Jesse Stancel was born around 1837 in Georgia. By the early 1860s, he was living in Travis County, Texas. He married Julia A. Coupland on April 25, 1861. He remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War, and he enlisted in the Union army on November 6, 1862, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He mustered in as a private in the 1^st Texas Cavalry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with black hair and gray eyes. He spent the winter serving on recruitment duty. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on November 5, 1862. Army officials court martialed him in August 1863 for an unknown offense. He remained in command of the regiment, and he mustered out on October 19, 1864.

 

Stancel settled in Galveston, Texas, after the war. He supported the Republican Party, and he called for Black suffrage during Reconstruction. He served as Register in Bankruptcy for Galveston in the late 1860s and as Registrar of Voters in the early 1870s. His wife died on August 18, 1873, and he passed away of Bright’s disease on March 14, 1888.

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