I am VERY interested in receiving a list of the known dead or missing from the 20th TX Cavalry (dismounted) at the Battle of Honey Springs. On March 10, 1862, the following men were among those who enlisted in Co. K of this unit from Limestone County, Texas: Franklin L. "Middleton" Davis; George Tipton "Jeptha" Davis; John B. "Jack" Rasco; Joshua Rasco; Josiah Rasco; Leonidas "Lon" Rasco; and Solon Rasco. Franklin Davis was my great-great-grandfather; George was his younger brother; John, Joshua, Lon, and Solon were all brothers of Franklin's sister Nancy, hence, his brothers-in-law; and Josiah was the son of the Rascos eldest brother, William "Short Bill" Rasco, hence, their nephew. Joshua was promptly discharged from the CSA because he was older than the cut-off age of 35. All of these men lived in or near Davis Prairie, south of Groesbeck. I have complete family information on them; they were all present at the Battle of Honey Springs. During the battle, Franklin and George Davis were killed outright; John and Lon Rasco were captured by the Union Army; Solon Rasco was seriously wounded, resulting in amputation of his foot; and only Josiah escaped unscathed, eventually bringing the devastating news back home to the two families. But we've never gotten official documentation of Franklin and George's deaths, nor the location of their burial places, and we don't have the record of where John and Lon were imprisoned by the Union during the remainder of the war.

This one battle had consequences for my family that have endured to the present day. John and Joshua Rasco were apparently permanently embittered by the mistakes made and were ardent opponents of Reconstruction in Limestone County, to such an extent that Franklin's daughter Leah and her husband Joseph Atkins (brother to John's wife Laura Atkins) left the region after they were married and never returned, permanently severing ties with their families. Leah and Joseph Atkins raised their five children to be free thinkers and progressives, in a time when this was extremely unusual (one of their sons, my great uncle Auther Atkins, was a Wobbly).

Please feel free to write me if you want further information and please send on any documentation you might have about the disposition of the dead or captured after this battle. We'd like to lay Franklin's ghost to rest.

Thanks.