The Honored Confederate Veteran
By Charles Edwin Gilbert

Courtesy of Shirley L. Brown
 

THE HONORED CONFEDERATE VETERAN
He Grows Fewer In Number but Dearer To The Hearts of His Country Men.
Sketch No. 1

The recent death of one of the prominent ex-Confederates, the oldest native citizen of Matagorda county, prompted the NEWS-FARMER man to ask some of the veterans how many survivors there are now in the Camp, or county. Capt. J. Floyd Lewis, the adjutant of E. S. Rugeley Camp, with Capt. Frank Rugeley and Judge A. Currie, of Old Caney, helped the writer to make a list of all they could recall. “There are but eighteen members of our camp left now,” said Capt. Frank, with four at Matagorda whose camp has become extinct. The members of E. S. Rugeley Camp are as follows:

Judge Arthur Currie, whose home is down on Old Caney, hearing of the serious illness of Dr. C. H. Williams, came up Wednesday to see his old friend, but arrived too late, even for the funeral. Judge Currie is one of the older veterans, being now 85 years old, next June 5^th. He was born and reared in Moore County, North Carolina, enlisting in the civil war April 1, 1862, for three years, serving exactly the three years and was captured at the battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865, just 51 years ago tomorrow. In 1873, Mr. Currie came to Texas, settling near where his home now is. In 1875 he married Mrs. Van Dorn Kennedy, a daughter of Isaac Van Dorn, one of Austin’s first colonists, a sister of Mrs. Wm. Matthews of Caney. Mrs. Currie died, and in 1901 Mr. Currie married Miss Laura Morrison, of Canyon City, Col., who died in 1907. Judge Currie has but one child, a daughter, living in North Carolina. Judge Currie has continued to be engaged in planting all these years, however, leaving farm operations most altogether to his manager. He was several years county commissioner for the south part of the county, including Matagorda up to about five years ago when the boundaries were changed. He was always an active citizen, rendering valuable aid to his country during the dark days of reconstruction. Judge Currie’s wife had a brother in the confederacy, young Van Dorn, who was in the federal storm of Dec. 30, 1864, on Matagorda Bay, when about 23 of Capt. E. S. Rugeley’s command were drowned or frozen to death. Mr. Van Dorn being among the 26 who escaped. Next week the NEWS-FARMER will print the full roster of the Rugeley company, and some of the particular[s], with a sketch of another of the members of the Veteran Survivors.

Matagorda County News and Midcoast Farmer, March 31, 1916
 

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