Old Military Headquarters

San Antonio, TX

The springs at Old San Pedro, five miles from the city, were a favored camping ground long used by U.S. troops during the Mexican War of 1846–48 and by picnickers and stump-speakers in the 1850s. When federal forces in Texas surrendered to the Confederacy in 1861, the site briefly held prisoners of war in dugouts and brush arbors. Thereafter it served as a staging camp for Confederate soldiers bound for the western frontier, the Arizona–New Mexico campaign, and camps of instruction for raw recruits.

San Antonio, TX

John Salmon 'Rip' Ford lived nearly every role the Texas frontier offered: pioneer doctor and newspaper editor, Republic of Texas congressman, state senator, adjutant to Jack Hays in the war with Mexico, and a fearless Ranger captain in border and Indian campaigns. He served as a Confederate colonel during the Civil War and later as mayor of Austin and Brownsville, a constitutional convention delegate, and a charter member of the Texas State Historical Association. His grave marker, erected by the state in 1963, recalls his motto: 'Ready, ay, ready!'

San Antonio, TX

Hamilton P. Bee was a fixture of early Texas public life, serving as secretary of the first state Senate, a legislator, and Speaker of the House in the 1850s before commanding troops in campaigns on the frontier. He fought as a cavalry lieutenant in the Mexican War, then rose to Confederate brigadier general, guarding the vital cotton road to Mexico and leading a brigade in the 1864 Red River Campaign, where he was wounded. His career threads through nearly every conflict of mid-19th-century Texas.

San Antonio, TX

Organized in 1853 by San Antonio's cultured German immigrants, the Casino Association built an 1858 clubhouse with a theatre, a 700-seat hall, and banquet and club rooms. During the Civil War its stage hosted military balls, benefit concerts, and minstrel shows for the Confederate cause, while women gathered there to roll bandages. Over the decades its audiences included Robert E. Lee before the war and, later, Ulysses S. Grant and Buffalo Bill.