Gus Bailey
Blum, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Leader, Hood's Texas Brigade Band. His wife Mollie smuggled notes and quinine past enemy in her hair. Baileys' postwar shows still flew Confederate flag. 1869 and afterwards, Gus and Mollie and nine children headquartered circus in Blum. Owned show lots in 100 towns of Texas. Ex-Confederates saw their circus free. Bailey wrote "Old Gray Mare Ain't What She Used to Be" on eve of second Manassas Battle, when mare spooked camp by running thru with load of tin pans. A memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy erected by the State of Texas, 1963. (Back Side Gus Bailey) Texas Confederate Songs: "Lone Star Defenders", "Land of Texas", "Bombardment and Battle of Galveston", "Dick Dowling and the Davis Guards at Sabine Pass", "The Ranger's Farewell", "Baylor's Partisan Rangers", "Awake! to Arms in Dixie!", "Capture of 17 of Co. H, 4th Texas Cavalry", "My Texas Land", "To the Beloved Memory of Maj. Gen. Tom Green", "Lone Star Banner of the Free", "The Gallant Second Texians", "The Rum Raid at Velasco", "The Texas Rangers at the Battle of Chickamauga", "Terry's Texas Rangers", "Hood's Texas Brigade", "The Navasota Volunteers", "Song of the Fifth Texas Regiment", "The Dying Texas Soldier Boy", "Texians, to your Banner Fly", "The Horse Marines at Galveston", "O, He's Nothing But a Soldier", "The Martyrs of Texas", "The Texas Sentinel in Virginia", "An Old Texian's Appeal." Texas Troops marched also to such southern favorites as "Dixie", "The Yellow Rose of Texas", "The Bonny Blue Flay" and "Mother Is the Battle Over?"
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Gus Bailey led the band of Hood's Texas Brigade during the Civil War, while his wife Mollie smuggled notes and quinine past enemy lines hidden in her hair. Bailey is credited with writing "The Old Gray Mare" on the eve of Second Manassas, after a spooked mare bolted through camp trailing tin pans. After the war the couple settled their large family and a traveling circus in Blum, playing scores of Texas towns and admitting ex-Confederates free.
Why it matters
The Baileys carried the culture of the Confederacy from the battlefield into postwar popular entertainment, preserving its songs and memory in a traveling Texas circus.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Civil War began in 1861, Texas joined the Confederacy, and tens of thousands of Texans went to war. One of the best-known Confederate units from the state was Hood's Texas Brigade. It served in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee, far from home in the Eastern Theater, and took part in some of the war's hardest fighting.
Music was a big part of soldiers' lives. Regimental bands played on the march, in camp and on formal occasions, and soldiers sang to pass the time, keep up morale and remember home. The long list of Texas Confederate songs on this marker's back gives a sense of that world: songs about particular units, battles, leaders and home.
After the war, Texas went through Reconstruction and a long, bitter debate over how the war should be remembered. Many white Southerners embraced what historians call the Lost Cause, a romanticized memory of the Confederacy. Many Americans, especially Black Americans whose freedom had been at stake in the war, rejected that memory.
This marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1963, during the Civil War centennial, as a memorial to Texans who served the Confederacy. Its tone reflects the time it was made, and that is worth keeping in mind as you read it.
People & events
According to the marker, Gus Bailey led the band of Hood's Texas Brigade. His wife Mollie has an even more daring role in the story: she is said to have smuggled notes and quinine past the enemy hidden in her hair. Quinine was precious in wartime as a treatment for malaria and fevers, and the blockade and the war made it scarce in the Confederacy.
The marker also credits Gus Bailey with writing "The Old Gray Mare Ain't What She Used to Be" on the eve of the Second Battle of Manassas. The story goes that a mare spooked the camp by running through it with a load of tin pans. It is a vivid scene, but be aware that the song's origins are uncertain. Similar tunes and lyrics were circulating in the mid-1800s, and more than one origin has been claimed. The marker's version is one of several traditions.
After the war the Baileys turned to entertainment. From 1869 on, Gus, Mollie and their nine children made Blum the headquarters of their traveling circus. According to the marker, they owned show lots in 100 Texas towns, which says a great deal about how far and how often the circus traveled.
The marker also notes that the Baileys' shows still flew the Confederate flag and that ex-Confederates saw the circus free. Those details show how the family kept wartime loyalties alive in their postwar business. Mollie Bailey in particular became a well-known figure in Texas show business in her own right.
Its place in the American story
The Bailey story sits where the Civil War meets American popular culture. Traveling circuses and tent shows were among the most important forms of entertainment in small-town America before movies and radio. When a show came to town, people from miles around turned out. The Baileys' circus brought that excitement to communities across Texas.
It is also a story about memory. By flying the Confederate flag and admitting Confederate veterans free, the Baileys helped keep a particular version of the war alive in public life for decades. The 1963 marker, made during the centennial, belongs to the same tradition of Confederate remembrance. For many Americans today, these displays are part of a larger and painful history of how the Confederacy was celebrated after its defeat, and of what that celebration meant for Black Texans.
The song attributed to Gus Bailey reaches far beyond Texas. "The Old Gray Mare" became one of the most familiar tunes in American folk and popular music. That its origins are debated is itself part of American musical history: songs moved through camps, stages and communities, and people often remembered their origins differently.
Finally, the story is a reminder that civilians, women included, played active roles in the war. Mollie Bailey's reputed smuggling fits into a larger history of women carrying supplies, information and medicine across wartime lines.
If you visit
The marker is in Blum, a small Hill County town that was once home base for a traveling circus. As you stand there, picture the winter quarters: wagons being repaired, animals being cared for, performers practicing, and a large family preparing to take the show back on the road.
Make time to read the back of the marker. Its long list of Texas Confederate songs is unusual, and a close read shows how much music meant to soldiers and to the people who later remembered them. You might even look up recordings of some of these songs, or of "The Old Gray Mare," to play in the car.
Read the marker with its date in mind. It was written in 1963 as a Confederate memorial, and its words reflect the way the war was commemorated then. Talking about that with younger travelers can be a meaningful part of the visit: who is remembered on a marker, how, and why?
Blum fits well into a drive through the small towns and rolling countryside of Central Texas. Take your time, respect the town's residents and property, and enjoy the quiet of a place that once echoed with circus music.
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
- · Gus Bailey
- · Mollie Bailey
Related events
- · Second Battle of Manassas
Themes & tags
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