Texas Confederate County Commissioners Court
Brenham, Washington County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Composed of a chief justice (now county judge) and four county commissioners, these elected governing boards directed vital Civil War programs. Provided arms, clothing, horses and saddles for troops from county. Gave aid to wartime factories. Obtained and distributed to soldier's families scarce medicine, food, cloth, salt and cotton and wool cards. County patrols and home guards were set up in many counties and supplied lead, powder, gun caps to guard against the enemy, Indians and bandits. Funds were raised by issuing bonds and scrip and assessing a special war tax on property. Tax credits were given to citizens for contributions to soldier's dependents. Unbranded cattle were gathered and sold to benefit orphans and widows. Rich, heavily-populated Washington County through its court financed hospitals in Hempstead and Chappell Hill; contracted the making of army uniforms; bought kegs of powder and held gun inspections to maintain home defenses; printed county scrip in 50 (cents), $1, $2, $3 bills; established at Old Mt. Vernon a camp of insctruction and in Brenham a soldiers home. Judges, commissioners and other dedicated public officials did much to strengthen Texas' war effort.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
During the Civil War, Texas county commissioners courts—a chief justice and four commissioners—became engines of the Confederate war effort, arming and clothing troops, aiding war factories, and distributing scarce medicine, salt, and cloth to soldiers' families. They organized patrols and home guards and raised money through bonds, scrip, and a special war tax. Prosperous Washington County financed hospitals, contracted army uniforms, printed its own scrip, and ran a camp of instruction and a soldiers' home in Brenham.
Why it matters
This marker reveals how the Confederacy's war was sustained not only on battlefields but through the ordinary machinery of county government mobilized for total war.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Washington County, C.S.A.
Brenham, TX
During the Civil War, Washington County was the most populous in Texas and a vital Confederate hub, with a quartermaster depot, factories turning out wagons, kettles, and army ambulances, and one of the state's four government cotton depots in Brenham. Wagons hauled that cotton to Mexico for scarce supplies while troops, stagecoaches, and a pony express carrying war news filled the county seat. Local units fought on every front, and Gen. Jerome Robertson led the famed Hood's Texas Brigade.
Prairie Lea Cemetery
Brenham, TX
Prairie Lea Cemetery holds graves dating from the 1840s, though the Brenham Cemetery Association did not formally establish it until 1871, spurred by the yellow fever deaths that were filling the older Masonic burial ground. Among those interred are veterans reaching back to the Texas Revolution, prominent Giddings brothers, Methodist founders of early colleges, and Confederate General John David McAdoo. German-inscribed tombstones and the 1897 Rest Chapel reflect the area's deep immigrant heritage.
Brenham
Brenham, TX
Founded in 1843 and named for Republic of Texas patriot Richard Fox Brenham, this Washington County seat became a railhead and supply center during the Civil War. It grew into a hub of farming, trade, and manufacturing and gave rise to Blinn Memorial College in 1883. Its celebrated Maifest keeps alive the folk traditions of its German-influenced community.
Ludwig Lehmann Family Cemetery
Brenham, TX
In 1849, Ludwig and Carolyn Lehmann left Hamburg for the Texas coast with their sons and Ludwig's aged mother, who died on the grueling three-month Atlantic crossing and was buried at sea. Settling near Brenham, the family farmed and helped anchor the German Lutheran community of Berlin, donating land for its Ebenezer Evangelical Lutheran Church. This burial ground holds the first family members laid to rest in their adopted country, and the German-ordered grave markers a son later commissioned still speak to ties never fully cut.