Other Biographies

"In Memory Of"
Our Own - Don Robertson

Donald O'Neal Robertson,
Born Oct 6, 1933. Died Oct 8, 2001.

Click here for the eulogy for Don given by our commander - Kevin Keim

Gustav Hoffman

Powhatan Jordan

Trevanion Theodore Teel

ROBERTSON,  DONALD O'NEAL (1933-2001).  When I was first asked to speak here today on behalf of Don's reenactor friends I was very honored, but I immediately thought to myself how do you begin to put into words about a man such as Don Robertson who had such a full, exciting, and colorful life?

For example, Don served on an aircraft carrier for the US Navy during the Korean War.  Don had a 30 year career as a police officer in California and Texas, and he was also a competitive rodeo cowboy.  

Don Robertson was indeed a unique individual and once you met him you would never forget the encounter. The first time I met Don was at a Civil War reenactment in Mesquite, TX.  Don was a first time spectator at the reenactment and I was one of the reenactor participants.   I will never forget the first words out of Don's mouth after we were introduced - "Where Do I sign up ?"   From that point on Don was committed to becoming the best reenactor and cavalryman he could be. 

Don was the oldest member of our organization; however he was probably the best horseman, and everyone who saw him ride knew this.  Over the years I had the privilege to share many good times with Don and Nancy while Don was involved in reenacting. We often laughed and told stories around the campfire, and I must say that everyone loved having Don around their campfire at reenactments because he was one of the best story tellers and joke tellers I had ever known. I was always amazed how one person's mind could remember so many jokes, but it seemed easy to Don. I can still remember Don telling the joke about the old one-eyed, hair-lipped cowboy and his horse named Stony, it was my personal favorite and I must have asked Don to tell that joke at almost every reenactment. I never got tired of this joke because Don always slipped into his persona of the old, hair-lipped cowboy and to here it would bring tears to your eyes.   Don was also something of a prankster too, but I think that is what everyone loved about him.  I can still remember the time that Don showed up at one of our drills and as usual he walked over to me and extended his hand for a hand shake; however this particular time his warm smile was a little different.  Don had a pair of the new and improved "Bubba Teeth" in his mouth.  Of course everyone immediately started rolling with laughter.  Don was definitely a good-hearted practical joker. 

However, on the other hand he was also a very loving and devoted husband, father, and grandfather and I could tell just by being around him and Nancy at reenactments that they had a very special relationship. I can still remember all of us riding together to a reenactment in Mississippi earlier this year, pulling the horses in the trailer behind us.  As we drove down the freeway, Don and Nancy would sing songs together to the radio.  It looked something like a cowboy version of Sonny and Cher and " I Got You Babe" ; however I thought it was very sweet, and I will always remember and cherish this last trip with Don and Nancy, me sitting in the back seat, while the two of them serenaded each other as we drove down the highway.  You could also see Don's tender side with his interaction with his grand kids.  Don and Nancy often brought their little grand daughter, Elizabeth, to the reenactments, and everyone could easily tell that Elizabeth and her "Poppy" had a special relationship.  As you can see here today by the many reenactors here in uniform, Don was loved and greatly admired by everyone in our hobby, and we came here today in uniform out of respect for a man that touched all of our lives.  I don't know if our camp or campfire will ever be the same without Don Robertson there telling his jokes and stories; however I for one feel privileged and honored to have known and shared so many good times with such a wonderful man.

We will all miss you Don !

Kevin Keim - 7th Texas Cavalry

HOFFMANN, GUSTAV (1817-1889). Gustav Hoffmann, early German settler, Confederate officer, and state representative, was born in Stuhmbei, Prussia, on November 10, 1817. He was one of the original settlers of New Braunfels, Texas, where he was elected the first mayor in June 1847. He resigned in March of the following year for an extended trip to Germany. On his return he resumed his occupation as a farmer. Hoffmann had military experience in Prussia, and with the outbreak of the Civil War he raised a company of cavalry from Comal County that joined Henry H. Silbey's brigade in October 1861 as Company B, Seventh Regiment, Texas Cavalry. Hoffmann participated in numerous battles and was seriously wounded during the assault on Fort Butler in June 1863. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 14, 1864, and became full-time commander of the Seventh Texas Cavalry. At the war's end he was paroled as a colonel at San Antonio, on September 11, 1865. Hoffmann returned to New Braunfels and in 1872 was elected a representative to the Thirteenth Legislature. He later moved to San Antonio, where he died on March 10, 1889. He was buried in New Braunfels.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rudolph Biesele, "Early Times in New Braunfels and Comal County," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 50 (July 1946). The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Washington: GPO, 1880-1901).

Martin Hardwick Hall

 "HOFFMANN, GUSTAV." The Handbook of Texas Online. <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/HH/fho14.html>

JORDAN, POWHATAN (1827-1904?). Powhatan Jordan, Confederate Army officer and physician, son of Meritt and Paulina (Voinard) Jordan, was born in 1827 in Portsmouth, Virginia. He graduated from a Virginia military academy before taking up the study of medicine with two local physicians. He attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1848, then transferred to the medical school of Columbian University at Washington, D.C. After receiving his M.D. degree in 1850 Jordan practiced in the capital for six years before moving to Texas in 1856. He served as a civilian surgeon at Fort Inge from October through December of that year and then moved to San Antonio, where he became a founder and the first secretary of the San Antonio Board of Health. He served as surgeon on John Salmon (Rip) Ford's expedition against the Comanches in 1858 and in Capt. William G. Tobin's company in October and November 1859. In January and February 1860 he served as a private in Capt. Peter Tumlinson's company and on April 26 applied to Sam Houston for a commission either as surgeon or as captain to raise his own company of rangers for twelve months' service on the frontier. Houston did not appoint him, however.

When Texas seceded from the Union, Jordan raised a company of cavalry in Bexar County that mustered into Confederate service at Camp Manassas, near San Antonio, on October 4, 1861. Officially designated as Company A, Seventh Texas Mounted Volunteers, Jordan's men were assigned to the army with which Gen. Henry H. Sibley invaded New Mexico in 1862. Jordan was promoted to regimental major on February 21, 1862, "in consideration of gallant and meritorious service in the battle field of Valverde," and Lt. Alfred Sturgis Thurmond succeeded him in command of the company. At the battle of Glorieta Jordan commanded a battalion of the Seventh Mounted Volunteers. He was left as a physician at the Santa Fe hospital when Sibley evacuated New Mexico and was taken prisoner on April 20. He was paroled at Fort Union on April 30, transferred to Camp Douglas, and exchanged at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on September 22, 1862. After returning to San Antonio in November, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and sent back to his regiment. He served in the Teche campaign in southern Louisiana, resigned his field commission on July 2, 1863, and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of the post hospital at Sabine Pass, Texas, from 1864 until the end of the war.

In 1864 he married Jessie Alberta Edwards; the couple had four children. After the war Jordan returned to San Antonio, where he reestablished his practice and in 1876 helped to establish the Western Texas Medical Association. He was married a second time in 1874, to Ada Hoskins. In 1883 he moved his family and practice to Beaumont, where he is thought to have died in 1904.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lewis E. Daniell, Types of Successful Men in Texas (Austin: Von Boeckmann, 1890). Martin Hardwick Hall, The Confederate Army of New Mexico (Austin: Presidial Press, 1978). Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]). Theophilus Noel, Campaign from Santa Fe to the Mississippi (Shreveport, Louisiana, 1865; rpt., Houston: Stagecoach Press, 1961).

Martin Hardwick Hall

TEEL, TREVANION THEODORE (1824-1899). Trevanion Theodore Teel, Confederate Army officer and lawyer, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 18, 1824, the son of Dr. Benjamin van der Mark and Ann Gilmore (Weir) Teel. In 1828 the family moved to Rushville, Illinois. Mrs. Teel's ill health caused the family to move to Lexington, Tennessee, in 1830, but three years later they returned to Rushville, where young Teel attended school. In 1839 he began to read law in the office of a local attorney, but the family's move to Weston, Missouri, later that year interrupted his studies. In June 1841, however, Teel was licensed to practice law in Platte City, and in 1843 he established a practice in St. Joseph. In July of that year he traveled to the Rocky Mountains to perform some legal service for the American Fur Company and was captured and held briefly held by the Yankton Sioux. In 1844 he moved to Evansville, Indiana, but, as he was not yet twenty-one, could not practice law there and so established himself as a commission merchant. On June 8, 1846, Teel enlisted in Capt. William Walker's Company K of Col. William A. Bowles's Second Indiana Infantry regiment for service in the Mexican War.^qv He was elected the company's first sergeant and later promoted to first lieutenant. He took part in Gen. Zachary Taylor's^qv campaign in northern Mexico and received two wounds at the battle of Buena Vista. After being discharged at New Orleans on June 28, 1847, Teel set out in November for Saltillo, Coahuila, where his father was serving as a surgeon. At the end of the war the Teel family moved to San Antonio, Texas, and subsequently to Lockhart, where, in October 1848 Teel was admitted to the bar. He married Emily F. Winans in Bastrop on April 10, 1856, and shortly thereafter moved to San Antonio, where he won a considerable reputation as a criminal attorney.

In San Antonio Teel joined the Charles Bickley Castle of the Knights of the Golden Circle.^qv On February 16, 1861, he mustered his KGC company into state service; the unit was under Col. Benjamin McCulloch when Gen. David E. Twiggs^qv surrendered the federal property at San Antonio to Texas state troops. Teel later sent detachments to garrison camps Hudson and Stockton and forts Clark, Duncan, and Lancaster. His company, reorganized at Fort Clark on May 1, 1861, was designated Light Company B, First Artillery, and mustered into Confederate service for twelve months. Teel was elected captain. The company was part of the force that compelled the surrender of federal troops at San Lucas Springs on May 9 and accompanied Col. John R. Baylor^qv to Fort Bliss on July 10, 1861. During part of August Teel was commandant of Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, and later was appointed judge of the First Judicial District of Arizona, a post he held until December. He also served briefly as adjutant of the Army of New Mexico despite his hospitalization in August for "convalescent phthisis." Teel's company saw action at the battle of Valverde,^qv where Teel was slightly wounded, and the battle of Glorieta,^qv as well as a number of minor skirmishes in the New Mexico campaign. As a component of Col. William Steele's^qv Seventh Texas Cavalry regiment, Teel's company was one of the last Confederate units to abandon New Mexico and far West Texas. Before retreating from Albuquerque, Teel's men buried eight of their cannons near the town plaza; in 1889 he returned to recover them. During the evacuation Teel served as regimental provost marshal. His account of the New Mexico campaign, in which he places the blame for Confederate failure squarely on the shoulders of General Henry H. Sibley,^qv was published in the classic Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887-88). Teel was promoted to major of artillery on February 21, 1862. In the spring of 1862 Jordan Bennett replaced him as battery commander, and the battery was assigned to Earl Van Dorn's^qv Army of the West, where it saw service in Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi. After the war Teel returned to the practice of law and gained great prominence in criminal defense. He claimed to have defended more than 700 clients charged with capital offenses and to have saved them all from execution. Teel was the father of two children. He became a Mason in 1849 but was expelled from the lodge in 1854. He died of a heart attack in El Paso on July 6, 1899, and was buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery, San Antonio.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lewis E. Daniell, Personnel of the Texas State Government, with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas (Austin: City Printing, 1887; 3d ed., San Antonio: Maverick, 1892). Martin Hardwick Hall, The Confederate Army of New Mexico (Austin: Presidial Press, 1978). Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 vols., New York: Yoseloff, 1956). Marcus J. Wright, comp., and Harold B. Simpson, ed., Texas in the War, 1861-1865 (Hillsboro, Texas: Hill Junior College Press, 1965).

Thomas W. Cutrer

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