Magnolia Rangers Co. D 1st Bde Texas State Militia Confederate States of America Unit history- Instituted January 17, 1861 Muster Roll-Dated August 30, 1861 History of the Magnolia Rangers Flag-Made by the ladies of Cedar Bayou and Clear Creek (now League City), Texas Some of the Magnolia Rangers followed Colonel Nichols into the Ninth Texas, many others went to the 26th Texas Cavalry and some into Terry’s Texas Rangers Regiment. All in all, the Texas State Militia Units ran the Federal Troops out of Texas by the latter part of May 1861. Their main duties after that became fighting Indians until they mustered out of the State Militia and into regular Confederate Units. The following is the certified copy of the official muster roll. Galveston County August the 30th 1861Unit History Company D, Magnolia Rangers was mustered into service of the Texas State Militia on January 17, 1861. The Magnolia Rangers were part or the First Texas Cavalry Brigade. Being that the Magnolia Rangers were organized on January 17, 1861, they were very possibly the first or at least one of the first Units organized of the soon to be Confederate State of Texas. Texas did not secede until February 23, 1861 and joined the Confederacy on March 2, 1861. The Magnolia Rangers were part of the original First Texas Cavalry. The First Texas Cavalry State Militia left Galveston and went to west Texas to run the Federal Troops out of the Texas forts. Most of this was done before Texas joined the Confederacy. General McCoullough was in Command of the First Texas Cavalry. Colonel John S. “RIP” Ford commanded one of the brigades. Richard Nevelle Butler served as a Texas Ranger under Captain John S. Ford in the Cortina Wars and once again as a Magnolia Ranger. Colonel John Ford led a force of six companies, 500 men, and arrived off the bar of Brazos Santiago on February 21, 1861. Colonel Ford took possession of the island, lowered the U.S. flag and raised the “Lone Star” Flag of Texas and saluted with a fifteen gun salute. Colonel Ford’s orders He was to take all the forts held under US Army between Forts Duncan and McIntosh and all the forts below the entire district between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. Within that district the United States Army coverage consisted of three companies of cavalry, five companies of infantry, two companies of artillery, with means of transportation. Fort Brown, the nearest fort to Brazos Island, was under command of Captain B.H. Hill. Capt. Hill refused to immediately surrender the fort to the Texans, stating that he could not turn the fort over until he had orders from the US Government and did not recognise Commissioner Nichols’ authoriy to take the fort. Capt. Hill was contemplating attacking Colonel Ford’s forces. A second letter was sent to Capt. Hill, who still refused to turn the fort over without a fight. B.F. Terry had been appointed Major and raised another force to join Colonel Ford. The Texan forces now where one thousand men strong. After days of negotiation, Ft. Brown was surrendered to Colonel Ford without a shot being fired. The Federals were escorted to Brownsville where they were loaded onto vessels and sent on their way. The Magnolia Rangers remained under the command of Colonel Ford who came under the command of Colonel Earl Van Dorn of the Confederate States of America. The State Militia Companies were short lived and the units were returrned home after six months or a year. Most of the men then went into regular Confederate Companies being raised in the state. E.B. Nichols who had assisted Colonel Ford and served as a Colonel, and as Commissioner later took command A list of the names Magnolia Rangers-A uniform company, organized Jan. the 17th, 1861. Officers Capt. George W. Durant First Lieutenant Morandy Coward Second Lieutenant John J. Lewis Third Lieutenant John L. Fulgham Sergeants First Sgt. Ralph Robertson Second Sgt. C. Bundick Third Sgt. M. Bundick Fourth Sgt. J. W. Grace Fifth Sgt. J. W. Coward Ensign William Coward First Corporal Willis Coward Second Corporal J.W. Derrick Third Corporal John H. Kipp Fourth Corporal M.D. Ray Privates E. Allen Willis Butler Green Butler George Washington Butler Abner Coward Richard Coward Samuel Coward Samuel Perkins Ben Allison A.W. Coward George M. Fulgham Able Morgain Thomas Perkins H. C. Phillant D. Plesant Jacob Mims Oliver F. Letitson M. C. Perkins J. M. Welboan P. L. Lavells F. M. Baugh John C. Jacobs David McFaddin J. C. Long Aron Lavells N. B. Grissom J. H. Craig Nicholas Hammson William Biggs L. H. Roark W. H. Long JonOwens T. W. Allen D. J. Haskins L. Rosenberge George M. Wilboan (Wilbourn) John Owins Henry J. Holms John L. Ivey Charles Willard Charles Wallen James Thompson A. J. Lavells Privates F. G. Mayson Charley Noland Gilburn Gilleneise J. M. Staton Seth Biggs A. Grins Hugh Kelly C. W. Fairbanks Needham Coward Hardy Coward Thomas Leurs I hereby certify that this is a true list or muster roll of the officers & members of the Company called the Magnolia Rangers. George W. Durant Captain State of Texas County of Galveston I, Owen Faush, clerk of the County Court, do hereby certify that there has been filed in my office an affadavit of the List of Magnolia Rangers, filed Sept.3 1861. In witness thereof I hereinto subscribe my name and affix seal of said County Court this 3rd day of Sept. 1861. Owen Faush atty. The Magnolia Rangers Flag- The flag of the Magnolia Rangers was made by Lucrezia Coward and the ladies of Cedar Bayou and Clear Creek (now League City), Texas. Lucrezia Coward presented the flag to corporal John Kipp, who was made Color Sergeant. The flag is a First National Confederate Flag with nine stars and Magnolia Rangers embroided on the white bar and on the reverse bar Instituted Jan.17, 1861 A romantic story surrounds the history of the flag. In July of 1861 the citizens of Clear Creek (now known as League City) were determined to give the Cavalry Troop that was from Cedar Bayou, and camped near Clear Creek, a flag. Lucrezia Coward was only 15, but a beautiful young lady. The ladies elected her to present the flag to the troop. There is no doubt that Sgt. John Kipp, was a dashing young trooper. One can only imagine how stiff and formal they felt at the presentation ceremony until the moment when perhaps their hands touched on the broom stick flagstaff and how prettily Lucrezia blushed when Sgt. Kipp smiled at her. We must also imagine the tails of John Kipp’s courtship during the days before the troop rode off to the theater of war. But it is known that when the Rangers rode away, the color-sergeant had Lucrezia’s promise of marriage. Lucrezia received a few letters from John Kipp and then the letters stopped. Kipp was missing in action and was presumed dead. What happened was that John had caught pneumonia and had passed out, falling off his horse and had been captured by the Yankees. When he was paroled at the end of the war he came back to Texas to claim his bride. Meanwhile, believing her sweetheart dead, Lucrezia had married John R. Johnson, who owned a big plantation near Cold Spring in San Jacinto County. Of the old plantation, 171 acres still belongs to members of the family, the remainder of the acreage having been given to the Johnson slaves immediately after emancipation. Descendants of those slaves today are enjoying handsome royalties from oil produced on this land. Lucrezia Johnson bore eight children, and to one of her grandchildren, Robert, she once admitted that although she loved her husband dearly, she had never been able to put the memory of her romantic Sgt. Kipp out of her heart. John Kipp must have felt much the same about Lucrezia, but he never communicated with her while her husband lived. He and his brother founded the town of Kemah, which they wanted to call Evergreen. They learned another townsite already bore that name, so they chose the name Kemah, an Indian name meaning evergreen. John Kipp also married and raised a family of his own in an enormous seven bedroom house in Kemah. Time marched on. Around 1901, Lucrezia Johnson, a widow, came to Houston to live with a daughter, Mrs. Kyle Paulus. Stranger than fiction was the fact that two young men who were the sons of a wealthy Kemah widower lived next door to the Paulus home. They met Mrs. Johnson and wrote letters about her to their father. For years Mrs. Johnson carried a secret correspondence with someone in Kemah. Mrs. Paulus finally became alarmed and intercepted one of the letters addressed to her mother. It was from John Kipp. Now after 48 years Lucrezia told the story of her first love to the family for the first time. In 1909 John Kipp invited the Pauluses to the wedding of one of his daughters in Kemah. The invitation was accepted and Lucrezia went along in the Paulus surrey. It was a beautiful wedding, but not as beautiful as the one held one month later, when Lucrezia and John Kipp were married. One of the photographs in the Johnson album shows the happy couple seated in the auditorium of the old Levy store in Houston, surrounded by the group of aged ladies with the old silk flag of the Magnolia Rangers hanging over them. On the back of the photograph is written “This flag was made during the civil war by Lucrezia Coward. The other girls were with her when the flag was presented by her. “ The original Magnolia Rangers flag is currently in possession of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and in June 1998, the Texas Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans voted to pay for the restoration of the Magnolia Rangers flag, it will be on permanent display with the UDC Flag Collection at The Confederate Research Center and Museum, at Hill Junior College, in Hillsboro, Texas. Information source Stephen D. Forman, 4th great grandson of Willis Butler, 3rd great grandson of Samuel J. Perkins, 5th great grandson of Hardy Coward, and 4th great grandson of Needham Coward, all Magnolia Rangers, and founder of Descendants of the Magnolia Ranger’s Association. For membership information contact Stephen D. Forman at sd4man@aol.com or Stephen D. Forman 16621 E. Forrestal Montgomery, Texas 77316. Current Association Members Stephen D. Forman Lloyd J. Forman David W. Forman Samuel D. Forman III Brian A. Forman Verva Harris continued Vera Harper Dayle Harris Dan Fulgham Raplph Cushman Reynolds Cushman Mrs. Jackie Barnes