Harvey C. Sanders, C. S. A.

Sanders's own account comes from his 1925 obituary. It has him born on November 24, 1837, in Trigg County, Kentucky, riding with a Kentucky cavalry unit under General Forrest and later General Joe Wheeler, and wounded twice, by a saber and a bullet. The obituary says he was one of ten men Jefferson Davis chose to continue south after the escort shrank, and that he spent more than a year in prison. He reached Texas in 1882, settling in Coryell County, moved to Bowie County in 1887, and was buried at Red Bayou Cemetery.

What the plaque says

Harvey C. Sanders, C. S. A. (1837 - 1925) Native of Kentucky. In Civil War, fought at Shiloh, Chickamauga and other battles. After being wounded twice, became a guard at Confederate White House. When Richmond fell on April 3, 1865, was placed in escort for the departing president. Rode 5 weeks toward Florida, where President Jefferson Davis was planning to sail for Mexico to join many other Confederate leaders. (These Southerners intended to regroup an army, march north to Texas and continue their fight for states' rights.) President Davis and his guards were followed by thieves trying to steal the Confederate treasury, the horses and the wagons. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14 and the offer of a reward of $100,000 caused many adventurers to hunt for President Davis. Just before dawn on May 10, near Irwinsville, Ga., Federals captured him and his party, including 2 Texans, Postmaster-General John H. Reagan and Presidential Aide F. R. Lubbock, a former Governor of Texas. Mrs. Davis and children were soon freed, but all the men were imprisoned. Sanders was released in a year. Later he came to Texas and lived near this site after 1887-- honored for years as the last man of the Davis bodyguard. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of Regional History — 23 mi
  Texarkana's oldest museum, in an 1879 brick building on State Line Avenue, with Caddo pottery, one of Scott Joplin's pianos and a research library of city directories and photographs.
• Atlanta State Park — 25 mi
  A shoreline park on Wright Patman Lake, leased from the Army in 1954, where Caddo ancestors farmed the Sulphur River and wagon traces such as the Bobo Ferry trace still cross the woods.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Texas Home of Richard Ellis — steps away
• Pleasant Hill Missionary Baptist Church — 1.9 mi
• Bowie County — 5.8 mi
• New Boston — 6.8 mi