The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 82

                                
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
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Stereograph of monument to the Unionists killed in the skirmish on August io, 1862,
erected in Comfort, Texas, in 1866. Photograph courtesy Lawrence T7Jones III.
Dallas Morning News termed "The Blackest Crime in Texas Warfare." A
few of the surviving German Unionists later served with the First Texas
Cavalry (Union), organized later in New Orleans, and fought against the
First Texas Cavalry [Confederate] along the Red River in Louisiana.33
An enigma persists concerning the executions: What happened to the
chain of command in McRae's detachment after he fell wounded? If
McRae's wounds incapacitated him, why did one of the other officers
not assume command and prevent the killings? Was there a complete
breakdown of authority? Both Homsley and Bigham were first lieu-
tenants and, under military custom, should have taken charge of the sit-
uation. In fact all the other officers outranked Lilly; he was the junior
lieutenant in the command. Did one of the senior lieutenants allow Lilly
to usurp all authority or, as McRae did in his final report, ignore the
murders? Another possibility exists as well. One of the senior unwound-
ed officers could have ordered the executions. Whatever the case,
Williams's account, as well as other accounts of the battle, offered no sat-
isfactory explanations. What remains indisputable to the author is that
" OR, IX, 614-616; Williams, With the Border Ruffians, 239-253; Shook, "Battle of the Nueces,"
42; Ransleben, A Hundred Years of Comfort, 79, 93, 113-115; Burrier, "Texas Hill Country" 169,
175-184.

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