page_title: Wends of Texas
section_title: Civil War-era
hierarchical_section_title: Wends of Texas / History / Nineteenth century / Civil War-era
caption_attribution_description: English: Texas Wends at the Domowina in Bautzen, June 1994: Elinor Steglich, Georgie Boyce, Evelyn Kasper, Leroy Steglich, and Arnold Kasper
context_page_description: The Texas Wends or Wends of Texas are a group of people descended from a congregation of approximately 588 Sorbian/Wendish people under the leadership and pastoral care of John Kilian who emigrated from Lusatia to Texas in 1854. The term also refers to the other emigrations occurring before and after this group. However none came close to the size or importance of the Wendish culture in Texas.
context_section_description: The Wendish valued strong work ethic and having emigrated seeking liberty, did not feel it necessary to participate in slave ownership. Many Wendish homesteads continued to grow and develop profitable cotton crop during this time. As a result of high premiums on cotton from the a Union blockade of the Gulf and borders, the Wends smuggled cotton for sale on European Markets, evading federal troops and bandits and boosting the economy.
  Several Wendish men can be traced to serving honorably in 1st Battalion Infantry, Waul's Texas Legion, having been recruited by a Captain Robert Voigt, Company C. The unit was eventually captured and sent to detainment by federal troops in 1863 at Yazoo City. Among C Company was a Wend, Johann Kieschnik, who while in custody was immediately sought out by his captors for his services as a shoemaker.  Several Wendish men became seriously ill, and even died in federal captivity.
caption: Texas Wends at the Domowina in Bautzen, June 1994
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