Henderson County C. S. A.

The Handbook of Texas counts 155 slaveholders in Henderson County in 1860, and says about 1,500 county men served in the war. Volunteer companies were raised by men including Jerry Warren and a Captain Manion, while the home front supplied leather goods, crocks, food and clothing. A tenth of farm products was taxed to cover war expenses, and a county tax helped support the indigent wives, widows and orphans of soldiers. After the war many enslaved people brought in from Louisiana and Arkansas were left in the county, and many of them stayed.

What the plaque says

Henderson County C. S. A. (Star and Wreath) Voted 400-49 for secession. Sent about 1,000 into Confederate Army, with one detachment of 150 having only 13 live to return. Caldwell's farm, three miles northeast, and Fincastle, 19 miles southeast of Athens, had camps of instruction. Confederate supply depot, Fincastle, had stores of grain, mean in charge of Capt. Thomas F. Murchison, who also was county enrolling officer. Wartime manufactures included earthenware jugs and dishes. Other products for C.S.A. were cotton, corn, beef, pork, timber. Cynthia Ann Parker, delivered from Indian captivity 1860 by Sul Ross' Ranger unit, lived during war at Athens. Postmaster-general of Confederacy was John H. Reagan, who had been surveyor and the first probate judge in Henderson County. (1963)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 5.6 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.
• Purtis Creek State Park — 14 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.

More markers nearby

• Henderson County — 0.3 mi
• Athens — 0.3 mi
• J.B. Henry "The Pea Man" — 0.3 mi
• Henderson County Pottery Industry — 0.3 mi