Home of Last Texas Confederate Governor Pendleton Murrah
Marshall, Harrison County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Star and Wreath) (1824-1865) Born South Carolina. Successful lawyer and businessman in Marshall. Elected to Texas Legislature 1857. At start of Civil War, served as colonel 14th Texas Cavalry. Governor 1863-1865, the most trying years of Confederacy. Debt, need, dependents of soldiers, and Confederate demands for more men and supplies all plagued his tenure. Conditions at time are shown by fact that cake served at his inaugural state dinner was made of corn meal. Early in his term, the South was split in two by loss of Mississippi River. Texas became the main source of supply, food and arms for western half.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A South Carolina-born lawyer who prospered in Marshall, Pendleton Murrah entered the Texas Legislature in 1857 and, after Civil War service as a cavalry colonel, became governor from 1863 to 1865, the most trying years of the Confederacy. He governed a state drowning in debt and stripped of men and supplies; the cornmeal cake at his inaugural dinner told the story of wartime scarcity. After the Union split the South by seizing the Mississippi, Texas became the main supply line for the Confederacy's western half.
Why it matters
As the last Confederate governor of Texas, Murrah personifies the collapse of the Confederacy on its far western frontier and the desperate final months of the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Pendleton Murrah
Related events
- · Civil War
Themes & tags
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