Haywood Weakley Brahan

Son of Robert Weakley Brahan (1811-1885, later Brigadier General of Texas militia during the war), he came to Bexar County, TX with his family in 1852. He was away at school 1856-1861, then enlisted at Camp Clark in Guadalupe County as First Sergeant of Company F, 4th Texas Infantry on 11 July 1861.

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 elected Junior 2nd Lieutenant on 5 November 1862 and promoted to (Senior) 2nd Lieutenant two days later. He was made First Lieutenant to date from 8 April 1863 and was acting Adjutant of the regiment from 23 September 1863 to 11 February 1864. He was then detailed to Texas to "collect absentees" and returned to duty by June. He was surrendered and paroled at Appomattox Court House, VA on 9 April 1865.

By 1875 he was a merchant in Seguin, Guadalupe County, and was an administrator at the State Penitentiary from 1878 to 1887. He was then business manager for Colonel Edward H. Cunningham (late Captain, Company F) in Sugarland, TX.

Service information from Davis1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and his obituary in the Houston Post of 21 October 1897, source also of a post-war picture of him. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Sarah Matilda Jefferson (1843-1877) in Seguin in February 1867 and they had 5 children. Through the Jeffersons he was brother-in-law to another fellow 4th Texas veteran W.H. Burgess. Colonel Cunningham was also a brother-in-law: he married Haywood's sister Narcissa Ann (1842-1907) in April 1872.

Brigade historian J.B. Polley was a college classmate of Haywood's.

His father sent a letter to President Jefferson Davis in August 1861 requesting a commission for Hayward. It seems to have been ignored.

05/07/1840; Panola County, MS

10/20/1897; Houston, TX; burial in Riverside Cemetery, Seguin, TX