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.
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Related people
- · Gus Bailey
- · Mollie Bailey
Related events
- · Second Battle of Manassas
Themes & tags
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