HistoricSiteMarkers
Early RepublicCivil War

Home Built in 1845 by General Jerome B. Robertson

Independence, Washington County, Texas

Marker Inscription

Home built in 1845 by General Jerome B. Robertson (1815-1891). A captain in the army of the Republic of Texas 1836. A captain in the Somervell Expedition 1842. Representative and Senator in the Texas Legislature; Brigadier General of Hood's Brigade C.S.A. Erected by the State of Texas 1936

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

This home was built in 1845 by Jerome B. Robertson, whose long public life spanned the Republic and the Confederacy. He served as a captain in the army of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and in the Somervell Expedition of 1842, sat in both houses of the Texas Legislature, and rose to brigadier general commanding Hood's Texas Brigade in the Civil War. The State of Texas erected the marker in 1936.

Why it matters

Robertson's home connects the founding struggles of the Republic of Texas with the Confederacy's famed Texas Brigade, tracing one leader's path across the defining conflicts of nineteenth-century Texas.

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Nearby & related markers

Site of Mustering of a Unit of Hood's Texas Brigade, C.S.A.

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On this spot in August 1861, Captain J.B. Robertson raised Company I of the Fifth Texas Infantry, known as "The Texas Aides," for what became Hood's Texas Brigade. The unit fought in many of the Civil War's fiercest eastern battles โ€” Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness โ€” and Robertson rose to brigadier general, succeeding Hood in command. When the brigade surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, only about twelve percent of its enlistees remained.

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