Shelby Park Grave of the Confederacy — Eagle Pass

After refusing to surrender, Shelby marched roughly 500 Trans-Mississippi Confederate soldiers from Corsicana through San Antonio to Eagle Pass, bivouacking in the area before crossing the Rio Grande at Piedras Negras on July 4, 1865. According to adjutant accounts and Eagle Pass tradition, Shelby wrapped the Confederate guidon around his hat, weighted it with a river stone, and lowered it into the Rio Grande rather than let it fall to Union hands. The Fort Duncan Museum preserves a painting of the ceremony; Shelby Park on the river commemorates the episode. Border folklore sometimes imagines payroll chests or customs specie hurriedly buried when Shelby's column departed. Related entries: "Eagle Pass Jesse James and Quantrill Loot" and "Fort Duncan Confederate Cotton Customs Cache."