Named for Confederate General Thomas N. Waul, Fort Waul was built to defend inland Texas from possible Federal advances up the Guadalupe River from the Gulf of Mexico, as well as to provide protection for military supply trains. Construction of the earthen fortification was overseen by Col. Albert Miller Lea, Confederate army engineer. Begun in late 1863, the fort was partly built by slave labor and measured approximately 250 by 750 feet. Surviving records do not indicate whether the fort was ever actually completed.
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