The Texas in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Captain William Banta - Frontier Regiment Co.

I found one of Captain Banta & J. W. Caldwell's book and purchased it. I have to say it was a very interesting read. He talks at length about the indian struggles they went through on a daily basis. Banta never did talk too much about his time in the Civil War which I found strange. J.W. Callwell did however and was able to shed some light on my previous question. Along with the article Kevin posted you can get a true understanding of what happened.

Kevin you might want to look up my ancestry.com page I have a ton of stuff on there. If you see some that needs correcting please let me know. My email address is: michelle@ballardbunch.com

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Fredericksburg Jail Massacre by J.W. Caldwell

J.W. Caldwell was arrested at home while working in his fields. Twenty men came after him; they were all men who called themselves citizens, and claimed to be persons not taking sides in the issue; the claimed they were Union in principle, but proved to be men without any principle before the close of the war. They were quiet enough when Banta's or Caldwell's Rangers were near but always ready to do mischief when they had an opportunity. Caldwell and his men had proven to be a thorn in their side, and therefore they wanted to get them out of their way. They swore lies in order to be able to get a warrant for their arrest and get them in jail, well knowing that a prisoner could not defend himself. It was a deep laid plot, but unfortunately for them, they could not make it work just to suit them.
Caldwell surrendered willingly, knowing they could not sustain their charges. They tied him on a horse like he was some wild beast, although there were twenty of them well armed, and him without even a pocket knife. They took him to jail, where he found six others imprisoned on the same charges, three of them officers and the others Southern men, brave, true and tried; they were all men who had only been terrors to the outlaw and Indians. The names of the prisoners were: Captain William Banta, Captain J.W. Caldwell, William Dixon, Hense Roberts, Dick Mabu, Wash Isebell, and a man named Hams. The jail was built of stone, one story high, consisting of two rooms with a hall between them.
They had been in jail six days when the mob came, May 25, 1862. There was a guard of twelve men around the jail, placed there to guard the prisoners that they might not escape. Banta, Caldwell, and Mabus were in the East room of the jail and Dixon, Roberts, Isebell and Hams being in the West room. They attacked the jail at ten o’clock at night. They came about two hundred strong overpowering the guards, which was not a hard thing to do. They busted down the hall door, and soon the hall was full of men. Banta stepped to one side of the door and Caldwell to the other side, knocking off guns.
The mob would put their guns around the side of the door and shoot. Several guns were put against Caldwell and Banta, who knocked them off before they would fire. The fight raged with great fury at the doors of both rooms; the cowardly dogs were afraid to rush in on them, and they unarmed – tow hundred against seven unarmed men, and afraid to charge in the rooms. During the fight, Hense Roberts thinking it was death anyway, tried to cut his way through the mob with a small knife. He was killed at the outside door, having fought his way out of the room and through the hall. While the fight was raging, Caldwell grabbed a gun that was pointed through the door at him. He jerked, trying to get it away from the owner. The man holding the gun was pulled into the room, and being unable to get the gun from him, knocked him to the floor on his back. Another putting his face around the door to see where to shoot got his nose bloodied by Caldwell’s fist.
A German got a lamp and brought it to the door. Banta had hold of a gun, trying to take it ways from one of the mob. The German stepped to the door with a lamp to see how to shoot, and Banta struck him on the head with a canteen of water, knocking him senseless. In falling he dropped the lamp; Banta picked it up, and that broke up the fight. They had just left where Sheriff Splittgarber arrived with a posse of men. He immediately took them from the jail and turned them loose.
The result of the fight was Hense Roberts killed instantly, four wounded, two of them dying the next day. Roberts killed one of the mob with his little knife before he died. Of the seven only Caldwell and Hams were unhurt. The killed were Roberts, Dixon and Isebell; the wounded were Banta who was shot through both thighs and Mabus, shot through the arm. Caldwell and Hams were as black as negroes in the face from powder burns, and their clothing shot full of holes, they owe their escape to Providence, the darkness and the powder smoke. At the coroner’s inquest the next day the sheriff swore he picked up a pint cup full of bullets in the two rooms of the jail, the next morning after the fight. The survivors were all turned loose on bond, and as before mentioned were never tried. The scriptures say, “The wages of sin is death.” It has proven to be the case with many of the mob that attacked in the jail. They had miserably bad health after that affair, and it proved fatal nearly every time.

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Ft Phantom Hill Road- Robert E. Lee
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