DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for Victoria County, C.S.A. tells it this way, and I'm just the man passing it along. Now, if you wanted to find a place that was doing a little bit of everything during the Civil War, you could do a whole lot worse than Victoria County, Texas. Transportation hub.
Military center. Supply depot. And sitting right on one branch of what they called the cotton road — a route that moved Texas cotton south into Mexico, where it could be traded on foreign markets for the things the Confederacy desperately needed: guns, ammunition, medicines, and other goods the Union blockade was doing its level best to cut off.
Before any of that started, though, the county had a vote to take. In 1861, Victoria County went to the polls, and when the tally came in, it was 313 in favor of secession, 88 against. The ayes had it, and Victoria went to war.
The county furnished five cavalry companies to the Confederacy, and county men also served in the 6th Texas Infantry, which trained at a camp of instruction called Henry E. McCulloch, sitting four miles from Victoria. From there, men fanned out across the war — into Hood's Brigade, Ross' Brigade, Sibley's Brigade, Terry's Texas Rangers, Buchel's Cavalry.
They were among the ninety thousand Texans noted for mobility and daring who fought on every battlefront. Every single one. But the war had a way of coming home, too.
Out on Matagorda Island, Fort Esperanza was garrisoned by a hundred Victoria Militia. On the other side of the equation: one thousand nine hundred Federal troops. Do that arithmetic yourself and you'll understand why those militiamen were captured.
Back in town, the people who stayed made do. They made cloth. They made tallow candles.
They made shoe blacking from china berries — china berries, if you can picture that. Coffee substitutes came from parched corn, dried potatoes, or okra seeds. They were not sitting idle.
And then came 1863, and with it the threat of a Federal invasion. General John B. Magruder, commander of the Department of Texas, made a decision that must have stung — he ordered the railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria destroyed, to block the Union's path.
But even that wasn't the whole of it. The citizens of Victoria — on their own — sacrificed their fine river harbor, one of the two busiest in all of Texas. They felled trees.
They sank boats. Right there in the shipping lanes, they buried their own economic lifeblood to keep it out of Federal hands. That's not something you forget about a place.
They didn't lose their harbor to an enemy. They gave it up themselves.
What the marker says
Transportation, military and supply center in the Civil War. On one branch of the cotton road, which moved crop to Mexico for exchange on foreign markets for vital guns, ammunition, medicines and other goods. The 1861 vote favored secession 313 to 88. Troops furnished the confederacy included 5 cavalry companies. County men were also in the 6th Texas Infantry, which trained at "Henry E. McCulloch", a camp of instruction 4 miles from Victoria. Local men in Hood's, Ross' and Sibley's Brigades, Terry's Texas Rangers and Buchel's Cavalry were among the 90,000 Texans noted for mobility and daring who fought on every battlefront. Fort Esperanza, on Matagorda Island, was garrisoned by 100 Victoria Militia, who were captured by 1,900 Federals. The people at home made cloth, tallow candles, shoe blacking from china berries, coffee substitutes from parched corn, dried potatoes or okra seeds. To block 1863 threat of Federal invasion, Gen. John B. Magruder, commander of the Dept. of Texas, destroyed the railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria. Citizens sacrificed their fine river harbor, one of the two busiest in Texas, by felling trees and sinking boats in the shipping lanes. (1963)