Whitehall TX12090
WHITEHALL
(Polley Mansion)

Built by Joseph Polley (1795-1869), one of "Old 300" settlers of Stephen F. Austin, and the first Austin Colony Sheriff. From Fort Bend and Austin counties, he at last settled here, where he had cattle herds called largest in Texas. In 1847-51 he built this stone mansion, with framing of Bandera Cypress, and cabinet work shipped by sea from New York. This was area social center. From here house guest Robert E. Lee wrote his last Texas letter.

---

Confederate States of America National Flags MO544
Confederate States of America
National Flags

Top:
Adopted in March 1861, the "Stars and Bars" was the first national flag officially used by the Confederate States of America (CSA). This flag originally contained sever stars, one to represent each of the seven original states of the CSA. As more states seceded from the Union, additional stars were added until a total of 13 appeared on the flag. The last two stars represented Kentucky and Missouri. When attempts to lead these two states into the Confederacy failed, secessionist state government officials established governments-in-exile with representation in the Confederate Congress.

Middle:
Because the Confederate Stars and Bars flag was too easily confused with the Union Stars and Strips in the heat of battle, a new national flag was officially adopted on May 1, 1863. This flag incorporated a "stainless" white field with the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia as its canton. This second national flag also caused problems on the battlefield, as its large white field could (and sometimes was) mistaken for a flag of surrender. To raise a flag of surrender and then continue fighting was considered the height of dishonor.

Bottom:
The third and final national flag of the CSA was adopted on March 4, 1865. A vertical red bar was added to the fly to solve the problem of confusing this flag with a surrender flag. Thirty-six days after this flag was adopted, the Civil War ended when Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Gen. U.S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865. Other Southern commanders surrendered their armies shortly afterward.

---

Civil War in Rolla MO496

FORT WYMAN AND DEFENSE OF THE RAILHEAD

Fort Wyman was the first of two artillery field fortifications built by the Union Army at Rolla, signifying the importance of the railroad terminus to the northern was effort in Missouri

The South West Branch of the Pacific Railroad on Missouri (better known later as the "Frisco" line) reached Rolla by the beginning of 1861. As a railhead in the Ozarks on the direct line between St. Louis and Springfield, the young town became strategically important when war broke out in Missouri. Col. Franz Sigel's troops seized Rolla in a bloodless coup on June 14, 1861, as part of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon's plan to control Missouri's river and railroad network. Federal troops remained for the duration of the war.

The railhead was a critical supply depot and link in the federal army's line of communications. Beginning with Lyon's campaign in 1861 and continuing into 1865, Rolla was the primary forward supply point for Union armies in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Quartermasters, soldiers and civilian employees transferred thousands of tons of war material, food and forage from railcars to warehouses and wagons. They supported soldiers as far away as Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove, Ark., in 1862, and during Gen. Sterling Price's Expedition in 1864. Just the routine supply of the post at Springfield was enormous.

Long trains of ponderous army wagons left Rolla almost daily. Each carried 4,500 pounds of freight at two and a half miles per hour. The effective range of supply by wagon from the railhead was about 200 miles. To accommodate the burgeoning freight operation, the army built warehouses, loading docks, forage sheds, blacksmith shops and wagon repair facilities. The investment was enough for the army to begin a second fortification in 1863. Fort Dette stood on ground north of town on what is now the campus of the University of Missouri-Rolla, and was named after John F.W. Dette, the officer who supervised construction.

No Confederate force ever seriously threatened Rolla. Gunners at Fort Wyman fired the fort's 32-pound cannons only in practice, on ceremonial occasions including the Fourth of July, and to announce federal victories at Forts Henry and Donelson, Tenn., and at Pea Ridge, Ark., in 1862, and the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia in 1865. The guns tolled every half-hour in memory of Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1865.

United States troops remained in Phelps County through the summer of 1865, dismantling the forts and shipping military surplus to St. Louis. The remaining government property required only a corporal's guard of three men when the post at Rolla was abolished in August of 1865.

The site of Fort Wyman was a local landmark for many years. Col. John B. Wyman and the fort named after him are remembered in modern times in the names of a street, subdivision, elementary school and a church. As late as the 1990s, the outline of the fort was plainly visible from the air, its rectangular shape and rounded gun positions looking much like a baseball field. In recent years, modern development has destroyed all visible traces of Fort Wyman.

Refugees at Rolla

Fort Wyman and the Union garrison at the railhead represented a safe haven for thousands of uprooted people who had fallen victim to a regional calamity that had engulfed a large portion of Missouri.

Refugees from southern Missouri and northern Arkansas converged on Rolla during the war. They had been forced from their homes due to unpopular opinions about the war or because of hostile neighbors. Many of these homeless families left farmsteads reduced to ruin after armies of either side had passed through. many had been preyed upon by armed bands of guerrillas and bandits of every character.

With their men away in the armies, increasing numbers of destitute and starving women, children and aged civilians made their way to Rolla. Rations issued to them by army quartermasters at the railhead were a matter of life and death for hundreds of refugees who would have otherwise starved.

---

Confederate Memorial MO487
TO THE MEMORY
of the
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
of the
SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY

Who Fought To Uphold
The Right Declared By
The Pen Of Jefferson
And Achieved By The
Sword Of Washington

With Sublime Self Sacrifice
They
Battled To Preserve
The Independence Of The State
Which Was Won From
Great Britain
and
To Perpetuate The
Constitutional Government
Which Was Established By The
Fathers.

Actuated By The Purest
Patriotism
They Performed Deeds
Of Prowess Such As
Thrilled The Heart Of
Mankind With Admiration.

"Full in the Front of war they stood
and displayed courage
so superb
That it gave a new and
brighter luster in the
annals of valor.

History
contains no chronicles
more illustrious them
the story of their
Achievements
and although
worn out by
ceaseless conflicts
and
overwhelmed by numbers
they were finally
forced to yield.

Their glory and brightest images
penned by press and by states.
shall go sounding down the skies."

ROBERT E. LEE

History: The upper part of the shaft is carved an allegorical figure of the "Angel of the Confederacy." The bronze relief depicts a southern family about to send its only adult male into the war. On the rear is a quote from Robert E. Lee.

---

XI Chapter Kappa Alpha Order TX11702
This fraternity was founded in 1865 by former confederate soldiers at Washington College in Lexington, Virginia, during the administration of Robert E. Lee. XI Chapter was founded at Southwestern University on November 28, 1883, by Alexander S. Walker and Frederick C. Procter of the Kappa Alpha Chapter at the University of Texas. XI Chapter met secretly until 1887 when faculty anti-fraternity laws were rescinded. The first fraternity house was built in 1895. Throughout its history XI Chapter has produced numerous distinguished alumni.

---

City of Arlington TX2013

The City of Arlington developed along the juncture of two distinct ecological regions, the Blackland Prairie and the Eastern Cross Timbers. The West Fork of the Trinity River and its area tributaries flow through the city, and one such stream, Village (Caddo) Creek was the site of a series of Native American Communities.

The 1841 Battle of Village Creek and the 1843 Bird's Fort Treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Delaware, Chickasaw, Waco, Tawakoni, Keechi, Caddo, Nadako, Ionie, Biloxi and Cherokee tribes opened the region to pioneer settlement, led by Col. Middleton Tate Johnson and Patrick Watson. In 1876, the Rev. A.S. Hayter helped survey the area for a new townsite and rail stop for the Texas and Pacific Railroad. Named Arlington for the Virginia home fo Gen. Robert E. Lee, the town became a regional cotton distribution center. Incorporation occurred in 1884, the year after its first newspaper, The World, was first published. At the turn of the 20th Century, the city's more than 1,000 residents supported several churches and schools, including Arlington College, an institution that became the University of Texas at Arlington in 1967.

Arlington residents adopted a City Manager for of government in 1949. The municipality, situated between Fort Worth and Dallas, served as an interurban rail hub and as a stop along the Bankhead Highway. It became a statewide destination for amusements beginning in the 1920s with gambling at Top O' Hill Terrace and horseracing at W.T. Waggoner's Arlington Downs. Later attractions included Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, established in 1961, and the Texas Rangers baseball team. Today, Arlington remains a viable part of one fo the Nation's largest metropolitan areas.

---

Birthplace of Fitzhugh Lee E125
To the north stood Clermont, the birthplace of Fitzhugh "Fitz" Lee. Born on 19 Nov. 1835, Lee was the nephew of Gen. Robert E. Lee. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1856. During the Civil War, Fitzhugh Lee was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Confederate army and became a major general in 1863. He served with Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stewart and commanded cavalry at Sharpsburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. Lee was the governor of Virginia from 1886 to 1890. He served as Consul General in Havana (1896-1898) and commanded the U.S. Army VII Corps in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Lee died in Washington, D.C. on 28 Apr. 1905.

---

Rockbridge County Z-77
Area 616 Square Miles Formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt, and named for the Natural Bridge. Samuel Houston and Cyrus H. McCormick were born in this county. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are buried in Lexington. Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute are there.

---

Confederate Memorial Chapel SA52
The chapel was erected in 1887 in memory of the more than 260,000 Confederate war dead and as a place of worship for the veterans who resided here in the Robert E. Lee Camp Confederate Soldiers' Home. The veterans themselves, many of them disabled and impoverished, funded the construction. Marion J. Dimmock, Sr., designed the Gothic Revival structure and Joseph F. Wingfield built it. The chapel was used regularly until the last resident veteran died in 1941. The home was then closed and the buildings were demolished, except for the chapel and the Robinson Hose, the superintendent's dwelling. The chapel was restored in 1960-1961.

---

Rockbridge County Z129
Area 616 Square Miles Formed in 1778 from Augusta and Botetourt, and named for the Natural Bridge. Samuel Houston and Cyrus H. McCormick were born in this county. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are buried in Lexington. Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Institute are there.

---