Remembers the valor and devotion of the military combatants and civilian inhabitants of Galveston during the Civil War.
On Oct. 9, 1862, a Union naval force landed at Galveston and raised the U.S. flag at the Customhouse, but on Jan. 1, 1863, in the Battle of Galveston, Confederate units under Maj. Gen. J. B. Magruder recaptured the city, utilizing only field artillery and two steamboats protected with cotton bales to defeat Union gunboats and a small infantry force on board the "cottonclad" steamboats, under command of Maj. Leon Smith, were volunteers led by Col. Thomas Green.
The city and its residents were continually under the guns of one side or the other, and occasionally both. From the start of the Union blockade in July 1861 until June 2, 1865, when the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi surrendered at Galveston. For the civilians who remained, life in a city that was essentially an armed camp was difficult and dangerous.
On June 5, 1865, in what Capt. Benjamin Sands of the U.S. Navy called "the closing act of the Great Rebellion", his forces again raised the U.S. Flag here, finally bringing under Union control the last major port still in Confederate hands. On June 19, 1865, Union Gen. Gordon Granger issued an order in Galveston stating the Emancipation Proclamation was in effect in Texas. That event, later celebrated as "Juneteenth" confirmed the end of slavery in the state.
A memorial not only to Texans who served in the military, but also to those who endured hardships at home.
Erected by the State of Texas 1998
(Reverse)
Participants at the Battle of Galveston, included elements of these Confederate Forces
Cook's Regiment of 1st Texas Heavy Artillery
Elmore's 20th Texas Infantry
4th Texas Cavalry
5th Texas Cavalry
7th Texas Cavalry
DeBray's 26th Texas Cavalry
Pyron's 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles
Griffin's 21st Texas Infantry
Davidson's 1st Cavalry Battalion
Texas State Militia
Engineer Corps
Martin's 10th Texas Cavalry Battalion
Daly's Company of Cavalry
Texas Marine Department including ships:
Bayou City, Neptune, John F. Carr,
Lucy Gwinn, Royal Yacht