The Gray and The Blue
Paducah, Cottle County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Into the western part of Texas, about 1885 came Civil War veterans of the Gray and the Blue, to tame the wilderness. They grazed cattle where drought parched the grass. Lived in dugouts. Found daily existence a siege that reminded them of war hardships. On occasional trips into town, verbally refought the war on the Courthouse Square, but lived peacefully together to build a great county. In Cottle County, 85 per cent of the early pioneers had worn the Gray. One out of 3 had been in Texas units. Others, were from Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee and Virginia. Of the great early brands, most were owned by Confederate veterans, but one in Cottle was run by a strong pro-Unionist. 8,722 Union veterans lived in Texas in 1890. One example in Cottle County at this time was Union veteran, William Frederick Liedtke (1836-1914), who had migrated to the U.S. from Prussia, in 1856. He served as a county official and then as state auditor of Nebraska before settling in Paducah. He was legal advisor, abstractor and Justice of the Peace here. Gray or Blue in the 1860s, the 1890 uniform tended to be cowman's regalia on an American looking to the future rather than at the past. (1964)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Around 1885, Civil War veterans of both the Gray and the Blue drifted into western Texas to tame the wilderness, grazing cattle on drought-parched grass and living in dugouts. Old adversaries refought the war verbally on the courthouse square yet built Cottle County together in peace—some 85 percent of early pioneers had worn Confederate gray, though Union men like Prussian immigrant William Frederick Liedtke, a former Nebraska state auditor, settled here too as respected officials. By the 1890s the uniform that mattered was a cowman's regalia, worn by Americans looking forward rather than back.
Why it matters
This marker captures how the raw work of frontier settlement dissolved the bitter divisions of the Civil War, turning former enemies into neighbors building a common future.
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Related people
- · William Frederick Liedtke
Related events
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
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