Confederate Service of Alabama and Coushatta Indians

The Alabama and Koasati (Coushatta) peoples speak related Muskogean languages and have intermarried since earliest times, the Handbook of Texas says. In early 1836 Sam Houston sent a delegation to Long King's village asking for about 250 warriors, but San Jacinto was fought before they could join. The state bought 1,110.7 acres in 1854, and about 500 people settled there that winter. Congress ended the federal relationship on August 23, 1954, and Texas became trustee in 1955. Public Law 100-89 restored it on August 18, 1987. The reservation now covers 4,593.7 acres.

What the plaque says

Confederate Service of Alabama and Coushatta Indians Alabama and Coushatta Indians of Polk County were trained as cavalrymen in 1861 by Indian Agent Robert R. Neyland as the war between the states advanced. In April 1862, nineteen Alabama and Coushatta, including Chief John Scott, enlisted in the Confederate Army as members of Company G, 24th Texas Cavalry. They trained in Hempstead, Texas, and in Arkansas, where their commander, General Thomas C. Hindman, converted them to infantrymen. After voicing displeasure with the change from cavalry to infantry duties, they were permitted to return to their Polk County homes to await further orders. Following brief service in the Confederate Navy under Galveston Bay Commander W. W. Hunter, they were reorganized as a cavalry company in the 6th Brigade, 2nd Texas Infantry Division. In 1864 the company roster listed 132 men. Their primary job was to build and operate flat-bottomed boats (scows) to transport farm produce and other supplies needed by the confederacy down the Trinity River to the port at Liberty, Texas. Official correspondence of wartime Texas Governors Francis R. Lubbock and Pendleton Murrah refer to the Alabama and Coushatta Indians' loyalty in their role as Confederate infantry, cavalry, and navy servicemen. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Thicket National Preserve — 25 mi
  Start at the Kountze visitor center, where rangers sort the preserve's scattered units for you, and learn why Congress made this 1974 string of pearls the country's first national preserve.

More markers nearby

• Midway Cemetery — 2.7 mi
• Menard Chapel Church, School, and Cemetery — 9.3 mi
• Major Henry W. Augustine — 9.7 mi
• The Yale Summer Forestry Camp and Gifford Pinchot — 14 mi