Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A.

Jerome Robertson, the captain who raised the Texas Aides, was an Independence physician who had been building a double cedar-log house there since 1846. His men called him Aunt Polly for his care of them. After the Tennessee campaign Longstreet filed court-martial charges, and Robertson was reprimanded and sent back to Texas. He returned to Independence and practiced medicine until 1874. He helped organize the Hood's Texas Brigade Association and was often its president. He was buried at Independence in 1890, and in 1894 his son Felix, also a general, moved him to Waco.

What the plaque says

Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A. Co. I, Fifth Texas Infantry Regt., Army of Northern Virginia, was raised here Aug. 1861, as "The Texas Aides" by Capt. J.B. Robertson. Unit fought in many battles of Civil War--Gaines Mill, Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and the Wilderness. Robertson became brigadier general and succeeded Hood as Commander Oct. 1862. Replaced by brigadier general John Gregg, Jan. 1864. Col. R.M. Powell later held post until end of the war. The brigade surrendered at Appomatox, April 12, 1865, with 12% enlistees surviving. "Defeat could not dim their record." (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 0.6 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 11 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.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 11 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.
• Navasota — 16 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.

More markers nearby

• Site of Independence School — steps away
• Independence Postal Service — steps away
• Independence — steps away
• Old Baptist Church — steps away