DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just here to pass it along. Now, out in Harrison County, there is a place where the ground holds more history than most courthouses ever see. Marshall Cemetery — incorporated on December 12, 1849 — and if you walk those grounds, you are walking among the resting places of men who shaped Texas when Texas was still figuring out what it wanted to be.
Take Edward Clark, born 1815, died 1880. The man served as Governor of Texas in 1861, and if that year rings a bell, well, it should — and then he went on to serve as a Colonel in the Confederate States Army. That is a life that moved through some of the heaviest weather American history ever produced.
Lying not far off is Walter P. Lane, 1817 to 1892. Lane was a veteran of the Texas Revolution — that's right, the revolution itself — and then the Mexican War on top of it.
By the time the Civil War came calling, he was riding as a Brigadier General in the C.S.A. Some men just keep showing up when history needs a body in the field. Then there is John T.
Mills, also born in 1817, gone by 1871. Mills served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas — the Republic, mind you — and later as a District Judge in the state. A county in Texas bears his name.
And Horace Randal, born 1833, died 1864. He earned the rank of Brigadier General in the C.S.A., and he too is honored by a county named in his memory. But here is what gets me about this place.
Among all those named men, there stands an obelisk — put up by the United Daughters of the Confederacy — for the unknown soldiers. The ones who died in local hospitals. No names on their stones.
Just that obelisk, standing watch over men whose names the ground decided to keep for itself. Marshall Cemetery. Incorporated 1849.
Still telling its stories.
What the marker says
Incorporated Dec. 12, 1849. Resting place of many early Texas leaders and patriots: Edward Clark (1815-80), Governor of Texas, 1861; Colonel, C.S.A. Walter P. Lane (1817-92) veteran of Texas Revolution and Mexican war; Brigadier General, C.S.A. John T. Mills (1817-71), Associate Justice Supreme Court, Republic of Texas; District Judge in the state; a county is named for him. Horace Randal (1833-64), Brigadier General, C.S.A.; also honored by naming of county in his memory. Unknown soldiers who died in local hospitals, honored by an obelisk erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.