Camp Clark, C.S.A.

Duane's take

Now, I'm gonna tell this one the way the official marker tells it, so hold on to your hat. Somewhere in Guadalupe County, close to good roads and good water, there once stood a place called Camp Clark, C.S.A. Named for Edward Clark, the first Confederate governor of Texas, whose executive order on June 8, 1861, called voluntary camps of instruction into being.

This was one of fifty or sixty such camps that answered that call. And right away, you have to appreciate the situation, because everything about it was voluntary. The food was voluntary.

The camp facilities were voluntary. The guns were voluntary. Farmers brought goods.

Merchants brought goods. Artisans and laborers gave their time and their services. Men who had actual military training stepped forward as drillmasters, asking nothing in return.

The whole thing was held together by community will and not much else, because neither Texas nor the Confederacy in 1861 had the funds to pay for any of it. Now, here is where the story gets a little interesting. The main thing these camps taught, all fifty or sixty of them, was walking.

Just walking. Because the men who showed up had grown up on horseback. That was how a Texan got around.

That was how a Texan fought. And the numbers bear this out. Six out of every ten Texans who joined up went cavalry.

Governor Clark apparently felt strongly enough about this that he put something right there in his executive order, something to the effect that infantry service was actually a matter of honor. He felt compelled to say that. In writing.

Which tells you something about the conversation he was having with the men of Texas in the summer of 1861. And who were these men? Recruits between eighteen and thirty-five years old, many of whom had spent a good portion of their lives fighting Indians on the frontier.

They were not patient men. They were not men who thought they needed drilling. They came in with scorn for the whole enterprise, impatient for battle and not for instruction.

Yet the camp operated anyway, through all of that. By 1862, privates were earning eleven dollars a month and officers fifty. The units that came through this particular Guadalupe County camp included Company D of the 4th Texas Infantry, part of Hood's famous Texas Brigade, and the 4th Texas Cavalry, Partisan, under Captain William P.

Hardeman. Men who thought they didn't need to learn to walk, who maybe had a point, and who went on to find out what was waiting for them all the same.

What the marker says

Named for Edward Clark, first Confederate governor of Texas, whose executive order June 8, 1861, created voluntary camps of instruction such as this. Food, camp facilities and guns were voluntary gifts by local people. Farmers, merchants, artisans, laborers gave goods and services. Men with military training and experience gave their time as drillmasters. This and 50 or 60 other camps of instruction mainly taught walking to Texans brought up with the habit of moving about on horseback. (6 out of 10 Texans joined the Cavalry. Governor Clark felt compelled to say in his executive order that infantry service was actually a matter of honor.) Operated despite scorn of 18 to 35 year old recruits who had fought Indians most of their lives and were impatient for battle -- not for training. Though neither Texas nor the Confederacy in 1861 had funds for camps of instruction, by 1862 privates were paid $11 a month, officers $50. This Guadalupe County camp of instruction was convenient to roads and to water. Area units that trained here included Co. D, 4th Texas Infantry, of Hood's famous Texas Brigade, and 4th Texas Cavalry (Partisan) under Captain William P. Hardeman. (1965)