Confederate Refugees in Texas, C. S. A.
Sulphur Springs, Hopkins County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In the vicinity of Old Tarrant, south of here, the Civil War refugee family of Mrs. Amanda Stone, of Louisiana, was shown great kindness when rescued by Hopkins countians after a road accident. The Stones saw the Texans share the little they had, even cooking the last tough old farm hen, to feed them. The Stones were but one of many families to flee from war lines to the comparative safety of Texas. Here, though Federal invasion repeatedly threatened, only a few coastal towns were under fire from the enemy. The family of Gen. Stand Watie, from Indian Territory, visited relatives in Wood County. Gen. Kirby Smith, with headquarters in Shreveport, rented homes in Marshall or Hempstead for his wife and babies. Like most refugees, the Stones when they visited in Hopkins County were heartbroken over loss of their old home to the enemy. In Texas they endured poverty, loneliness, and sorrow at deaths of two sons in the war. They had to lease farm land, to support the family and 90 slaves dependent upon them. Their young boys at one time carried pistols for safety when schoolmates resented their strange manners. Yet eventually they and most other refugees were grateful to Texas for its many generosities.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As Union armies pressed into the Deep South, thousands of Confederate families fled to the relative safety of Texas, where only a few coastal towns ever came under fire. Among them was the Louisiana family of Mrs. Amanda Stone, rescued after a road accident by Hopkins County neighbors who shared what little they had — even their last stewing hen. The marker recalls a broader exodus, noting Gen. Stand Watie's family in the Indian Territory and Gen. Kirby Smith's relatives, and the poverty, grief, and dependence on enslaved labor that the refugees carried with them.
Why it matters
Texas became the Confederacy's refuge of last resort, and the refugees' story exposes the human dislocation of the war along with the enslaved people whose forced labor followed them into exile.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By 1863 the Confederacy was cracking along the Mississippi River. Union forces pushed into Louisiana, and after Vicksburg fell that summer, the river split the South in two. Plantation families in northeastern Louisiana watched Federal troops and gunboats arrive, and many chose to flee west.
Texas looked like the safest place left. Federal forces made repeated attempts to invade, but the fighting mostly stayed on the coast, where only a few towns came under fire. The interior of the state saw little combat, so it became a refuge for thousands of displaced Southerners.
These refugees did not travel alone. Planters often forced enslaved people to make the journey with them, moving them west to keep them away from advancing Union armies and the freedom those armies could bring. For enslaved families this meant another uprooting, often away from spouses, children and places they knew, made on someone else's orders.
West of the Mississippi, Confederate authority was centered in Shreveport. There Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith commanded a region so isolated from Richmond that it largely had to run its own affairs.
People & events
The marker centers on the family of Mrs. Amanda Stone of Louisiana. Near Old Tarrant, south of present-day Sulphur Springs, the family had a road accident. Hopkins County people came to their rescue, and though they had little, they shared it. They even cooked their last tough old farm hen to feed the strangers.
The Stones' life in Texas was hard. They lost their old home to the enemy and grieved the deaths of two sons in the war. They leased farmland to support the household, including the 90 enslaved people the marker describes as dependent on them. That wording reflects the slaveholders' view. In reality, those 90 people were held in bondage, and it was their forced labor that kept the refugee household running.
The Stones found poverty, loneliness and friction in their new home. At one point their young sons carried pistols for protection after schoolmates took offense at their unfamiliar manners. The daughter of the family kept a wartime journal, later published, that has become one of the best-known accounts of Confederate refugee life.
The marker places the Stones among other displaced families. The family of Gen. Stand Watie, the Cherokee leader who fought for the Confederacy in Indian Territory, visited relatives in Wood County. Gen. Kirby Smith rented homes in Marshall or Hempstead for his wife and small children. Like most refugees, the marker says, the Stones came to feel grateful for Texas's generosity.
Its place in the American story
The Civil War is usually told through battles, but it also displaced huge numbers of people. Refugees filled roads throughout the South, and Texas absorbed a large share of them. This marker is a reminder that the war's damage reached far beyond the battlefields.
The story also shows how slavery shaped even the retreat. Planters moved thousands of enslaved people into Texas during the war, which helps explain why news of emancipation reached many of them late. Union troops announced freedom at Galveston on June 19, 1865, a day now observed nationally as Juneteenth. Some of the people whose labor supported refugee households learned they were free only then.
Stand Watie's appearance widens the picture to Indian Territory, where the war split Native nations bitterly. Watie was among the last Confederate generals to surrender. Together these threads show a nation coming apart in many places at once: plantation families, Cherokee households, enslaved workers and the rural Texans who took strangers in.
If you visit
The marker stands in Sulphur Springs, the county seat of Hopkins County, in the gently rolling farm country of Northeast Texas. The Old Tarrant area it mentions lies south of town.
As you read, keep two images in mind together. One is a poor farm family cooking its last hen for stranded strangers. The other is a slaveholding household whose survival depended on the forced labor of 90 people who had no say in coming here. The marker asks you to hold both.
Sulphur Springs has an inviting historic downtown and makes a good base for exploring Northeast Texas. The towns the marker names, Marshall in East Texas and Hempstead to the south, have their own Civil War history if you want to follow the refugee story across the state.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Amanda Stone
- · Stand Watie
- · Edmund Kirby Smith
Themes & tags
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