Camp Matthew F. Locke, C.S.A.

Camp Matthew F. Locke, C.S.A.. . Van Zandt County was among the Texas counties that voted for secession in the spring of 1861 as the Civil War loomed. At the outbreak of the conflict, Texas troops began training for service to the Confederate States of America (C.S.A.). Military officials selected Col. Matthew Flocke of Gilmer to command the Fifth Military District of Texas, which included Van Zandt County., A recruitment and training camp established near here at Goose Lake was named in Locke's honor. It initially served the Tenth Texas Cavalry, which later entered Confederate service in the Third Texas Cavalry. Ten companies of the cavalry unit, including company H, the Van Zandt Warriors under the command of Anderson Whetstone, trained at the camp in the winter of 1861., The Tenth Texas Cavalry mustered into service at Taos, Texas (Navarro County) in October. In February 1862, the unit moved into Arkansas to join Gen. Earl Van Dorn's Army and then to Tennessee to support Gen. Sterling Price. Along the way, it received orders to dismount (to give up its horses). The practice of dismounting cavalry units was common in the early days of the war as the south faced shortages of horses and supplies., The Tenth Texas Cavalry, dismounted, served with distinction at such places as Murfreesboro and Franklin, Tennessee; Richmond, Kentucky; Atlanta, Georgia; and Mobile, Alabama. After participating in 21 engagements, the regiment surrendered with other Confederate forces at Citronelle, Alabama on may 4, 1865. With the fighting over, the soldiers, including those from Van Zandt County, returned to their homes to deal with the difficult process of reconstruction.