- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Recently returned from the annual Texas Civil War Symposium in Jefferson, Texas https://civilwartalk.com/threads/8th-annual-jefferson-civil-war-symposium-8-9-8-10-2019.158431/, I thought I'd post these photos in a new thread instead of adding them to existing ones. Prior to the event I spent part of the previous afternoon photographing some of the graves of more significant persons interred here.
One having his very own Texas State Historical Marker erected during the Civil War Centennial is Brig. Gen. Richard Waterhouse, one of the young officers promoted to that rank in the Trans-Mississippi. In addition, Waterhouse's flag-bedecked grave also has an appropriate footstone and one of the few remaining CSA iron cross markers.
Colonel Richard Phillip "Phil" Crump was a local Jefferson personality who during the war raised and led companies and eventually a regiment of Partisan Rangers that was active in Arkansas fighting Unionists like Texas renegade Captain Martin Hart. Postwar, Crump was accused of being involved in the murder of carpetbag official Capt. George Webster Smith https://civilwartalk.com/threads/murder-in-jefferson-texas-oct-4-1868.121598/ and was incarcerated in the Union Stockade where prisoners were held during the subsequent trial. Although acquitted, Crump's health was undermined by the experience, leading to his death soon after his release.
One notorious burial here is that of Reconstruction outlaw Cullen M. Baker, a sort of Robin Hood figure who terrorized Unionists, Carpetbaggers, and Freedmen and who despite his legends likely had more of the robbing and hood aspects than Robin Hood!
Above and below, two more of the many Confederate veterans buried here in Oakwood Cemetery.
Although neither a man nor a Civil War figure, the grave of murder victim Diamond Bessie Moore is probably the best-known and most-visited. Her death resulted in Jefferson's most sensationalistic trial which is still commemorated to this day during every Pilgrimage.
Although Oakwood has a section of military graves above that date from Reconstruction and the occupation of the town by Union troops, I'd never before noticed the monument below over the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Lt. Daniel J. Murphy.
According to an old thread posted by @M E Wolf, titled Medal of Honor Roll:
MURPHY, DANIEL J.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company F, 19th Massachusetts Infantry. Place and date: At Hatchers Run, Va., 27 October 1864. Entered service at: Lowell, Mass. Birth: Philadelphia, Pa. Date of issue: 1 December 1864. Citation: Capture of flag of 47th North Carolina Infantry (C.S.A.).
Unfortunately, I know nothing of how or why Lt. Murphy came to Jefferson, Texas, or what caused his untimely end!
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