Major Ben Ficklin, C.S.A.

The Handbook of Texas gives Ben Ficklin's birth as December 18, 1827, in Albemarle County, Virginia, and says pranks briefly got him put out of VMI. In 1857 he went with Albert Sidney Johnston's expedition to Utah. In the war he was a staff officer at Malvern Hill and helped organize the John B. Floyd Brigade, and his purchases in Europe included a steamer for carrying cotton through the blockade. Afterward he was arrested on suspicion of complicity in Lincoln's assassination and released months later through Senator Orville Browning. He was buried in Maplewood Cemetery at Charlottesville.

What the plaque says

(1827-1871) Called Mystery Man of the Confederacy. Educated at Virginia Military Institute. At age 18 served as a corporal in Mexican War. In 1850's worked with stagecoach and mail lines from Missouri to San Francisco. Helped to start the Pony Express Line in 1860. Promoted idea of the railroad that later was the Union Pacific-- the first to span the U.S. Was a soldier and state quartermaster in Virginia at start of Civil War. Appointed Confederate purchasing agent, his swagger and success in Europe excited Federal envy. Personally ran blockade and passed through New York and Washington on secret missions. In 1867 was awarded U.S. contract for weekly mail run from Fort Smith, Ark., to San Antonio and El Paso. Had his operational headquarters 3 miles below Fort Concho. Owned 640 acres of land here. Built corrals, blacksmith shop, storage rooms, adobe house, kitchen and commissary. On a visit to Washington, died of swallowing fish bone. Was buried in Charlottesville,Va. Associates carried on the mail stage runs, later named town near Fort Concho for the late Major. "Benficklin" was first county seat of Tom Green, serving until it was destroyed by flood in 1882. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Concho National Historic Landmark — 3.5 mi
  The stone post at the forks of the Concho, headquarters of the Tenth Cavalry from 1875 to 1882, saved by a woman with a museum and now a city-run landmark of 23 original buildings.
• Concho River Walk — 3.5 mi
  Four miles of lit trails along the North Concho through downtown San Angelo, rebuilt after voters taxed themselves in 2004, with gardens, sculpture, a river stage and stocked trout.
• San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts — 3.6 mi
  A free art museum on the Concho beside Fort Concho, founded in the fort's 1868 quartermaster building and known nationally for its biennial ceramics competition.
• Miss Hattie's Bordello Museum — 3.8 mi
  The upstairs rooms on Concho Avenue where a brothel ran from 1902 until the Texas Rangers closed it in 1952, shown on short guided tours with most of the furnishings original.

More markers nearby

• Tom Green County — steps away
• Site of Ben Ficklin — steps away
• John Ingram — 2.5 mi
• John R. ("Sarge") Nasworthy — 3.3 mi