Ambush at Bayou Teche by Mark Lemon. Possibly based on the capture of the USS Diana, in which the Valverde Battery played an instrumental role.
The Valverde Battery was one of the most legendary Texas artillery units of the war. What made it so unique was the unusual circumstances of its formation.
In the Confederate victory at Valverde, February 21, 1862, during the New Mexico Campaign, a Federal battery commanded by Capt. Alexander McRae was captured. McRae's Battery was composed of men from Co. G, 2nd U.S. Cavalry and Co. I, 3rd U.S. Cavalry, armed with three 6-pounder guns, two 12-pounder howitzers and possibly a 12-pounder mountain howitzer.
A final Confederate charge under Col. William R. Scurry overran the battery, breaking the Federal line and bringing an end to the battle. Capt. McRae and a number of his cannoneers died defending their guns in a short but vicious few minutes of fighting.
Brig. Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley's brigade of Texas mounted troops, or Army of New Mexico, took the cannons as dearly earned prizes of the battle. One of the 6-pounders was later abandoned due to battle damage; however, through Col. Scurry's insistence, the remaining guns were dragged along the harsh retreat over the mountains following Glorieta Pass.
It was not until later, while encamped in the Mesilla Valley, that Gen. Sibley ordered that a battery be officially organized from the captured guns. Volunteers from the brigade would serve as the new crew, many of which were former members of a howitzer battery attached to the 5th Texas Mounted Volunteers. 1st Lt. Joseph D. Sayers, 20-year-old adjutant of the 5th Texas Mounted Volunteers, was appointed to command the battery and was charged with its organization. He was promoted to captain on April 25, 1862.
The captured cannons were the only thing the Texans could pride in after their failed campaign and long retreat, and were ever after the prized possessions of the brigade. After arriving back in Texas, the guns received new fittings, harness and paint at the shop of A. Eickel in New Braunfels in September 1862. They were also engraved with the names of some of the officers who fell in their capture. Inscribed on one of the 12-pounder howitzers was "Val Verde, Major Lockridge, Captain Adair, Feby 21/61," while the other read "Val Verde Lt. Col. Sutton." The two 6-pounder guns were simply inscribed with "Captured at Val Verde, Feby 21/62."
The battery was sent to Louisiana in late 1862, missing out on the Sibley Brigade's famous actions in the retaking of Galveston. Serving under Gen. Richard Taylor, it participated in the ambush and capture of the Federal gunboat USS Diana on the Atchafalaya River, March 28, 1863.
Rejoined with the old Sibley Brigade shortly thereafter, the Valverde Battery then saw service throughout the Bayou Teche Campaign.
Capt. Sayers was wounded in the ankle during the battle of Fort Bisland, April 13, where the battery was heavily engaged. Following his recovery, Sayers was promoted to major, serving as assistant adjutant general on the staff of Brig. Gen. Tom Green. 1st Lt. Timothy D. Nettles was then promoted to captain in command of the battery, leading it throughout the remainder of the war. Under heavy counter-battery fire, two men of the battery were killed and eleven wounded in the battle; ten horses were also lost.
The battery fought in a number of other small battles and skirmishes in Louisiana attached to Tom Green's cavalry, including Vermilion Bayou, April 17, 1863; the raid on Brashear City, June 22; and Bayou Bourbeau, November 3.
It played an active part throughout the Red River Campaign in spring of 1864, fighting rear guard alongside the cavalry and firing in support of the infantry in the major battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, April 8 and 9. It then followed after Gen. Banks' retreat down the Red River, engaged in numerous skirmishes. The battery was later equipped with two 3-inch Ordnance Rifles captured from the Federals at Mansfield, replacing their 12-pounder howitzers. The other section, though, continued to use their two old 6-pounder guns.
With the reorganization of artillery in the Trans-Mississippi Department in November 1864, the Valverde Battery was officially designated the 12th Texas Field Artillery and assigned to Maj. Oliver j. Semmes' Battalion, seeing no more action from then on. After the surrender of the department in summer of 1865, the battery was to be disbanded in San Antonio; however, while on the way there it stopped in Fairfield, Freestone County, Texas (probably due to the Confederate commissary located there) and was disbanded there instead.
Rather than surrender them, the guns were buried under a buggy house nearby. Later, fearing that former slaves would reveal the burial place to occupying Federal troops, they were dug back up and reburied by a grove of trees about a mile west of Fairfield.
The guns were recovered nearly twenty years later in 1884. Unfortunately, the two bronze cannons were in such bad condition that they were scrapped; however, the two 3-inch Ordnance Rifles were saved. One (with serial number 528) was left in Fairfield, where it is currently still on display outside the Freestone County Courthouse.
The other gun (with serial number 492) was eventually acquired by veteran R. J. Bryant in 1894, who had helped to bury them. He brought it to Joe Johnston Camp 94, United Confederate Veterans, in Limestone County where it was known as "Old Val Verde." It now resides at Confederate Reunion Grounds State Historic Site near Mexia, Limestone County, Texas.
The two cannons were often taken to reunions across the state in postwar years. During the Civil War centennial in 1964, gun 528 at Fairfield was brought to the Mansfield battlefield and fired once again in commemoration of the anniversary of the battle.
Bringing the