"Treue Der Union"
Comfort, Kendall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
("Loyalty to the Union") This German language monument, erected 1866, honors the memory of 68 men (mostly Germans) from this region who were loyal to the Union during the Civil War. Trying desperately to reach U.S. Federal troops by way of Mexico, about 40 of the men were killed by vengeful Confederates bent on annihilating them, in the Battle of the Nueces (on Aug. 10, 1862) and a later fight (Oct. 18). The bodies of the slain and those who drowned swimming the Rio Grande were left unburied. A group of Germans gathered the bones of their friends and buried them at this site in 1865. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Erected in 1866, this German-language monument—"Loyalty to the Union"—honors 68 mostly German settlers of the Hill Country who remained loyal to the United States during the Civil War. Fleeing toward Mexico, many were killed by Confederates at the Battle of the Nueces in 1862 and a later fight; their remains were gathered and buried here in 1865.
Why it matters
It stands as a rare monument to Unionist dissent in the Confederacy, testifying that the South was never wholly of one mind about secession.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Texas seceded in 1861, the vote was lopsided statewide, but not every community went along. In the Hill Country west of San Antonio, many German immigrants had settled in the decades before the war. A good number of them opposed secession, and many also opposed slavery, which was uncommon among their neighbors. Comfort, founded by German settlers in the 1850s, was one of the places where Unionist sympathy ran strong.
As the war went on, the Confederacy began drafting men into its army, and Texas authorities treated open Unionism as disloyalty. Parts of the Hill Country were put under martial law, and dissenters faced arrest, threats, and violence. For men who would not fight for a cause they rejected, the choices were bleak: serve against their conscience, hide, or try to flee.
Mexico lay to the south, across the Rio Grande. From there, Unionists hoped to reach U.S. forces and keep up their loyalty to the country they had chosen. In the summer of 1862, a group of Hill Country men set out to do exactly that.
People & events
The men honored here, 68 in all and mostly German, were loyal to the Union during the Civil War. They set out for Mexico hoping to reach Federal troops. They never got there. On August 10, 1862, Confederate forces caught up with them near the Nueces River in what became known as the Battle of the Nueces, and the fighting was brutal. More died in a later fight on October 18. In all, about forty of the men were killed. The marker describes their pursuers as vengeful and bent on wiping them out, and the event has long been remembered as closer to a massacre than a battle.
Some who escaped the fighting drowned trying to swim the Rio Grande to safety. The bodies of the dead were left where they fell, unburied, an insult that stayed with their families and friends for years.
After the war ended, a group of Germans went and collected the bones of their fallen friends. In 1865 they brought the remains back and buried them here, in Comfort. The next year, in 1866, they put up this monument in their own language. Its name, Treue der Union, means Loyalty to the Union. Erected barely a year after the war ended, in a former Confederate state, it was a bold public statement of grief and conviction.
Its place in the American story
The Civil War is often remembered as a clean split between North and South, but the South was never of one mind. In the mountains of Appalachia, in parts of the Deep South, and here in the Texas Hill Country, pockets of Unionists refused to support the Confederacy and paid for it, sometimes with their lives. Treue der Union is one of the clearest memorials to that dissent.
It is also a rare kind of monument. Most Civil War memorials in the former Confederacy honor Confederate soldiers. This one honors men who died because they stayed loyal to the United States, and it was put up in German by an immigrant community. That makes it an important reminder that immigrants took part in the nation's greatest crisis, and that loyalty to the Union could mean something very personal to people who had chosen America as their home.
The story also has lasting meaning about conscience under pressure. These men faced a government that demanded their service and punished their refusal. Their memorial asks visitors to think about what loyalty meant in a divided country, and what it cost.
If you visit
Comfort is a small, charming Hill Country town between San Antonio and Kerrville, with a historic downtown of limestone buildings that reflects its German roots. The monument stands in a quiet spot. It is one of those places where it helps to slow down and stand still for a while.
Look closely at the monument itself and notice the German inscription carved on it. It is a sign of who built it and when, in 1866, when the grief was still fresh. Keep in mind that the ground beneath holds the remains that friends brought back from the Nueces country in 1865. This is a grave as much as a monument, and it deserves a respectful visit.
The marker fits naturally into a Hill Country road trip through the region's German settlements, where you can see how these immigrant communities shaped the landscape and culture of Central Texas. In that setting, the Treue der Union monument adds a sobering chapter: the price some of those settlers paid for their convictions.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related events
- · Battle of the Nueces
Themes & tags
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