DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this place, and friend, this one's got some staying power to it. We're talking about Camp Ben McCulloch, Number 946, United Confederate Veterans, out in Hays County, Texas. Pull up a chair by the fire, because this story starts in the summer of 1896 and it hasn't stopped yet.
Hays County Confederate veterans and their families came together for a reunion, gathered near Martin Spring and a campsite right on Onion Creek. And when they got there, they didn't just swap stories and go home. They formally organized.
They called themselves the Camp Ben McCulloch Chapter of the United Confederate Veterans. The first commander was Captain Martin Luther Reed. The officers elected at that first meeting were Jacob C.
Quick, W. M. Weaver, W.
W. Davis, W. T.
Chapman, Dr. J. M.
Pound, and Santa Anna Cruze. Names worth saying out loud, every one of them. Now the camp itself was named for Confederate General Ben McCulloch, a man who had already lived a big life before the war even started.
He was a veteran of the Texas Revolution, too. He died in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862. So when those veterans chose his name for their camp, they were reaching back across a long span of Texas history.
The organization purchased the reunion grounds in 1904, and those grounds kept on hosting the annual reunion, year after year, with just one exception, one year during World War I. Then the decades kept rolling. One by one, the veterans passed on.
And in 1947, the last Confederate veteran in Hays County, a man named Burl Nash, died at the age of 108. When Burl Nash was gone, the reunion grounds and all the responsibilities that came with them were transferred to the Confederate Sons. The Sons, in turn, deeded the camp to the grandsons and other descendants of those Confederate veterans.
And here's the part that'll get you. Those reunions? They continue to be held.
The marker itself was part of the Texas Sesquicentennial, 1836 to 1986, and what it marks is something that started beside a spring on Onion Creek and kept going through wars and loss and the passage of generations. The Civil War left a long shadow on Texas history, and out here along Onion Creek, that shadow still gathers every year.
What the marker says
Hays County Confederate veterans and their families gathered for a reunion in the summer of 1896 and formally organized the Camp Ben McCulloch Chapter of the United Confederate Veterans. The gathering took place near this site at the Martin Spring and campsite on Onion Creek. The reunion grounds were purchased by the organization in 1904 and have continued as the site of the annual reunion with the exception of one year during World War I. The first commander of Camp Ben McCulloch was Capt. Martin Luther Reed. Other officers elected at the first meeting were Jacob C. Quick, W. M. Weaver, W. W. Davis, W. T. Chapman, Dr. J. M. Pound, and Santa Anna Cruze. The camp was named for Confederate General Ben McCulloch, also a veteran of the Texas Revolution, who died in the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in 1862. The reunion grounds and other responsibilities were transferred to the care of the Confederate Sons after Burl Nash, the last veteran in the county died in 1947 at age 108. The Sons in turn deeded the camp to the grandsons and other descendants of the Confederate veterans. Reunions continue to be held, illustrating the ongoing impact of the Civil War on Texas history. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986