Harvey C. Sanders, C. S. A.
New Boston, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(1837 - 1925) Native of Kentucky. In Civil War, fought at Shiloh, Chickamauga and other battles. After being wounded twice, became a guard at Confederate White House. When Richmond fell on April 3, 1865, was placed in escort for the departing president. Rode 5 weeks toward Florida, where President Jefferson Davis was planning to sail for Mexico to join many other Confederate leaders. (These Southerners intended to regroup an army, march north to Texas and continue their fight for states' rights.) President Davis and his guards were followed by thieves trying to steal the Confederate treasury, the horses and the wagons. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14 and the offer of a reward of $100,000 caused many adventurers to hunt for President Davis. Just before dawn on May 10, near Irwinsville, Ga., Federals captured him and his party, including 2 Texans, Postmaster-General John H. Reagan and Presidential Aide F. R. Lubbock, a former Governor of Texas. Mrs. Davis and children were soon freed, but all the men were imprisoned. Sanders was released in a year. Later he came to Texas and lived near this site after 1887-- honored for years as the last man of the Davis bodyguard. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Harvey C. Sanders was a Kentucky-born Confederate soldier who fought at Shiloh and Chickamauga before being wounded and reassigned as a guard at the Confederate White House in Richmond. When the capital fell in April 1865, he rode for five weeks in the escort protecting the fleeing President Jefferson Davis toward Florida, a desperate flight that ended with Davis's capture in Georgia. Sanders was imprisoned for a year, then settled in this corner of Texas, where he was long remembered as the last surviving member of Davis's bodyguard.
Why it matters
The marker preserves an intimate, ground-level view of the Confederacy's final collapse — the chaotic flight of its leadership — through the long life of one of the last men to witness it.
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Related people
- · Harvey C. Sanders
- · Jefferson Davis
- · Abraham Lincoln
Related events
- · Fall of Richmond
- · Capture of Jefferson Davis
- · Battle of Shiloh
- · Battle of Chickamauga
Themes & tags
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