Military Headquarters Northern Sub-District of Texas, C.S.A.

Henry E. McCulloch held more offices than the plaque suggests. The Handbook of Texas lists him as sheriff of Gonzales in 1843, a legislator from Guadalupe County in both houses in the early 1850s, and United States marshal for the Eastern District of Texas at the end of that decade. After the war he became superintendent of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum in 1876, now the Texas School for the Deaf. The Handbook calls his administration lax and inept and says a legislative investigation led him to resign in 1879. He died in Seguin in 1895.

What the plaque says

Military Headquarters Northern Sub-District of Texas, C.S.A. Established at this site as a key part of Civil War defense of Texas by General Henry E. McCulloch, frontier fighter and Ranger of long experience. With supervision of 7 brigades fighting in Texas, Indian Territory and Arkansas, McCulloch had here only 2 cavalry and 4 infantry units to patrol and defend 600 miles along the Red River and western frontier against hostile indians, bands of armed deserters, Federals attempting invasion and disloyal citizens encouraging invasion. Food and arms were also furnished from here for armed forces and for friendly Indian families. Colonel William C. Quantrill, C.S.A., and his notorious guerrilla raiders, including future members of the James and Younger gangs, attached themselves in 1863-64 to this command. Though the guerrillas were credited with stopping cattle thefts along the Red River, Quantrill had to be arrested for killing draft evaders and deserters and shooting up towns. However, he soon escaped. Lines of communication and supply were kept open and lives of hundreds of settlers were saved through the operations of this command. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 1.4 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Eisenhower State Park — 28 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.

More markers nearby

• Sam Rayburn — steps away
• John P. Simpson — steps away
• Dr. Tom Douglas Spies — steps away
• Bailey Inglish — 0.4 mi