Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog

One hundred fifty years ago today, at exactly noon, Private Thomas “Nicaragua” Smith was shot by a military firing squad on a parade ground on the west side of Galveston. Although he was ultimately tried and condemned by a court-martial as a deserter from the 1st Texas Heavy Artillery, Smith was a bonafide bad actor, with a long criminal past as a civilian, going back before the war. A few years before, in fact, a delegation of citizens had escorted him onto a steamship bound for New Orleans, with orders never to return — he was just that kind of guy.  Few mourned Nicaragua Smith then, and no one mourns him now.

But the fate of a man captured with Smith, Private Joseph Cronea of the First Texas Cavalry, U.S. Army, needs to be told as well. My colleague Jim Schmidt has the details.

_______________