Matthew Dale, printer, Texas state legislator, and Confederate officer, was born in Smith County, Tennessee, on November 22, 1830, the son of John Evans and Nancy (Green) Dale. He moved to Texas and settled in Palestine, Texas, in 1852. He became the associate editor of the Trinity Advocate, a Democratic newspaper. In 1859 he was elected to the state legislature.
Matthew Dale enlisted in March 1862 as lieutenant of the First Texas Infantry in Palestine, Texas, and was elected major in May 1862. He was temporarily relieved of command on April 14, 1862, and during the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam) on September 17, 1862, was shot and killed while acting as a lieutenant colonel and consulting Lt. Col. Philip A. Work on the possible withdrawal of their troops from battle.
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William DeRyee and R. E. Moore, The Texas Album, of Eighth Legislature, 1860 (Austin: Miner, Lambert, and Perry, 1860). LCol Philip A. Work's Official Report, Report of September 23, 1862 (http://aotw.org/exhibit.php?exhibit_id=106), accessed February 3, 2011. Stephen W. Sears, Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam (New Haven: Ticknor & Fields, 1983).
Categories:
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Eighth Legislature (1859-1861)
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House
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Stephanie P. Niemeyer,
“Dale, Matthew,”
Handbook of Texas Online,
accessed June 29, 2022,
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/dale-matthew.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Original Publication Date:
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March 29, 2011
This entry belongs to the following Handbook Special Projects:
