Battle of Mansfield or Sabine Cross Roads (Area of Second Confederate Charge)

Horace Randal's Texas brigade advanced across this ground on April 8, 1864. Randal, born in Tennessee in 1833 and raised in Texas, had graduated forty-fifth in a West Point class of forty-six, fought Apaches with the 1st Dragoons and resigned in February 1861. His men helped break the Union line at Mansfield, taking about 500 prisoners and the wagon train. Kirby Smith assigned him to duty as a brigadier on April 13, but the rank was never confirmed. Randal was mortally wounded leading a charge at Jenkins' Ferry on April 30 and lies in Marshall, Texas.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mansfield State Historic Site — steps away
  A 1957 museum and three-quarter-mile trail on the ground where Confederate troops broke a Union line on April 8, 1864, in a park begun by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
• Los Adaes State Historic Site — 30 mi
  The Spanish presidio that was the capital of Texas from 1729 to 1770, some 15 miles from French Natchitoches, now an archaeological site where Native pottery is the most abundant find.

More markers nearby

• Battle of Mansfield or Sabine Cross Roads (Area of Third Confederate Charge) — steps away
• Mansfield Battle Park — steps away
• General Alfred Mouton Monument — steps away
• General Dick Taylor Monument — steps away