Terry's Texas Rangers Reunion Photo Including a Black CSA Veteran

Large

 Terry's Texas Rangers Reunion Photograph, 1913, 10" x 8" albumen on a grey 13.5" x 11.75" paperboard. This photo features many gray-bearded Rangers posing with their friends and family-over fifty people in all-on a sunny day at the entrance of a grand brick building at San Marcos, Texas. In the lower left corner reads, "Terry's Texas Rangers / and Friends / San Marcos, Texas / October 29, 1913."

Near the center stands a black member of the unit, wearing his reunion ribbon over his left breast.

 The name of this Confederate veteran is unknown. (Another photograph from 1913 exists featuring only the veterans in the same location without family and friends; the black veteran is in that photo too.) Photographs of black Confederate veterans, particularly those from Texas, are rare.

This storied cavalry unit was one of the most famous Texas outfits serving in the Civil War.

Organized at Houston in September 1861 by Benjamin Franklin Terry, the Rangers-formally known as the 8th Texas Cavalry-fought numerous Civil War military engagements, including many under General Nathan Bedford Forest near the end of the war. Colonel Terry, unfortunately, was killed in the unit's first engagement in Kentucky in December 1861. The volunteers went on to fight honorably at the battles of Shiloh, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and the Atlanta Campaign. The regiment officially mustered out on April 26, 1865, but most continued fighting in other Confederate units.

Estimate: $1,200 - $1,500.  

@ Heritage Auctions