[210] General Hood reported that the Fifth Texas, under Col. J. J. Archer, was first sent out on the skirmish line, driving the enemy, and he followed with Col. John Marshall's Fourth Texas, Col. A. T. Rainey's First, Wofford's Georgia regiment, and Balthis' battery. As the enemy was reached, the Fourth Texas was thrown forward as skirmishers, supported by the First, and they so advanced with Archer on the right. Forty prisoners were captured and 84 stand of arms, Hood losing 8 killed and 29 wounded. He said, ‘My attention was particularly called to the great gallantry of Captain Decatur, of the First Texas, who fell under the heavy fire upon the flank of his regiment.’ The brigade comrades of the Texans were the Eighteenth Georgia and Hampton's South Carolina legion.
Gaines Mill.
In the battles before Richmond the brigade fought with Whiting's division temporarily attached to Jackson's corps. The battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, was one of the most important of the series. General Whiting reported that the field where his command entered it was about the head of a ravine, which covered the enemy's left near the main road, a deep and steep chasm, dividing the bluffs of the Chickahominy.On the left side of this, as we fronted, General Hood put forward the First Texas and Hampton's legion. Men were leaving the field in every direction and in great disorder. The First Texas was ordered to go over them or through them, which they did; the remaining Texas regiments were rapidly advanced, forming line on the right of the ravine, and the Third brigade again on their right, and pressing on, the whole line came under the enemy's fire. . . The enemy, concealed in the woods and protected by the ravine, poured a destructive fire upon the advancing line for a quarter of a mile, and many brave officers and men fell . . . The Texans had now come up and
