Twenty Fine Beds

Eventually, the Confederate veterans passed on, and there was no one to enter the Confederate soldiers’ homes.

The Texas Confederate Home for Men had been deeded to the State of Texas, and as the years passed and fewer veterans were admitted to the home, the state converted the facility into “a psychopathic institution for senile men”.

Though the last ex-Confederate to occupy the home passed away in 1945, Texas stood ready to house any veteran who needed a place.

“There are twenty fine, comfortable beds reserved” in the institution, according to the Texas state auditor in 1949. None of the beds were occupied, the auditor said, but the facility “is still dedicated to its original purpose and twenty beds are reserved for any emergency veteran application.”

The twenty beds were a generous allocation. In 1949 there were only nine pensioned Confederate veterans remaining in the state.

(See Dallas News, February 4, 1949)