Funeral of German Patriots at Comfort, Texas - August 20, 1865.
Funeral of German Patriots at Comfort, Texas - August 20, 1865.
The procession of three hundred people, headed by the fathers of four of the victims, old men of sixty and seventy years, preceded the funeral car drawn by four white horses. Under the Union banner lay the remains. A detachment of Federal troops accompanied the cortege. At the grave, E. Degener, father of two victims, pronounced an oration which brought tears of grief to the eyes of the mourners. He concluded thus:
“The sacrifice that we, the fathers of the slaughtered, made to our country and to liberty, is great and dolorous. We shall, however, console ourselves; we shall be proud of having offered our sons to the Union. If the glorious victory of its arms bear all the fruits that the nation and the whole of humanity justly expect to reap.”
The Federal troops fired a salute over the grave. The little remote site where they rest must be to the nation as sacred as those places where thousands are deposited. Small in number, far away from the patriotic heart and the strong arm of the loyal North, surrounded by fierce enemies of the Union, those brave and devoted Germans offered their lives.
HARPER'S WEEKLY New York, January 20, 1866.
Comfort Heritage Foundation, 2004.