DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's got the story — let me tell it to you the way it deserves to be told. Now, when the Civil War came to Texas, not every county fought its battles on a battlefield. Some counties fought them with ferries and tanning vats and water mills grinding corn in the dark before dawn.
Newton County was one of those places — and what happened there is a story the marker on the side of the road is trying real hard to tell you. First, understand the geography. The Federal army had its eye on Texas.
To get there, they'd have to come up the Sabine River or cut across Louisiana. Newton County sat right in that path — a target area, the marker calls it — and the Confederates knew it. They built breastworks at Burkeville and maintained an arsenal there too.
That's not decoration. That's preparation for a fight that could come from any direction. But the real engine of this county's war effort ran on something older than the conflict itself.
There was a road through here — folks called it the Old Beef Trail — and it had been moving cattle through this country since 1823, long before anybody fired a shot at Fort Sumter. When the war came, that trail became a lifeline. Thousands of cattle moved along it, out of Texas, heading east to feed armies and civilians as far away as Mobile, Alabama.
Think about that distance. Think about what it took to move a herd that far. The Sabine River stood between Texas and the rest of the Confederacy, and somebody had to get those cattle across it.
The ferries along the Sabine were equipped with cattle pens — and here's the part that tends to stop people cold — the ferrymen kept oxen specially trained to lead herds swimming across the river. Not driven. Led.
Across a river. That's the kind of quiet ingenuity that doesn't make it into many history books, but it kept the Confederacy fed. Down on Cow Creek stood a town called Farrsville, founded about 1850.
It had a military campground and corrals that furnished fresh teams for the stagecoach lines. Its tanning vats and shops turned out boots and shoes for Confederate soldiers. Its water mills ground corn for bread, sawed lumber, and ginned cotton.
Everything those mills produced went toward supplying the South. Farrsville was not famous. It was useful, which in wartime is worth considerably more.
Back at the county level, the commissioners court was doing the quiet, unglamorous work of keeping the home front together. They made appropriations to outfit military units — buying horses for men who couldn't furnish their own. They provided aid to the dependent families those soldiers left behind.
And they supplied the people with cotton cards, so that raw lint could be turned into batts for spinning and weaving and knitting. Somebody had to keep everybody clothed and fed while the men were gone. And those men?
The county that had voted one hundred and seventy-eight to three for secession sent about four hundred soldiers into the Confederate army. One hundred and seventy-eight to three. Four hundred soldiers.
Newton County did not go to war quietly, and it did not fight it halfway. The marker doesn't tell you how many came home. Some stories, I reckon, the road keeps to itself.
What the marker says
Supply and military center in the Civil War. Target area for Federals trying to move up the Sabine or across Louisiana and take Texas. Confederates built breastworks and maintained arsenal at Burkeville. Major supply route, "The Old Beef Trail", begun 1823 through area later Newton County. Was a road taken by thousands of cattle being sent from Texas to feed armies and civilians as far eastward as Mobile, Ala. Sabine ferries were equipped with cattle pens: also ferrymen kept oxen trained to lead herds swimming across the river. Some local beef went eastward, too. Farrsville, a town founded about 1850 on Cow Creek, had a military campground and corrals furnishing fresh stagecoach teams. Its tanning vats and shops made boots and shoes for the Confederacy. Its water mills ground corn for bread, sawed lumber, ginned cotton-- products used in supplying the South. The commissioners court made appropriations to outfit military units (buying horses for men unable to furnish their own), aid dependent families, and supply the people with cotton cards to turn the lint into batts for spinning, weaving and knitting. The county, which had voted 178 to 3 for secession, sent about 400 soldiers into the Confederate army. (1965)