Camp Clark, C.S.A.
Staples, Guadalupe County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Named for Edward Clark, first Confederate governor of Texas, whose executive order June 8, 1861, created voluntary camps of instruction such as this. Food, camp facilities and guns were voluntary gifts by local people. Farmers, merchants, artisans, laborers gave goods and services. Men with military training and experience gave their time as drillmasters. This and 50 or 60 other camps of instruction mainly taught walking to Texans brought up with the habit of moving about on horseback. (6 out of 10 Texans joined the Cavalry. Governor Clark felt compelled to say in his executive order that infantry service was actually a matter of honor.) Operated despite scorn of 18 to 35 year old recruits who had fought Indians most of their lives and were impatient for battle -- not for training. Though neither Texas nor the Confederacy in 1861 had funds for camps of instruction, by 1862 privates were paid $11 a month, officers $50. This Guadalupe County camp of instruction was convenient to roads and to water. Area units that trained here included Co. D, 4th Texas Infantry, of Hood's famous Texas Brigade, and 4th Texas Cavalry (Partisan) under Captain William P. Hardeman. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When the Civil War came, Texas's first Confederate governor, Edward Clark, ordered the creation of volunteer "camps of instruction" like this one in June 1861 — and local farmers, merchants, and artisans supplied the food, guns, and camp gear while experienced men served as drillmasters. Its main task was teaching horse-loving Texans to march, since six in ten preferred the cavalry, prompting Clark to insist that infantry service too was a matter of honor. Units trained here included companies bound for Hood's famous Texas Brigade.
Why it matters
The camp shows how a cash-strapped Confederacy raised and drilled its armies from the ground up on local goodwill, and how deeply the horseback culture of Texas shaped its soldiers.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Edward Clark
- · William P. Hardeman
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
George Francis Home_Dublin Plantation
Kingsbury, TX
George Francis fought in the 1836 Texas War for Independence, then brought his family to Texas and built this house on York's Creek in 1849, near a crossing used by the San Antonio-to-Bastrop mail route. A generation later, all six of his sons marched from this home to serve the Confederacy in the Civil War. Several never returned — one killed at Chickamauga, another dying in service at Galveston, and a third falling at the 1864 Battle of Mansfield.
Site of Hays County's First Public Building
San Marcos, TX
In 1847, San Marcos settlers raised a rough log house of elm, cedar, and cypress on this spot — dirt floor, split-log benches, and a single room asked to be everything at once. It served as the young county's courthouse after Hays County was organized in 1848, hosted the first Presbyterian and Baptist congregations, sat beside a stagecoach stop, and later became a drill headquarters for Confederate recruits. Fallen into disuse, it burned in 1874.
Eli T. Merriman Home
San Marcos, TX
Dr. Eli T. Merriman, a Yale graduate who came to Texas in 1838, built this hand-hewn timber house about 1846 as one of the three original owners of the San Marcos townsite and the area's first physician. He later lived along the coast at Brownsville, Banquete, and Corpus Christi, where his son founded the Corpus Christi "Caller." During the Civil War the family was famously divided, with Merriman and two sons serving the Confederacy while another son fought for the Union.
Joseph W. Earnest Home
San Marcos, TX
Tennessee native Joseph W. Earnest came to Hays County with his family in 1854 and grew up to serve in both the Texas Rangers and the Confederate army before making his mark as a merchant and cattleman. In 1892 he hired local builder Charles Sinz to raise this Victorian home in San Marcos, where his niece Mary Cock was reared and which later passed to her and her husband Irvin Rylander.