Locating Pvt Ake's Gravesite (left) and Image of Gravesite (right)
Jefferson Haley Ake was born in 1845 in Texas. At age 17 (1862)
he enlisted in Captain Rapp's Company of Sim's Regiment of 4th
Texas Cavalry. Jeff said it was Shelby"s brigade of Prices
Army. (Some of this does not quite fit).
He participated in actions at Dripping Springs, Arkansas; Lone
Jake, MO, Mansfield , Louisiana; Blairs Landing, and Cotton Plant
on the Red River. Jeff was in the same battle in which General
Tom Greene was killed and was part of the detail accompanying
the body (Gen Greene's) home. At wars end Jeff just went home
with no surrender or parole. He tried relocating to Mexico or
Brazil but neither was Texas. On returning to Texas, it was not
Texas either. He moved to New Mexico, Mesilla Valley area--Las
Cruces, Mesilla, Organ, the rest of his life---ranched, owned
bar/bordello, raised horses/cattle, buried in Organ Cemetery,
Organ, NM. Life story is told in the book They Die But Once
by James O'Neal, 1935.
Below are images -- taken 4/14/02 -- commemorating the CSA headstone dedication of Pvt Ake.
Locating Pvt Ake's Gravesite (left) and Image of Gravesite (right)
Digging Headstone Hole (left) and Readying CSA Headstone (right)
Filling-in Concrete (left) and Truing Headstone (right)
SCV Camp Inscriptions on Backside of Headstone (left) and Finished
Headstone (right)