DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, in my own words. Thomas Neville Waul was born in South Carolina — somewhere around 1813, though even the record hedges on that — and he spent years practicing law in Mississippi before Texas called him west in 1850. Now, a man who moves to Texas in 1850 has made a decision about his future, and Waul's future turned out to be one of the more consequential ones the state would produce.
When the Confederacy was still taking shape, Waul was in the room — serving in the Provisional Confederate Congress, putting his name to the Confederate constitution in 1861. That's not a man standing on the sidelines watching history. That's a man helping write it, for better or worse.
Then he did something that put his name on the map in a different way altogether — he organized Waul's Texas Legion, C.S.A. His own legion. And he led those Texans into Mississippi, through 1862 and into 1863, all the way to the siege and defense of Vicksburg — one of the grinding, punishing campaigns of the entire war.
The Legion came out the other side, and so did Waul, and in 1864 he was leading a brigade again — this time in the Red River Campaign, at Mansfield, Louisiana, and then at Jenkins' Ferry, Arkansas. By 1865, the war was over, and Thomas Waul came back to Texas. He picked up his law practice and kept on living — kept on living for a long time.
He died near Greenville, having carried that birth year of around 1813 all the way to 1903. Nearly a century. And he was buried right here, at this site, which is about as permanent a claim on a place as a man can make.
What the marker says
A native of South Carolina, Thomas Neville Waul (1813?-1903) practiced law in Mississippi before moving to Texas in 1850. After serving in the Provisional Confederate Congress and signing the 1861 Confederate constitution, he organized Waul's Texas Legion, C.S.A. Waul led the Texans in Mississippi during 1862 and 1863, participating in the defense of Vicksburg. He led a brigade in the Red River Campaign of 1864 at Mansfield, La., and Jenkins' Ferry, Ark. Waul returned to Texas in 1865 and resumed the practice of law. He died near Greenville and was buried at this site. (1983)