John C. Upton and His Brother, W. F. Upton
Rankin, Upton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County named for Texas Confederates (Star and Wreath). Colonel John Cunningham Upton (1828-1862) Born Tennessee. Came to Texas 1859. Raised company outbreak of Civil War. Attached to 5th Texas Infantry, Hood's famed Texas Brigade, fighting in the campaigns in and around Virginia. Rose to Lt. Colonel of his regiment. The day before his death at the Battle of Second Manassas, led charge upon the enemy rear guard which was a seldom seen, yet brilliantly executed move. Colonel William F. Upton (1832-1887) Born Tennessee. Came to Texas 1853. When Civil War broke, enlisted Texas state troops mustered in for Texas frontier protection. He served in various military units in Texas, helping to successfully guard the 2000 miles of frontier and coastline open to Union or Indian attack. Promoted to Lt. Colonel of Mann's regiment, stationed in Galveston area along with other Texas troops to prevent expected mass Union invasion in 1865. Member of State Legislature 1866, 1876-82.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Upton County honors two Tennessee-born brothers who came to Texas in the 1850s and served the Confederacy in the Civil War. John Cunningham Upton rose to lieutenant colonel in the 5th Texas Infantry of Hood's celebrated Texas Brigade and fell at Second Manassas in 1862, the day after leading a bold charge on the enemy's rear guard. William F. Upton served with Texas state troops guarding the long frontier and coastline against invasion, later sitting in the state legislature.
Why it matters
The brothers' divergent service — one dying with Lee's army in Virginia, the other holding Texas's home front — reflects the two very different wars Texans fought between 1861 and 1865.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Texas was still very much a frontier state. It had been part of the Union for only about fifteen years, and its settled farms and towns stopped well short of the dry plains and mesas of the west, where Comanche and Kiowa power remained strong. Thousands of newcomers had arrived during the 1850s, many from older Southern states like Tennessee, drawn by cheap land and the promise of a fresh start.
When Texas left the Union, its men faced two very different wars. Some went east to join the great Confederate armies fighting in Virginia and Tennessee, hundreds of miles from home. Others stayed behind to guard a vast, exposed state: a long Gulf coastline open to Union naval attack, and a western frontier where Union troops had withdrawn from the forts, leaving settlers to defend themselves.
The county that carries the Upton name came much later, when Texas lawmakers carved the open ranch country of West Texas into new counties and often named them for Confederate soldiers. Today Upton County lies in the Permian Basin, far from any Civil War battlefield. Its name is a reminder of how Texans of that era chose to remember the war.
People & events
John Cunningham Upton and William F. Upton were brothers born in Tennessee who each followed the westward stream to Texas. William came first, in 1853; John followed in 1859. Within a few years the war had sent them down very different roads.
John raised a company of volunteers as soon as the war began. His men became part of the 5th Texas Infantry in Hood's Texas Brigade, one of the most famous fighting units in Robert E. Lee's army. The brigade fought in the hard campaigns across Virginia and built a reputation for aggressive charges. John rose to lieutenant colonel of his regiment. At the Battle of Second Manassas in the summer of 1862, he led a charge against the Union rear guard that his marker calls rare and brilliantly carried out. He was killed the next day, one of the many officers the Texas Brigade lost in that campaign.
William's war stayed in Texas. He joined the state troops raised to protect the frontier and served in several units guarding a line of frontier and coast that stretched some two thousand miles. By the war's final months he was a lieutenant colonel in Mann's regiment, posted near Galveston as Confederate commanders braced for a large Union invasion that never came. William survived the war and went into politics, serving in the Texas Legislature in 1866 and again from 1876 to 1882, in the years when the state was rebuilding its government after Reconstruction.
Its place in the American story
The Upton brothers show in one family how differently Texans experienced the Civil War. Hood's Texas Brigade became a symbol of Texas soldiers in the East, and its heavy losses at battles like Second Manassas were typical of Lee's army, which won famous victories at a terrible cost in officers and men. John Upton's short career, from raising a company to dying at the head of his regiment, followed a path shared by thousands of volunteer officers on both sides.
William's service points to a part of the war that gets less attention. The Union blockade and the threat of invasion along the Gulf Coast, along with raids on the western frontier, kept large numbers of Texas troops at home. Galveston, where William was stationed, remained an important Confederate port late in the war and was among the last to be surrendered in 1865.
The county name also tells a later story. In the decades after the war, Texas named many new western counties for Confederate figures, turning the map itself into a memorial. When you read these names today, you are seeing how a generation chose to shape its public memory. That history is worth understanding for its own sake.
If you visit
You'll find this marker in Rankin, the small county seat of Upton County, in wide-open West Texas country where ranchland meets the oil fields of the Permian Basin. The landscape is flat, dry, and huge under the sky. It is a long way from the green Virginia hills where John Upton died, and that contrast is part of what makes the stop worth making.
Take a minute to picture two young Tennesseans coming to a Texas that was still largely unsettled. One ended up buried far to the east. The other spent the war watching a coast and frontier that were always under threat. Few markers hold two such different war stories in so little space.
Rankin is an easy break on a drive across West Texas, whether you're heading between the Midland–Odessa area and the Big Bend country or following back roads through the Permian Basin. Bring water, fill your gas tank when you can, and expect long distances between towns. Distance is part of the history out here, too.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Cunningham Upton
- · William F. Upton
Related events
- · Battle of Second Manassas (1862)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Upton County
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Carved from Tom Green County and created in 1887, Upton County was not fully organized until 1910. It honors John Cunningham Upton, a distinguished Confederate officer killed at the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862. A land of cattle and sheep ranches, the county later saw oil wells rise across its range, and its seat moved from Upland to Rankin in 1921.
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