Captain Joseph Huffmaster
Published in the Confederate Veterans
Magazine Vol. XXVII page 28 in 1920.
In the death of Captain Joseph Huffmaster, the town and county of Kaufman, Texas, have lost one of their oldest and most worthy citizens. He was born at Newport, Kentucky, February 19, 1838 went to Rockwell, Texas early in 1868 and in 1885 settled in Kaufman. He died at his residence there on November 23, 1919, and after a brief religious service at his home was interred with Masonic honors at Terrell.
At the outbreak of the War between the States, Joseph Huffmaster joined Company E, 43rd Tennessee, with the rank of first lieutenant, and was soon promoted to command of this company, serving it as captain to the end of the war. He was in all the Shenandoah Valley campaigns and with early in the advance on Washington passing through Bowling Green, Kentucky upon one occasion, the ladies of the town presented to Captain Huffmaster's company a large and beautiful silk flag. When this flag was captured at the fall of Vicksburg, there were 972 bullet holes in it.
Captain Huffmaster never surrendered as an officer of war. He succeeded in getting away from Vicksburg with a part of his company and started to join a Confederate expedition to Texas. Getting over to Mexico a little later, he was stricken with fever and lay for some time desperately ill in a Mexican hut. Recovering he made his way into Texas and made that state his home. Captain Huffmaster practiced law successfully in his adopted state. He had been admitted to the bar before the war at the age of 19.