Navarro Rifles

The Navarro Rifles were Company I of the Fourth Texas, one of ten companies drawn from Gonzales, Travis, Robertson, Guadalupe, McLennan, Bexar, Grimes, Walker, Navarro and Henderson counties, according to the Handbook of Texas. The regiment's first colonel, unpopular for harsh discipline, was forced to resign in October 1861, when more than 400 of its 1,187 men were sick. Across the war 1,343 men were assigned to it. The Handbook counts 909 battle casualties and 161 deaths from disease, and at surrender only fifteen officers and 143 men remained.

What the plaque says

Navarro Rifles During the Civil War, the Navarro Rifles were an infantry company comprised of approximately 87 men from Navarro and surrounding counties. The group formed in Corsicana in July 1861 to join the army of the Confederate States of America. Clinton M. Winkler, a founder of Navarro County, organized the men and served as the unit's initial captain. The group trained near the Navarro County towns of Dresden and Spring Hill, and later Waco (McLennan Co.) and Harrisburg (Harris Co.). Formally designated Company I of the Fourth Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, the Rifles soon left for war, arriving in Richmond, Virginia in September 1861. Combined with the First and Fifth Texas infantry regiments, the Rifles were part of the brigade of famed Texas general John Bell Hood. They received their baptism of fire in limited action at Yorktown and Eltham's Landing (Virginia) in the spring of 1862. The unit's first major battle was near Richmond, at Turkey Hill and Boatswain Swamp. The impressive Union defensive positions consisted of sharpshooters, infantry and artillery; however, Hood located a weak link in the line. Having given the order to fix bayonets, Hood led the unit in a charge against the Union's first series of breastworks, which they quickly mastered. Moving forward, the Confederates took the Union's second line of defense and topped the hill where they successfully repulsed a Union cavalry unit's counterattack. The unit's casualties over the duration of the war included 19 dead, 59 wounded, and 10 captured. Due to their bravery throughout the war, the unit earned a special place in the heart of Commanding General Robert E. Lee and an honored reputation in their native state. (2007)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Petroleum Industry Park — 2.1 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.
• Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery — 19 mi
  The Freestone County grave of the Texas blues singer Blind Lemon Jefferson, who recorded for Paramount in Chicago from 1926 and died there in December 1929.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 30 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.

More markers nearby

• 15th Texas Infantry Companies E and G — steps away
• Odd Fellow and Rebekah Children's Home — 0.5 mi
• Corsicana State Home — 0.6 mi
• James Clinton Neill — 1.2 mi