Wise County C.S.A.

Wise County, named for Henry A. Wise, a Virginia U.S. Senator who supported Texas annexation and later became Governor and a C.S.A. general, was part of District One of the 33 brigade districts Texas established in 1861 to recruit men for Confederate and state service. 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 organized a military company so early that neither the state nor the Confederacy had plans to take over the troops, and four more companies were raised during the war. 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, and fifty persons were tried in the arsenal; five were found guilty and hanged. In 1863, Decatur became headquarters for the 1st District of state militia, the second line of defense for the frontier, backing up the line of old U.S. posts 105 miles to the west and frontier regiment outposts 70 miles west from the Red River to the Rio Grande. These militiamen protected this part of the frontier while still able to work their farms. Late in the war, deserters passed through the county, and in April 1865 men from Wise and Cooke counties captured nearly 100 on their way to New Mexico.

Decatur, Texas · United States