Qualla: Treue der Union Monument

Treue der Union Monument: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonmallard, CC BY-SA 4.0. A United States flag flies at half-staff in Comfort, Texas -- not for a recent death, but for thirty-four men killed in 1862. The flag bears thirty-six stars, the count when the monument beneath it was dedicated in 1866. The Treue der Union Monument -- "Loyalty to the Union" -- stands twenty feet tall in native limestone, an obelisk raised by grieving families over a mass grave. It honors the German-Texan settlers who were hunted down and slaughtered at the Nueces River for refusing to pledge allegiance to the Confederate States of America. In a region that was part of the Confederacy, this was an act of defiance carved in stone.

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Image: Jonmallard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Treue der Union Monument: The Free-Thinkers of the Hill Country

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. German immigrants had settled heavily in the Texas Hill Country during the 1840s and 1850s, drawn by cheap land and a climate suited to farming. Many were political refugees -- educated free-thinkers who had fled the failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe. They brought with them a ...

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Treue der Union Monument: Slaughter at the Nueces

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0. In the summer of 1862, a group of German-Texans attempted to flee to Mexico rather than serve the Confederacy. Duff's Partisan Rangers pursued them and caught up with the group at the Nueces River. Thirty-four men were killed, some in the fighting and others executed after being ...

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Image: Larry D. Moore | CC BY 4.0

Treue der Union Monument: A Monument Born of Grief

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jonmallard, CC BY-SA 4.0. On August 19, 1865 -- just months after the war's end -- Eduard Degener, Eduard Steves, and William Heuermann paid $20 for a lot in Comfort. Degener's own sons, Hugo and Hilmar, were among the dead. The following day, three hundred people attended a funeral for the recovered rema...

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Image: Jonmallard | CC BY-SA 4.0

Treue der Union Monument: Myth and Monument

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit It'sOnlyMakeBelieve, CC BY-SA 4.0. Over the decades, the Treue der Union monument accumulated layers of legend. It has been widely called the first Civil War monument and the only Union monument on Confederate soil. Multiple books and the Texas State Historical Association have repeated these claims. In reality, t...

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Image: It'sOnlyMakeBelieve | CC BY-SA 4.0