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.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Austin American, August 9, 1946. T. F. Harwell, Eighty Years Under the Stars and Bars (Kyle, Texas, 1947).
