Camp Collier, C.S.A.

Camp Collier stood at Vaughan's Springs on Clear Creek in southwestern Brown County. Under Col. James M. Norris's plan, each of the Frontier Regiment's nine captains held two posts, one named for himself and one for its locale, and Capt. Frank M. Collier's other post was Camp Pecan in Callahan County. From June to late October 1862 Camp Collier served as the regiment's summer headquarters. After Collier resigned with a back injury, the company elected Sgt. Maj. James Joseph Callan captain on July 25, 1862. The regiment entered Confederate service on March 1, 1864.

What the plaque says

Located 13 mi. southwest, this camp was one of a chain of Texas frontier posts a day's horseback ride apart from the Red River to the Rio Grande. Occupied by the Texas Frontier Regiment. Patrols and scouting parties frequently sent out kept Indian actions in check and rounded up draft evaders. Always needed were food, clothing, horses, ammunition. These men shared few of the glories of the war. Yet at the cost of the lives of not a few of them, these Confederate soldiers managed to bring a measure of protection to a vast frontier area. Texas Civil War Frontier Defense Texas made an all-out effort for the Confederacy after voting over 3 to 1 for secession. 90,000 troops, noted for mobility and heroic daring, fought on every battlefront. An important source of supply and gateway to foreign trade thru Mexico, Texas was the storehouse of the South. Camp Collier and other posts on this line were backed by patrols of State Rangers organized militia, and citizens' posses scouting from nearby "family forts." This was part of a 2000 mile frontier and coastline successfully defended by Texans. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Brownwood State Park — 9.7 mi
  A CCC park on a reservoir that filled in a single flood before its dam was done, with stone cabins, a hilltop dance pavilion and a grand staircase climbed by dancers arriving by boat.

More markers nearby

• Greenleaf Fisk — steps away
• Welcome William Chandler — steps away
• Brooke Smith — 0.4 mi
• The Rev. Noah Turner Byars — 0.5 mi