Shelby Expedition through Van Zandt County

After Stone Point the column kept going. The Handbook of Texas says Shelby, a Missouri planter, decided on June 1, 1865 to take as many men as would follow him to Mexico. They rode from Corsicana through Waco, Austin and San Antonio to Eagle Pass and sank their guidon in the Rio Grande at Piedras Negras. In Mexico City, Emperor Maximilian received them only as immigrant settlers. Some founded the Carlota colony near Córdoba and another at Tuxpan, but the colonies lasted about a year and most Americans were home by the end of 1867.

What the plaque says

Shelby Expedition through Van Zandt County Gen. Joseph O. Shelby's command refused to surrender at the close of the Civil War. Shelby's men, the First Missouri Cavalry of the Confederate States of America, marched via Clarksville to Van Zandt County, proceeding through Grand Saline to Canton and on to Stone Point soon after learning of Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender. From about April 22 to May 29, 1865, Shelby's troops camped at Stone Point while their leader attended a Confederate conference at Marshall, Texas. Determined to continue the war, Shelby's men journeyed to Mexico, stopping where they were needed to enforce the peace in a ravaged postwar Texas. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Purtis Creek State Park — 14 mi
  A 1,582-acre park straddling the Henderson and Van Zandt county line, built around a 355-acre lake with no-wake fishing, borrowed tackle, a 4.1-mile hike-and-bike trail and a nature path.
• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 20 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center — 27 mi
  A Texas Parks and Wildlife hatchery and visitor center in Athens where visitors can borrow tackle and fish a stocked pond, watch native species in gallery tanks and ride a tram around the hatchery.

More markers nearby

• John H. Reagan — 7.6 mi
• Site of 1896 Van Zandt County Courthouse — 7.6 mi
• Oran Milo Roberts — 7.6 mi
• Cadwell Walton Raines — 7.6 mi