DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Fayette County didn't exactly run to join the Confederacy. When the vote came, six hundred of her people said no, five hundred and eighty said yes, and that right there tells you something about the character of the place.
A county divided, almost right down the middle. But whatever the ballot said, by June of 1861, Confederate recruiting had begun. La Grange became headquarters for the 22nd Brigade, Texas State Troops, under Brigadier General William G.
Webb — a Fayette County man himself. And the county fed that brigade something fierce: eighteen companies, twelve hundred and thirty-eight men, and seventy-two officers, all out of Fayette. That's not a county tiptoeing into a war.
That's a county pouring itself in. To hold things together back home, they levied special county war taxes to give relief to soldiers' families. And then there was the famous Cow Order — that's what they called it — raising funds through the seizure of stray cattle.
Censors here in the county shut down mail exchanges with the United States entirely. Fayette County was sealing itself off, running on its own terms. Now here's where the story gets its legs.
Confederate cotton was gathered up and stored at La Grange and Round Top, and then it had to move. The Union wasn't about to let Southern cotton find a market through normal channels, so local men loaded five or more bales onto wagons and freighted that cotton all the way to Mexico. Each trip ran three months long.
Three months through raw country, rough roads, and no guarantee of what waited on the other end. And in 1863, that guarantee ran out for a dozen teamsters near Roma, on the Mexican border. Bandits struck.
Those men lost their outfits — wagons, goods, everything — and barely saved themselves. Barely. That word is doing a lot of work, and you'd do well to sit with it.
Colonels John C. and William F. Upton were Fayette County men. General Webb, commanding the 22nd Brigade, was a Fayette County man.
Local Confederate units were led by Captains Ira G. Killough and Ben Shropshire, who fought in the Arizona-New Mexico campaign — as far from the Fayette County courthouse as a Texas soldier was likely to get. And then there's General Tom Green.
First county surveyor of Fayette County. Indian fighter. Hero of San Jacinto and the Mexican War.
By the time the Civil War found him, Tom Green had already lived more history than most men see in a lifetime. And he kept going — taking part in the recapture of Galveston and the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana. Six hundred voted against it.
Five hundred and eighty voted for it. And then Fayette County gave everything it had. That gap between a ballot and a war — twenty votes wide — that's the whole story of this county, right there.
What the marker says
Although voted 600 against to 580 for secession, began Confederate recruiting in June 1861. La Grange was headquarters for 22nd Brigade, Texas State Troops, Brig. Gen. Wm. G. Webb commanding, of which 18 companies (1,238 men ) and 72 officers were from Fayette. Special county war taxes provided relief for soldiers' families. Funds were also raised by the famous "Cow Order" for seizure of strays. Censors here banned exchanges of mail with the U.S. Confederate cotton gathered in and stored at La Grange and Round Top was freighted to Mexico by local men hauling 5 or more bales on each 3-months-long trip. In 1863 a dozen teamsters lost outfits and barely saved themselves when bandits struck near Roma, on the Mexican border. Gen. Webb and Cols. John C. and Wm.F. Upton were Fayette County men. Local C.S.A. units were commanded by Capts. Ira G. Killough and Ben Shropshire, who fought in the Arizona-New Mexico campaign. Gen. Tom Green, first county surveyor, and Indian fighter and hero of San Jacinto and the Mexican war, had a part in such Confederate victories as the recapture of Galveston and the Battle of Mansfield, La.