Primus Kelly

Primus Kelly did not choose this war; he was sent to it. The regiment he followed, Terry's Texas Rangers, mustered at Houston on September 9, 1861, lost its colonel at Woodsonville, Kentucky, that December, fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga, and slipped through Union lines in April 1865 rather than surrender. Historian Kevin M. Levin, in Searching for Black Confederates, finds that enslaved men taken to Confederate camps served as body servants and forced laborers, and that their legal status as enslaved people never changed. The plaque's 1965 praise of slave loyalty is its writers' voice, not his.

What the plaque says

Primus Kelly A faithful Negro slave. Came to nearby Courtney, Grimes County in 1851 with his master, John W. S. West from North Carolina. West was a prominent and wealthy pioneer planter and landowner. At the outbreak of the Civil War, West sent Kelly "to take care" of his three sons-- Robert M., Richard and John Haywood-- who joined the famous Terry's Texas Rangers, where they served with distinction. Kelly was not content "to wait on" his charges but joined them in battle, firing his own musket and cap and ball pistol. Twice Kelly brought to Texas the wounded Richard, twice took him to the front again. After war, bought a small farm near "Marse Robert", raised a large family and prospered. Died in 1890s. The courage and loyalty of Kelly was typical of most Texas Negro slaves. Hundreds "went to war" with their masters. Many operated the farms and ranches of soldiers away at war, producing food, livestock, cotton and clothing for the Confederacy. Others, did outside work to support their master's families. They protected homes from Indians, bandits and deserters and did community guard and patrol duty. At war's end, most slaves, like Primus Kelly, became useful and productive citizens of Texas. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Star of the Republic Museum — 8.6 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 8.9 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Navasota — 11 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 18 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• Courtney Cemetery — 2.8 mi
• Lynn Grove United Methodist Church — 3.9 mi
• Jared Ellison Groce — 4.1 mi
• Amos Gates — 4.1 mi