"Cherry Hill" Home of Thomas N. Waul

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. The place is called Cherry Hill, and it was home to a man named Thomas N. Waul.

Born in 1813, a native of South Carolina, Waul made his way to Texas and built a life here as a plantation owner and a lawyer. Two professions that, in the Texas of his era, carried a man a long way. When the Confederacy took shape, Waul stepped into it fully.

He won a seat in the first Confederate Congress, and then, when the fighting got serious, he stepped further still. He raised and commanded what became known as Waul's Texas Legion, and he led those men to Vicksburg. Now, Vicksburg.

If you know that name, you know it wasn't easy. And upon his exchange in 1863, Thomas Waul was appointed Brigadier-General. That's not a rank you receive for standing aside.

He took his brigade into Louisiana, into the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, and then up into Arkansas for the Battle of Jenkins' Ferry. Three battles after Vicksburg, and each one its own story. When the war ended and Texas moved into Reconstruction, Waul was there again, serving as a member of the state's first Reconstruction convention.

A man who outlasted the war, the losses, the long aftermath, dying in 1903 at the age of, well, the years speak for themselves: 1813 to 1903. Cherry Hill stands as a memorial to Texans who served in the Confederacy, and Thomas N. Waul's name sits at the center of that remembrance.

The State of Texas erected this marker in 1963. Some men leave a long shadow on the land they called home.

What the marker says

1813-1903 Native South Carolinian, Texas plantation owner and lawyer, member first Confederate Congress, Colonel commanding Waul's Texas Legion at Vicksburg, upon exchange in 1863 appointed Brigadier-General, led his brigade in battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in Louisiana, and Battle of Jenkins' Ferry in Arkansas. Member Texas first Reconstruction convention. A memorial to Texans who served in the Confederacy. Erected by the State of Texas 1963