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Archiver > 17TH-TX-CAVALRY > 2007-12 > 1196559151


From: "Kenneth Crowson" <>
Subject: Re: [17TH-TX-CAVALRY] Complete Roster
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 19:32:31 -0600
References: <318268.10212.qm@web35706.mail.mud.yahoo.com><003b01c83479$fa9476a0$0200a8c0@DESKTOP>
In-Reply-To: <003b01c83479$fa9476a0$0200a8c0@DESKTOP>


INFORMATION:

William Samuel Crowson is my great-grandfather.

William S. Crowson is listed on a Company Muster Roll as Private. Co. K, 17
Regiment, Texas Cavalry (Moore's Regiment) from June 30, 1862 to June 30,
1863. Enlisted March 8, 1862 at Marshall, Texas by Capt. L. J. Johnston for
1 year. Last Paid by Capt. J Fields June 30, 1862. The Seventeenth Texas
Cavalry was mustered into Confederate service at Dallas on March 15, 1862.
In November 1862, Captain James G. McKnight's Company K of the Eighteenth
Texas Infantry Regiment transferred into the Seventeenth Texas Cavalry.

Serving with the famous Granbury's Texas brigade, William Samuel Crowson
fought in opposition to the expedition against and capture of Arkansas Post,
or Ft. Hindman, Arkansas. During the battle, Granbury's brigade was posted
as follows, from right to left: 1st, Eighteenth Texas Dismounted Cavalry
(Darnell's), commanded by Lieut. Col. John T. Cot; 2nd, Seventeenth Texas
Dismounted Cavalry, Col. James R. Taylor; 3d, Tenth Texas Infantry, Col.
Roger Q. Mills; 4th, Fifteenth Texas Dismounted Cavalry (Sweet's), commanded
by Maj. V. P. Sanders; and numbered altogether about 1,500 to 1,600 rank and
file.

William Samuel Crowson appears on a Roll of Prisoners of War at Camp
Douglas, Illinois. dated February. 8 1863, captured at Arkansas Post (Fort
Hindman, Arkansas) January 11, 1863 and is shown to have died at Camp
Douglas, January 31, 1863. Records of burial, Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago
Illinois, records him as "Cawson, W. S.". No records, describing how he
died, have been found. It could be assumed that he was in fair health upon
his arrival at Camp Douglas. All the Arkansas Post prisoners, about 4,000 of
them, passed through Saint Louis on the way to Camp Butler and Camp Douglas
and the sick and wounded were left there. Camp Douglas was a prisoner of war
internment camp near the 35th-street estate of Stephen Douglas, named for
the late senator. Like all P.O.W. camps of its day, it was rife with
communicable diseases - smallpox and dysentery. Conditions were appalling,
and thousands died, Many of the prisoners were allowed to freeze to death,
twelve in one night at Camp Douglas. A group of prisoners plotted to escape
the camp and capture Chicago for the Confederacy, but were thwarted by Allan
Pinkerton. By the end of the war, thousands had died and been buried in the
North Side's old city Cemetery.


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[mailto:] On Behalf Of Chuck
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 6:26 PM
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Subject: Re: [17TH-TX-CAVALRY] Complete Roster


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