Camp Ben McCulloch No. 946, United Confederate Veterans

Camp Ben McCulloch grew into a very large Confederate gathering. Its three-day reunions often drew five or six thousand people, and by 1930 it was said to be the largest such camp in existence. The golden jubilee on August 9, 1946, was the last reunion of veterans and included a memorial service for the camp's final two members. These were memorial occasions for a cause fought to preserve slavery, and the Lost Cause memory they kept alive is part of what the grounds mean. The branch of Onion Creek is still a picnic spot for northern Hays County.

What the plaque says

Camp Ben McCulloch No. 946, United Confederate Veterans Hays County Confederate veterans and their families gathered for a reunion in the summer of 1896 and formally organized the Camp Ben McCulloch Chapter of the United Confederate Veterans. The gathering took place near this site at the Martin Spring and campsite on Onion Creek. The reunion grounds were purchased by the organization in 1904 and have continued as the site of the annual reunion with the exception of one year during World War I. The first commander of Camp Ben McCulloch was Capt. Martin Luther Reed. Other officers elected at the first meeting were Jacob C. Quick, W. M. Weaver, W. W. Davis, W. T. Chapman, Dr. J. M. Pound, and Santa Anna Cruze. The camp was named for Confederate General Ben McCulloch, also a veteran of the Texas Revolution, who died in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862. The reunion grounds and other responsibilities were transferred to the care of the Confederate Sons after Burl Nash, the last veteran in the county died in 1947 at age 108. The Sons in turn deeded the camp to the grandsons and other descendants of the Confederate veterans. Reunions continue to be held, illustrating the ongoing impact of the Civil War on Texas history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 17 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.
• Barton Springs Pool — 17 mi
  A three-acre pool in the bed of Barton Creek, fed by the fourth-largest spring in Texas at 68 to 70 degrees, and shared with an endangered salamander found almost nowhere else.
• McKinney Falls State Park — 18 mi
  Limestone falls on Onion Creek inside Austin, where people camped under a rock overhang for thousands of years and a financier of the Texas Revolution built his stone ranch house.
• Pedernales Falls State Park — 18 mi
  The Pedernales stepping down over layered limestone east of Johnson City, a river that can turn from a placid stream to a torrent in minutes.

More markers nearby

• Driftwood Cemetery — 1.2 mi
• William B. Travis League — 1.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Dripping Springs — 6.1 mi
• Dr. Joseph McKeaig Pound — 6.2 mi