Historical Marker
Home Town of Texas Confederate Major K.M. Van Zandt
Fort Worth, Tarrant County · Texas
Erected 1964
Van Zandt reached Fort Worth in August 1865 and found, in his words, a sad and gloomy picture: about 250 people and not even a saloon. He built a dry-goods business, cofounded the town's first newspaper, the Fort Worth Democrat, and helped win its first post office. He helped bring one of the state's first streetcar systems, sat on the school board for at least twenty years and led the First Christian Church board from 1877 until his death in 1930. From 1918 to 1921 he was commander in chief of the United Confederate Veterans.
What the plaque says
Home Town of Texas Confederate Major K.M. Van Zandt Born in Tennessee. Came to Texas 1939. Was son of Republic of Texas Minister to the United States. K.M. Van Zandt was admitted to the Bar in 1858. Raised Co. D, 7th Tex. Inf., 1861. Fought in snows at Fort Donelson, Tenn., Feb. 1862. Captured in surrender there. During imprisonment at Camps Douglas, Chase, Johnson Island, Ill., 5 Co. D men died. The rest were exchanged at Vicksburg in Sept. 1862. In the campaign to prevent the split of the Confederacy along the Mississippi River, Van Zandt and Co. D Fought many Battles to the east of Vicksburg. BACK OF MARKER: Van Zandt was promoted to Major in 1863 in Granbury's Brigade. Granbury led 306 men into battle at Raymond, Miss., came out with only 148. Van Zandt led 7th Tex. after Granbury was wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga. Went farthest of any Confederate unit into enemy lines. At Missionary Ridge, saved the heavy guns of his unit by pushing them by hand when horses wavered under fire. Van Zandt was in retreat to Atlanta, May 1864, and in the Nov. 1864 carnage at Franklin, Tenn. Late 1864 and 1865 he was in Trans-Mississippi department in Tax services for Gen. Kirby Smith. After the war he moved from Marshall to Fort Worth and became a Merchant. When big Eastern bankers failed to put railroad into Fort Worth, he founded a firm for railroad construction. Was president of Fort Worth National Bank for 56 years, and city benefactor to such an extent that he was called "Mr. Fort Worth." Erected by the State of Texas 1964
Where it stands
32.77237, -97.47464 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 6.5 miA hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
- Kimbell Art Museum — 6.6 miLouis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
- Fort Worth Stockyards — 7.5 miThe brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
- Tarrant County Courthouse — 8.3 miA pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.