I am the museum coordinator/archivist for Padre Island National Seashore, a national park on the coast south of Corpus Christi. I have been researching early settlers on (northern)Padre Island and would appreciate any information anyone can send me on anyone who inhabited or who served on Padre Island (north of the present-day Mansfield Channel) during the Civil War.

I have found out within the last several months much about the war on the Island. I know that Townsend's company of Dunaway's battalion of the 33rd Texas Cavalry (CSA) served picket duty on the island. I have also found out the federal units (in 1863) that landed on the island's southern tip and shortly afterwards landed again on the northern tip were the 13th Maine, 15th Maine, two Iowa regiments (whose designations I do not have on hand at the moment) and the First Texas Cavalry (federal) and a few other units. Any information on these units or the personnel serving in them would be greatly appreciated.

In addition, although there were no great military actions that occurred on the Island, I would appreciate any stories of anything happening on the Island during the war. There was a lot of smuggling and rustling and probably a lot of other nefarious activity as well.

Of course, I will reciprocate by gladly providing information I come across.

I am trying to be as accurate as possible as I am building the history of the island for our park. Therefore I would appreciate any copies of official documents anyone can donate. Anything I recieve will be entered into our park archives and made available to researchers. If you donate something, you can set restrictions on how it is used in terms of copyright, etc. I may ask you to fill out a donor's form, but whether you do so is at your discretion.

My mailing address is:

Phil Slattery
Padre Island National Seashore
PO Box 181300
Corpus Christi, TX 78480-1300

I would appreciate any help anyone can provide in putting together this grass roots history of this island and park.