The Houston Light Guard

Confederate veterans began organizing the company in the fall of 1872, once the end of the Republican state administration seemed near, and it became the first uniformed militia company in post-Reconstruction Houston. Between 1876 and 1903 it mobilized three times during race crises in Southeast Texas, twice in political feuds, four times in labor strikes and once after the 1900 Galveston hurricane. Its drill teams won $30,000 in cash prizes before retiring from competition in 1889. Members at first voted against going to the war with Spain, answering the call only when told the company would be disbanded.

What the plaque says

The Houston Light Guard Organized as a Texas militia unit on April 21, 1873, the Houston Light Guard originally participated in parades, ceremonies, and competitive drills, and served as guard of honor for visiting dignitaries. The first commander was Capt. Edwin Fairfax Gray (1829-1884), then the city engineer of Houston. During the 1880s the guard, dressed in uniforms of red coats and red-plumed helmets, became known as a leader in drill competitions throughout the United States. Prize money funded their first armory in 1891. In 1898 the Guard was activated for service with United States troops in the Spanish-American War. After participating in the Punitive Expedition against Mexico, 1916-1917, the unit joined U.S. forces fighting in Europe during World War I. The Guard built a new armory at this site in 1925 and deeded it to the State of Texas in 1939. The next year the unit was again activated and during World War II saw action in seven campaigns in Africa and Europe. As part of the 36th Infantry Division, Guard members were among the first American troops in Europe during the war. Now part of the National Guard, the Houston Light Guard represents a proud heritage of distinguished military service. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — steps away
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Emancipation Park — 0.8 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 1.0 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 1.1 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• San Jacinto High School — steps away
• Courtlandt Place — 0.6 mi
• First Presbyterian Church of Houston — 0.9 mi
• Dr. Benjamin Jesse Covington and the Covington House — 1.1 mi