Gainesville, Texas: The Great Hanging
'Great" as in horrific. Monument marks the spot where 40 people were hanged by their Civil War-addled neighbors in Oct. 1862.
- Address:
- 751 E. Main St., Gainesville, TX
- Directions:
- Downtown. Just east of the bridge across Pecan Creek, in a little grassy patch between California St. to the north and Main St. to the south.
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A smaller monument, erected by the state of Texas in 1964 (fancy that) stands nearby, giving a much more Confederate-sympathetic version of events. The larger monuments were erected in 2014.
[Harmon, 06/01/2023]
In 1862. forty people were hanged and two shot trying to escape. Some were set free by a jury, but were later hanged anyway.
[Bob Whipple, 08/03/2018]Nearby Offbeat Places



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The monument was unveiled in 2014. All of the people who were hanged were accused of being sympathetic to the Union. The people who sentenced them to death, and then hanged them, were their Confederate-sympathizer neighbors.