To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Texas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Texas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 4/26/20 • Approved: 4/27/20 • Last Updated: 4/30/20 • R305804-G0-S3
MAJOR Company B 21st Texas Calvary
Civil War Confederate
1836 - February 16, 1918
BACON, ELBERT M. (1835~1918) Elbert M. Bacon, Confederate veteran, was born in 1835, in St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia. In 1851, he attended Yale University, where he studied medicine, law, and geology. According to Yale's records, Bacon only attended classes for one year, 1851. He apparently came to Texas prior to the Civil War, because he served in Company B of the 21st Texas Cavalry.
The 21st Texas Cavalry, which was also known as the 1st Texas Lancers, was organized in the spring of 1862, with about 800 men from Parker, Dallas, Bell, and Austin counties. The unit served in the Trans-Mississippi Department and took part in Marmaduke's Missouri Raid and several conflicts in Louisiana and Arkansas, but disbanded before the surrendered in June, 1865.
Following the War, Bacon, who was an attorney, lived in Austin, where he was connected with the General Land Office and later involved in real estate. He had extensive land holdings in Hardin County.
Major Bacon was also quite influential in Texas and national politics. One of his obituaries claimed that, even though he never put himself up for public office, he wrote speeches for and counseled several governors. Bacon also spent a great deal of time in Washington, D. C. He was close friends William G. McAdoo, who was U. S. Treasury Secretary and later U. S. Senator from California.
Bacon moved to Houston, where, on February 16, 1918, he was hit by a train and killed. He was buried in the Texas State Cemetery several days later.
There is very little information concerning Major Bacon's early life and family. The 1880 census shows he was married to Elizabeth Bacon who was born in South Carolina. At that time they had two sons Harry and Elbert, Jr. There are two additional females listed on the Bacon family census, and those are Dellah, a servant, and Courtney, a laborer. It is believed they had a total of five children, two daughters and three sons. Lucas, or Hal is the name of the third son. Neither of his daughter's first names are known. One of the daughters was identified as a Mrs. Clarence Chapin. Bacon was also said to have been a cousin to U. S. Senator Augustus Octavius Bacon.
Contributed on 4/26/20 by tomtodd
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 305804