Camp Salmon, C.S.A.
Eastland, Eastland County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Guarding the frontier during the Civil War, this camp was located 17 mi. west, 6 mi. north. Established as part of a chain of posts a day's horseback ride apart stretching from Red River to Rio Grande. Occupied by Texas Frontier Regiment. Named for Capt. John Salmon, frontier Indian fighter and post commander. Later renamed Camp McCord. Short of food, supplies, ammunition, horses, troubled with Indians, and sharing few of the glories of the war at the cost of many lives, these men served to protect the Texas frontier. TEXAS CIVIL WAR FRONTIER DEFENSE 1861-1865: Texas made an all-out effort for the Confederacy after voting over 3 to 1 for secession. 90,000 troops, noted for mobility and heroic daring, fought on every battlefront. An important source of supply and gateway to foreign trade thru Mexico, Texas was the storehouse of the South. Camp Salmon and other posts on this line were backed by patrols of State Rangers, organized militia, and citizens' posses scouting from nearby "family forts." This was part of a 2000 mile frontier and coastline successfully defended by Texans.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Camp Salmon was one link in a chain of Confederate posts set a day's horseback ride apart from the Red River to the Rio Grande, manned by the Texas Frontier Regiment to guard settlers against raids. Named for post commander Capt. John Salmon and later renamed Camp McCord, its men served short of food, ammunition, and horses, far from the war's celebrated battlefields. Their duty was to hold a 2,000-mile line of frontier and coast for a Confederacy that leaned heavily on Texas for supply.
Why it matters
The camp recalls the little-known home-front war on the Texas frontier, where soldiers fought hardship and raids rather than the great battles of the East.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Capt. John Salmon
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort Blair, C.S.A.
Desdemona, TX
A few miles southwest stood Fort Blair, the largest of the far-western "family forts" that sheltered settlers through the Civil War years when regular troops were away. Started by C.C. Blair in 1857, its dozen log cabins were linked by pickets, and its families made their own candles, soap, food, and clothing from whatever the land offered while defending against Indian raids. After the war the site became the town of Desdemona, which boomed when oil was struck in 1918.
Bethel Strawn
Strawn, TX
Bethel Strawn settled in Palo Pinto County in 1858 and, in 1864, enlisted in the Texas State Troops to guard the frontier against raids while settlers supplied the Confederate cause. When the Texas and Pacific Railroad crossed his land in 1880, the stop took his name, and the town of Strawn soon drew people from older settlements. His name later spread underground, too, attached to the oil-bearing "Strawn" rock formations and the coal once mined nearby.
Daniel Roberts and Mary Anna (Garland) Thornton
Stephenville vicinity, TX
Daniel Roberts Thornton, from Mississippi, married Mary Anna Garland—daughter of a frontier fighter—and the couple settled in Erath County in 1857 to raise cattle on a still-dangerous frontier. Mary Anna served as midwife and doctor to her neighbors while the family reared eight children; Thornton later fought for the Confederacy, served as county commissioner, and donated land for a school and the Hannibal Cemetery. Their lives trace the arc from open range to settled community.
Taylor's Chapel (Concord) Cemetery
Comanche vicinity, TX
This burial ground began beside the Concord Primitive Baptist Church, organized before 1881 in the pioneer country north of Comanche, with its earliest marked grave that of F. M. Warren in that same year. Warren's father, Posey W. Warren, was a deacon and likely founder of the church, and the surrounding land belonged to large settler families like the Browns, one of whom was a Confederate veteran. When a Methodist congregation formed here in 1901 on land from Alabama native James "Hood" Taylor, the site took on the name Taylor's Chapel Cemetery.