Home of Last Texas Confederate Governor Pendleton Murrah

Home of Last Texas Confederate Governor Pendleton Murrah. (Front) , Born South Carolina. Successful lawyer and businessman in Marshall. Elected to Texas Legislature 1857. At start of Civil War, served as colonel 14th Texas Cavalry. Governor 1863-1865, the most trying years of Confederacy. Debt, need, dependents of soldiers, and Confederate demands for more men and supplies all plagued his tenure. Conditions at time are shown by fact that cake served at his inaugural state dinner was made of corn meal. Early in his term, the South was split in two by loss of Mississippi River. Texas became the main source of supply, food and arms for western half. (see other side). (Back) , As it became more apparent that the cause was doomed, conflict increased among the military, civilians and state authorities. Gov. Murrah, strong for state rights, believed Texas safety and needs should come first. The early war years had taken many men from the state with remaining state troops on a 2000-mile hostile frontier, border and coastline threatened on all sides by Indians, outlaws and Federal invasion. Both the Confederacy and Texas passed draft laws for badly needed men. Murrah contended state law paramount and held troops until needed to stop invasion. At war's end, ill and knowing death was near, refusing to surrender, "put on his old gray uniform, mounted his old war horse and rode away, dying in Mexico".