LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 July Marketplace Auction #87071  / 

91383

1863 Order Captain Adrián J. Vidal - Texas CSA

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 150.00 USD
1863 Order Captain Adrián J. Vidal - Texas CSA
<B>1863 Order Authorizing Captain Adrin J. Vidal to Raise a Company of Union Troops in Texas,</B></I> 8 x 12.5, 4 pages, Headquarters Department of the Gulf, Brownsville, Texas, November 9, 1863. The order, issued by Major General Nathaniel P. Banks, authorized Captain Vidal to raise and outfit (with carbines, sabers, and lances) a mounted corps to serve as <I>Partizan Rangers, Scouts, or the advance guard of the army</B></I>. Vidal and his rangers were under the command of Colonel Edmund J. Davis, a Union sympathizer who raised a cavalry regiment that became the First Texas Cavalry (U.S.). The order is folded else very fine.<BR><BR> Adrin J. Vidal (1840-1865), soldier in both the Confederate and Union armies and insurrectionist with Juan N. Cortina in Mexico. After the death of his father, Vidal's mother married Mifflin Kenedy. As a young man Vidal learned to pilot steamboats on the Rio Grande with his stepfather but gained a reputation as a habitual gambler and drunkard. He enlisted as a private in a Confederate Army in October 1862, was promoted to captain. Vidal was placed in command of a company of militia at Boca del Ro to guard the entrance to the Rio Grande. He was recognized for bravery by Confederate authorities for his capture of a federal gunboat and crew there. Unable to obtain adequate supplies and clothing while in the Confederate Army and frustrated with his inability to communicate in English with his superiors, Vidal led a mutiny in October 1863. He became a bandit.<BR><BR> During the federal occupation of the lower Rio Grande valley in November 1863, Vidal enlisted in the Union Army along with many of the same men who had previously served with him in the Confederate Army. As a commissioned captain in command of "Vidal's Independent Partisan Rangers," the wily Vidal acted as the eyes of the Union Army in the Valley, scouting as far upriver as Roma and north to the Nueces. <BR><BR> Vidal grew disenchanted with the Union Army and crossed the border into Mexico. There he joined Cortina and the Juaristas to do battle with the Imperialists and quickly gained a reputation for summarily executing captives. In June 1865 he was captured by the Imperialists and was hastily executed. <BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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