HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

Confederate Cemetery

San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Marker Inscription

This cemetery is located within part of a 40-acre grant of land given to the city of San Antonio by the King of Spain. The property was later subdivided into twenty-nine separate cemeteries by City Aldermen, and this area was designated as City Cemetery Number Four. This section became known as the Confederate Cemetery after its purchase in 1885 by the Albert Sidney Johnston Camp No. 1, United Confederate Veterans. The earliest documented burial in this plot, that of Charles Hutcheson, dates to 1855 and was already in place at the time of the Camp's purchase. Prominent Confederate veterans interred here include John Salmon "Rip" Ford, the pioneer Texas political leader and newspaper editor famous for his service as a Texas Ranger; George Wythe Baylor, a political and military leader; and Hamilton P. Bee, Confederate General and Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. There are over 900 marked burials in the Confederate Cemetery, including those of Civil War veterans, their dependents, and later generations of descendants. Also interred here are veterans of World War I and World War II.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Part of a 40-acre tract the Spanish crown once granted to San Antonio, this ground was carved into City Cemetery Number Four and, after an 1885 purchase by a United Confederate Veterans camp, became the Confederate Cemetery. Among its 900-plus burials lie noted Confederate figures including Texas Ranger and editor John Salmon "Rip" Ford, George Wythe Baylor, and General Hamilton P. Bee. Later graves of World War I and World War II veterans and of veterans' descendants share the same grounds.

Why it matters

The cemetery is a window into how Texas communities memorialized the Confederacy in the decades after the Civil War, and how those memorial grounds accumulated meaning across later generations.

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Related people

  • · John Salmon "Rip" Ford
  • · George Wythe Baylor
  • · Hamilton P. Bee

Themes & tags

Civil WarMemorial

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