Texas in the Civil War: Confederate Veterans
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
From 1865 until World War I, Civil War veterans were leaders in economic and public life in Texas. Every locality had its United Confederate Veterans camp, with yearly reunions. Texas railroads gave free passes to veterans and widows. But while the U.S. Treasury gave ample pensions to Federals, the Confederates depended on state bounties. Texas in 1881-1883 gave 1280-acre land grants to widows of men who died in service and to disabled veterans and their servants. Pensions were approved in 1899; 91% of Texas pensioners had served in the war from other states, but met residential requirements here. Confederate homes for veterans, their wives and widows were located in Austin. John B. Hood Camp, U.C.V., founded the men's home in 1886, gave it to the state in 1891. Daughters of the Confederacy built the woman's home in 1907 and gave it to the state in 1911. The men's home lost its last veteran in 1954 with the death of Thomas Riddle. In 1965 at least 47 Confederate widows survived. By 1965, Texas had spent $71,106,648 to maintain homes and pension benefits. (1965)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
From the end of the Civil War until World War I, Confederate veterans dominated economic and civic life across Texas, gathering yearly in United Confederate Veterans camps in nearly every community. Unlike Union soldiers, who drew federal pensions, ex-Confederates relied on state aid—land grants in the early 1880s, then pensions approved in 1899—and on homes for veterans, wives, and widows built in Austin. By 1965 Texas had spent more than $71 million on these benefits.
Why it matters
It reveals how the defeated Confederacy shaped Southern politics and memory for generations, with states shouldering a burden of veteran care the federal government would not.
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Nearby & related markers
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As Civil War veterans aged into the twentieth century, communities across the South built spaces to honor and care for them. Fort Worth businessman Khleber Van Zandt organized a large United Confederate Veterans camp in 1889, and by 1901 it had chartered a 373-acre park for the "recreation, refuge and relief" of old soldiers and their families. The grounds hosted picnics and statewide reunions for two decades before the dwindling ranks of survivors led the association to dissolve in the 1920s.
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