Tom McCabes Genealogy 2022

1867 Voter Registration of Texas. Richmond was probably born in Fayette Co, since his father had moved there by 1834.

Richmond served as a Mounted Texas Ranger in the Indian Wars of NW Central Texas. His commander for 3 months was Lt Thomas K Carmack. Muster record and power of attorney records for the ranger RO Bennett were found in the Texas State Archives.

This article from Houston newspaper in 1863 shows the casualties of the Fourth and First Texas, Hoods Brigade. It lists R O Bennett, CO M, First Texas as a casualty with wounds to the head and knee.

Comparison of Richmond's signature (RO Bennett) from his Trinity Co Land Patent in 1871 and the signature of RO Bennett, Mounted Texas Ranger serving in Lt Thomas Karmack's Erath County Ranger Company in 1858, clearly shows that these are the same men. Both records can be found in the Texas Archives.

In 1857 Richmond's sister Sarah Frances Hightower lived in Erath Co. Richmond must have also traveled from Trinity Co to visit or look for land in the period just before the Civil War. Texas raised several companies of Rangers in response to Indian attacks on settlements NW of Austin. Karmack's Ranger Company signed up for 3 months and evidently disbanded in Austin in 1858.

Sarah's application for a Confederate Widow's Pension states she was married Dec 1860 in Trinity Co.

Wounded three times: 1862 Battle of Antietam - in the hand 1863 Stauntan Va skirmish 1863 Gettysburg - shot in knee and head on second day of battle

Captured Twice 1863 After Battle of Gettysburg at Planks Farm Field Hospital 1864 Oct 7, 1864 after fight outside Petersburg Va

Richmond qualified for the Houston preemption in 1875.

From 1845 to 1854, individuals could claim 320 acres of land from the unappropriated public domain. The amount was reduced to 160 acres in 1854 and the grant program was cancelled in 1856. Preemption grants of 160 acres were reinstituted in 1866 and continued until 1898. To qualify for a preemption grant settlers were required to live on the land for three years and make improvements. Richmond received 160 acres adjacent to his father MY Bennett's land in the Crecy area.

County: Trinity Abstract Number: 123 District/Class: Houston Preemption File Number: 000010 Original Grantee: Bennett, R O Patentee: Bennett, R O Title Date: Patent Date: 18 Jun 1875 Patent No: 601 Patent Vol: 2

Richmond was approved to receive a large tract of land due to the fact that he was a disabled former Confederate soldier - disabled as the result of wounds received in the Civil War. He received Confederate Script Certificate 1585 which he used to survey and get title to land in Edwards and Val Verde counties. Evidently the Val Verde application was in conflict and returned to the state; hece the second application for the land in Edwards Co. He sold the land immediately to A.E. Taylor.

The Texas General Land Office has several historical records of land grants that RO Bennett received. All of them pertain to the same RO (Richmond Oliver) Bennett of Trinity Texas, having to do with grants he was entitled to receive based on his Confederate service and on his application based on received title to fallow land in Trinity county.

File 052196 contains records for his Certificate 1585 and a survey and title transfer to land in Edwards County.

File 043775 contains a survey of land in Val verde County for RO Bennett which was also based on his 1585 Certificate. Evidently this application was voided and returned.

In one application for her pension Sarah declared Richmond died in 1895. In another she said 1896. The application for his military headstone, submitted in 1932 after Sarah had died, states he died Jan 15, 1895.

This flag was the companion to the Lone Star banner below. During the spring and summer of 1862, the Army of Northern Virginia began to issue factory-made battle flags. This flag is a variant of the so-called first bunting issue, and probably was meant by army commanders to be the official flag of the 1st Texas. The soldiers, however, continued to favor their state flag, but carried both into battle. The ANV flag was lost in Miller's cornfield at the same moment as the state flag, being picked up by the same Pennsylvania private. Both flags were relegated to the War Department after the war and languished until 1905 when President Theodore Roosevelt returned them to Texas as part of a gesture of national reconciliation.

This is a Lone Star flag inscribed with the battle honors, \"Seven Pines/Gaines Farm\" in the blue canton, and \"Elthams Landing/Malvern Hill\" in the field. This very important flag was made by Lula Wigfall, daughter of the regiment's first colonel, Louis T. Wigfall, and was presented to the 1st Texas in the summer of 1861.

As the battle honors attest, the 1st Texas fought under this flag throughout the Peninsula Campaign. The Texans carried it through the Second Manassas fight in August 1862 and into Maryland during Lee's first invasion of the North. During the desperate Battle of Antietam, in Miller's cornfield on Lee's northern flank, the 1st Texas suffered 82.3 percent casualties -- the highest endured by any unit North or South during the entire war. In the course of the battle, nine brave Texas standard bearers fell carrying this flag. When the ninth was killed, the flag was lost -- picked up from among the dead bodies by a Pennsylvania private.