Shelby's Flag Burial
Eagle Pass, Maverick County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The last flag to fly over an organized Confederate force was buried in the river near this spot on July 4, 1865, by Gen. Jos. O. Shelby, of Missouri. His un-surrendered cavalry brigade, with arms, cannon and ragged battle flags, marched across Texas three months after Lee's surrender, to enter Mexico in the hope to continue their fight. As a last rite on Texas soil, Shelby assembled his command on the banks of the Rio Grande. At sound of drum and bugle, their flag was folded, weighted and consigned to the waters of the muddy Rio. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Three months after Lee's surrender, Confederate General Joseph O. Shelby led his un-surrendered Missouri cavalry brigade across Texas toward Mexico, unwilling to lay down arms. On July 4, 1865, at the banks of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, his command gathered for a final ceremony: to drum and bugle, their battle flag was folded, weighted, and sunk into the muddy river. It is remembered as the last flag to fly over an organized Confederate force.
Why it matters
Shelby's river burial marks the literal and symbolic end of the Confederacy in the field, a diehard remnant's refusal to surrender even as the war had already ended.
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Related people
- · Gen. Joseph O. Shelby
Related events
- · End of the Civil War
- · Shelby's march to Mexico, 1865
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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The Lee Building
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Built before 1875 as quarters for an ordnance sergeant on the Texas frontier, this stone building takes its name from Robert E. Lee, who visited the area in 1860 as commander of the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, Department of Texas, before his later career as a Confederate general. The Maverick County Historical Society leased it in 1948, and after restoration it was dedicated during the Eagle Pass Centennial in 1949 for use as a museum and meeting hall. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1968.
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When Union forces seized the lower Rio Grande in 1863, Eagle Pass became a vital Confederate customhouse and port of entry, the western terminus of the famed Cotton Road. Oxcart trains hauled thousands of cotton bales from San Antonio across a dangerous, bandit-plagued road to be ferried into Mexico and traded for guns, medicine, and supplies. Fort Duncan and Camp Rabb guarded the crossing in a town that had voted overwhelmingly against secession, and citizens once fought off raiders from behind barricades of cotton bales.
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Jesse Sumpter came to the Texas frontier as an infantryman in the years after annexation, serving from 1848 to 1852 and standing among the first troops posted to Fort Duncan on the Rio Grande. He put down roots in the young border town of Eagle Pass, trying his hand at nearly every trade the frontier offered — saloon keeper, mustang hunter, rancher, and lawman. When Maverick County was finally organized in 1871, he pinned on the badge as its very first sheriff.