Fayette County, C.S.A

🏛️The era

When Texas voted on secession in early 1861, Fayette County was one of the places where the vote went the other way, though only just. The marker records 600 votes against leaving the Union and 580 for. The county had a large population of German and Czech immigrants, many of whom had little stake in plantation slavery and were wary of disunion. It also had a strong Anglo-Southern population tied to cotton and slavery. That mix produced a divided community.

Once Texas left the Union, that close vote gave way to the realities of war. Confederate recruiting began in the county in June 1861, and La Grange became a hub for the state's own military organization. For much of the war, Texas stood on the western edge of the Confederacy. Union ships blockaded its Gulf ports, federal forces threatened its coast, and families at home felt the absence of thousands of men.

The blockade shaped everything. Cotton was the South's great export, and with the seaports choked off, Texans turned to the one border the Union Navy could not close. That was the Rio Grande, where cotton could cross into Mexico and reach world markets.

👥People & events

La Grange served as headquarters of the 22nd Brigade of Texas State Troops, commanded by Brig. Gen. William G. Webb. The county's contribution was enormous for a place that had voted against secession: eighteen companies, 1,238 men and 72 officers came from Fayette. Webb and Colonels John C. and William F. Upton were all local men. Captains Ira G. Killough and Ben Shropshire led Fayette units into the Confederate campaign in Arizona and New Mexico, one of the war's most far-flung efforts.

The home front had its own work. The county levied special war taxes to support soldiers' families, and it raised more money through the so-called Cow Order, which allowed stray cattle to be seized. Censors in La Grange blocked mail exchanges with the United States, a reminder that divided loyalties were a real concern here.

Then there was the cotton. Bales collected at La Grange and Round Top were hauled overland to Mexico by local teamsters. Each wagon carried five or more bales on a round trip that took about three months. It was dangerous work. In 1863, near Roma on the border, bandits attacked a group of about a dozen Fayette teamsters, who lost their outfits and barely escaped with their lives.

The best-known figure on the marker is Gen. Tom Green. He had been Fayette County's first surveyor, fought at San Jacinto and in the Mexican War, and served against Native Americans on the frontier. As a Confederate officer he had a part in the recapture of Galveston and the victory at Mansfield, Louisiana. He was killed later in that same 1864 Red River campaign, and he remains one of the most remembered Texas soldiers of his time.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

This marker shows a truth about the Civil War that is easy to forget: secession was not unanimous, even in the Deep South and Texas. Many counties, Fayette among them, were split or opposed. Yet once war came, most communities were pulled fully into it through recruiting, taxes, relief funds and censorship. The gap between a 600-to-580 vote and more than a thousand men in uniform is part of how the Confederacy mobilized.

The cotton road to Mexico is also a national story. The Union blockade was central to Northern strategy, and the overland trade across the Rio Grande was one of the Confederacy's most important ways around it. The ox and mule teams leaving La Grange were small links in an international trade that helped keep the Confederate war effort going in the West.

Through Tom Green, the marker also connects Texas's earlier history to the Civil War. One man's career ran from the Texas Revolution through the war with Mexico to the Confederacy, which shows how short and eventful Texas's nineteenth century was.

🧭If you visit

La Grange is a handsome county seat on the Colorado River, and the courthouse square is a good place to start. As you walk it, try to imagine the town as a brigade headquarters, with recruits gathering, taxes being collected, and loaded cotton wagons heading south on their three-month journey.

Round Top, which the marker names as a second cotton storage point, is a short drive away and makes a natural companion stop. The surrounding countryside of rolling farmland and small German and Czech communities helps explain why this county divided so sharply in 1861.

The marker has a lot of names and events packed into it, so take your time reading it. It rewards a slow visit, and it fits easily into a road trip through the historic towns between Austin and Houston.