Civil War

Concord, NC

On the night of April 18, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America, stopped in Concord during his flight south after the fall of Richmond. The house where he stayed once stood on this spot, a waypoint in the collapse of the Confederacy in the war's final days.

Jefferson, TX

During the Civil War, Jefferson was a bustling inland port and supply hub in East Texas, and munitions had to be stored somewhere safe. This single-room brick powder house was engineered for exactly that purpose, its deliberately light roof meant to vent the blast upward if the powder inside ever ignited. After the war, Union troops occupied the site and used the buildings for encampment. It survives as the only freestanding ordnance magazine in Texas.

Tennessee Colony, TX

Settlers from Tennessee and Alabama founded Tennessee Colony in 1847, and around 1850 Elbert S. Jemison established a plantation here, working enslaved people on his own cotton fields and renting their labor to neighbors and the nearby Confederate salt works. After emancipation in 1865, many freed people stayed, establishing this cemetery where—by tradition—both former enslavers and the formerly enslaved lie buried. Generations of African American residents, including veterans of the twentieth century's wars, rest here still.

Clifton, TX

Jens Jenson came to Bosque County in 1854 with his Norwegian immigrant family, went to sea out of Galveston, and served in the Confederate Army before settling to farm. Beginning with a single stone room in 1867, he expanded the house as his family grew to eleven children, and his descendants have farmed the ancestral acres ever since.

Orange, TX

A Missouri native, Jerome Swinford came to Sabine Pass in 1859 to enter the steamboat trade and, after Civil War service, settled in Orange, where he worked in a sawmill and became a popular merchant. An active Mason, he served as mayor, alderman, and school board member, helped plan a ship channel at Sabine Pass, and won election to the Texas Legislature in 1888.

Sugarcreek, PA · est. 2014

Jesse L. Reno rose from a boyhood in nearby Franklin to become one of the Union's promising corps commanders, cutting his teeth in the Mexican War and teaching at West Point before the Civil War. Leading the 9th Corps of the Army of the Potomac, he was killed in September 1862 at the Battle of South Mountain, Maryland, on the eve of Antietam. Grateful neighbors named this Venango County town Reno in his honor.

Sherman, TX

Jesse "Jess" P. Loving came to Texas from Missouri in 1847 and settled in Sherman by 1852. A Confederate veteran, he became a leading citizen, serving multiple terms as county treasurer and in the state legislature. In 1879 he drove the founding of the Old Settlers Association of Grayson County, helping the pioneer generation preserve its own story.

Eagle Pass, TX

Jesse Sumpter came to the Texas frontier as an infantryman in the years after annexation, serving from 1848 to 1852 and standing among the first troops posted to Fort Duncan on the Rio Grande. He put down roots in the young border town of Eagle Pass, trying his hand at nearly every trade the frontier offered — saloon keeper, mustang hunter, rancher, and lawman. When Maverick County was finally organized in 1871, he pinned on the badge as its very first sheriff.

Bellville, TX

Born in Mecklenburg, Germany, J. H. Hintz immigrated in 1855 and settled near Millheim, joining the Cat Spring Agricultural Society and serving in Waul's Texas Legion during the Civil War, when he was captured and imprisoned until 1865. A farmer by livelihood, he won lasting fame as a Baumeister, or master builder, whose bridges, halls, and multi-sided dance pavilions—like the twelve-sided Bellville Turnverein Pavilion of 1897—still stand. Distinguished by precise joinery and soaring roof framing, his round halls remain gathering places for music and celebration.

Joaquin, TX

Benjamin Franklin Morris gave land for a railroad right-of-way and a township in the 1880s, and the depot town of Joaquin grew up around it. A one-acre gift in 1890 established the Baptist church, and in 1894 Viola Rushing donated adjoining ground for a cemetery in memory of her young sister. Among its more than 800 graves lie a dozen Civil War veterans, the town's first mayor, and two children killed in the 1937 New London School explosion.

Austin, TX

A Tennessee-born orator and prosecutor, John A. Wharton served as a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention in 1861 before joining Terry's Texas Rangers as a company captain. When Colonel Terry was killed, Wharton was elected to lead the famous cavalry regiment, fighting at Shiloh and through the Kentucky campaign. Twice wounded and repeatedly promoted for bravery, he rose to major general in 1863 after Chickamauga and led a cavalry corps in the 1864 Red River campaign.

Boston, MA

This marks the home site of John Albion Andrew, who served as governor of Massachusetts throughout the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865. A fierce opponent of slavery, Andrew mobilized the state for the Union war effort and pressed to enlist Black soldiers, raising the celebrated 54th Massachusetts Infantry. His wartime leadership made Massachusetts one of the Union's most committed states.

Galveston, TX

A Virginia native and West Point graduate of 1830, John Bankhead Magruder won promotion for gallantry in the Mexican War before resigning to join the Confederacy in 1861. As commander of the Texas District he broke the Federal blockade and retook Galveston and the Texas Gulf Coast. After the war he fled to Mexico and served in Emperor Maximilian's army.

Marshall, TX

This sturdy home of hand-cut local iron-ore stone—said to be the county's only 19th-century native-stone residence—began as a way station on the stage route from Shreveport to Daingerfield. Its builder, John Barry Henderson, supplied beef to the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and the house has remained in his family ever since.

Bellville, TX

John Bell Lewis carried an unusual pedigree into the Texas frontier — his grandmother was George Washington's sister — but he made his own mark in Austin County after riding out the Civil War in Confederate service. As Reconstruction-era sheriff and tax collector he saw the need for local banking, helped charter two Bellville banks, and famously talked landowners into donating right-of-way so the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad would run through town rather than bypass it. The 1875 house he built, in a style caught between Greek Revival restraint and Victorian ornament, still stands as a record of a small-town booster's long reach.

Killeen, TX

John C.G. Blackburn, born in Tennessee in 1832, followed his father's earlier land claims to Bell County in 1854 and established a 30-acre farm near the Palo Alto community. When the Civil War came in 1861 he joined the Confederate militia, and family tradition holds he raised this oak-log house in 1863 just before enlisting in the cavalry and drawing frontier duty along the Rio Grande. The cabin outlasted its builders, surviving a Fort Hood expansion in 1954 and relocation before being rebuilt here in 1976 as an artifact of frontier life.

Harpers Ferry, WV

This squat brick building is the old armory fire-engine house where the abolitionist John Brown barricaded himself in October 1859 after seizing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in a bid to spark an uprising against slavery. U.S. Marines under Robert E. Lee stormed the building, capturing Brown, who was tried and hanged that December. The structure became known as 'John Brown's Fort,' and its fame sent it on a remarkable journey — dismantled and displayed at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair before eventually returning near its original ground.

Mont Alto, PA · est. 1947

After John Brown's failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859, several of his followers scattered north in a desperate bid to escape. Captain John E. Cooke was run down near here on October 25, nine days after the raid collapsed, and was returned to Virginia, where he was hanged on December 16—two weeks after Brown himself went to the gallows. The manhunt reached well into Pennsylvania as the nation reeled from the raid.

Rankin, TX

Upton County honors two Tennessee-born brothers who came to Texas in the 1850s and served the Confederacy in the Civil War. John Cunningham Upton rose to lieutenant colonel in the 5th Texas Infantry of Hood's celebrated Texas Brigade and fell at Second Manassas in 1862, the day after leading a bold charge on the enemy's rear guard. William F. Upton served with Texas state troops guarding the long frontier and coastline against invasion, later sitting in the state legislature.

Leonard, TX

John Cadwallader Neale was born in middle Tennessee in 1838 and served with the 9th Tennessee Cavalry in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. In 1874 he migrated to Fannin County, bought a farm, and opened a family grocery in Leonard, becoming a leading merchant of the community as well as a Mason and church deacon. Twice married, he fathered fourteen children before his death in 1906.

New Hanover Township, PA · est. 1947

John F. Hartranft was born in this corner of Montgomery County in 1830 and rose to prominence in the Civil War, earning a reputation for battlefield courage. He carried that fame into politics, serving as governor of Pennsylvania from 1873 to 1879 during the turbulent Reconstruction and Gilded Age years. Among his lasting reforms was reorganizing the state militia into what became part of the modern National Guard.

San Marcos, TX

John Francis McGehee, a veteran of Hood's Texas Brigade, built this Eastlake-style house in 1889 from pine hauled up from Bastrop, cypress siding, and handmade brick. After he sold it in 1906 the home passed through several notable owners, including a physician whose wife served as San Marcos' poet laureate. It has stood as a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark since 1973.

Lancaster, PA · est. 2008

Born and raised in Lancaster, John F. Reynolds became one of the Union Army's most respected commanders during the Civil War. On July 1, 1863, he played a decisive role in committing the Army of the Potomac to battle at Gettysburg, only to be killed in the fighting's first hours. He was brought home and buried in Lancaster Cemetery.

Industry, TX

John Friedrich Ernst emigrated from Oldenburg, Germany, as a boy, and by 1831 his family had settled in what became Industry—one of the first families to make the area a center of German culture in Texas. His life spanned Mexican rule to the Civil War: the family fled in the 1836 Runaway Scrape, and Ernst later joined the Texas Rangers, served as a justice of the peace, and helped organize local militias. In 1861 he enlisted in a Confederate artillery company and died in 1863 after twice commanding it.

Liberty Hill, TX

John Giles Matthews came to the raw new town of Austin as a boy in 1839, when Texas was still an independent republic. He served as a Ranger, then fought in the war with Mexico and again in the Civil War, before settling into the quieter life of a Williamson County farmer and family man in 1870.

Caln Township, PA · est. 1968

Born near here in 1827, John G. Parke became one of the nation's most accomplished Army engineers. He is best remembered for surveying the exact boundary between the Oregon Territory and British Canada, a painstaking task begun in 1857, interrupted by his service as a Union general in the Civil War, and not finished until 1869. He later served as superintendent of West Point, capping a career that spanned exploration, war, and education.

Palestine, TX

Born in Tennessee in 1818, John Henninger Reagan rose through Texas public life as a judge and congressman before resigning his seat in 1861 to serve as postmaster general of the Confederacy. Captured and imprisoned after the war, he returned to farm near Palestine and re-entered national politics, where he led the fight for the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act that first brought railroad monopolies under federal regulation. He capped his career as the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission.

Big Lake, TX

John H. Reagan was a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention and, as a member of the First Confederate Congress, was named Postmaster General of the Confederacy in 1861 — a near-impossible assignment building a mail system from scratch amid war, blockade, and the loss of clerks to the army draft. Captured at war's end and imprisoned in Boston, he later returned to public life as a U.S. Senator and the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission. This memorial, erected by the state in 1963, honors Texans who served the Confederacy.

Palestine, TX

Born in Tennessee in 1818, John Henninger Reagan came to Texas, fought in the Cherokee War, and built a career in law and politics that carried him to the U.S. Congress by 1857. When war came he resigned over states' rights and served as postmaster general of the Confederacy, was captured and imprisoned, then returned to Texas and rebuilt his life. His greatest legacy came afterward: as congressman and senator he led the fight that produced the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, then became the first chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, pioneering government regulation of the railroads.

Canton, TX

Arriving in Nacogdoches in 1839, young John H. Reagan carried President Lamar's ultimatum to the Cherokees and rode with the Texas militia at the Battle of the Neches, the fight that killed Chiefs Bowles and Big Mush and drove the tribe from East Texas. He went on to survey and name new counties, judge East Texas courts including Canton's, and serve in Congress before becoming Postmaster General of the Confederacy, for which he was imprisoned in 1865. Rebuilding his career afterward, he helped frame the 1876 Texas constitution and became the state's first Railroad Commissioner.

Canadian, TX

John Hemphill, born in 1803, sat as a United States senator from Texas on the eve of the Civil War and argued forcefully for his state's right to leave the Union. He was elected a delegate to the provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, which framed the new government's constitution and machinery, and he died in the Confederate capital of Richmond in 1862. This marker was raised by the State of Texas in 1963 to honor Texans who served the Confederacy.

Wimberley, TX

Virginia-born John Henry Saunders served in the Confederate cavalry before making his way to the Texas Hill Country in 1870 by way of Tennessee and Indian Territory. At Purgatory Springs he became the community's first schoolteacher and married Calladonia Williamson, then built a store and served the growing Wimberley area as postmaster, county commissioner, and its first county school superintendent. The family lived in this modest c. 1870 house from 1888 to 1907 before moving on to San Marcos.

San Antonio, TX

Trained as an architect in Cologne and schooled in the building trades, John Hermann Kampmann fled the revolutionary upheavals of 1848 in central Europe and reached San Antonio that May, one of the German immigrants who reshaped the young Texas city. He rose from stonemason to leading contractor, leaving his mark on the Menger Hotel, St. Mark's Episcopal Church, the German-English School, and much else. Commissioned a Confederate captain in the Civil War, he recruited and equipped volunteers and managed army supplies before returning to his enterprises, ultimately buying the Menger Hotel he had helped build.

Hallettsville, TX

Pennsylvania-born John Himes Livergood came to Texas in 1837 and took up 640 acres near Gonzales, throwing himself into the defense of the young Republic's frontier. He joined the pursuit that ended in victory at the Battle of Plum Creek, scouted with Jack Hays's Texas Rangers, and endured the disastrous Mier Expedition—surviving the Black Bean Episode and imprisonment at Perote. Settling on the Lavaca River with his wife Sarah Ann and thirteen children, he became a county judge and justice of the peace before serving the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Victoria, TX

New York–born John Howland Wood came to Texas in 1836, fought in the Texas Revolution, and served as an army quartermaster at Victoria before settling on a ranch at Black Point (today Bayside) in the 1840s. He sold beef to the U.S. Army as Gen. Zachary Taylor's forces massed at Corpus Christi on the eve of the Mexican-American War, later captained coastal-defense patrols during the Civil War, and helped develop the town of Rockport.

Austin, TX

Kentucky-born John Ireland came to Texas and served as an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War, then climbed the ranks of postwar public life as a state senator and associate justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Elected governor, he led the state from 1883 to 1887, a tenure remembered for defending the public domain during the era of great cattle ranches and barbed-wire fence wars. He died in San Antonio in 1896.

Anson County, NC

Born near here in 1815, John J. McRae built his career in Mississippi, serving as its governor and representing it in both houses of Congress. When the South seceded, he followed his adopted state into the Confederacy as a Confederate congressman. His life traced the deepening sectional divide that would split the nation.

Kimble County, TX

Born in Illinois in 1822, John James Smith came to Texas in time to enlist for the Mexican War of 1846–48, then rode as a Texas Ranger guarding the frontier before serving in the Confederate Army and as city marshal of Greenville. He settled in Kimble County in 1881 and farmed there as a respected citizen until his death at the remarkable age of 102.

Dallas, TX

A Mississippi native who practiced law in Alabama, John Jay Good settled in Dallas in 1851 and quickly wove himself into the town's civic fabric, from early government to a charter membership in the local Odd Fellows' lodge. When the Civil War came he served the Confederacy as colonel of an artillery regiment, and afterward returned to public life as a district judge and, in 1880, mayor of Dallas. His path from frontier lawyer to wartime officer to city leader mirrors the arc of the town itself.

Leakey, TX

John Leakey left Tennessee for Texas in 1847 and pushed steadily westward into the rugged Frio Canyon, where he built a cypress-shingle business under the constant threat of raids during the frontier's most dangerous years. He hauled supplies for the Confederacy, then returned to run a sawmill, ranch, and even a school, and in 1883 the town that bears his name was laid out on land he donated. His story braids together settlement, industry, and the hard realities of the contested Hill Country frontier.

Exeter, NH

This clapboard house dates to around 1718, when Exeter was a tight-knit New England town not far removed from its Puritan founding. A century later it became home to Amos Tuck, an Exeter lawyer and congressman remembered as one of the antislavery politicians who helped bring the early Republican Party into being. Here too was born his son Edward Tuck, who went on to make a fortune in banking and finance and became one of the great philanthropists of his age.

Artesia Wells, TX

An Alabama native, John M. Ramsey served in the Confederate army during the Civil War before settling in Lee County, Texas, in 1870. After his first wife's death he moved with his eight children to La Salle County in 1889, acquiring extensive farm and ranch land. He became a pioneer leader in Artesia Wells, active in politics and serving as a school trustee.

Jefferson, TX

Alabama-born John M. Vines joined the W. P. Lane Rangers of the Confederate Army in 1861, mustering out in 1865 as a farrier. He later served as sheriff and tax collector of Marion County, and in 1877 was sent by the state to Ohio to return Abe Rothschild for one of the century's most sensational murder trials — the killing of "Diamond Bessie" Moore. Vines also superintended construction of Jefferson's federal courthouse in 1888.

Montgomery, TX

Born in New York City in 1815, John Marshall Wade came to Texas in 1835 on Sam Houston's advice and joined the Texas army, helping fire the famed "Twin Sisters" cannons at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. A printer by trade, he set type for Gail Borden's Telegraph and Texas Register, served the Republic's Senate, surveyed Montgomery County, joined the 1842 Somervell Expedition, and founded the Montgomery Patriot newspaper in 1845. He later served in the Confederate army and died in Austin in 1879.

Athens, TX

John Matthews McDonald left North Carolina for the young Republic-turned-state of Texas in 1848, settling at last in the frontier town of Athens, where he worked as a teacher and lawyer and became its first mayor. When war came, he served in the Confederate Army with Hood's famed Texas Brigade. Returning home, he built a long career in public life as justice of the peace, county judge, and state representative.

Hillsboro, TX

John P. Cox, son of San Jacinto veteran Euclid M. Cox, joined Parsons' Brigade of the Confederate Army in 1861 and after the war spent 25 years as commander of Hillsboro's Confederate camp. A Methodist and a Mason, he served Hill County as sheriff for sixteen years and as county clerk for four, earning a reputation as a firm lawman with a particular concern for reforming young offenders.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1998

John Page Nicholson fought in the Civil War and then devoted his life to remembering it. A meticulous scholar, he edited the two-volume Pennsylvania at Gettysburg and worked to preserve the battlefields at Gettysburg and Valley Forge. In 1888 he helped found a library and museum dedicated to the war he had lived through.

Purmela, TX

The son of French immigrants who reached Texas before the Revolution, John Bertrand grew up in Brazoria County and ran a mercantile business in Washington County before leaving to serve in the Confederate Army. After the Civil War he married, moved to Coryell County in 1875, and settled 312 acres, raising eight children in a log cabin while he farmed and ran livestock. His story mirrors the westward push of many Texans rebuilding their lives on the land after the war.

Adamsville, TX

John Patterson was, by tradition, the first man to break ground for crops in the county back in 1854, and he later served as a frontier Minute Man during the Civil War, guarding the settlements while other men marched away. The home he built in 1879–1880 stands as a monument to that pioneering life. It marks the transition from raw frontier to established farmstead.

Fort Worth, TX

A Kentuckian who reached Fort Worth in 1853, John Peter Smith worked as teacher, clerk, surveyor, and attorney before the Civil War. Though he opposed secession, he raised a company of Tarrant County men for the Confederacy, rode with Sibley's Brigade into New Mexico and the recapture of Galveston, and was badly wounded in Louisiana. Returning home, he helped build the city—organizing a bank, gas company, and street railway, donating land for parks, cemeteries, and a hospital, and as mayor in 1882 founding the school and water systems.

Fort Worth, TX

Pioneer Fort Worth settler John Peter Smith, who arrived from Kentucky in 1853, donated twenty acres in 1879 to establish this cemetery. A teacher, clerk, surveyor, and attorney turned civic leader, he opposed secession yet raised Confederate troops and rode with Sibley's Brigade, suffering a severe wound in Louisiana. After the war he helped organize a bank, gas company, and street railway, gave land for parks and a hospital, and as mayor in 1882 launched the city's school and water systems; he is buried in the very ground he gave.

San Angelo, TX

Born in Georgia and a Confederate soldier in the closing years of the Civil War, John R. "Sarge" Nasworthy came west to Texas and helped build the institutions of a raw frontier region around San Angelo. He bought beef for the army mess halls at Fort Concho, served as deputy county clerk and sheriff and the city's first treasurer, and ran the town's first brick kiln, wagon yard, and livery stable. A county commissioner who promoted an early viaduct and a major Baptist encampment, he left his name on Lake Nasworthy, the area's first conservation lake, built on land he once owned.

McKinney, TX

John Spenser Heard, an Arkansas native and Confederate veteran, joined his family in McKinney about 1865 and married Rachel Wilson in 1884. Business success let the couple support many local causes and, in 1921, build this grand classical revival home designed by the Dallas firm Ye Planery, with towering Corinthian columns and a dentiled pediment. The house remained in the Heard family until 1987.

Paint Rock vicinity, TX

Cattle baron John S. Chisum (1824–1884) grazed tens of thousands of Longhorns on the Concho after moving his "Jingle-Bob" herds here in 1863. During the Civil War he supplied beef to Confederate armies west of the Mississippi, driving cattle toward Louisiana camps through gauntlets of raiders, rustlers, federal patrols, and the deep, cold Brazos. After the war he built ranching empires in New Mexico and became a bystander to the Lincoln County War of Billy the Kid.

San Antonio, TX

John Salmon 'Rip' Ford lived nearly every role the Texas frontier offered: pioneer doctor and newspaper editor, Republic of Texas congressman, state senator, adjutant to Jack Hays in the war with Mexico, and a fearless Ranger captain in border and Indian campaigns. He served as a Confederate colonel during the Civil War and later as mayor of Austin and Brownsville, a constitutional convention delegate, and a charter member of the Texas State Historical Association. His grave marker, erected by the state in 1963, recalls his motto: 'Ready, ay, ready!'

Maysville, KY

Born in Maysville in 1841, John Samuel Darrough moved west with his family as a boy and answered the Union's call in 1862, enlisting in the 113th Illinois Infantry. On October 10, 1864, during operations along the Tennessee River near Eastport, Mississippi, his regiment came under fire from Confederate artillery while tearing up bridge and rail lines; in the retreat, Sergeant Darrough turned back to carry a helpless comrade to safety. That act earned him the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration, awarded in 1895.

Ross, TX

John Silas Edens arrived in Texas as a boy in 1831, when it was still Mexican territory, and lived nearly every chapter of the state's frontier saga: he fought in the Republic of Texas army in 1836, rode with the Texas Rangers on Indian campaigns in 1841, farmed and raised a large family, and served the Confederacy during the Civil War. Back home in Houston County he opened the area's first school before moving on to McLennan County in 1868.

Stroudsburg, PA · est. 1999

By 1864 the Union relied on the draft to fill its armies, and even citizens exempt from service were urged to furnish substitute recruits. President Lincoln chose to lead by example, naming young John Summerfield Staples of Stroudsburg as his personal "representative recruit." After meeting the President at the White House on October 1, 1864, Staples served at Arlington, Virginia—one of fewer than 1,300 such symbolic enlistees.

Crockett, TX

New York-born John Titus Smith came to Texas from Georgia in 1849 and settled on a cotton plantation at McKenzie's Bend on the Trinity River, where he operated the steamboat Ida Reese. He served as chief justice of Houston County in the 1850s and later in the state legislature, and fought in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He and his wife Elizabeth raised a large family before his death in 1874.

Orange, TX

Born in Ohio in 1821, John T. Stark came to East Texas in 1840 and settled in Newton County, where he read law and kept a mercantile store. He enlisted as a private in the Texas infantry for the Confederacy in 1861 and rose to captain, and after the war moved to Orange to practice law and serve a term as county judge. His three marriages produced eighteen children before his death in 1893.