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Mexican Confederates

This is a tribute to our brave Mexican heroes who honorably served the Confederacy. It has been estimated that about 13,000 Hispanics served in the ranks of the Confederacy. There were at least 3,000 Mexicans in Texas alone that joined the Confederate Army. Mexicans who fought for the Confederacy outnumbered the amount of Mexicans fighting for the Union by a ratio of 3:1. There were many motivating forces for Mexicans to join the Confederate army. The increasing hostilities between the Federals and Confederacy in Virginia, and the threat of Union occupation of the Texas coast forces people all across Texas to join the Confederacy, and Mexicans were no exception. Mexican soldiers entered Confederate service imbued with the same patriotism as their Anglo comrades did. Many Mexicans who enlisted in the Confederate Army saw combat far from home. A few who joined Hood's Texas Brigade marched off to Virginia and fought in the battles of Gaines' Mill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Appomattox Court House. Thirty Tejanos who enlisted from San Antonio, Eagle Pass, and the Fort Clark joined Trevanion T. Teel's artillery company, and thirty-one more joined Charles L. Pyron's company, both in John R. Baylor's Second Texas Mounted Rifles, which marched across the deserts of West Texas to secure the Mesilla valley. These units were later incorporated into Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's Confederate Army of New Mexico and fought bravely at the battle of Valverde. Other Mexican Texans from San Antonio served in the Sixth Texas Infantry and fought in several of the eastern campaigns, including the battles of Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta, and at Franklin and Nashville in John Bell Hood's calamitous invasion of Tennessee. Two of the better known Tejanos in the regiment were Antonio Bustillos and Eugenio Navarro. Others who served the Confederacy included the younger Manuel Yturri, a Kentucky teacher and scholar, who rose to the rank of captain in the Third Texas Infantry; and Lt. Joseph de la Garza, also from San Antonio, who died at Mansfield, Louisiana, in 1864 during the Red River Campaign. More than 300 Texas Mexicans from Refugio and Bexar counties joined the Eighth Texas Infantry. Two companies commanded by Joseph M. Peñaloza and José Ángel Navarro were almost entirely Tejano. Another popular Texas unit that had a large Mexican involvement was the 33rd Texas Cavalry Regiment, organized in April 1863 by using the 14th (Duff's) Texas Cavalry Battalion as its nucleus. Its members were recruited at San Antonio, Port Lavaca, Laredo and Mt. Vernon, and in Kaufman County. This unit served in Gano's and Hardeman's Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Department, and was assigned to the lower Rio Grande Military District. In April, 1864, it was near Bonham, Texas and contained 23 officers and 307 men. Before being promoted to Colonel in November 1863, Santos Benavides and his younger half-brother, Cristóbal Benavides, served in Company H of the 33rd Regiment. Cristóbal was a Captain and Santos, a Major. Refugio Benavides, another brother of Santos, served as a Captain in Company I. Mexicans were among the first to take up arms for the Confederacy, and were among the last to surrender. Our school children deserve to know about all the brave Mexicans who honorably served the Confederacy! This is only a small sample of all the Mexicans who fought in the Confederate ranks. Let us never forget the sacrifices and contributions that Mexicans made fighting for our freedom in the War for Southern Independence! Viva los Confederados!