Hill County, C.S.A.
Hillsboro, Hill County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Civil War supply center. Sent into service an infantry and 3 cavalry companies. Flour, shoes, saddles, machinery were made. The county commissioners court equipped and clothed troops. Also furnished medicine, cotton, wool, meat, corn and salt to the families of soldiers. The court raised funds by issuing bonds and script and assessing a tax of 75 cents per $100 taxable property to aid soldier's dependents and 15 cents for military purposes. Located here is a Confederate research center and museum.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Hill County turned itself into a Confederate supply center, sending infantry and cavalry companies into service while its workshops turned out flour, shoes, saddles, and machinery. The county's commissioners court equipped and clothed troops, supplied food and medicine to soldiers' families, and raised the money through bonds, scrip, and a special property tax.
Why it matters
The marker shows how the Confederate war effort reached deep into local government, with rural Texas counties organizing production and taxation to sustain armies far from the front.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Confederate Veterans and Old Settlers Reunion Grounds
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Formed in 1901, the Confederate Veterans and Old Settlers Association of Hill County bought 73 wooded acres for its summer reunion, held annually from 1902 to 1924. The three-to-five-day encampments drew several thousand people who arrived by wagon, special train, or auto, gathering around a spring-fed lake, pavilion, and ballpark for speeches, music, and baseball. As the ranks of veterans thinned after World War I, attendance fell, and the association deeded the grounds to the state in 1924 for a Jefferson Davis State Park that was never built.
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John P. Cox, son of San Jacinto veteran Euclid M. Cox, joined Parsons' Brigade of the Confederate Army in 1861 and after the war spent 25 years as commander of Hillsboro's Confederate camp. A Methodist and a Mason, he served Hill County as sheriff for sixteen years and as county clerk for four, earning a reputation as a firm lawman with a particular concern for reforming young offenders.
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When William and Sarah Graham came from North Carolina to settle here in 1856, they brought a household that included enslaved people, some of whom are believed to be buried in and around this ground. The oldest marked grave belongs to their six-year-old granddaughter, buried in 1866. The site is bound up with Abe Mason, a Tennessee-born Confederate veteran wounded at Shiloh who married into the family and became one of Hill County's largest landowners.
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