Wise County, C.S.A.
Decatur, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
County named for Henry A. Wise, U.S. Senator from Virginia who supported Texas annexation, later Governor and C.S.A. general. Wise County was part of District One of 33 brigade districts of Texas established to recruit men for Confederate and state service in 1861. The headquarters at Decatur became a military post with an arsenal of supplies set up in the Old Howell and Allen Store. Although the county voted against secession, men joined a military company so early that neither state nor Confederacy had any plans to take over the troops. During the war four more companies were raised. These men served on the Texas frontier and in fighting to the east. With almost all the male population drawn into service, Decatur became a refugee camp where settlers stayed for protection from Indians. In 1862 a "Peace Party Plot" aimed at revolt against the Texas Confederate government was discovered. Fifty persons were brought to trial in the arsenal. Five were found guilty and hanged. In 1863 Decatur was headquarters for 1st District of state militia. This was the second line of defense for the frontier which backed up the line of old U.S. posts located 105 miles to the west. 70 miles west were the frontier regiment outposts from the Red River to the Rio Grande. These militiamen served to protect this part of the frontier yet were able to work their farms. Late in the war, deserters came through the county. In April 1865, men from Wise and Cooke counties captured nearly 100 on their way to New Mexico. Erected by the State of Texas 1963.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Though Wise County voted against secession, its men rallied so quickly in 1861 that they organized militia companies before Texas or the Confederacy had plans to muster them. Decatur became a military post and arsenal, and with nearly every able man away at war, the town swelled into a refugee camp for families seeking protection from frontier raids. The war's darkest local moment came with the 1862 "Peace Party Plot," when fifty were tried in the arsenal and five were hanged.
Why it matters
It shows the Civil War on the Texas frontier as a two-front ordeal — Confederate service abroad and a desperate home-front defense against raids and internal dissent.
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Related people
- · Henry A. Wise
Related events
- · Peace Party Plot
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Randolph Vesey
Decatur, TX
Randolph Vesey (1832–1908) was a Black Texan, born in Georgia, known across Wise County as a champion pioneer fiddler who played the frontier forts and was once ransomed from Indian captivity in Kansas. The marker records that he accompanied Confederate general W. L. Cabell to war as a body servant, and it uses his life to frame a broader, contested claim about enslaved and free Black people who labored for the Confederacy. Vesey lived out his years as a respected homeowner and is buried in Decatur's Oaklawn cemetery.
Randolph (Uncle Ran) Vesey
Decatur, TX
Born into slavery near Savannah, Georgia, in 1832, Randolph Vesey served as body servant to Confederate General William Lewis Cabell during the Civil War. In 1868, living on the Montague-Wise County line, he was captured by Indians and taken to Kansas, then ransomed by the Black frontier scout Brit Johnson with horses donated by Texas friends. A gifted violinist, Vesey played at local dances, married Missouri 'Zoe' Light, and raised two children.
Wise County Reunion
Decatur, TX
Confederate veterans and Wise County pioneers gathered for an 1881 reunion at Cold Springs, timed to the anniversary of Captain George Stevens' 1874 victory over raiding Indians; some 5,000 people came. Settling into its present grounds by 1896, the gathering grew to a multi-day festival of speeches, rodeos, and sham battles drawing crowds of 12,000. Sponsored by the Old Settlers Association, it endures as the oldest recurring public event in the county.
Robert Calvin Mount
Chico, TX
Robert Calvin Mount came from Tennessee to Texas in 1855 and helped organize the brand-new Wise County, winning election as its first tax assessor-collector in 1856. During the Civil War he served as a first lieutenant in Blythe's militia, and in 1874 he built a fort-like rock house near Chico as protection on a still-dangerous frontier. He is remembered as one of the county's founding pioneers.