The Texas in the Civil War Message Board

Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx

My Dad, born in Deweyville in 1904, was a "native' of Orange moving there as a small child and before moving to Port Arthur in the early 1920s. He had an interest in the WBTS. As a child I seem to remember him pointing out some old entrenchments on the Sabine River (Niblett's Bluff? West Bluff?) above Orange, but I don't remember him mentioning any CW history connected directly to the city (Orange). Given his interest in the war and his boyhood, Tom Sawyer like, explorations around the area I think that if there were any Confederate encampments/fortifications he would have pointed them out on our occasional trips back to his old "stomping grounds."

However, I wouldn't be surprised if someone discovered signs of Confederate activities at either the mouth of the Sabine or Neches Rivers as they would have been prime routes for Union gunboats and transports into the eastern interior of the state. I believe that was the goal of the Bank's Expedition that was blown apart at Sabine Pass.

I remember when I was commuting from the old Port Acres community (boyhood home) to Lamar "Tech" in the early 1950s we'd occasonally goof-off enroute by going through the old Spindletop oil field (still had a number of timber derricks dating from the boom in the early 1900s) and somewhere amid them was a Texas historical marker for the Confederate Camp site on "Spindletop Hill." Supposedly, it was one of the highest points--and therefore considered "healthful" in the marshy country--in Jefferson County. According to local legend and lore, the ground had sunk (depending on the teller of tales) something like 15'-20' as the oil was pumped off the top of the salt dome and it subsided to today's level. In so far as I know, the only sites in Jefferson County with a connection to "THE Wah" were Sabine Pass and Spindletop Hill. Do I understand there were other sites???

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Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx
Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx
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Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx
Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx
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Re: Question on railroads in Orange Tx
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Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx
Re: Question on civil war camps in Orange Tx