Colonel Stephen Heard Darden

Darden came to Texas in 1836 as a volunteer under Capt. David M. Fulton and later represented Gonzales County in both houses of the legislature. As a state senator in 1861 he first opposed secession, then voted with the majority. He served in Hood's Texas Brigade until ill health made him resign after Antietam. In the Confederate Congress he was a firm states'-rights man who usually voted against the Davis administration. As comptroller he had school money invested in state bonds, raising them to par, and he was secretary of the Texas Veterans Association from 1886 until his death.

What the plaque says

Colonel Stephen Heard Darden Army of Texas, 1836. State senator 1861-1862. Commissioned Colonel C.S.A., 1863. Member of the Confederate Congress, 1864. State comptroller, 1874-1881. Born in Mississippi, November 18, 1816. Died in Wharton, Texas, May 16, 1902. His wife CATHERINE MAYS DARDEN, born February 13, 1836. Died August 19, 1912. Erected by the State of Texas - 1936

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Cemetery — steps away
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.4 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.0 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• John Litton — steps away
• Dr. George Moffit Patrick — steps away
• Judge Edwin Waller — steps away
• William C. Crane — steps away