Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton and the Johnson Guards

The Handbook of Texas history of the Seventh Texas Infantry shows what followed the plaque. The regiment lost twenty killed and forty wounded at Fort Donelson, surrendered on February 16, 1862, and sent more than 300 men to northern prisons, where sixty-five died. After exchange it fought at Raymond, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and through the Atlanta campaign. At Franklin on November 30, 1864, Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton ended the day commanding the brigade after Granbury and Cleburne fell and the regiment's commander was captured. The Confederacy fought to keep slavery; Kaufman County counted 533 enslaved people in 1860.

What the plaque says

Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton and the Johnson Guards Alabama native Edward Thomas Broughton, Jr. (b. 1834) came to Jasper, Texas, with his family in 1847. Broughton married Mary Elizabeth Douglas in 1856. He studied law in Smith County and was admitted to the bar in 1857. By 1860 the Broughtons were living in Kaufman, Texas, where Edward was elected district attorney in 1861. In early 1861 Broughton and other men in the area formed the Kaufman Light Infantry. The company mustered in Prairieville in Sept. 1861 with Captain Edward T. Broughton in command. After renaming their company the Johnson Guards for prominent local merchants John H. and Jasper W. Johnson, they joined Confederate Colonel John Gregg's 7th regiment of Texas Volunteers in Marshall, Texas, as part of Company C in late 1861. Broughton was captured at Ft. Donelson, Tennessee, in February 1862. Later released in a prisoner exchange, he returned to the war and was again taken prisoner in 1863. Before his release in May 1864 Broughton suffered a debilitating illness. Although in poor health he rejoined the 7th Texas Regiment and for a brief period became acting commander. Broughton moved to Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, shortly after the war, and later served in the Texas Senate. He died on February 12, 1874. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 19 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.

More markers nearby

• Prairieville — steps away
• Mabank — 7.7 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Mabank — 7.7 mi
• Roddy Lodge No. 734, A.F. & A.M. — 7.8 mi