Camp Ben McCulloch

Camp Ben McCulloch, near Driftwood in Hays County, was organized in the summer of 1896 as a reunion camp for Confederate veterans and named for Benjamin McCulloch. The first commander was Capt. M. L. Reed of Henly. Annual three-day reunions were held at the camp, often with 5,000 to 6,000 persons attending. In 1930 Ben McCulloch was said to be the largest Confederate camp in existence. The last reunion, the Golden Jubilee, was held on August 9, 1946, and included a memorial service for the camp's last two members, who had died the previous year. Subsequently, the camp became the location of the annual meetings of the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy, with various activities and services spanning a week in early June. The campsite, on a branch of Onion Creek, also remains a popular picnic area for residents of northern Hays County.

Ben McCulloch originally came to Texas in 1836 at age 24 to join family friend David Crockett. Arriving too late to meet Crockett at the Alamo (and share his fate), McCulloch joined Sam Houston's army and commanded one the famed Twin Sisters cannons at the Battle of San Jacinto. In his lifetime, he would serve in several political offices, but his enduring fame is as a soldier. During the Republic of Texas era, he gained a reputation as an Indian fighter and scout, playing a key role in border skirmishes with the Mexicans. During the Mexican War, he served as Zachary Taylor's chief of scouts and became nationally known for his exciting reconnaissance expeditions into Mexico. McCulloch set off for the California gold fields after the war, but failed to strike it rich. In the 1850s, he was a U.S. marshall in East Texas, and also traveled to Utah as a peace commissioner to help prevent hostilities between the U.S. and the Mormon church.

When Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, Ben McCulloch was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate army. He led the seizure of the federal arsenal in San Antonio, then was assigned command of Indian Territory. Operating out of Little Rock, Arkansas, he began to build the Army of the West, establishing vital alliances with Indian tribes in present-day Oklahoma. McCulloch was killed in battle at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 7, 1862.