Thomas (some sources give
Thompson)
Saltus Lubbock (November 29, 1817 January 1862) was a
Texas RangerThe Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction based in Austin, the capital of Texas, in the United States...
and soldier in the
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
army during the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
Lubbock was born in
CharlestonCharleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of...
,
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, the brother of Governor of Texas Francis R. Lubbock. In 1835, he moved to
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and worked as a
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
factor in
New OrleansNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
. When the
Texas RevolutionThe Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was a military conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836. However, a war at sea between Mexico and Texas would continue into the 1840s...
started, he marched to
Nacogdoches, TexasNacogdoches is a city in Nacogdoches County, Texas, in the United States. The 2000 census recorded the city's population to be 29,914, while in 2007 it was estimated to have reached 32,006. It is the county seat of Nacogdoches County and is situated in East Texas. Nacogdoches is a sister city of...
with Capt. William G. Cooke's company and participated in the siege of San Antonio de Bexar.
Thomas (some sources give
Thompson)
Saltus Lubbock (November 29, 1817 January 1862) was a
Texas RangerThe Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction based in Austin, the capital of Texas, in the United States...
and soldier in the
ConfederateThe Confederate States of America was a separatist political entity existing between 1861 to 1865, established by eleven southern slave states of the United States of America, each of which had previously declared their secession from the United States...
army during the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
.
Biography
Lubbock was born in
CharlestonCharleston is a city in Charleston County, South Carolina in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the largest city and county seat of Charleston County. The city was founded as Charlestown or Charles Towne, Carolina in 1670, and moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of...
,
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, the brother of Governor of Texas Francis R. Lubbock. In 1835, he moved to
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and worked as a
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
factor in
New OrleansNew Orleans is a major U.S. port and the largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area, the largest metro area in the state....
. When the
Texas RevolutionThe Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was a military conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836. However, a war at sea between Mexico and Texas would continue into the 1840s...
started, he marched to
Nacogdoches, TexasNacogdoches is a city in Nacogdoches County, Texas, in the United States. The 2000 census recorded the city's population to be 29,914, while in 2007 it was estimated to have reached 32,006. It is the county seat of Nacogdoches County and is situated in East Texas. Nacogdoches is a sister city of...
with Capt. William G. Cooke's company and participated in the siege of San Antonio de Bexar. Thereafter he took employment on a steamboat on the upper
Brazos RiverThe Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers is the 11th longest river in the United States at 2060 km from its source of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexicoto its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a 116,000 km² drainage basin.-Geography:The Brazos...
.
After working for a time with Samuel May Williams and Thomas F. McKinney, Lubbock joined the Texan Santa Fe Expedition as a lieutenant of one of the military companies. He and his men were captured in
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
and confined in Santiago Convent,
Mexico CityMexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008...
. Lubbock escaped by jumping from the convent's balcony and made his way back to
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
. After
Adrián WollAdrián Woll was a French soldier of fortune and mercenary who served as a general in the army of Mexico during the Texas Revolution and the Mexican-American War.-Biography:...
seized
San AntonioSan Antonio is the second-largest city in the state of Texas and the seventh-largest city in the United States. The city is characteristic of other Southwest urban centers in which there are sparsely populated areas and a low density rate outside of the city. It was the fourth-fastest growing...
in 1842, Lubbock was elected first lieutenant of Gardiner N. O. Smith's company and, due to Smith's illness, marched at the head of the company to Bexar to join in driving the Mexicans back across the
Rio GrandeThe Rio Grande is a river that forms part of the border between the United States and Mexico. At long, it is the fourth-longest river system in the United States...
. Lubbock and his men were among the Texans who followed Alexander Somervell back to Texas on December 19, 1842, after declining to join William S. Fisher on the
Mier ExpeditionThe Mier Expedition was a failed raid by a Texan militia on the Mexican border settlement of Ciudad Mier on December 26, 1842. The attack was partly in hopes of financial gain and partly in retaliation for the Dawson Massacre, in which 36 Texans were killed by the Mexican Army.-Background:Although...
.
Lubbock was a strong secessionist, characterized as a "very worthy and zealous" Knight of the Golden Circle. At the beginning of the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
he accompanied Benjamin Franklin Terry,
John A. WhartonJohn Austin Wharton was a lawyer, plantation owner, and Confederate general during the American Civil War. He is considered one of the Confederacy's best tactical cavalry commanders.-Biography:...
, Thomas J. Goree, and
James LongstreetJames Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the...
(who was to become the commander of I Corps of
Robert E. LeeRobert Edward Lee was a career United States Army officer, an engineer, and among the most celebrated generals in American history. Lee was the son of Major General Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry" , Governor of Virginia, and his second wife, Anne Hill Carter...
's Army of Northern Virginia) from
Galveston, TexasGalveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2005 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a total population of 57,466 within an area of...
to
Richmond, VirginiaRichmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. Like all Virginia municipalities incorporated as cities, it is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
. At the Confederate capital on June 22 or June 23, 1861, he and Terry, seconded by Senator Louis T. Wigfall, Thomas N. Waul, Wharton, and Longstreet, petitioned Confederate President
Jefferson DavisJefferson Finis Davis was an American politician who served as President of the Confederate States of America for its entire history, 1861 to 1865, during the American Civil War....
for "authority to raise a company or battalion of guerrillas." "I must have your men," Davis reportedly replied.
While in Virginia, Lubbock, Terry, and some fifteen other Texans organized themselves into an independent band of rangers to scout for the
Confederate ArmyThe Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America during its brief existence from 1861 to 1865. It was established in two phases with provisional and permanent organizations, which existed concurrently....
. Early in July, Lubbock and Terry, at the head of a company of Virginia cavalry, charged a Union camp, captured two of the enemy, wounded a third, and captured a horse and a Sharps rifle. Only then did they realize that they were alone and that the Virginians had not followed them in their rash attack.
Lubbock was still a civilian in Virginia at the time of the battle of First Bull Run; he "exposed his life in bearing messages during the contest." With Terry, who had also served as a volunteer aide on the battlefield, Lubbock was authorized to raise a regiment of cavalry to serve in the Confederate States Army. The two men returned to Texas and recruited the Eighth Texas Cavalry, more commonly known as "Terry's Texas Rangers". Terry served as the regimental colonel and Lubbock as lieutenant colonel. In poor health, Lubbock left the regiment at
Nashville, TennesseeNashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is the second most populous city in the state after Memphis. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state...
and never returned to it.
After the death of Colonel Terry at the Battle of Woodsonville, in
KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
on December 17, 1861, Lubbock, then sick in a
Bowling GreenBowling Green is the fourth-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kentucky after Louisville, Lexington, and Owensboro. The population was 55,097 in 2008. It is the county seat of Warren County and the principal city of the Bowling Green, Kentucky Metropolitan Statistical Area with an estimated...
hospital, was advanced to command of the regiment, but he died shortly afterwards.
The city of
Lubbock, TexasLubbock is an American city in the state of Texas. Located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, it is the county seat of Lubbock County, and the home of Texas Tech University. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the city population was 199,564,...
and
Lubbock County, TexasLubbock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, the population was 242,628. Its county seat is Lubbock. Lubbock is named for Thomas Saltus Lubbock, a Confederate colonel and Texas Ranger .Lubbock County, along with neighboring Crosby County, form the Lubbock Metropolitan...
are named in his honor.