Texas withdrew from the Union and joined the Confederate States of America on March 23, 1861. While there were no battles or Union occupation in North Central Texas, the Civil War that lasted from 1861 to 1865 had a dramatic and lasting impact on what would later become Hood County and it’s residents. Many men who had settled this area in the decade before the war volunteered to go and fight for the South. Women, children and the elderly were left behind to try and protect their homes and settlements from the harsh frontier and potential Indian depredations. In many cases, farms and homes were abandoned as the residents fled to safer areas, sometimes never to return, but a substantial number did stay and made the best of their difficult situation.
Of the numerous men who volunteered and fought in the Civil War, some were killed in battle or died from wound complications or disease, but many did return, and it was those returning soldiers along with other families fleeing the War devastated South, who proceeded to form Hood County and build the town of Granbury that remains to this day.