TX Oswald Cemetery, Clifton, and Smith Bend-Coon Creek Cemetery, Smiths Bend, Bosque County, Labor Day Weekend 2021

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On Saturday, September 4, 2021, I visited Oswald Cemetery off CR 3221 in the rural outskirts of Clifton, Bosque County, Texas. It is southwest of the Lake Whitney Dam. The occasion was a family Labor Day Weekend trip to Lake Whitney, Texas and the cemetery was a 17 minute drive from the lodge me and my family were staying at. We usually stay at a lodge on the northeast side of Lake Whitney in Hill County. The western shore of Lake Whitney is in Bosque County and we stayed at the Cliffview Resort lodge at the south end of the lake just across the Lake Whitney Dam, in the community of Laguna Park in Bosque County. If you google Cliffview Resort it says it's in Clifton, Texas because that's where the nearest post office is. Oswald Cemetery has been on my list to visit for quite some time but a good opportunity hadn't arisen before last weekend. I got up well before sunrise, well before anyone else was awake, made some coffee to go and rolled out. Sunrise was at 7:07am. My first picture above shows that I arrived at the outer gate at 7:10am. There was a layer of thin clouds on the eastern horizon which made for another fantastic country sunrise among my Texas cemetery visits.
 
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The cemetery's historical marker.

According to FindAGrave there are 412 burials at Oswald Cemetery. I was able to verify 8 Confederate veterans buried there. They are all on the west side of the cemetery. Two have military gravestones and the other 6 have civilian gravestones. I had Roundup and a full gravestone cleaning kit with me, including D/2 and Wet & Forget. A couple of the stones were in fairly good shape. There was nothing I could do for another one. The rest got some degree of scraping and/or spraying. There is plenty of room for future burials. As it says on the cemetery's FindAGrave page, the cemetery is on private property but access isn't restricted. The landowner only asks that the gates stay closed during visits and for visitors to leave it as good as they find it. There is a really good description of the cemetery on FindAGrave.


https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/5841/oswald-cemetery
 
2nd Lt. Calvin H. McSpadden, Co. C, 15th Texas Infantry. 13 fold3 pages. He enlisted on Jan. 15, 1862 in Waco. He mustered-in as a 3rd. Sgt. at age 24 on March 28, 1862 for the war. Lot of gaps in his records. He was "Present" on the Sept/Oct 1862 and May/June 1863 Company Muster Rolls. He was "Present" as 2nd. Sgt. on the Jan/Feb 1864 CMR which also says "On extra daily duty as Sergt. Major during the absence of Sergt. Major Lambdin." He was captured at Yellow Bayou, Louisiana on May 18, 1864 and sent to New Orleans. He was exchanged at Red River Landing, Point Coupee Parish, LA on July 22, 1864. He was elected 2nd Lt. on November 20, 1864. He was "Present" on the March 1865 Regimental Return and his muster records end there. An excerpt about the 15th Texas Infantry from NPS:

"...Most of the men were recruited at Waco, Galveston, Milford, and Palestine. The unit was assigned to Randal's, King's, and J.E. Harrison's Brigade, Trans-Mississippi Department, and was involved in various conflicts in Louisiana. It reported 7 killed, 22 wounded, and 5 missing in the engagement at Bayou Bourbeau. Later it moved to Shreveport, then Hempstead, Texas, and in March, 1865, contained 20 officers and 301 men. The regiment disbanded in May..."

He was a farmer in Bosque County in the 1880 and 1900 Census. He was married twice and had 8 children. He died in 1909. Both wives and 3 of his children are buried there also. His gravesite was near the cemetery entrance and marked with an American flag. I sprayed his gravestone with a strong Wet & Forget/water mix before I left.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/42184646/calvin-hall-mcspadden

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Pvt. McSpadden first enlisted in the Texas Rangers on January 10, 1861. Not sure if that was a military unit separate and apart from the law enforcement unit. Couldn't find anything on that in NPS. State Troops, Reserves, Partisan Rangers, Home Guards, Militia etc. regiments and companies in Texas during the Civil War are in NPS records.


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Pvt. M.B. Mooney, Co. D, 5th Tennessee Infantry. 6 fold3 pages. He enlisted on July 1, 1862 for 1 year. He's on an undated "List of casualties in the 1st Division, Army Of Tennessee at battle of Murfreesboro, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862." It says he was "slightly wounded". There are 3 Company Muster Rolls in his records from Jan. 1863 - January 1864. They all say he was "Absent. Deserted Jan. 20/'63." Guess he saw all the action he wanted to see at Murfreesboro. I couldn't find much of anything about him postwar in Ancestry. He had a brother in the 5th TN Infantry who enlisted 10 days before him and deserted on 1/18/1863. He died in 1929. He and wife had 5 kids. His wife and 2 of their children are buried there also. I scraped and sprayed his gravestone real good before I left. He and his wife have a shared gravestone.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21744489/meek-boyd-mooney


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Pvt. Benjamin F. Cochran, Co. E, 1st Virginia Cavalry . 7 fold3 pages. He enlisted at age 19 on May 2,1861 in Waynesboro, Virginia for 1 year. Listed "Present" on the July - October 1861 Company Muster Rolls. The Nov/Dec 1861 CMR says was Discharged on a Surgeon's Certificate of Disability on December 6,1861. The Certificate is not in his records. Nothing in his fold3 records says why he was discharged. He received his final pay totalling $76.80 on January 23, 1863. The signed receipt is in his records. I could not find any Census records showing when he moved to Texas. He died at 51 in 1893. His wife filed a Widow's Pension Application on May 5,1931, approved same day. She died in 1938. His wife is buried there too next to him. I scraped his stone real good and hosed it with Wet & Forget before I left.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13862186/benjamin-franklin-cochran


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Whoa.... gorgeous pictures! These are Potm worthy.
Only the first picture has a Civil War veteran's gravesite in it and it's partially obscured by the iron fence on the fenced plot in the center of the picture but thanks for the compliment. I love being in historic country cemeteries at sunrise on a clear day that I can photograph with the sun peeking through the trees.
 
Pvt. Willis J. Cook, Co. C, 14th Mississippi Infantry. 21 fold3 pages. He enlisted and Mustered-in at age 21 in Corinth on May 30, 1861 for 12 months. He is listed "Present" on the Company Muster Rolls from May 1861 - September 1862. He was captured at Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862 and sent to Camp Douglas. He was sent to Vicksburg for exchange on September 2, 1862. He is listed variously as "Absent without leave. Home sick with fever since Oct. 6, '62. Unable to return.", "Absent. Very sick. Severe illness." and such on the October 1862 - December 1863 Company Muster Rolls. I reckon imprisonment at Camp Douglas took a toll on him. On the March 1864 - August 1864 CMRs he was "Detailed by Special Orders to the QuarterMaster Dept. in Starkville, MS." Gap in his records then paroled in Columbus, MS on May 24,1865.

He filed a Pension Application in July 1899, approved September 1899. He was a farmer and resident of Bosque County at the time. He was living with his brother in Bosque County in the 1900 Census. He died in 1918. His parents and sister are also buried there. Apparently, he never married and had no children.

His first name is wrong on his FindAGrave memorial. He has a civilian gravestone with a military inscription. It was upright in the pictures in his FindAGrave memorial. It was flat on the ground when I found it. You can see the hole in the bottom of it and the steel rod in the base. I guess that's steel. I tried to move it and prop it up on the base to get it off the ground but it would not budge. If I had tried anymore, my body would be in the shape of an inverted L. :D I hosed the ground around it and the base with Roundup.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31019043/willie-j-cook


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Both Mooney brothers deserted within two days from the same regiment. It makes me think of a planned desertion by them both.
Lubliner.
Probably. They enlisted in the same Regiment within 10 days of each other too.
 
Pvt. Richard L. Nicholson, Co. C, 24th Texas Cavalry. 19 fold3 pages. He enlisted and Mustered-in at age 22 on January 17, 1862 for the war. He was "Present" on the March 1862 - April 1864 Company Muster Rolls. He was captured at Fort Hindman, Arkansas Post on January 11, 1863 and sent to Camp Butler, Illinois. There is a record of him in Ocmulgee Hospital, Macon, GA from July - November 1864 for a gunshot wound in the right foot. It does not say where he was wounded or the date. His FindAGrave memorial says he was also in Co. K, 1st Texas Heavy Artillery but I could find no record of that. He is listed in the 1880 Census as a farmer with his wife in Bosque County. It also says "leg off" under the "Sick or disabled" column. Not sure if it was the foot wound or if he had a leg amputated postwar. He died in 1884. No kinfolk buried with him. His wife and daughter are buried in Oklahoma. The picture of his gravestone in FindAGrave helped me find it.


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31021650/richard-lee-nicholson


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