Comal County, C.S.A.
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Manufacturing and supply center in Civil War. The local newpaper urged southern cause so strongly that 1861 vote was 239 to 86 favoring secession. More than 300 Confederate soldiers enlisted here. The "Texas Mounted Rifles" of Capt. Theodore Podewills joined Hood's Texas Cavalry, as Co. F. Capt. Gustav Hoffmann's Co. B., 7th Texas Regiment, fought in the Arizona-New Mexico campaign to make the Confedercy an ocean-to-ocean nation; in the Jan.1.1863, recapture of Galveston; and in the Red River Campaign to prevent federal invasion of Texas. Capt. Julius Von Bose's Co. K served in the 3rd Regiment, Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade, in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Headquarters for 21-county defense district under Gen. Robert Bechem, 31st Brigade, Texas state troops. Produced abundant wartime goods: gunpowder, flour, lumber, sash and door frames, cornmeal, carded wool, cotton thread and writing paper. Comal Manufacturing Co. wove wool and cotton cloth for the troops. Texas Paper Manufacturing Co. ordered from Europe machinery to make newsprint from corn shucks, but losses in export funds stopped the project.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Comal County and its seat of New Braunfels—settled by German immigrants—became a manufacturing and supply center for the Confederacy, its local newspaper pressing the secessionist cause so hard that the 1861 vote favored secession 239 to 86. More than 300 men enlisted, forming companies that fought in the New Mexico campaign, the recapture of Galveston, and the Red River Campaign. Local mills produced gunpowder, cloth, flour, and paper, and one firm even ordered European machinery to make newsprint from corn shucks before wartime losses ended the project.
Why it matters
It reveals how a German immigrant community became an industrial arsenal of the Confederacy, complicating the common picture of Texas Unionist sentiment among German settlers.
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Related people
- · Theodore Podewills
- · Gustav Hoffmann
Related events
- · Battle of Galveston
- · Red River Campaign
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
New Braunfels: County Seat of Comal County
New Braunfels, TX
This land had long been home to Karankawa, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa, and Waco peoples when the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants sent thousands of colonists to Texas in the mid-1840s. Led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, several hundred founded New Braunfels on Good Friday, 1845, on land bought from the Garza family and parceled out by lottery. By 1850 it ranked among the largest cities in Texas, humming with craftsmen, mills, breweries, and kilns.
Eiband and Fischer General Mercantile
New Braunfels, TX
A general store opened at the corner of Castell and San Antonio Streets in 1846, just a year after New Braunfels was founded, and passed through a succession of German-connected owners over the next century. Growing into one of the region's most successful mercantiles, Eiband & Fischer sold everything from groceries and china to farm machinery, and also served as cotton buyers and short-term bankers. A 1947 fire finally consumed the store, though its surviving annex still stands.
The New Braunfels Herald
New Braunfels, TX
On this site in the heart of New Braunfels once stood the Zum Schwarzen Wallfisch — the Black Whale Saloon — before the block became home to the town's newspaper. Established in 1892 by S.R. Whitley and his sons, the New Braunfels Herald was the community's first English-language paper, published here on and off between 1896 and 1944. In a town founded by German immigrants, an English newspaper both chronicled local life and helped draw new businesses and residents to the growing Comal County seat.
Phoenix Saloon
New Braunfels, TX
Built in 1871 and operating under various names before becoming the Phoenix Saloon in 1895, this New Braunfels landmark paired a lively barroom with a back-room café. There proprietor William Gebhardt served a stew seasoned with his own blend of herbs and dried chilies — 'tampico dust,' often credited as the first chili powder — before moving to San Antonio in 1896 to manufacture his Eagle Brand. The saloon, unusually welcoming to ladies, closed under Prohibition in 1918 and reopened as a saloon a century later.