Michael Hillaire: Military Steward and Frontier Soldier (ca. 1830–ca. 1865)

Michael Hillaire, military hospital steward and frontier soldier, was born about 1830 in present-day Landau, Germany. The town is located in a region that was controlled by France from the late 1600s into the early 1800s. As a result, various records have stated Hillaire’s nation of birth as both France and Germany. Genealogy sources list that in July 1850 Hillaire enlisted as a saddler in Company A, Second Dragoons, United States Army, at Newark, New Jersey. He possibly came to Texas from New Orleans. On March 1, 1856, Hillaire enlisted as a private in Company B of the Second United States Cavalry to 1st Lt. Kenner Garrard, adjutant of the regiment, at Fort Mason, Texas, for five years of service. At the time of enlistment, Hillaire was described as a twenty-six-year-old saddler, standing 5 feet 10½ inches tall, of fair complexion, with brown hair, and gray eyes. After serving almost nine months, he was appointed to hospital steward on November 24, 1856.

Michael Hillaire married Alice Casey, an Irish immigrant, on March 2, 1857, at Fredericksburg, Texas. They later had a daughter, Alice, in Mason County in 1862.

From March 1857 to February 1859, Steward Hillaire served at Fort Mason. He worked under Assistant Surgeon Charles Henry Smith from March 1857 to April 30, 1858, and August 10, 1858, to January 30, 1859. He joined the post at Camp Verde, Texas, on March 12, 1859, and replaced hospital steward Arnold Steel, who left the post on February 22, 1859. At Camp Verde, Hillaire served under Assistant Surgeon William James Hamilton White from March 25 to May 12, 1859; Assistant Surgeon Andrew Jackson Foard from May 23 to August 22, 1860; and Assistant Surgeon Charles Christopher Byrne from August 13, 1860, to January 2, 1861. Hillaire was discharged by expiration of service on February 26, 1861, at Camp Verde as Texas was on the brink of secession.

On February 27, 1861, Hillaire joined the Texas State Troops when he enlisted as first sergeant in Capt. William T. Harbour’s Company of Kerr County Minute Men to protect frontier settlers from American Indian raids, while the majority of military personnel in Texas were away in Civil War service. His name appeared on Kerr County tax records in 1861. On February 26, 1864, he enlisted as a private, one of fifty-two men, in Capt. Herman Biberstein’s Company of the Second Frontier District of Texas State Troops. Hillaire was listed from Mason County. No other historical records for Hillaire have surfaced after this enlistment. His date of death and place of burial are not known, but Michael Hillaire’s widow, Alice, moved to Austin with their daughter, Alice, possibly by the late 1860s. Their daughter later married James Bassett Nitschke, a longtime member of the Austin City Council.