General Robert E. Lee had reason to have such a high
opinion of Texas soldiers. Those he had, the men of the
brigade commanded by John Bell Hood, had already
carved out a reputation as some of the finest troops in the
Confederate Army, and would do so until the final days of
the Civil War, taking part in all but two to the major battles
of the Eastern theatre. But it was a reputation that came at
a high cost, with almost 80% of the men who served
becoming casualties before war's end.
It was also a reputation that looked at first like it would
not be made on the Virginia battlefields. Although the
Confederate government eagerly looked forward to the
addition of the soldiers of Texas after the state joined the
Confederacy in March 1861, the Rebel high command
initially felt most of the Texas-raised regiments would have
their hands full in their own state, holding off a Federal
invasion from the Gulf coast and dealing with Indians on
the frontier.
As a result, there was some reluctance to accept any
regiments from the Lone Star State in the east. It was not
until the Texas delegation in the Confederate Congress,
convinced that the Virginia theatre was where most of the
war would be fought, pressed the issue that the
government approved bringing some of the Texans east.
Texas troops narrowly missed the baptism of fire of the
Confederate Army at the first battle of Bull Run in July,
1861. Only the First Texas Infantry Regiment was ready to
fight, and was on its way to the field when the combat
ended. Two other Texas regiments, the Fourth and the
Fifth, arrived that same month, and in October 1861 the
Texas brigade was formally created, with the 18th Georgia
Regiment brigaded with the Texans.
The brigade's first commander, General Louis T.
Wigfall, served only a few months before resigning to take
a seat in the Confederate Senate. His successor was the
man who would be most associated with the brigade in the
history books: Colonel John Bell Hood. Hood, ironically,
had been born and raised in Kentucky, but when the state
proclaimed its neutrality in the war, he declared himself a
Texan and was named commander of the Fourth Texas.
Hood's Brigade spent most of the winter of 1861-62 in
camp near Dumfires, Virginia along the Potomac River,
where it traded boasts, insults, and the odd rifle bullet with
Union soldiers from the Fifth New York Zouaves on the
other side of the Potomac.
It was not until spring 1862, as Union forces under
McClellan began moving up the James Peninsula, that the
brigade saw its first major combat. General Joseph
Johnston ordered Whiting's Division (which included
Hood's Brigade) to contain an expected Federal river
assault at Eltham's Landing, along the Pamunkey River.
Hood's soldiers responded by demonstrating the
aggressiveness that would become the brigade's hallmark,
driving the Union brigade back one and a half miles to the
riverbank, where Federal gunboats finally stopped the
attack. The Texas regiments suffered only 40 casualties, to
more than 200 for the Union troops. But the attack also
brought a reprimand from Johnston, who had not wanted
such an offensive engagement. Confronting Hood,
Johnston pointed out he had just wanted the brigade to
feel out the enemy, and asked Hood what his troops would
have done if a full attack had been ordered. "I suppose,
General," Hood replied, "they would have driven them into
the river, and tried to swim out and capture the gunboats.',
[2]
Gaines Mill
Amused, though still annoyed, Johnston told Hood to
impress the importance of following orders on his men. The
orders would not come from Johnston, however who was
wounded a few days later at Seven Pines, but Lee. The
Texas Brigade, bolstered by the addition of the infantry
companies of Hampton's (South Carolina) Legion, was
assigned to Stonewall Jackson's command for the Seven
days battles. The hardest fighting for the brigade came on
June 27th, at Gaines Mill. When the Confederate advance
stalled in front of Union breastworks, Lee called up Hood's
troops and had them attempt to break the line.
Hood quickly deployed his brigade, but found moving
through the underbrush in front of the objective, Turkey
Hill, agonizingly slow. Discovering an open field on the left
leading to the Federal position, he ordered the Fourth
Texas to attack across the field. Despite a heavy fire from
the Union breastworks, the fourth, and several companies
of the 18th Georgia which joined in on the attack across the
field, broke through the Union lines, capturing 14 guns and
forcing the Yankees to retreat. A countercharge by the
Fifth US cavalry to stem the
breakthrough met with disaster, as the Texans cut loose
with a volley at close range which decimated the cavalry.
But the brigade had taken more than its share of
casualties as well: 571 killed, wounded, or missing, mostly
from the Fourth Texas and 18th Georgia. Nonetheless, the
assault firmly established the Texans' reputation for hard
fighting, and drew favorable comment from both Jackson
and Lee. Lee, in fact, was so impressed he wrote Senator
Wigfall, urging him to raise seven more regiments of Texas
troops for the Army of Northern Virginia.
Neither Hood nor his brigade had much time to savor
the acclaim from the Gaines Mill battle. A month later,
Hood was named commander of the division which
included his brigade and that of Evander Law, and the
division assigned to Longstreet's command. A month after
that, the Texas Brigade began moving into central Virginia,
to take part in the campaign against General John Pope's
Union force.
Manassas
The brigade spearheaded Longstreet's march to
Manassas Junction, to relieve Jackson's beleaguered
divisions then under attack from Pope's force. The
brigade's only moments of concern leading up to the
second Bull Run battle were caused not by Yankee
soldiers, but by a gray mare used to carry kitchen
equipment for the brigade. The night before the Texans
reached the battlefield, the mare became scared by a noise,
and caused such a racket that the brigade assumed it was
under attack and panicked--one of only two times it would
do so during the war. The troops of the Texas Brigade
took this setback in good humor, even creating a song
about the incident "The Old Grey Mare."
The Texans performed more as expected the next day,
August 29th, when it arrived on Jackson's left and
engaged in a sharp exchange with Union troops. Hood
counterattacked with his division, driving so far into Union
lines that when they withdrew, the Rebels had to slip past
Yankee pickets. Pope mistook Hood's withdrawal as a
general retreat, setting the stage for the next day's Union
disaster. When Longstreet slammed into Pope's left the
next day, the Texas Brigade served as the anchor between
Jackson's and Longstreet's wings.
Ironically, one of the Union regiments the Texas
Brigade battered aside was the Fifth New York, with whom
the Rebels had traded insults that previous winter along
the Potomac. The Fifth Texas, 18th Georgia, and Hampton's
Legion killed or wounded half of the New Yorkers with the
first volley. The Fifth Texas in particular distinguished
itself, driving Union forces almost two miles and
outrunning most of the Confederate Army.
Almost immediately, the Confederate Army set out for
Maryland. It proved to be an eventful march for the Texas
Brigade. Not only was the brigade unable to recover its
losses (about 600 killed and wounded) and suffered from
uniform and food shortages, but Hood, their Division
commander, was under arrest and not in command. He had
gotten into a dispute over some captured ambulance trains
with another general, and Longstreet removed him from
command. Only a personal appeal from the men of the
Texas Brigade to Robert E. Lee just before the battle of
Antietam restored him to command.
Antietam
It looked briefly like the Texas Brigade's part in the
battle of Antietam might be relatively minor. Elements of
the Fourth and Fifth Texas got into a sharp firefight with
several Pennsylvania units, including the famed "Bucktails"
(13th PA Reserve) the night of September 16th, but were
pulled back behind Jackson's troops when the latter
arrived from Harper's Ferry that night. The Texans were
looking forward to getting their first hot meal in three days
the next morning.
They never got it. The attack by Joseph Hooker's I
Corps quickly began to whittle down Jackson's force, and
Jackson called on Hood's Division for help. Shortly after
daylight, the Texas brigade charged out of the woods
where it had been bivouacked and, with the Rebel yell,
slammed into the advancing Federals.
The Yankee troops, including some regiments of the
vaunted Iron brigade of the West, were overpowered and
fled back through a cornfield (known forever afterward as
THE Cornfield). The Fifth Texas swung into some woods
(the East Woods) to the right, alongside Law's brigade,
while the Fourth Texas, 18th Georgia and Hampton's Legion
paused in the Cornfield to engage in a firefight with the
remainder of the Iron Brigade, backed by a two gun artillery
section firing double canister, losing between 50 and 70
percent of their men in the process.
The First Texas charged on through the Cornfield
alone and unsupported, and was stopped only by the
concentrated fires of four Pennsylvania Reserve regiments.
In minutes, the 1st Texas lost its battle flag, nine color
bearers, and 186 of its 226 men: more than 82 percent of the
regiment, the highest percentage loss of any regiment in
any day of the war.
Overall, when the brigade finally withdrew from the
field, after almost two hours, it had lost 560 out of 854 men,
almost 60 percent of its effectives. It had stopped the
initial Union attack, at high cost. When General Lee later
asked Hood where his Texans were, Hood replied they
were lying on the field. The Texas Brigade would never
fully recover, since they were never able to get
replacements from Texas. The brigade gradually declined
in strength from then to the end of the war.
The brigade spent most of the winter of 1862-63
recuperating from huge losses of the previous summer and
fall, taking little part in the battle of Fredericksburg except
to link Jackson's and Longstreet's corps. By this time, the
makeup of the brigade had changed. Both the 18th Georgia
and Hampton's Legion were transferred to other brigades,
and to replace them Confederate officials assigned the 3rd
Arkansas. Like the Texas regiments, it was the only unit
from its state in the Army of Northern Virginia. The 3rd
Arkansas would stay a part of the Texas Brigade until the
surrender in 1865.
Snowball Battle
The only significant battle the brigade took part in
over the winter was "The Great Snowball Battle" in
January, when an exchange of snowballs between the men
of the First, Fourth and Fifth Texas Regiments
"snowballed" into a corps sized action, with Hood's
Division pitted against the division of Lafayette McLaws.
The only casualties from this battle were bruises caused
by some snow-covered rocks, and the peace of a nearby
Federal cavalry unit which became convinced it was about
to come under attack and stood to arms. The Confederate
High command was also disturbed by the affair, and
Longstreet later issued an order prohibiting snowball
fights in his corps.
The brigade also used the winter to maintain what was
already a legendary ability for foraging. There were few
chickens, pigs, or crops that were safe when the boys from
Texas were around. Even fellow soldiers were not exempt;
one Texas stole a frying pan literally out from under the
feet of a North Carolina soldier. Perhaps the figurative and
literal topper came in the brigade's efforts to get hats.
Stationed near a rail line leading to Richmond, The
Texans got the hats by the simple expedient of uttering
the Rebel yell, then snatching the hats off their owner's
heads as they looked out the train window.
In spring 1863, the Texas Brigade was part of a two
division force that took part in a 22 day siege of the Union
garrison at Suffolk, along the Virginia-North Carolina line.
The siege was inconclusive, with only one major battle,
over a Confederate position. It did mark the first extensive
use of trenches in the Civil War, and gave the brigade a
taste of what they would face at Cold Harbor and
Petersburg.
The brigade spend most of their time either serving as
skirmishers of sharpshooters harassing the Yankees, or
foraging for food for the Confederate army in the lush
Tidewater area. The siege was broken off when Union
troops began to move against Fredericksburg, and Lee
recalled the detachment. However, the Texans were unable
to move fast enough to get to the battle of Chancellorsville,
making that the only major battle in the East that the
brigade was not a part of.
Gettysburg
A month later, the Army of Northern Virginia began its
second invasion of the North, ending at Gettysburg. The
Texas Brigade's saw most of it's fighting on the second
day, as it served as one of the spearheads of Hood's attack
on the Union left. But the attack ran into some problems
early on. The brigade soon became separated, with half the
brigade, the Fourth and Fifth Texas, joining up with the
attack by Law's Brigade on Devil's Den and Little Round
top, and the 1st Texas and 3rd Arkansas attacking just to
the right of The Wheatfield. The fighting quickly became
vicious, with Hood brigade commander Jerome Robertson,
and three of the four regimental commanders quickly
becoming casualties. But the Texans pressed on despite
the confusion.
The Fourth and Fifth Texas, coming under fire as they
moved toward Law's brigade, quickly drove the defending
Union forces out of the Devil's Den area. But the Yankees
put up a stubborn withdrawal, and by the time the Rebels
got to the foot of Little Round top, they were exhausted,
so much so they could not dislodge the newly arrived
Yankees on the summit of Little Round Top despite three
attacks. Further North, the Ist Texas and 3rd Arkansas
overran a Federal battery on Rocky Ridge (at the base of
Little Round Top), capturing the only guns taken by the
Confederates during the battle, then repulsed a Union
counterattack on the Razorbacks' flank, but suffering from
low ammunition and many casualties, they to were unable
to advance any further.
Only one of the regiments was involved in battle on
July 3rd, the day of Pickett's charge. Just before the
attack, Union cavalry under Elton Farnsworth struck at the
Rebel right, where the 1st Texas was located. Like the
charge at Gaines Mill a year before, the mounted cavalry
charge was cut to shreds by the Texan's rifles, and
Farnsworth himself was killed. When Lee withdrew the
next day, the brigade numbered some 600 fewer men, the
highest loss in Hood's division.
Chicamaugua
The next major battle for the Texas Brigade was in the
west. Longstreet brought his corps to Chickamagua and
Bragg's army just in time for the two day battle September
19 and 20. It would also mark the only time the Texas
Brigade's commander, Brigadier General Jerome Robertson,
would fight on the same battlefield as his son, Major Felix
Robertson, an artillery commander in Bragg's army.
The hardest fighting for the Texans came on the 19th,
when it drove a federal brigade in succession from a ravine
overlooking the LafaetteChattanooga road, then from a
farmhouse complex. The latter proved to be particularly
rough going, with the Union troops using the farmhouse
as a strongpoint. The brigade had to dig out the Yankees
with bayonets before capturing the position, but
subsequently withdrew because of the losses suffered.
The next day, the Texans moved further north and took
part in Longstreet's attack through the deserted Federal
salient that broke the Union lines. Unfortunately for the
Texans, their attack again outran their adjacent units, and
took them by George Thomas's Union troops. The
crossfire from both sides brought the Brigade to a halt,
where it stayed for the rest of the battle.
Chickamagua would be more significant for the Texas
Brigade, in that it was the last time they would see John
Hood. Hood was struck down by a rifle bullet in the leg as
he rode by the brigade. They would never again serve
under the fiery general, Hood being made a corps
commander under Bragg after he recovered from his
wound.
The tour in the Western Theater would also mark the
only time any of the brigade would abandon a battlefield,
at the Battle of Wauhatchie, Tennessee in October 1863.
During an attempt to intercept part of the Union army
marching to relieve Chagganooga, the Texas were ordered
to support Law's Alabama brigade. During the move to the
battlefield that evening, the 4th Texas became isolated on
a slope known as Raccoon Mountain. Skirmishers from the
regiment found the friendly troops thought to be on their
flank were not there. In the dark, alone, and believing
themselves flanked, the 4th Texas routed and fled down
the hill--a retreat that was hard to halt as much because of
the steep terrain as of panic.
Battle of the Wilderness
The Texans were understandably glad to return to
Virginia in spring 1864, as Grant began his move on
Richmond. What would follow has been called the Texas
Brigade's finest hour, in the Battle of the Wilderness. On
the second day of the battle, as A.P. Hill's corps began to
collapse from the Union pressure, the Texas Brigade led
Longstreet's corps into the attack to throw back the
Yankees.
As the brigade, by this time reduced to 800 effectives,
deployed, General Lee himself moved up to urge them
forward, declaring, "Texans always move them!" The
resulting cheers from the brigade moved Lee to try and
lead the attack himself, and he moved through the brigade
to their front. But the Texans would have none of it, and
calls of "Lee to the rear" and "we won't move till you go
back" soon rang out. It took a member of the brigade
physically taking the bridle of Lee's horse and escorting
him to the rear before they would launch their attack.
[3]
When they did move forward, the brigade again
outstripped the rest of the attacking force, plunging
through the underbrush and slamming into the Federals,
breaking through the initial lines and pressing them back to
a second line of breastworks, and blunting the Yankee
advance. But is did so at terrible cost, with about two
thirds of the brigade killed or wounded. The Texas Brigade
would remain decimated for the remainder of the war.
Indeed, the brigade's main battle during the remainder
of the war was with Confederate officials which wanted to
consolidate the small unit with other reduced brigades.
Outraged at the possibility, the Texans sent one of the
officers to visit President Jefferson Davis personally. By
good fortune, Lee was also present at the meeting, and
when the Texas officer presented his case for leaving the
brigade intact, Lee told Davis, "I never ordered that
Brigade to hold a place, that they did not hold it" moved
by Lee's endorsement Davis declared that "as long as
there is a man to carry that battle flag, you shall remain a
brigade." [4]
Compared with the brigade's earlier exploits the
remainder of the war was relatively quiet for the Texas
Brigade, although it took smaller parts in the attack at Cold
Harbor and the siege of Petersburg. When Lee surrendered
at Appomattox, only 617 men were left to be paroled. But
the three Texas and one Arkansas regiments had truly
made sure their brigade would not be forgotten. Years after
the war, a staff member in the Library of Congress wrote
that, "the known statistics of these regiments are so
remarkable, that if missing figures can be obtained they will
establish a record equalled by few, if any, organizations in
the Civil War, or indeed, in modern warfare. [5]
[1] Simpson,
Harold, Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier
Guard (Waco: Texan Press, 1980) p. 159.
The two definitive histories of the Texas Brigade, and
the references used in this article, are unfortunately a little
hard to find except in major libraries. The major history of
the brigade is generally considered to be Harold Simpson's
1970 work cited above, part of a four volume study of
passing interest is the fact that the Texas Brigade
Association, originally founded by unit survivors still
exists, the only such reactivated organization left).
The other major history was written at the turn of
the century by a brigade member, J.B. Polley. Polley
used reports from the O.R. and other's memoirs mixed
with personal observations and recollections in putting
together the first complete history of the brigade.
The only other history of the full brigade was written
by the chaplain of the First Texas, Nicholas Davis,
Chaplain Davis and Hood's Texas Brigade, but
his account does not cover the entire war, ending when
Davis returned to Texas in 1863. Finally, there are two
works on specific elements of the brigade--the Third
Arkansas, in Calvin Collier's They'll do To Tie To:
Third Arkansas Infantry, and the Fourth Texas, in
Simpson's, From Gaines Mill to Appomattox.
EDITOR'S NOTE. Hood's Texans were
involved in following South Mountain
Scenario.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
"I have not heard from you with regard to the new
Texas regiments ... I need them very much. I rely on
those we have in all tight places ... they have fought
grandly and noble, and we must have more of them..."
[1]
FOOTNOTES
[2] Longstreet,
James, Hood Feeling the Enemy , in Johnson
and Buel, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War
(Seacacus, NJ: Castle Books Edition), p. 276.
[3] After the
war, a dispute broke out among various Texas Brigade
members over who had seized Lee's horse and led him
away from he front lines. Most historians tend to credit
Private Leonard Gee of the 5th Texas with that act. See
Simpson, 401-402: also see Kelley, Dayton, General
Lee and Hood's Texas Brigade at the Battle of the
Wilderness (monograph, Hill Junior College, Hillsboro, TX, 1969).
[4] Simpson, p.
455-56
[5] Polley, J.B.
Hood's Texas Brigade (Dayton, OH: Morningside
Bookshop, 1976 reprint), p. 291.
NOTES ON REFERENCES
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