H. W. (Henry W.) Graber

Born in Bremen, Germany, in 1841, H. W. Graber later made Texas his home and became part of one of the best-known Confederate cavalry units of the Civil War, Terry’s Texas Rangers. His best-known work, The Life Record of H. W. Graber, was published in 1916 as a personal account of his wartime service and his decades in Texas.

Rather than writing a distant history, Graber told his own story in a direct, personal way. His memoir combines recollections of military life with scenes from everyday Texas experience, giving readers a vivid sense of hardship, movement, and survival during a turbulent period.

Graber died in 1917. Today, his book is valued mainly as a firsthand memoir: a window into the life of a soldier, settler, and observer who tried to preserve his memories for later generations.