The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003 Page: 595
675 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"... Willing Never To Go in Another Fight"
the United Confederate Veterans met the week before. The Brenham Ban-
ner reported Rufus King Felder of Chappell Hill and Bolling Eldridge of
Brenham, both formerly of the Fifth Texas Infantry, among ten delegates
elected by the Washington Camp to the Texas Division and declared,
"Houston is entertaining the largest crowd ever assembled in Texas, if not
the South." Seven of the Confederacy's generals attended the Houston
UCV gathering."9
Rufus King Felder was present at the annual Hood's Texas Brigade As-
sociation reunion in Austin on May 2, 1899, that acknowledged Miers
Felder as one of "our heroes who have crossed over the river." Miers died
that year on March 11 at Chappell Hill, having lived with an arm and foot
disabled in the war and minus a hand lost in 1876 to a cotton-gin saw. He
served as an alderman in Chappell Hill for many years, president of the
Board of Trustees of Chappell Hill Female College, and a state represen-
tative in the Texas Legislature in 1889 and 1891.50
Cities, states, and organizations erected Confederate monuments
across the South in the early twentieth century. The monuments honored
the bravery of those who served. The Federal government realized and ac-
knowledged that the South needed its heroes as part of the nation's heal-
ing process. The comrades and friends of Hood's Texas Brigade erected a
monument to their celebrated unit on the Capitol grounds in Austin in
191o. Rufus King Felder was among those surviving veterans who con-
tributed money. He had achieved some success in cattle, played a role in
establishing Farmers State Bank of Chappell Hill, and expanded his in-
terests into the lumber and hardware business under the name R. K.
Felder & Sons. Felder made the short trip from Chappell Hill to Austin,
joining 125 former comrades for the October 26-27 dedication. The
thirty-five-foot marble shaft of the monument to Hood's Texas Brigade is
topped by the bronze figure of a Confederate infantryman. Among the
quotes set into the stone was that of Robert E. Lee: "No Brigade has done
nobler service or gained more honor for its State than Hood's Texas
Brigade.""1
Chappell Hill never recovered from the war and the emancipation of
the slaves. An epidemic of yellow fever just after the war claimed far
more lives of townspeople than the war had. The town became known as
49 Brenham Banner, May 19, 21 (quotation), 1895; Sponsor souvenir album: hzstory & reunion, 1895
(Austin Terry Engraving, 1895), 31
0 "Austin, May 2, 1899," Minutes of Hood's Texas Brigade Association Meetings, 1895-1905,
Hood's Texas Brigade Collection (Harold B. Simpson Confederate Research Center, Hill College,
Hillsboro, Tex.), 113 (quotation); Brenham Dazly Banner, Oct. 19, 1876; Daniell, Personnel of the
Texas State Government, 341-342.
51 Frank B. Chilton, Unveiling and Dedicatzon of Monument to Hood's Texas Bngade on the Capztol
Grounds atAustin, Texas, Thursday, October 27, 19go (Houston: F. B. Chilton, 1911), 19.2003
595
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 106, July 2002 - April, 2003, periodical, 2003; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101223/m1/673/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.