Marshall Powder Mill

The mill is better known today through its archaeology. Excavations under the Northeast Texas Archeological Society and partner societies, reported in the Index of Texas Archaeology as site 41HS17, found building foundations, earthworks, roads and an artificial channel race still largely intact along the Loop 390 corridor. A modern lumber mill destroyed the eastern third. The only known map, captured by Federal troops in 1864, shows a few buildings and no earthworks, and the commander, Maj. George D. Alexander, destroyed or removed the records before the 1865 occupation.

What the plaque says

Marshall Powder Mill Throughout the Civil War, the Confederate Army struggled with the problem of lack of military stores. Following the fall of Vicksburg to Union forces in 1863, the supply of ordnance from Richmond was cut off. The Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederacy of which Texas was a part, established arsenals and ordnance stores at four sites in Arkansas. By the summer of 1863 the strategic position in Arkansas had become precarious, and the operations were relocated. The installation formerly at Arkadelphia was moved to Marshall at the end of August 1863. Buildings were erected here for the manufacture of small arms, shops for smiths and carpenters, a magazine, and a powder mill. The powder mill was in full operation sometime between March and August of 1864. The arsenal, completed by the time of the war's end in May 1865, produced gunpowder and repaired small arms for the Confederate Army. Following the surrender of the Confederate forces, the installation at Marshall was abandoned. After Federal forces occupied the town and began to dismantle the machinery, an explosion occurred which killed three soldiers and wounded two others. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas and Pacific Railway Depot and Museum — 1.5 mi
  The only surviving building of the Texas and Pacific shops at Marshall, a 1912 Mission Revival depot saved from demolition in the 1990s, still an Amtrak stop, with a railway museum and a Mikado locomotive.
• Harrison County Historical Museum — 2.0 mi
  Galleries in Marshall's 1901 courthouse that run from the Caddo to the present, with Wiley College, Lady Bird Johnson's inaugural gown and a military gallery across the square in Memorial City Hall.
• Starr Family Home State Historic Site — 2.1 mi
  Maplecroft, the 1871 Greek Revival house Frank Starr built in Marshall, with Ruth Starr Blake's glass and china, an 1880s kitchen restored in 2019 and a retirement home built for a formerly enslaved person.
• Jefferson Historical Museum — 13 mi
  A four-floor museum in Jefferson's 1888-90 federal post office and courthouse, with rooms for African-American history, Jewish heritage, the Caddo and Diamond Bessie, bought by the historical society in 1965 for $8,100.

More markers nearby

• Old Powder Mill Cemetery — 0.4 mi
• Van Zandt Hill — 1.2 mi
• East Texas Baptist University — 1.2 mi
• Matthew Duncan Ector — 1.2 mi