Governor Edward Clark
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1815-1880) Hometown Texas First Confederate Governor Son of a Georgia governor. Came here in 1842. Member Annexation Convention, 1st and 2nd Texas Legislatures. Participant Mexican War. Secretary of State 1853-7. Elected Lieutenant Governor 1859. Made Governor 1861 upon removal of Gov. Sam Houston, who opposed secession. Clark's major activity was mobilizing Texas in cause of Confederacy. Plans were made to prevent federal invasion, take over enemy property, organize resources to provide supplies and arms for defense, and to properly care for families of Texas soldiers battling at the front. Gov. Edward Clark's term from March to November 1861 also faced difficulties caused by mechanics of changing flags, seals, currency, postal and tax systems for membership in new nation. Camps of instruction were set-up over state to enroll, equip and train troops. Hardest job was to convince Texans, the best horsemen in world, that all could not ride in cavalry but some must be foot soldiers in infantry. The C.S.A. was supplied guns, powder, lead, cloth made in penitentiary, salt and 20,000 troops in his term. In late 1861 he raised and became colonel 14th Tex. Inf. Regt. Led units in Arkansas-Louisiana campaigns to prevent invasion of Texas. Wounded and commended Battle Pleasant Hill April 1864. Discharged 1865. Postwar lawyer, businessman. Buried in Marshall Cemetery.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Edward Clark, the son of a Georgia governor, settled in Texas in 1842 and rose through its politics as legislator, secretary of state, and lieutenant governor. In 1861 he became the state's first Confederate governor when Sam Houston was removed for opposing secession, and in his brief term he raced to mobilize Texas for war — organizing camps of instruction, converting resources to arms, and sending some 20,000 troops to the Confederacy. He then raised and led the 14th Texas Infantry, was wounded and commended at the Battle of Pleasant Hill in 1864, and returned to law and business after the war.
Why it matters
Clark's governorship marks the pivot when Texas broke with Unionist Sam Houston and threw its resources into the Confederate cause, a wrenching moment in the state's Civil War story.
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Related people
- · Edward Clark
- · Sam Houston
Related events
- · Battle of Pleasant Hill
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Home Town of Texas Confederate General Elkanah Greer
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Elkanah Greer came to Texas in 1848 after fighting in the Mexican War, settled at Marshall, and at the outbreak of the Civil War raised and led the 3rd Texas Cavalry. Recalled as a brigadier general in 1862, he ran the Confederacy's conscription bureau west of the Mississippi and organized labor and reserves to defend the Texas coast. A member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, he died in 1877 and is buried in Memphis.
James Harper Starr
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Connecticut-born physician James Harper Starr came to Texas in 1837 and served the Republic as Secretary of the Treasury and army surgeon. During the Civil War he took on the daunting job of Postmaster General for the Confederacy's western states after federal control of the Mississippi split the South in two—improvising mail routes by pony express, wagon, blockade-runner, and courier to keep soldiers and families connected across enemy lines. After the war he examined East Texas oil showings and founded Marshall's first bank.
Marshall
Marshall, TX
Marshall was founded around 1841 after landowner Peter Whetstone offered land for a courthouse, church, and school, and representative Isaac Van Zandt named it for U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall. By 1850 it ranked among the wealthiest towns in East Texas. During the Civil War it was a major Confederate stronghold, home to the exiled Missouri state government and the postal headquarters of the Trans-Mississippi Department; afterward it hosted a Freedmen's Bureau office and, with the arrival of the Texas and Pacific Railway, became a regional education center anchored by Wiley and Bishop colleges.
Site of the Capitol Hotel
Marshall, TX
Business leader George B. Adkins built a fine three-story brick hotel on this Marshall site in 1857, and "Adkins House" quickly became a stage depot serving the southern branch of the Butterfield Overland Mail. During the Civil War, the exiled Confederate governor of Missouri met here with the Confederate governors of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas, making the hotel a quiet crossroads of Confederate wartime politics. Later renamed "The Capitol," it hosted celebrities for decades before its first floor turned to shops and the building was finally razed in 1971–72.