The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 248
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Daniel Cullins and his two sons, John and Alfred, volunteered
and joined the Army of the Confederacy. Each enrolled in
Captain Ben McCulloch's Company for Milam County, 27th
Brigade, Texas Militia, General E. S. C. Robertson command-
ing, in which John was a corporal. In 1863 each of them re-
enlisted in Company G, 33rd Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Duff's
Partisan Rangers, 14th Battalion), in which Alfred was a
sergeant.
Daniel Cullins, no longer young, was appointed a cattle buyer.
His sons served on the border patrol, but during the time of
the cotton movement they freighted cotton to the Rio Grande.
The most difficult part of the long, laborious cotton trek lay
between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, over a vast deep
sand embayment. From Rancho Las Animas, just below old
San Patricio, several roads diverged to the Rio Grande. While
the greater portion of the cotton went direct from Las Animas
almost on a straight line to Brownsville, a certain amount of
the traffic swung westward and reached the Rio Grande at Rio
Grande City (which the old ranchero Mexicans continue to call
"Rancho Davis"), thence down the river by the old road which
parallels the river bank. After the capture of Brownsville by
the Federals, and until it was retaken by the Confederates, the
bulk of the cotton went, necessarily, by the old Presidio road
from San Antonio to the vicinity of Eagle Pass, subsequently
resuming the Rio Grande City route.
As though these difficulties were not enough, there were fre-
quent Indian assaults upon the wagon trains in the lower coun-
try, mule teams being especially appealing to them.
Throughout the four long cruel years of the War, the singing
of the spindle and the humming of the shuttle constituted the
chief music in Esther Cullins' home, as the busy women made
clothing and blankets for the tattered Confederate soldiers.
The sagacious Esther did not, however, believe in "all work
and no play." She sensed the need for keeping up morale, and
though seldom were any of the mature men of the neighborhood
at home, her available neighbors often were invited to her home
for such modest entertainment as she could offer. She would
sometimes don her son's best suit and dance with her daughters
and the other girls as though she were a man.
Though famed for her sunny, optimistic nature, Esther,
through declining health, now had hours of enforced rest and248
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944, periodical, 1944; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146054/m1/279/: accessed May 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.