Confederate Training Camp

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about this stretch of Cherokee County road. Now, picture yourself rolling down the old road from Rusk to Crockett — the kind of road that looks quiet now but has seen a whole lot of history move across it. Right along here, in what was once a bare field with Pryor Branch running nearby to keep men and horses watered, the Confederate army set up what they called Camp Rusk.

During the Civil War, this ground was anything but quiet. New recruits came through here green and uncertain, and veteran units came through to be reorganized, re-equipped, and sent back out ready for whatever was coming next. And what was coming next, for some of them, was no small thing.

Several of the units that trained and regrouped right here on this ordinary-looking field went on to fight at Mansfield and at Glorieta Pass — battles that still carry weight in the story of that war. This bare field with a creek nearby shaped men who fought in some of the conflict's most consequential moments. Then the war ended.

And here's the part that carries its own quiet weight — the camp didn't close so much as it changed hands. Union soldiers occupied it after the fighting stopped, using the same ground, the same water from Pryor Branch, until the occupation period was over. And then it was abandoned.

No fanfare recorded, no ceremony noted. Just a field again. The kind of place you'd drive right past without a second thought — unless you knew.

What the marker says

During the Civil War this area along the road from Rusk to Crockett served as a training camp for Confederate soldiers. Located in a bare field with an available water supply from the nearby Pryor Branch, Camp Rusk was used for training new recruits as well as for reorganizing and equipping veteran units. Several units that spent time here went on to serve with distinction in such battles as Mansfield and Glorieta Pass. The training camp was occupied by Union soldiers after the war ended and was abandoned once the occupation period was over. (1984)