Grayson County, C. S. A.
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Star and Wreath) Military, defense and supply center in Civil War. 11th Texas Cav. Regt., raised in this and area counties, May 1861, removed immediate danger from North by capture Forts Washita, Coeb, Arbuckle in Indian Territory. Beef for these posts was supplied by local contractor. Men and boys served in 16th, 20th Tex. Cav. Regts., the Border Regt. and State Militia. The 9th Tex. Cav. Regt. that became part of famed Ross' Brigade was organized Oct. 1861 at Brogdon Springs. Fort Preston, ;17 mi. N. on Red River, was used by Confederate and state troops as a post on defense line along river to prevent Indian raids and Federal invasion. Supplies brought to Ft. Preston by boat were sent by wagon to other frontier forts. Regional depot was set up in Sherman 1861 to receive clothing for soldiers. A commissary supplied food to passing troops, families and widows of soldiers. Col. William C. Quantrill, C. S. A., and his notorious guerilla fighters - including future members of the James and Younger gangs - camped near here in 1863-4. He is credited with stopping cattle thefts from across Red River and persuading a "mob" of war widows not to storm the commissary for coffee and tea. However, he had to flee to escape Confederate arrest because of practice...
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Grayson County served as a Confederate military, defense, and supply hub on Texas's northern frontier. Cavalry regiments raised here captured federal forts in Indian Territory and manned a defensive line along the Red River, while Sherman depots gathered clothing and food for troops and soldiers' families. Even the notorious guerrilla William C. Quantrill camped nearby in 1863–64 before fleeing Confederate arrest.
Why it matters
The county shows how the Civil War reached far beyond the great battlefields, turning frontier Texas into a supply line, a home front, and a refuge for its most infamous irregulars.
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Related people
- · William C. Quantrill
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Jesse P. Loving
Sherman, TX
Jesse "Jess" P. Loving came to Texas from Missouri in 1847 and settled in Sherman by 1852. A Confederate veteran, he became a leading citizen, serving multiple terms as county treasurer and in the state legislature. In 1879 he drove the founding of the Old Settlers Association of Grayson County, helping the pioneer generation preserve its own story.
The Fitzgerald Home
Denison, TX
George S. Fitzgerald moved his family from Virginia to Texas in 1857 and cut the building timber for this house on his own 800-acre farm in 1859. Interrupted by service in the Confederate army, he finally raised the pegged-oak house in 1866 and went on to prosper as a respected Grayson County commissioner. Its sturdy 20-foot rooms and twin staircases reflect the substance of a rebuilding postwar household.
Old Cedar Community
Sherman, TX
Settled in 1848 by Grayson County pioneers who reclaimed land from wilderness amid Indian raids and frontier hardship, Old Cedar quickly needed a cemetery—still holding some 400 graves, including one Union and eighteen Confederate veterans. As the community took root it built Cedar Academy in 1871, where students learned to make ink and split goose-quills alongside their lessons, and organized the Cedar Methodist Church the same year. Camp-ground revivals under brush arbors drew families from miles around each summer.
Coffman Cemetery
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While David Harman Coffman served in the Confederate army during the Civil War, his wife Harriet and their four sons made their way from Missouri to North Texas. After the war he rejoined them and bought this land, and in 1878 the Coffmans deeded a one-acre plot to the county for a public cemetery and an adjoining acre for a school and Baptist meetinghouse. Among those buried here is J.K. Miller, the pioneer on whose land the city of Denison was laid out.