| Marker Text |
Buried here, 3/10 mi. from Camp Wood. A 29-year-old Harrison Countian, symbolizes Texans who died for the Confederacy in the Arizona-New Mexico campaign. Served from April 19, 1861, till death June 16, in W. P. Lane Rangers in second front stretched from San Antonio to Santa Fe. Frontier posts at Camp Wood, Ft. Inge, Ft. Clark, Camp Hudson, Howard Spring and Ft. Lancaster supported the 1861-1862 campaign to make the Confederacy an ocean-to-ocean nation. Combat forces included such Texans as Tom Green, Wm. R. Scurry, W. P. Hardeman and Wm. Steele, all later to be generals in the Confederate army. Green and Scurry commanded troops that won Battle of Valverde in Feb. 1862. This victory and others enabled the Confederacy to occupy Arizona and New Mexico and hope to gain California. However, Texas troops found their lines too long and supplies an impossible problem. With scanty food, no blankets, no means of transportation, the army limped back to Texas. On reaching San Antonio, troops hid near the Menger Hotel, pooled their rags to dress one man, then sent out for clothes to cover them so they could go home. Yet these same men re-grouped and won many victories later in the Civil War. (1965) |
