George Wythe Baylor

George Wythe Baylor was born at Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory, on August 24, 1832. His father, an army surgeon in the 7th Infantry Regiment, was John Walker Baylor, eldest son of Major Walker Baylor, of Bourbon County, Kentucky, whose wife was Jane, , a sister of Jesse Bledsoe, of Kentucky. His mother was Sophia Maria, , of Baltimore, Maryland, her father being Henreich Weidner, of Hessen Cassel, Germany, and her mother being Marie Chartelle, of an old Huguenot family. His father moved from Bourbon county, Kentucky, to Fort Gibson, with his young family, going down from Louisville to the mouth of the Arkansas River on a keel boat, and this boat was dragged up the river to Fort Gibson. His mother took along a lot of fruit trees, roses and plants. The campaign lasted six weeks and was the first extended service which Baylor saw. In the same year, Baylor's profession was listed on the Parker county tax records and the United States census as "Indian killer". == Civil War ==

, 1861–65|253x253px With the outbreak of the Civil War, Baylor enlisted in the Confederate States Army, joining Captain Hamner's company (Company H, 2nd Texas Mounted Rifles) at Weatherford on March 17, 1861, and was elected first lieutenant, the company being attached to Colonel John S. Ford's regiment of cavalry. He enlisted for three years and was sworn in as first lieutenant of his company in San Antonio in May 1861. His troops captured the Warren, a steamboat loaded with supplies and troops going up the Red River in Louisiana. While the promised regiment of Texas rangers was never raised, because of the coming of the close of the Civil War, Colonel Baylor retained his rank, and it was a dispute over this that led him to kill General John A. Wharton during a heated quarrel on April 6, 1865, at the headquarters of General John B. Magruder in the Fannin Hotel in Galveston. They argued, reportedly about "military matters" related to the reorganization of the Trans-Mississippi Department, and Wharton repeatedly struck Baylor in the face, calling him a liar; then Baylor drew his revolver and shot Wharton, who was unarmed and died instantly. Baylor was tried three times before he was finally acquitted after the war. By his own account, Baylor was never wounded or made prisoner, but was badly scared by being hit on the nose at Shiloh on April 6, 1862, and had a horse shot under him at Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, in 1864. == Texas Rangers ==

: View of El Paso, 1885 (El Paso Museum of Art) After the close of the war Baylor lived in Galveston, Dallas and San Antonio, and in 1879 was sent out as second or junior lieutenant of Company C (Harrington's company), Texas Rangers, to El Paso, by Governor Roberts. Thirty-two bodies of the Mexicans were found and buried. Baylor went to the scene with 15 men and took up the trail of the Apaches. He followed them for three days into Mexico and then back again into the United States. He then telegraphed to Lieutenant Charles Nevell, who afterwards served as sheriff of El Paso County, and Nevell met him with 10 men at Eagle Springs. The joint party again took up the trail, and overtook the Apaches at daybreak. A small but bloody fight ensued on the morning of January 29, 1881, in which all of the Apaches were either killed or wounded. A woman and two children, a boy and a girl, were captured. This was the last such raid in Texas, and was the end of Victorio's band. Baylor was then placed in command of the Texas Rangers, with the rank of major, in command of a battalion to put down fence-cutting during the trouble which resulted from this practice. He saw active service in that capacity, making a raid on an organized band in Nolan County which resulted in nine arrests. == Later life ==

After this his active fighting service ended. == Personal life ==

, 1879 Baylor married Sallie (Sally) Garland, , of Houston, Texas, in 1863. Their children were: • Hel(l)en, born December 10, 1865; • Sophie Marie, died in infancy; • Mary Courtenay, born June 11, 1874. Of the foregoing children, Helen was married three times: first, to James Gillett; second, to Captain Frank Jones of the Texas rangers, who was killed in a skirmish with a band of outlaws; third, to Captain Merwin Lee. By her first husband, she left one son, Harper Gillett, and also a son by her second husband, Frank Jones. She died at Monterey, Mexico, on May 25, 1903. Colonel Baylor's wife, Sallie, died in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1904, and was buried there. == See also ==