The Texas in the Civil War Message Board - Archive

Re: Indigent Indians & Bourlands Regt.

My great, grandfather Pvt. Joshua D. Coffee was in the 1st Texas Cavalry Regiment, Col. Peter Hardemans's Arizona Brigade. In July 1863, he was detached and assigned picket duty at Colbert's Ferry until March 1864. The ferry was the Texas Road crossing of the Red River. My great grandfather passed the story to my grandfather and father that the pickets at Colbert's Ferry were camped at Colbert's plantation, a mile north of the ferry. The soldiers ate wery well because Frank Colbert provided the Confederate pickets chickens and hogs during their stay at the ferry. Colbet's Plantation was about 30 miles south of Fort McCulloch which was abandoned by the Confederate army after Brig. Gen. Albert Pike was arrested and placed in custody at the Warren Supply Depot in Fannin County. The fort was on the Texas Road at Nail's Crossing of the Blue River. When the fort was active, it controlled the road to Fort Washita, Rock Bluff Ferry and Colbert's Ferry. After the fort was abandoned by the Confederate army, it was used as a refugee camp. Frank Colbert was a Cherokee.

In January 1864, the pickets at Colbert's Ferry confronted William Quantrill and approximately 300 irregulars. After a "parley", the pickets allowed Quantrill and his men to pass into Indian Territory. Quantrill was being pursued by Col. Leonidas Martin's 5th Texas Partisan Rangers but Col. Martin's 5th Texas Partisan Rangers were under the command of Brig.Gen H.E. McCulloch and his Texas State Troops, they could not legally leave the state and they stopped the pursuit at Colbert's Ferry. Quantrill had just escaped custody in Bonham where he was being held for the robbery and murder of Major George Butts, a Confederate conscription officer in Sherman, Texas. Butts was the husband of Sophia-Suttenfield-Coffee and proprietors of Coffee's Trading Post at the Rock Bluff Ferry. One of Bill Anderson's men had actully committed the crime and Anderson implicated Quantrill.

In 1863-64, approximately 1,000 refugees per day crossed the Red River into Texas at Colbert's Ferry.

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Frank M. Nichols, Bourlands Regt.
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Collin and Cooke Counties
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Indigent Indians & Bourlands Regt.
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Susan was half/sister to Frank & Jesse *NM*
Re: Indigent Indians & Bourlands Regt.