Chappell Hill Blood Trail (1) |
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Marker Title: Washington-on-the-Brazos
City: Washington
County: Washington
Marker Location: In Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park, Washington.
Marker Text: This frontier village was the setting for the convention
that on March 2, 1836, wrote and signed the immortal Texas Declaration
of Independence in this first capital of the Republic of Texas, the
constitution was drawn, the government organized. However, Washington
was a target for Santa Anna's army, and on March 17 the government had
to flee. After the Texas victory at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836, Washington
was again proposed as capital, but Houston was selected instead. In
1842, the Republic's government returned to Washington and remained
here during the term of Anson Jones, fourth and last president of Texas.
Anson Jones, native of Massachusetts, in 1833 had come to Texas, where
he at once began the practice of his profession, medicine. At the Battle
of San Jacinto, in the Texas Revolution, he took the field as surgeon
of the 2nd Regiment. Later he served in the Texas Congress, was minister
to the United States, Secretary of State, a senator, and finally the
president from 1844 to 1846. Upon annexation of Texas to the United
States, Dr. Jones retired to Barrington, his plantation near Washington.
He died in Houston on January 9, 1858.
Colonel Leonard W. Groce's Liendo plantation stood on Clear Creek two
miles east of present-day Hempstead in Waller County. Camp Groce, or
Camp Liendo as it was frequently referred to, was probably established
in 1862 to house Union soldiers captured by Confederate forces at the
Battle of Galveston. Camp Groce served as a recruiting station for the
Confederate Army and a refugee center for women and children fleeing
southern states. In December of 1864, all of the prisoners at Camp Groce
were paroled and the camp was permanently abandoned as a military prison
as nearly 500 prisoners were taken to the port of Galveston where they
were turned over to Union forces.
Camp Felder was a Confederate camp for Union prisoners of war. It was
located near present-day Chappell Hill in Washington County and was
named for Gabriel Felder, owner of the Brazos River bottomland where
the camp was established.
Camp Waul was a Confederate training camp seven miles north of Brenham
and was named for Thomas Neville Waul. Waul's Texas Legion was organized
on May 13, 1862 and ordered out of state in August that year.
The camp information above is from the book, Texas
Forts, by Wayne Lease. |