Thomas Edward Cater

He was born in South Carolina, but was working on his father's modest farm in Talladega, AL in 1850. He married in Austin, TX in 1860 and enlisted at Camp Clark in Guadalupe County as a Private in Company B, 4th Texas Infantry on 11 July 1861, then 26 years old.

He was with his Company in action at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was absent on a furlough from 1 February 1863 to 12 May 1863, and afterward listed as absent without leave, probably in Austin, TX.

He was "assigned to the command of a Co raised for Terrils [Terrell's Cavalry] Regt" in Texas by 8 December 1863. He was their Captain and reported to Colonel John S Ford at San Antonio on 29 December. By August 1864 his company was part of Cater's Battalion, Texas Cavalry - a 3-Company unit - with him as Major, commanding. He was officially surrendered at Galveston on 25 May 1865 and paroled at Austin on 27 July 1865.

By 1870 he was a merchant in Austin, with a grocery and liquor store there to at least 1880.

Service information from Davis1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3, with reference to him and his Battalion in the ORs,3 also as Thomas C. and T.A. Cater. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census for 1850, 1870 and 1880, and a bio sketch in the Handbook of Texas. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Margaretta McCall (1844–1871) in January 1860 in Austin and they had 5 children between 1861 and 1870. He married again, Elizabeth (?, 1861-1934) and they had 5 more together between 1879 and 1891.

The 1873 Austin Mercantile and General City Directory [pg. 38] shows his store in the Swenson Building on Congress Avenue between Bois d'Arc and Hickory Streets (now 7th and 8th Streets). The Stephen F. Austin Hotel and State and Paramount Theaters are on that site now.

05/1835 in SC

12/13/1903; Austin, TX; burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, TX