DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about General Wool and the Chihuahua Road out in Medina County. Now, 1846 was a year of big ambitions and bigger surprises. General John Ellis Wool gathered himself an army — three thousand four hundred troops, assembled right there in San Antonio — and the plan was nothing less than a full invasion of Chihuahua, Mexico.
Three thousand four hundred men. That is not a patrol. That is a statement.
They set out from Camp Crockett, crossed the Medina River, and moved through Castroville and Quihi, heading south and west with Chihuahua in their sights. And then — as happens to the best-laid plans in Texas and everywhere else — orders arrived. General Zachary Taylor needed support down at Saltillo, Mexico, and just like that, Wool's grand march to Chihuahua became something else entirely.
Now here's the part worth chewin' on: that path Wool had carved out toward Chihuahua? It wasn't exactly new ground. It mirrored the very route Mexican General Adrian Woll had used in his own retreat to Mexico back in 1842.
Two armies, years apart, tracin' the same line across the land. Most of Wool's original route eventually became known as the Chihuahua Road — a major thoroughfare for westward travel, kept alive in no small part because it offered something precious out on those dry plains: plentiful water for horses and mules. Castroville sat right along that route, central enough that commercial trade there picked up considerably because of it.
A road born from an army that never reached its destination — and it served travelers for years. Sometimes the journey matters more than the plan.
What the marker says
GENERAL WOOL AND THE CHIHUAHUA ROAD In 1846, General John Ellis Wool amassed an army of 3,400 troops in San Antonio to invade Chihuahua, Mexico. Departing from Camp Crockett crossing the Medina River and passing through Castroville and Quihi, Wool's plans changed after receiving orders to support general Zachary Taylor's forces in Saltillo, Mexico. General Wool's original path to Chihuahua mirrored Mexican General Adrian Woll's 1842 retreat to Mexico. Most of this route became the Chihuahua Road. Commercial trade in Castroville increased due to the town's central location along the route, and it remained a major thoroughfare for westward travel because of its plentiful water for horses and mules. (2014)