HistoricSiteMarkers
Civil War

General Matthew D. Ector

Odessa, Ector County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Enlisted 1861. Lieutenant 3rd Texas Cavalry. Fought Arkansas, Missouri and Indian territory. As colonel led 14th Texas Cavalry Kentucky invasion. Made brigadier general 1862 to command famed Ector's brigade in Tennessee and Mississippi battles. Wounded four times without leaving Chickamauga field. Under constant fire 70 days in Georgia. Lost leg in Atlanta 1864. Assigned to defense of Mobile, Alabama. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the state of Texas 1963,

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Matthew D. Ector enlisted in 1861 and rose from lieutenant to brigadier general, commanding the celebrated Ector's Brigade through hard fighting in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. Wounded four times without leaving the field at Chickamauga and losing a leg at Atlanta in 1864, he later helped defend Mobile. Texas erected this memorial to its Confederate soldiers in 1963.

Why it matters

Ector's career traces the Confederacy's grueling western campaigns, and the 1963 marker reflects how the Civil War was memorialized in Texas a century later.

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Related people

  • · Matthew D. Ector

Related events

  • · Battle of Chickamauga
  • · Atlanta Campaign

Themes & tags

Civil WarMemorial

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Ector County

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