Henderson County C. S. A.

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official Henderson County C.S.A. marker has to say — and friend, it has plenty to say. Now, Henderson County didn't ease into the Civil War. They voted for secession — four hundred votes in favor, forty-nine against.

That's not a close call. That's a county that had made up its mind. And they didn't just vote.

They went. About a thousand men marched into the Confederate Army from Henderson County. A thousand sons, husbands, fathers.

You want to know how hard that war hit? One detachment alone — a hundred and fifty men — sent only thirteen back home alive. Thirteen.

Let that settle over you for a moment before we keep going. Back home, the county got to work. Three miles northeast of Athens, Caldwell's farm became a camp of instruction.

And nineteen miles southeast of Athens, there was Fincastle — running its own camp of instruction and pulling double duty as a Confederate supply depot. Fincastle held stores of grain, and the man keeping watch over all of it was Captain Thomas F. Murchison, who also served as the county's enrolling officer.

One busy man in a county under pressure. And that county was producing. Wartime manufactures included earthenware jugs and dishes.

Beyond that, Henderson County was shipping cotton, corn, beef, pork, and timber to feed the Confederate cause. A county at war finds a way to keep working. Now here's a name the marker drops quietly, but it deserves anything but quiet attention.

Cynthia Ann Parker — delivered from Indian captivity in 1860 by Sul Ross' Ranger unit — lived during the war right there in Athens. Whatever peace or grief or complicated mix of both she carried, she carried it in Henderson County during those years. And then there's John H.

Reagan. Before he became Postmaster-General of the Confederacy — the whole Confederacy — he had been a surveyor, and the first probate judge in Henderson County. Henderson County, it turns out, had a way of grooming men for history.

A county that voted hard, bled harder, worked through the war, and sheltered some of the most remarkable figures of the era — all at once, all in the same red East Texas soil. Henderson County, C.S.A.

What the marker says

(Star and Wreath) Voted 400-49 for secession. Sent about 1,000 into Confederate Army, with one detachment of 150 having only 13 live to return. Caldwell's farm, three miles northeast, and Fincastle, 19 miles southeast of Athens, had camps of instruction. Confederate supply depot, Fincastle, had stores of grain, mean in charge of Capt. Thomas F. Murchison, who also was county enrolling officer. Wartime manufactures included earthenware jugs and dishes. Other products for C.S.A. were cotton, corn, beef, pork, timber. Cynthia Ann Parker, delivered from Indian captivity 1860 by Sul Ross' Ranger unit, lived during war at Athens. Postmaster-general of Confederacy was John H. Reagan, who had been surveyor and the first probate judge in Henderson County.