Trevanion Theodore Teel

Died in Ysleta, El Paso
Confederate Army officer and lawyer.
June 1841 he was licensed to practice law in Platte City, Missouri; 1843 opened a practice in St. Joseph, Missouri. July 1841 he went to the Rocky Mountains to perform legal service for the American Fur Co. and was captured and held briefly by the Yankton Sioux. Moved to Evansville, Indiana 1844. June 8, 1846 he enlisted in Capt. William Walker's Co. K, Col. William A. Bowles's 2nd Indiana Inf. Regt Mexican War. He was elected 1st Sgt, later promoted to 1st Lt. He took part in Gen. Zachary Taylor's campaign in northern Mexico and received two wounds at the battle of Buena Vista. Discharged at New Orleans June 28, 1847. At the end of the war the Teel family moved to San Antonio, and then to Lockhart, TX and in Oct. 1848 he was admitted to the bar. He married Emily F. Winans in Bastrop on April 10, 1856, and after moved to San Antonio where he won a considerable reputation as a criminal attorney.
In San Antonio he joined the Charles Bickley Castle of the Knights of the Golden Circle. Feb. 16, 1861, he mustered his KGC company into state service. The company was under Col. Benjamin McCulloch when Gen. David E. Twiggs surrendered the federal property at San Antonio to Texas state troops. Teel later sent detachments to garrison camps Hudson and Stockton and forts Clark, Duncan, and Lancaster. His company, reorganized at Fort Clark on May 1, 1861, was designated Light Co. B, 1st Artillery, and mustered into Confederate service for 12 months. Teel was elected Capt. The company was part of the force that compelled the surrender of federal troops at San Lucas Springs May 9 and accompanied Col. John R. Baylor to Fort Bliss July 10, 1861. During part of August Teel was commandant of Ft. Fillmore, New Mexico. He was promoted to Major of artillery Feb. 21, 1862. He was app't judge of the 1st Judicial Dist of Arizona. He served briefly as adjutant of the Army of New Mexico. Teel's company saw action at the battle of Valverde, where he was slightly wounded, and the battle of Glorieta, and a number of minor skirmishes in the New Mexico campaign. As part of Col. William Steele's 7th Texas Cavalry Regt, Teel's company was one of the last Confederate units to abandon New Mexico and far West Texas. Before retreating from Albuquerque, Teel's men buried eight of their cannons near the town plaza; in 1889 he returned to recover them. During the evacuation Teel served as regimental provost marshal.
After the war Teel returned to the practice of law and gained great prominence in criminal defense. He claimed to have defended more than 700 clients charged with capital offenses and to have saved them all from execution.
He became a Mason in 1849 and was expelled from the lodge in 1854. He died of a heart attack in El Paso July 6, 1899, and was buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery, San Antonio.
Source: The Handbook of Texas.
He married 3x's and divorced all three. Emily was his 2nd wife.

Jonathan Robert De Mallie, Garden State Historian