WURZBACH, CHARLES LOUIS (1835-1892). Charles Louis Wurzbach, soldier, jurist, and legislator, son of Jacob D. and Louisa (Schindler) Wurzbach, was born in Mannheim on the Rhine, Germany, on November 25, 1835. The family immigrated to Texas in 1844 and lived in Galveston, Fredericksburg, Austin, and San Antonio. Wurzbach enlisted with J. B. McGown's company of Texas Rangers^qv at the age of sixteen. From 1852 until the outbreak of the Civil War^qv he was in the regular army, rising to orderly sergeant in the United States Dragoons. In 1861 he joined Sibley's Brigade^qv and participated in the expedition to New Mexico. In 1862 Wurzbach was promoted to captain and served as aide-de-camp and flag-of-truce officer in defense of Galveston. After the Civil War he was again with the rangers. He married Kate Fink of La Grange on November 12, 1866. He was admitted to the bar in 1870 and began the practice of law in San Antonio. As city attorney from 1872 to 1875, he compiled and codified the laws of San Antonio. He represented Bexar County in the Fifteenth to Eighteenth legislatures, then served three terms as county judge, and returned to the legislature in 1891. He died in San Antonio on August 26, 1892.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas (New York: Southern, 1880). Lewis E. Daniell, Personnel of the Texas State Government, with Sketches of Representative Men of Texas (Austin: City Printing, 1887; 3d ed., San Antonio: Maverick, 1892). Frank W. Johnson, A History of Texas and Texans (5 vols., ed. E. C. Barker and E. W. Winkler [Chicago and New York: American Historical Society, 1914; rpt. 1916]).