The Monument IIRC is only one of two places in the US where the Colors are at half mast all the time.
These Germans just wanted to stay out of the war and the Confederates were going after them because they believed them to be Union symptathizers. So as they were escaping the Confederates they were slaughtered on the plain. (the germans did not fight back) Women Children and men all dead on the plain.. A very dark day in Texas History. And the Confederate soilders wouldn’t let the German immigrants collect thier dead for a long time almost a year IIRC.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfn01