Site of Spindle Top Hill Confederate Camp

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what happened on this ground. Somewhere beneath the soil of Spindle Top Hill, if you listen close enough on a quiet night, you might just catch an echo of what stood here once. From 1862 to 1864, this was home to Colonel A.

W. Spaight's Battalion, 2nd Texas Infantry, Confederate States Army. Two full years these men camped right here, on this very ground you're passing over.

Now, who were these soldiers? They came from Jefferson County, Liberty County, and Chambers County. Neighbors, in other words.

Men who knew each other's families, who'd walked the same roads and worked the same land before the war called them to stand together under one banner. And stand they did. Their presence here, according to the marker, served to prevent invasion of this part of Texas by the Federal Army.

That's a quiet way of saying something loud. These men drew a line. Right here.

And the Federal Army did not cross it into this part of Texas. The State of Texas erected this marker in 1936 to make sure nobody forgot. Spindle Top Hill.

Most folks today know that name for what came up out of the ground here. But before any of that, the ground itself meant something. It was a place where men from three Texas counties kept watch, kept camp, and kept this corner of the state their own.

What the marker says

Here, from 1862 to 1864, camped Colonel A. W. Spaight's Battalion, 2nd Texas Infantry, Confederate States Army, composed of soldiers from Jefferson, Liberty, and Chambers counties. Their presence here served to prevent invasion of this part of Texas by the Federal Army. Erected by the State of Texas 1936