The Nueces massacre was a violent confrontation between Confederate soldiers and German Texans [1] on August 10, 1862 in Kinney County, Texas. Many Germans in Central Texas were first-generation immigrants from Germany. They tended to support the Union and were opposed to the institution of slavery. Gillespie and other central Hill Country counties had voted against secession. Because of these sentiments, the Confederate States of America imposed martial law on Central Texas.
With a need for more soldiers, the Confederacy established a draft. The Germans did not want to fight against the Union and objected to being drafted. Buildup to this event began in the spring of 1862 with the initiation of a Confederate conscription for Texans, to which many German Texans voiced their objection.[2] In Texas the most adamant supporters of the Union were Tejanos and the German Texans both from Central Texas and the counties of the Texas Hill Country [3]: Gillespie,[4] Kerr, Kendall, Medina, and Bexar.[5]
As word spread of these counties' objections, Confederate authorities declared central Texas to be under martial law.[6] Many German Texans of both regions decided to go to Mexico to avoid being drafted. By August, a party of 61 German Texans from the Hill Country counties, who were fleeing to Mexico, was overtaken by the Texas Confederate cavalrymen on the Nueces River. Shots were fired and as a result 34 German Texans were killed, with some being executed after being taken prisoner.[7]
Eleven of the surviving men eventually made it back home to tell of the battle, while others gained refuge in California or Mexico. A few of the escaping members of the group would later join with Unionist forces based in New Orleans.[8]
The German-language Treue der Union Monument (loyalty to the Union), in Comfort, Texas, was dedicated on August 10, 1866 to commemorate those who died at the 1862 Nueces massacre. With the exception of those drowned in the Rio Grande, the remains of the deceased are buried at the site of the monument.[9]