Civil War
Raid From Camp Boveda
K
L E B E R G C O U N T Y |
Marker Text: On December 23, 1863, Captain James Speed of General Napoleon J. T. Dana's Brownsville-based Federal army force raided unguarded King Ranch. Objectives were to capture or kill Captain Richard King and destroy the Confederate cotton trade. King, forewarned, escaped.
At King Ranch, the raiders killed Francisco Alvarado; captured Confederate Captains John Brown, Alvin Dix, W. S. Gregory and James McClearly and Chaplain Hiram Chamberlain; rifled all buildings; dispersed ranch employees; declared the slaves free; confiscated all horses and mules; impounded Confederate government cotton, promising that if it were moved or burned, King's life would be the forfeited, warned of more raids from Boveda. Mrs. King and children moved to San Antonio for the war's duration; soon Colonel J. S. "RIP" Ford's Confederate cavalry came to protect the cotton road and the area. Federal units moved away from Boveda. Camp Boveda was at a ford 2 miles east of here, on Los Olmos Creek, lot 1, block 5, Koch subdivision one, present Poteet Ranch. Its seven cypress-lined water wells, probably had served the army of General (later president) Zachary Taylor in 1846. (1965) |
Marker No: 1584
Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker
Geographic: 27.298683,-97.814934
Location: Intersection of US 77 and FM 771, Riviera