Colonel Bryan Marsh

Bryan Marsh lost his right arm below the shoulder at New Hope Church, Georgia, in 1864, and badly injured his left hand, yet he went on to command a Ranger company. In December 1880 he became captain of Company B, Frontier Battalion. In February 1881 a Black soldier from Fort Concho was shot dead, and about fifty soldiers, Black and white, left the fort and shot up San Angelo's Nimitz Hotel. Marsh met Colonel Grierson at the fort, and his Rangers stayed several more days; no further attacks followed. Company B was disbanded that August for budget reasons.

What the plaque says

Colonel Bryan Marsh (Star and Wreath) School named for Texas Confederate. Alabama native, came to Tyler, 1854. 1861 was captain Co. C, 17th Texas Cavalry. In 1863 Confederate campaigns to prevent split of South along Mississippi River. He was one of 4,500 C. S. A. men attacked by 30,000 Federals at Arkansas post in Jan. 1863. Taken prisoner there, he was exchanged in May. Put into Bragg's army in Tennessee. Later, in Atlanta fighting lost right arm. Returned to fight until Lee surrendered. In 1880s was captain of Co. B., Frontier Battn., Texas Rangers. Quelled riot between town and soldiers at Fort Concho. Ended gunplay in railroad construction towns. Fought Indians. Was Smith County sheriff for 20 years. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — steps away
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 1.4 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 3.3 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 8.7 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• Tyler Tap Railroad — 0.3 mi
• City of Tyler — 0.5 mi
• Richard Bennett Hubbard — 0.5 mi
• Smith County, C. S. A. — 0.5 mi