Site of Camp Independence
Edna, Jackson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
A part of the first army of the Texas Republic, under the command of General Felix Huston, and later of General Albert Sidney Johnston, was stationed here from December, 1836, until furloughed by order of President Sam Houston on May 18, 1837. Captain Henry Teal was assassinated here as he slept in his tent on the night of May 5. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In the anxious months after San Jacinto, part of the fledgling Republic of Texas army camped here from December 1836 until President Sam Houston furloughed the restless troops in May 1837. Commanded first by Felix Huston and then by Albert Sidney Johnston, the encampment reflected the young republic's uneasy standoff with Mexico. Its darkest moment came when Captain Henry Teal was assassinated in his tent one night in May 1837, a killing that still shadows the site's memory.
Why it matters
The camp marks the fragile, improvised early days of the Republic of Texas army, when independence was won on the battlefield but far from secure.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Texas won its independence at San Jacinto in April 1836, but winning a battle wasn't the same as having a secure nation. Mexico never recognized the new Republic, and through late 1836 and 1837 Texans lived with the constant possibility that a Mexican army would return. The young government was nearly broke, its institutions were brand new, and its army was raw.
That army was a difficult thing to maintain. Many of its soldiers were recent volunteers from the United States who had arrived after the fighting was over, eager for action and poorly suited to sitting in camp. Pay and supplies were scarce. Discipline was hard to enforce. Some officers wanted to take the war into Mexico, while President Sam Houston worried that an idle, restless army could become as much a danger to the Republic as any foreign enemy.
Camp Independence, on the coastal plain of what is now Jackson County, was where part of that army waited through the winter and spring of 1836-1837. It was an uneasy time, when the Republic's most pressing military problem was not an invasion but managing the soldiers it already had.
People & events
From December 1836, the troops here were under Gen. Felix Huston, an ambitious commander known for favoring an aggressive campaign against Mexico. Command then passed to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston. The change was not peaceful. When Johnston arrived to take over, the resentful Huston challenged him to a duel, and Johnston was seriously wounded. That clash shows how fragile authority was in the Republic's army and how pride and ambition could threaten its chain of command.
Sam Houston, now president, saw the danger clearly. On May 18, 1837, he ordered the soldiers furloughed, sending most of them home. It was a practical and political decision: it eased the strain on an empty treasury and defused an army that some feared might act on its own.
The camp's darkest episode came earlier that same month. On the night of May 5, Capt. Henry Teal was murdered as he slept in his tent. The marker records the killing but not who did it or why, and it's best not to fill that silence with guesses. The murder of an officer in his own camp remains a grim sign of how tense and troubled the post had become.
Its place in the American story
Camp Independence shows a side of the Texas Revolution that is often skipped: what came after. San Jacinto is famous, but the difficult job of turning a victorious volunteer army into something a new government could control is just as much a part of how the Republic survived.
The people tied to this camp went on to larger roles in American history. Sam Houston later served as a U.S. senator and governor after Texas joined the Union. Albert Sidney Johnston served in the U.S. Army and became one of the Confederacy's highest-ranking generals, and he was killed at Shiloh in 1862. Their paths crossed here, in a muddy camp on the coastal plain, during the Republic's first uncertain year.
The camp also reflects an old American concern about standing armies and civilian control. Houston's choice to send the soldiers home instead of letting them march on Mexico was a statement that the Republic's elected government, not its restless army, would decide its future.
If you visit
The marker, placed by the State of Texas in 1936 for the centennial of independence, stands near Edna in the flat, open coastal country of Jackson County. Don't expect earthworks or tent lines. The camp was a temporary post, and the land has long since gone back to its quiet rural life. What you can bring to the site is imagination: a winter and spring of waiting soldiers, rivalries among officers and uncertainty about what would come next.
Stand there for a moment and think about the contrast between this calm landscape and the tension of 1837. There was a duel over command and a murder in the night, and then the order that sent the army home.
The marker fits naturally into a drive through the Texas coastal plain and its many Revolution and Republic-era sites. Pair it with San Jacinto near Houston and other Republic sites to follow Texas from its moment of victory into the harder work of keeping its independence.
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
- · Felix Huston
- · Albert Sidney Johnston
- · Sam Houston
- · Henry Teal
Themes & tags
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