a laborer.
As settlement quickly pressed beyond the first forts, some of which were still under construction, the U.S. Army began establishing other posts. While the new forts were being erected, many of the older ones were abandoned or consolidated with the newer ones because the frontier had already passed them by.
It is likely that the port Ludwig left Germany from was Bremen/Bremerhaven in Westphalia, Prussia that Port is at the Rhine River. Several Ludwig Muellers are listed on Lists of Passengers Bound from Bremen to New York, 1855-1862, or to Baltimore 1863-1867, : The original lists from Bremen were destroyed in World War II. These lists were created as arrivals in New York, rather than departures from Bremen.
There was a Ludwig Mueller that filed for declaration of intention or naturalization in Wisconin. How can I find out if my Louis Miller hooked up with Col. Benjamin H. Grierson and served with him during the Civil War then after the war went to TX with him?