|
His wife Sarah Ross McAninch died in 1882, and is buried in the Laughlin Cemetery, Milam County. Elias died about 1890 and is buried “over the river near Llano, Texas”, apparently in an unmarked grave [Tx-1]. There is no record of any pension application for Elias B. McAninch [Tx-11, -12, -13]. |
|
|
|
Texas 4th Cavalry (John F. McAninch) |
|
|
|
The 4th Texas Cavalry Regiment, Arizona Brigade, was the brainchild of Spruce McCoy Baird, former attorney general of the New Mexico Territory (U.S.) and an ardent secessionist who had accompanied the Confederate Army of New Mexico when it retreated back to Texas [Note Tx-8]. One of the officers was a Southern sympathizer from California, Lt. Colonel Daniel Showalter, who would later command the Fourth Regiment after Baird resigned in early 1864. The 4th Texas Cavalry Regiment has also been known as Baird’s Regiment, and later, Showalter’s Regiment. |
|
|
|
Raised in 1863, the regiment was first deployed against hostile Indians in north Texas (Sept. 1863). In early 1864, they were sent to the lower Rio Grande, near Brownsville, Texas, and joined the “Cavalry of the West” under Colonel John Salmon Ford, popularly known as “RIP” Ford due to his habit, while filling out death certificates, of adding the abbreviation "R.I.P." (for “Rest in Peace”) after the names of those men under his command who had “gone to meet their maker.” [Tx-8] Ford’s command was operating against the Union forces which had occupied the lower Rio Grande region since Nov. 1863, blocking the vital cotton trade through Mexico. Starting in March 1864, the “Cavalry” pushed the Union forces back down-river, and re-captured Brownsville in July 1864; the 4th Regiment, under Lt. Colonel Showalter, won praise for its capture of a Yankee riverboat. [Tx-8] |
|
|
|
In California, Showalter had been responsible for the only clash of Union and Confederate forces in that state, in San Diego County, and served time in Yuma Military Prison [Note Tx-15]. He escaped, made his way across Mexico, and went to Texas; on Feb. 8, 1864, he wrote from San Antonio to a friend: “… participating in the battle of Galveston, and ... Sabine Pass.... Soon after the latter I was promoted to a Lieutenant-Colonelcy [sic]. I have since organized a fine cavalry regiment and been in several engagements in Arkansas and the Indian Nation .... I have not heard a word from my people since I left California. I fear my brothers in Pennsylvania have gone in the Northern Army” [Tx-15] |
|
|
|
Later, Showalter’s Regiment was in the (first) battle of Palmetto Ranch, Texas, 6-7 & 9 Sept. 1864, where Showalter’s alcohol problem surfaced [Tx-8, Tx-14]. Colonel Ford got the charges dropped, then, later that same month, Sept. 1864, the regiment was sent north to the Red River, re-assigned to the 7th Texas Cavalry Brigade, Drayton’s Cavalry Division, in Cooke County, Texas. There, partly due to chronic shortages of provisions and pay, some of the men soon began to raid the surrounding countryside, and, sadly, ended the war not as heroes, but as renegades [Note Tx-8]. |
|
|
|
John McAninch is one of 97 men listed in Captain Wat Grave's Company, Co. A, 4th Texas Cavalry, 1863 or 1864 [Tx-9]; other people include George Server [John’s first wife was Leannah Server], and J. C. Whitley [John is on the 1860 census with T. B. (Thomas Benjamin) Whitley, whose wife, Clarissa (Server) Whitley, was Leannah’s sister [Note Tx-10]. |
|
|
|
After the War, John returned to Bell County, Texas, and is shown with his family on the 1870 and 1880 census records. John died 10 June 1913, Izora, Lampassas County, and Sarah died in 1925, both buried in Smith School Creek Cemetery, Lampassas County, Texas. There are no pension records. |
|
|
|
McAninch for the Confederacy, Eight Who Fought for Southern Independence Conf Sold .doc |
|
McAninch Family History NL, IX -4 November 2001 Copyright Frank McAninch page 2001-30 |