James Daniel Roberdeau

He moved to Texas at about age 28 in 1858 and in 1860 was a 30 year old store clerk with merchant William N Glenn at Columbus in Colorado County, TX. He enrolled there on 10 July 1861 and mustered on 2 August as First Lieutenant of Company B, 5th Texas Infantry. He was on recruiting duty in Texas in February and March 1862, and was promoted to Captain on 1 June. He was wounded in the arm at Manassass, VA on 30 August 1862 and was given a furlough to visit his mother in nearby Fairfax County, VA on 31 August, but rejoined his company as they crossed into Maryland on 6 September.

He was in command of Company B in Maryland. He later wrote of their experience at Sharpsburg:

The enemy having employed the day [16 September] in disposing his forces, and having completed his alignments, threw forward the Fifth Pennsylvania reserve corps, when we were advanced, the 5th regiment deployed in front. Some desultory skirmishing was began about dark, resulting in a few casualties — among them Hardy Allen of Co. E, the color bearer. Then preparations for the morrow's strife were begun by throwing forward two men from each company for observation and picket, Hunt Terrell and Geo. Monroe were Co. B's detail and went forward. A detail to go to Sharpsburg for rations being ordered, Co. B named W. J. Sloneker, J. E. Obenhaus and Geo. Gegenworth. They did not return before the battle began ... W. H. Carlton sent to the rear on surgeon's certificate, being quite sick.

The following list comprises Co. B's strength on that occasion [17 September], as I find from my diary; Sergeant D. E. (Ellis) Putney, Privates A. Hicks Baker, W. J. Darden, W. S. Cherry, John Graf, John Hoffman, John Kolbo, John Morrissey, M. McNeilis, J. D. Roberdeau. Of the nine Baker, Hoffman, Kolbo and McNeillis were killed. Monroe, sent out the night before missing and supposed to be killed. Darden and Morrissey were wounded and captured, and the captain wounded while re-forming, after the battle was over. Of the four killed, three fell in the open field, and your brother Hicks just as we entered the woods, carrying the regimental flag. Here I shall speak of him only to say he possessed all the attributes of the soldier and genuine friend. Of those actively engaged in that battle, this writer only survives, save D. M. Currie, litter-bearer, who certainly was in it. Re-forming at the place from which we entered the woods, the command of the company devolved upon Sergeant Putney ...

He was wounded again, and captured, at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863 and was a prisoner at Fort Delaware from 7 - 18 July 1863, when he was transferred to Johnson's Island near Sandusky, OH. In October 1864 he was "constantly sick and a cripple." He was sent to Point Lookout, MD for exchange on 14 March 1865 and was paroled on 19 May 1865, place not given.

He went to Galveston, TX and was a store clerk there in 1870. He then moved to Weimar, Columbus County, where he was Mayor in the early 1870s. He was a clerk in the General Land Office at Austin, TX from 1878 to 1886. In 1900 he was a bookkeeper there and he'd finally retired in Austin by 1910, then 80 years old.

His service from Polley1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. His Reminiscences about action at 2nd Manassas and Sharpsburg were published in 1899 in the Colorado Citizen (Columbus, TX) and transcribed courtesy of the Nesbitt Memorial Library in Columbus, and are quoted above. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1910, and his obituary (by Val C Giles, 4th TX) in the Confederate Veteran of September 1910, source of an additional wartime photograph. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture here from a photograph of unknown provenance contributed to the FamilySearch genealogical database by user RTJ25046.

He married Williane Sarepta McCormick (1845-1910) in November 1865 and they had 9 children; 3 died very young.

02/06/1830; Centreville, VA

05/18/1910; Austin, TX; burial in Weimar Masonic Cemetery, Weimar, TX