In the 1840s and 1850s the Lawrences and the Pinckneys were farm neighbors in Grimes County, Texas.

Farmer and tanner Martin Byrd Lawrence’s (1794-1851) place was in the tiny community of Retreat – named for the nearby plantation of early Texas pioneer Jared Ellison Groce (1782–1839), called Groce’s Retreat. Martin had been a friend and admirer of Jared’s and got his start in Grimes County in about 1836 with a gift from Jared of 100 acres out of Groce’s Retreat.

Thomas Shubrick Pinckney (1815-1876), of the Charleston Pinckneys, had come to the County a couple of years after the Lawrences and had a cotton plantation at Fields Store, about 10 miles south.

Sometime before the war young Susanna Shubrick Hayne “Sue” Pinckney …

… fell in love with Groce Lawrence, a vigorous and earthy young man of her neighborhood, the complete antithesis of her story-book heroes. It was an honest attachment for both of them, however, and Sue was deeply hurt when her father told Groce that he would rather see his daughter in her coffin than married to him. He said Groce drank too much and was a poor risk as a husband for a delicate, idealistic girl like her. Groce urged her to go away with him and be married, but she would never have dreamed of defying her father …

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Here are a pair of pre-war photographs of Greer W Wood, later Private, Company F, 4th Texas Infantry and Sharpsburg veteran. The first as a very young man (c. 1855?) and the second at age 26 on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Elizabeth Harbour (December 1858).

Both photographs are online in the FamilySearch database [free membership required], thanks to family genealogists.

Late First Sergeant John D. Murray, Company F, 4th Texas Infantry – a Sharpsburg survivor. This photograph, considerably post war, is from J.B. Polley’s Hood’s Texas Brigade, Its Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements (1910) [online from the Internet Archive].

Here’s his youngest brother, James C. Murray, also in Company F. He was unhurt at Sharpsburg, but killed by “friendly fire” at Little Round Top, Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863. His picture from Polley’s A Soldier’s Letters to Charming Nellie (opp. pg. 134, 1908).

The third Murray in Company F was Robert W. Murray. He was wounded at Sharpsburg in 1862 and again in the Wilderness in 1864 – losing his leg to amputation – but survived the war. He died in San Antonio in 1938 about two weeks after his 100th birthday. His post-war picture is also from Polley’s Letters.

Oldest of the 4 Murray boys, Asa W. Murray (1833-1917) had service in Company K, 8th Texas Infantry. He’s here with his family about 1883, from a family genealogist on RootsWeb.

31 year old Quin M. Menefee was a Methodist Episcopal preacher in Texas when he enlisted in the 4th Texas Infantry as a private soldier in March 1862. In September he was terribly wounded at Sharpsburg and his right leg was amputated. He returned home to farm and preach – at La Grange in Fayette County – but was struck down by yellow fever in September 1867, just 37 years old, leaving a widow and 4 children.

This photograph by Gregory Walker for the Historical Marker Database (HMDB).

I spent a good part of yesterday exploring the tree of the Kindred family – 5 of whom served in Company F the 4th Texas Infantry. I think I’ve got them sorted out now.

There were four brothers …

Joshua P Kindred (1830-1902) – stayed with the wounded at Sharpsburg, captured
John Stephen Kindred (1834-1862) – killed at Gaines’ Mill (Cold Harbor) 27 June 1862
Elisha Thomas Kindred (1839-1904) – elected Jr 2nd Lieutenant in July 1862; not in Maryland in 1862
James B Kindred (b. 1846) – wounded at Sharpsburg, recovered
(another brother, Joseph Colston Kindred (1841-1916) was a Sergeant, Company B, 5th Texas Infantry)

… and a cousin

Joseph Henry Kindred (1844-1862) – enlisted at age 17, mortally wounded at Sharpsburg, died 27 September

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The page images above are from 4th Texas Chaplain Nicholas A. Davis’ The Campaign from Texas to Maryland (1863) online from the Hathi Trust. Davis is as close to an immediate first-hand witness as it gets for figuring out who was at Sharpsburg. Not perfect, but a great starting point.

Here’s the first page of his roster for the 4th Texas, with the table key and headers to help make sense of the snippets above: