BANE, JOHN P. (ca. 1835-?). John P. Bane, at age twenty-six, formed the Guadalupe (County) Rangers in Seguin and became their first captain. They reported for duty on July 4, 1861, at Camp Clar, a training center on the San Marcos River, and were mustered in on July 27, 1861. After a brief training period they gathered at Houston before going to Virginia, where they became Company D, Fourth Texas Infantry (see HOOD'S TEXAS BRIGADE). Bane was present at the battles of Eltham's Landing, Seven Pines, and Gaines' Mill. He received an arm wound in the last battle and was absent from the unit's next five encounters. He again saw action at Gettysburg, where he took command of the Fourth Texas after Col. John C. G. Key was wounded. Some weeks later Key resumed command, but he apparently never became completely well. Bane again assumed command of the Fourth Texas in the spring of 1864, before the opening of the Wilderness Campaign. Confederate records indicate that he returned to Texas in the summer of 1864 for recruiting purposes and was there when the war ended. He signed a document in San Antonio on August 25, 1865, listing his home as Guadalupe County, Texas.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Nicholas A. Davis, Chaplain Davis and Hood's Texas Brigade, ed. Donald E. Everett (San Antonio: Principia Press of Trinity University, 1962).
