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Mark B. Travis, Jr. Mexican-American War / CSA Soldier

 

 

Mark B. Travis, Jr.

 

Reviewing Rev. B.F. Riley's early 1881 book, History of Conecuh C0., AL

 

Riley states that William R. King and Mark B. Travis, Jr. (younger brother of William Barrett Travis - defender of the Alamo) were two patriots from Conecuh that enlisted in the military and both served in Mexico. According to 'records of soldiers serving in the Mexican-American War', both Lt. William R. King and Pvt. Mark B. Travis were mentioned, Lt. King as being killed (or died of disease) in May 1848 and Pvt.Travis as being wounded at the Battle of Churubusco in August 1847.

 

Note: Pvt. M. B. Travis was serving with Co. G, South Carolina Vols, when wounded, and appears on list of Casualties at Battle of Churubusco.

 

 

Copied from Memorial Records of Alabama, by Brant & Fuller, 1893 Pgs 104-106

 

"The First Alabama Regiment of Volunteers for the Mexican War was organized at Mobile, June 1846, for twelve months. Its colonel was John R. Coffee of Jackson County. Other officers were Lt. Colonel Richard G. Earle, Major Goode Bryan, Adjutant Hugh P. Watson and Captains Sydenham Moore, Andrew P. Pickens, Hugh Cunningham, E.T. Smith, Zack Thomason, William G. Coleman, R.M. Jones, William H. Ketchum, D.P. Baldwin and J.D. Shelly Willaim H. Forney was a first lieutenant in this regiment. There were independent companies under Captains Desha, Elmore and Platt, a company of mounted volunteers under Captain James McGee and a battalion of volunteers commanded by Colonel Philip H. Raiford.  Captains Curtis, Downman and Ligon. Among the Alabamians who lost their lives in Mexico, were Lieutenant John L. May and Lieutenant William R. King , the former at Matamoras in 1846, and the latter at Orzaba in 1848."

 

Submitted by Bill King

 

 

Notes obtained from fellow researcher Nanci P. by Bill King

 

From the recollections of James Calloway Travis:

"Mark Butler Travis was a volunteer in the Mexican War. Belonged to the South C Palmetto Regiment under Col. Pierce M. Butler, was shot on battlefield at Churubusco, Mexico. Picked up for dead. Was shot in head and survived until Confederate War, married Lou Brantley at Monroe County, Alabama, a very excellent woman and borne to them three children, boy and two girls." Note from his niece: "The Brantleys of Monroe County were evidently of the Green Brantley line -- see Mr. J. Vernon Brantley's book on that family.

 

From Barbara King 1/29/99:

Mark B. Travis, 2nd Lieutenant; honorably discharged, April 1, 1861; died at Sparta, Alabama, during the war (influenza?). He fought at Bull Run, VA with the Conecuh Guards, the first company that left the county. He served as Clerk of the Circuit Court for four consecutive terms.

 

From B. F. Riley, 1881 "History of Conecuh County":

"When Mark was only seventeen, he left home to attend medical lectures in a distant state as had a remarkable aptness in the course of medicine under the supervision of Dr. John Watkins. But while en route to college, he met the famous Palmetto Regiment of South Carolina on their way to join General Scott in Mexico. He enlisted with them and went to Mexico. During this he received a head wound and wasn't with them when they entered the Mexican Capital. But he recovered and served throughout the remainder of the struggle."

 

Submitted by Bill King