DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says, right there in San Saba County. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a good ways. The United Confederate Veterans, the UCV, got its start in 1889.
And something happened just a few months after that founding that poured fuel on the fire: the death and burial of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Camps formed across the South after that, places where old soldiers could gather, shake hands with men who understood, and honor the ones who never came home. Annual reunions kept those bonds from fading entirely.
Then in 1893, the veterans of San Saba County organized their own camp. They named it the William P. Rogers Camp No. 322.
Now, Colonel William P. Rogers was a native of Georgia, a hero of the battle of Corinth, and he never set foot in San Saba County a day in his life. So how did his name end up on a camp way out here in the Texas Hill Country?
Well, the marker doesn't spell out the answer in so many words, but it does give you the thread to follow. Rogers had a daughter, Fannie Alabama. In 1863, she married one of her father's officers, a man named George Harris.
The Harrises moved to San Saba in 1880, and from that point forward, they were, as the marker puts it plainly, the driving forces behind the organization of this camp. George Harris was a former county judge, and when the William P. Rogers Camp was formally organized, he was elected its first commander.
The members who filled the ranks were not a narrow crowd. Farmers, state legislators, city and county officials, local businessmen. They held their meetings at the San Saba County Courthouse, which tells you something about how this organization stood in the community.
Then, in April of 1900, the women of San Saba organized their own chapter. The United Daughters of the Confederacy, at that time still called the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, formed the George Washington Lafayette Fly Chapter No. 377 right there in San Saba. The two groups joined their efforts.
They developed educational programs for the local schools. They supported the placement of monuments to Confederate heroes across the South. And the UDC chapter took on a particular mission: working to erect a monument honoring Colonel Rogers at Corinth, Mississippi, the very place his name had been made.
The camp kept meeting, kept gathering, the old soldiers showing up year after year. But time does what time does. By the early 1930s, the number of veterans had declined enough that the camp could not go on, and it came to its end.
A colonel from Georgia, a daughter named Fannie Alabama, a judge who'd married into history, and a courthouse full of old soldiers keeping the memory alive as long as they possibly could.
What the marker says
The United Confederate Veterans (UCV) began in 1889 and grew in popularity following the death and burial of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis a few months later. Camps formed across the South, and annual reunions allowed Confederate veterans to renew friendships and honor the war dead. In 1893, veterans in San Saba County organized the William P. Rogers Camp No. 322 of the UCV. A hero of the battle of Corinth, Col. William P. Rogers was a native of Georgia and never lived in San Saba County, but his daughter, Fannie Alabama, married one of his officers, George Harris, in 1863. The Harrises moved to San Saba in 1880 and were the driving forces behind the organization of this camp. A former county judge, George Harris was elected first commander of the William P. Rogers Camp. Members, who included farmers, state legislators, city and county officials, and local businessmen, held their camp meetings at the San Saba County Courthouse. In April 1900, the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), then called the National Association of the Daughters of the Confederacy, organized the George Washington Lafayette Fly Chapter No. 377 in San Saba. Together the two groups developed educational programs for the local schools and supported the placement of monuments to Confederate heroes across the South. In particular, the UDC chapter worked to erect a monument to honor Col. Rogers at Corinth, Mississippi. The camp continued to meet until the early 1930s, when the declining number of veterans resulted in its demise. (2002)