Jefferson Ordnance Magazine
Jefferson, Marion County, Texas
Marker Inscription
JEFFERSON ORDNANCE MAGAZINE THIS HISTORIC POWDER HOUSE OR MAGAZINE WAS CONSTRUCTED DURING THE CIVIL WAR TO SAFELY STORE POWDER AND MUNITIONS. THE SINGLE ROOM, SQUARE BRICK BUILDING’S STRUCTURAL DESIGN FOCUSED ON SECURITY AND VENTILATION, COMPLETE WITH A LIGHT ROOF TO BEAR THE BULK OF THE FORCE SHOULD AN EXPLOSION OCCUR. ON APRIL 14, 1865, FEDERAL TROOPS TOOK OVER THE BUILDINGS AND USED THEM FOR TROOP ENCAMPMENT. THE REMAINS OF TWO SIMILAR POWDER MAGAZINES WERE ALSO DISCOVERED NEAR THIS SITE. THIS MAGAZINE IS THE ONLY FREESTANDING ORDNANCE MAGAZINE IN TEXAS AND ONE OF THE FEW REMAINING IN THE U.S.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Jefferson was a bustling inland port and supply hub in East Texas, and munitions had to be stored somewhere safe. This single-room brick powder house was engineered for exactly that purpose, its deliberately light roof meant to vent the blast upward if the powder inside ever ignited. After the war, Union troops occupied the site and used the buildings for encampment. It survives as the only freestanding ordnance magazine in Texas.
Why it matters
Purpose-built military magazines from the Confederacy rarely survive intact, making this a tangible link to the logistics that kept a wartime supply town running.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Horace Randal
Marshall, TX
This state monument honors Horace Randal, a brigadier general in the Confederate army whose service ranged across the western theater of the Civil War. The inscription ties him to the Vicksburg Campaign and to the Louisiana and Arkansas battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins' Ferry during the 1864 Red River fighting. Texas erected the marker in 1962, at the height of the war's centennial commemorations.
Starr Family Home
Marshall, TX
Dr. James Harper Starr served as a government official under both the Republic of Texas and the Confederacy while building a career as a physician and businessman. In 1870 he and his son James Franklin Starr moved their land and banking agency from Nacogdoches to Marshall, buying this land for their homes. Frank Starr and his wife Clara built "Maplecroft," a Greek Revival house that stayed in the family until 1976, when it was deeded to the State of Texas.
County Line Cemetery
Harleton, TX
In the years around the Civil War, settlers drawn from North Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia gathered near the Harrison–Upshur county line to form the Crossroads community, founding a Baptist church and this cemetery on land given by Dr. T.B. Burford. The earliest marked grave belongs to Eli Henderson McCoy, who came from North Carolina in 1859, served in the Confederate Army, and died in 1863. Tombstones bearing military and fraternal emblems—and two rare stone cairns—record the lives of the families who built the settlement.
Bell-Fountain Cemetery
DeBerry, TX
This East Texas farming community grew up around the early Kinlock post office, its settlers sharing a five-acre burial ground deeded to the Bell-Fountain Baptist Church, founded before the Civil War. The earliest marked grave, a child who died in 1850, and the several Confederate veterans laid to rest here mark the sweep of pioneer life through the war years. After the church burned in 1880 and the congregation dispersed, descendants preserved the site, fencing the plot and raising a tabernacle where the church once stood.