There are 15 currently known Civil War veterans at Western Heights Cemetery, with five of those being Union soldiers.
Veterans graves, with or without permanent marker, are indicated by a flag holder with a medallion, the veterans name, and a QR code. The medallion indicates the war served in. Scanning the QR code will give you the biography and a photo of the veteran. (7/25/25 the flag holders are temporarily out for reprinting of the QR codes. They will be back soon. You can still do the walking tour in their absence.)
For veterans with missing permanent markers the "near" indication below shows the placement of the flag holder near a family member's grave, if known.
1- Robert James Lowry Section C4, grave 16.2 Born 1836 in Franklin County, Mississippi Died 1921 in Dallas (aged 85) Lowry was a Confederate soldier in the Civil War serving in Company C of the Arkansas 3rd Infantry Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade.
This long-serving Arkansas regiment fought in some of the most famous Civil War engagements including the Battles of Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and the Appomattox Campaign. The war extracted a massive toll on the regiment, which started with 1,353 men, and ended the conflict with 144. Of the 154 men in Company C, Lowry was one of only 13 survivors left when it was surrendered at Appomattox Court House.
Lowry died in 1921 at the age of 85, and is the fourth oldest veteran in the cemetery. He is buried next to his second wife Mary Smith Lowry. His first wife and their nine children are buried elsewhere.
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2- Rev. James Benjamin Bennett Marker missing Buried near Mary Jane Bennett Blackburn, Section A4 grave 21.3 Born 1831 in Mississippi Died 1914 in Forth Worth (aged 83)
Born in Mississippi in 1931, Bennett was a Methodist Circuit Rider – also known at the time as horse preachers – and Confederate soldier in the Civil War. He served in Company B of the Texas 20th Infantry Regiment, which was assigned to guard the Sabine River and to protect the city of Galveston. The regiment saw little action until the Battle of Galveston in January of 1863, in which the men served with distinction. The regiment was surrendered on May 26, 1865, at New Orleans.
Bennett died in 1914 at the age of 83. His wife, Sarah Jane Huffman, is also buried in the cemetery, as is one of their eight children, Mary Jane Bennett Blackburn, along with her husband Russell P. Blackburn.
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3- Larkin Manes Jr. Section C3, grave 1.1 Born 1843 in Tennessee Died 1930 in Dallas (aged 87)
Born in 1843 in Tennessee as the sixth of nine children, Manes has the unique distinction of being a Civil War veteran who served for both the Confederate and Union armies. He was conscripted into the Confederate forces in the summer of 1862 and then received a furlough at the end of the year. This is when he made his move to join the Union.
"I stayed home as long as it was safe for me to stay on that furlough, and then I went to Springfield, Missouri, with a recruiting officer and joined the Federal Army,” Manes said. On July 20, 1863, at the age of 20, he joined the 2nd Arkansas Cavalry Regiment, Company D, one of 11 Arkansas regiments that served in the Union Army.
After the war, Manes married Henrietta Josephine Chenowth in Arkansas in 1868, and they had 4 children. He is the third oldest of the 25 known veterans buried here, dying in Dallas in 1930 at the age of 87. His wife died 2 years later at age 79 and is buried nearby, as is her mother.
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4- Augustus Brown Section B1, grave 14.1 Born 1833 in Maryland Died 1893 in Dallas (aged 59)
Brown was a Civil War veteran and served in the Confederate Army as a member of the 2nd Texas Cavalry Regiment. Some time after the war he continued his military service, this time with the U.S. Army’s 9th Cavalry Regiment, Company B and was stationed at Ringgold Barracks (later Fort Ringgold) in Rio Grande City, Texas. Brown was one of the few white soldiers assigned to the famous Buffalo Soldiers regiment as an officer tasked with training duties.
Brown died in 1893 at the age of 59. His wife Emma Wood Brown is buried here, but their seven adult children are buried in other Dallas cemeteries.
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5- William Thomas Tuggle Section D3, grave 6.2 Born 1843 in Missouri Died 1925 in Dallas (aged 82)
Tuggle fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War and was a member of Walker's Division and Young's Regiment. He was born in Missouri in 1843 and lived in Dallas for 78 years until he died in 1925 at the age of 82. His wife Mary Ellen Cole Tuggle is buried here and, according to her marker, was the first surviving non-native girl born in Dallas County. They had nine children, three of whom are also buried here: Dee Wilton Tuggle, William W. Tuggle, and Cora Elnora Tuggle Brannon.
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6- Andrew Ezekiel Williams Marker missing Buried near Sadie Ruth Lytle Walker, Section E3, grave 15.2 Born 1847 in Philadelphia Died 1914 in Hutchins, Texas (aged 66)
Williams was born in Philadelphia in 1847 to German immigrants and was one of three brothers. He worked as a button maker before serving the Union Army in the Civil War as a member of Company A, 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, the largest regiment to serve in the Union Army.
In 1873 he married America Sidney Dial and they had nine children in 20 years before divorcing in 1893. He died in 1914 at the age of 66. His daughter Margaret E “Maggie” Williams Lytle; granddaughters Dorothy Maybelle English and Sadie Ruth Lytle Walker; and a stillborn great-grandchild are also buried here.
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7- Enos W. Walker Marker missing Possibly buried near Enos M. Walker, Section E3, grave 24.1 Born 1846 Died 1912 in Dallas (aged 66)
A veteran of the Civil War, Walker enlisted with the Union Army’s 76th New York Infantry Regiment in 1863. He was later reassigned to Company D of the 147th New York Volunteers, which participated in the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, a major battle in the campaign to take the capital of Richmond.
He married Mary Margaret Berry in 1871 and they had three children before she died in 1882. Two of the children died young and the third, Julian, moved to Dallas in 1896 with his wife Mamie Canifax (or Cannefox). Walker married Emma Catherine Bates in 1886 and they had a son, Roy Willington Walker. He died in Dallas in 1912 of fractured ribs at the age of 66, outliving his first wife and all three of their children. Unfortunately we have no known marker or burial location for Walker. His son Julian (who died in 1900), daughter-in-law Sadie Ruth (married to Roy Willington Walker), and grandchildren Ruth and Enos M Walker are all buried in a north-south line in the central left section of the cemetery, and Enos W Walker may be buried nearby.
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8- William M. Bullock Marker missing Buried near Mary E. Lucas Winfrey, Section F3, grave 14.1 Born 1843 in Chambers County, Alabama Died 1901 in Dallas (aged 58)
Bullock served in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier first with Clark's Regiment until it was disbanded, and then with the First Texas Partisan Rangers. He was severely wounded in Arkansas, and after his recovery he served in the Quartermasters Department. At the end of the war he was an orderly to General Kirby Smith and delivered the papers of surrender to the Federal commander. Bullock died in 1901 at the age of 58. His wife Martha Jane is also buried here.
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9- Richard Braxton Woods Marker missing Buried near Ora Myrtle Woods Morris, Section F2, grave 20.2 Born 1840 Clay County, Missouri Died 1925 in Dallas (aged 84)
Woods was a Confederate soldier, enlisting on January 10, 1862 and serving in Missouri Calvary Co. D. He served until the War was over. He had moved to Dallas by 1904 and was farming. He also worked briefly as a janitor for the West Dallas Public Schools. His wife Nancie Francis Proffitt is buried here, as is her father Pleasant W. Proffitt. Ora Myrtle Wood Morris, one of the couple’s five children, is also buried here. At 84 years of age at the time of his death, Woods is the fifth oldest Civil War veteran in the cemetery.
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10- Addison Franklin Pate Marker missing Buried near Melissa Jane Hudspeth Pate Section G3, grave 2.1 Born 1834 in Weakly County, Tennessee Died 1927 Duncan, Oklahoma (aged 92)
Pate was a Confederate Civil War veteran who served three years with the 23rd Texas Cavalry Regiment, Company F. The 1896 Dallas directory shows him employed as a medicine manufacturer. At the time he applied for his Confederate Army pension in 1899, he had been working as a farmer. He died in 1927 at the age of 92 and is the second oldest of the 25 known veterans buried here. His wife Melissa Jane Hudspeth Pate is also buried here.
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11- John C. Murphy Marker missing Born 1844 in Jasper, Missouri Died 1909 in Bivins, Cass County, Texas
Murphy was a Confederate Civil War veteran who served with 1st Battalion, Texas Sharpshooters (also known as Burnett's Battalion). He married in Illinois but was in Dallas by 1880 and was farming. By 1900, when he was 56, he worked as a day laborer. He and his wife had seven children.
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12- William E. Vernon Marker missing Born 1843 in Missouri Died January 29, 1911 in Dallas (aged 67 or 68)
Vernon was a Confederate Civil War veteran who served with the 9th Missouri Infantry Regiment, Company K. After his service, he returned to Missouri and worked as a farmer, married and had one son. By 1882 he had moved to Comanche County, Texas, and then to Dallas by 1903, where he worked as a carpenter. In 1909 and 1910 he worked as a grocer on Eagle Ford Road in West Dallas. Upon his death in 1911, his obituary identified him as “Dr. W. E. Vernon” and said that he was known as the “Blind Specialist,” but no record has been found of any medical training.
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13- Martin Barnett Claunch Section G4, grave 5.1 Born 1842 in Alabama Died 1907 in Dallas (aged 64)
Claunch was a Civil War veteran who fought for the Union in the 1st Louisiana Infantry Regiment, Company F. He had moved to Texas by 1870, but did not arrive in Dallas until about 1904. He was a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen (AOUW) His wife Rachel L Ivy Claunch, who outlived him by 20 years, is buried here next to him.
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14- William Holmes Mills Section G6, grave 1.1 Born 1809 in Kentucky Died 1903 in Dallas (aged 94)
The owner of the earliest birth date on any existing marker in the cemetery, Mills was a Union Civil War veteran who served with the 27th Kentucky Infantry Regiment, Company C. His son Ferdinand also enlisted in Kentucky, but as a Confederate soldier. His son Robert had moved to Dallas by 1874 and that may be what spurred the widowed William to move here. Aged 94 at the time of his death in 1903, he is the oldest of the 25 known veterans buried here. His son Robert Joseph Mills is also buried here, as are three of Robert's six children: Robert Allen Mills, Florence Ruby Mills, Henry Elam Mills, and Lillian Ivy Mills.
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15- Zachariah Coombes Section F6, grave 18.1 Born March 30, 1833, in Nelson County, Kentucky Died November 25, 1895, in Dallas (aged 62)
Coombes and his family came to Dallas in 1843 as early members of the Peters Colony. In 1856 he married Rebecca Finch Bedford and the couple had nine children.
In 1862 he joined the Confederate Army as a member of the 31st Texas Cavalry Regiment and was promoted to captain of Company G the same year. After the war Coombes was elected county judge of Dallas County in the 1866 election, but was removed along with other Dallas County officials the following year as “impediments to Reconstruction.”
In 1870 Coombes began a successful law practice and developed a long-running political career. He was an alderman of Dallas in 1871, a delegate to the state Democratic convention in May 1884, and a member of the state House of Representatives in 1885. Filling in for the Grand Master of the Masons in Texas, Zachariah laid the 12,000 pound cornerstone of the Texas State Capitol in Austin on March 2nd, 1885, the 49th anniversary of Texas independence. He became Grand Master the following year.
He died in 1895 at age 62. His son William Nelson Coombes, also a judge, is buried here as are Zachariah's first wife Rebecca Finch Bedford Coombes and his first son, stillborn in 1857. His second wife Louise Harriett Coleman Coombes is buried in Austin.
