DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this piece of Marion County history — and it is quite a story. About two miles to the southwest of where you're rolling right now, something was happening during the Civil War that the Confederate army depended on more than most folks ever think about. Not rifles.
Not cannons. Meat. A man named J.
B. Dunn ran a meat packing plant out here, and when the war came calling in 1861, he answered — big. He started out dressin, packing, and shipping beef, pork, and mutton to the Confederate army at a rate of one hundred and fifty beeves a day.
One hundred and fifty. Every single day. Now, the location wasn't an accident.
This plant sat right on the Cypress Bayou shipping route, with cattle trailing in from east and north Texas. Dunn was buying those herds for twenty to forty dollars a head, loading the meat into forty-two gallon wooden barrels, and filling those barrels with meat and brine. The salt to do it came from New Iberia, Louisiana, and elsewhere, obtained through the Confederate government itself.
But here's where the story gets a little grim. Even with all that preservative salt, bloody water was sometimes found in the packed meat when those barrels were cracked open. The army complained — complained loudly — that it was made to accept this.
Regular customers, the marker is careful to note, would have rejected it outright. The army didn't have that luxury. And truth be told, the greater portion of cattle didn't even go into a barrel.
They went out of Texas on the hoof — driven live, to be slaughtered fresh right there in the army camp. Because nothing keeps like something that's still walkin. But Dunn's operation was just one thread in a much larger cloth.
So much beef, pork, mutton, grain, sugar, salt, peas, beans, flour, and cornmeal was shipped out of this state that Texas became known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy. And that was only part of what Texas gave. The cotton crops went out as currency — traded for guns, ammunition, and other goods.
And Texas sent her men and her horses into the fight. Out here on this quiet stretch of Marion County road, it's something to sit with — that just two miles that direction, barrels were being packed and shipped and a war was being fed, one hundred and fifty head at a time.
What the marker says
About 2 miles to the southwest, the meat plant of J. B. Dunn dressed,packed and shipped beef, pork and mutton to the Confederate army. In 1861 began by packing 150 beeves a day. Well located, on the Cypress Bayou shipping route, with cattle in trailing distance, in east and north Texas. Herds were bought at $20 to $40 a head. Used 42-gallon wooden barrels. Filled these with meat and brine. Obtained salt from New Iberia, La., and elsewhere through the Confederate government. Yet even with use of preservative salt, bloody water was sometimes found in the packed meat. The army complained it was made to accept this, though regular customers would have rejected it. The greater portion of cattle went out of Texas on the hoof, to be served as fresh meat after being slaughtered in the army camp. So much beef, pork, mutton, grain, sugar, salt, peas, beans, flour and corn meal was shipped away that Texas became known as the breadbasket of the Confederacy. Supplying of food was only one part of the Texas war effort, which included yielding her cotton crops as currency to buy guns and ammunition and other goods, and sending her mean and horses into the fight.