Smith County, C. S. A.

The Handbook of Texas counts 4,980 enslaved people and two free Black residents in Smith County in 1860. Its account of the war names a quartermaster depot called Kirbyville, set up by Capt. John C. Kirby, that made wagons, harnesses, caissons and saddles. A Confederate-heritage history of the county places Kirbyville four miles northeast of Tyler and says it also made shoes for the army's horses and mules. The same history reports that county voters approved secession 1,149 to 50 on February 25, 1861, and that nearly 15,000 Confederate troops camped around Tyler in spring and summer 1862.

What the plaque says

Smith County, C. S. A. [FRONT] Smith County C.S.A. Major center of Confederate activity during Civil War. Many distinguished men and military units served South. The largest ordnance plant west of the Mississippi River manufactured "Tyler Rifles" near here. Camp Ford located east of town was the largest prisoner of war compound in the western Confederacy. Other military activities here included a quartermaster depot, training camps, transportation depot, foundry, general hospital and medical laboratories. Two large salt works produced daily thousands of pounds of this vital commodity. At home, women, children, old men, loyal slaves raised cotton and grain for army. Women made all their own clothes, used parched okra and yams for coffee and made hats out of shucks and straw. [BACK] Tyler-Smith County C. S. A. Men and Units Elements of the following Confederate Texas military units were recruited from or organized in Tyler and Smith County: Douglas' Battery, 1st Texas Infantry, 3rd Texas Cavalry, 11th Texas Infantry, 15th Texas Infantry, 22nd Texas Infantry. Erected by the State of Texas 1965

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 0.3 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.
• Tyler Rose Garden and Rose Museum — 1.3 mi
  More than 38,000 rose bushes of about 600 cultivars in a free city garden, beside a museum of the Texas Rose Festival, which began in 1933, and of the rose industry.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 3.6 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Tyler State Park — 9.1 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.

More markers nearby

• First County Agricultural Extension Agent — steps away
• City of Tyler — steps away
• Tyler Commercial College — steps away
• Henry Miller Morgan — steps away