The Great Hanging at Gainesville, 1862

The killing did not end at the courthouse square. The Handbook of Texas says that the week after the first hangings, unknown assassins killed Colonel William Young, and his son Jim, supervising the later executions, shot the editor E. Junius Foster for applauding the death. Union League members and the families of the slain fled, leaving bodies unclaimed in a mass grave. A Texas company in Arkansas nearly mutinied until General Shelby calmed it. In Richmond, Jefferson Davis dismissed General Hébert for improper use of martial law, and Northern papers called the hangings Rebel barbarism.

What the plaque says

The Great Hanging at Gainesville, 1862 Facing the threat of invasion from the north and fearing a Unionist uprising in their midst, the people of North Texas lived in constant dread during the Civil War. Word of a "Peace Party" of Union sympathizers, sworn to destroy their government, kill their leaders, and bring in Federal troops caused great alarm in Cooke and neighboring counties. Spies joined the "Peace Party" discovered its members and details of their plans. Under the leadership of Colonels James Bourland, Daniel Montague and others, citizens loyal to the Confederacy determined to destroy the order; and on the morning of October 1, 1862, there were widespread arrests "by authority of the people of Cooke County." Fear of rescue by "Peace Party" members brought troops and militia to Gainesville, where the prisoners were assembled, and hastened action by the citizens committee. At a meeting of Cooke County citizens, with Colonel W. C. Young presiding, it was unanimously resolved to establish a Citizens Court and to have the Chairman choose a committee to select a jury. 68 men were brought speedily before the court. 39 of them were found guilty of conspiracy and insurrection, sentenced and immediately hanged. Three other prisoners who were members of military units were allowed trial by Court Martial at their request and were subsequently hanged by its order. Two others broke from their guard and were shot and killed. The Texas Legislature appropriated $4,500 for rations, forage used by State troops here during the unrest. (1964)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Great Hanging Memorial — steps away
  Two granite monuments in a Gainesville park, dedicated in 2014, for the Cooke County men the Confederate militia hanged in October 1862 on suspicion of Unionism.
• Stonewall Saloon Museum — 23 mi
  Saint Jo's first permanent building, a stone saloon of 1873 with rooms upstairs for trail drovers, in a town named, the story goes, as a joke on a founder who did not drink.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 24 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.

More markers nearby

• Gainesville-Fort Sill Road — steps away
• Cooke County Free Library — 0.3 mi
• Gainesville National Bank — 0.3 mi
• Barbed Wire in Cooke County — 0.4 mi