WEST NUECES RIVER
WEST NUECES RIVER. West Nueces River rises at State Highway 55 and Four Square Ranch in northwest Edwards County (at 30°07' N, 100°24' W) and flows southeast for 115 miles through Kinney County to its mouth on the Nueces River ten miles northwest of Uvalde in southwest Uvalde County (at 29°17' N, 99°57' W). The river is intermittent in its upper reaches. Major tributaries are Geronimo Creek and Indian Creek in Edwards County and Leona Draw in Kinney County. The battle of the Nueces took place on the West Nueces River on August 10, 1862. In this battle sixty-five German Unionists, attempting to reach Mexico and then New Orleans to join the Union Army, were attacked by a Confederate force of ninety-six men. Nineteen were killed in the battle, and thirty-seven escaped. The rest were captured and then executed by the Confederate force. The terrain along the riverbed is flat with local shallow depressions surfaced by clay and sandy loam that supports water-tolerant hardwoods, conifers, and grasses. Surrounding the creek steep to gentle slopes are surfaced by variable soil that supports scrub brush and sparse grasses in the creek's upper reaches, and flat terrain with local deep and dense dissection is surfaced by shallow, stony soils that support oak, juniper, and mesquite in its lower reaches.
Phillip Rutherford, "Defying the State of Texas," Civil War Times Illustrated, April 1979. John W. Sansom, Battle of the Nueces River, in Kinney County, Texas, August 10th, 1862 (1905). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article."WEST NUECES RIVER," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rnw03), accessed February 12, 2016. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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