Chapter 14:
- Texas troops in service in other Southern States -- the battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg and Chickamauga -- Texas troops in Louisiana and Arkansas -- engagements at Camp Bisland, Berwick's bay, Fordoche, Bayou Bourbeaux, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry.
Having completed a statement of the campaigns within the State, it is but an act of justice to the Texas troops who were engaged in other States during the war to give some account of their service additional to the reference which has already been made to Texas troops in Virginia or elsewhere. At the battle of Shiloh there were present the Ninth Texas infantry, Col. W. A. Stanley; Second Texas infantry, Col. John C. Moore; the Texas Rangers (Eighth), now under Col. John A. Whatton. In service in Tennessee in 1862-63 were the Tenth Texas cavalry, Col. M. F. Locke; Eleventh cavalry, Col. J. C. Burks, Lieut.-Col. J M. Bounds; Fourteenth cavalry, Col. J. L. Camp, Capt. R. H. Hartley; Fifteenth cavalry, Col. J. A. Andrews— Matt Ector's brigade; Eighteenth Texas cavalry, Col. Thos. Harrison; Capt. J. P. Douglas' battery (formerly the Good battery, organized at Dallas in 1861). There were on duty in the State of Mississippi in 1862– 63, Gregg's brigade; Seventeenth Texas regiment, Major K. M. Van Zandt; and under command of Brig-Gen. L. S. Ross, Sixth Texas cavalry (originally Col. W. B. Stone's, in which L. S. Ross was major), Willis' battalion of Waul's legion, subsequently Third Texas cavalry, Giles Boggess, colonel; Ninth cavalry, D. W. Jones, colonel; Whitfield's legion, J. W. Hawkins, colonel: Sixth [131] Texas cavalry, Jack Wharton, colonel, and P. F. Ross, lieutenant-colonel. At Vicksburg the Texas troops were Waul's legion, Col. T. N. Waul commanding; infantry battalion, Maj. E. S. Bolling; infantry battalion, Lieut.-Col. Jas. Wrigley; cavalry battalion, Lieut.-Col. Thos. J. Cleveland; artillery company, Capt. J. G. Wall; Second Texas infantry, Col. Ashbel Smith. At Chickamauga there were Deshler's brigade—Sixth, Tenth, Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth regiments; Douglas' battery; Ector's brigade—Ninth, Tenth, Fourteenth, Thirty-second cavalry regiments; and Seventh infantry, of Gregg's brigade. In the army of Tennessee under Gen. J. E. Johnston in 1864 were General Granbury's brigade, including the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Texas, Capt. R. Fisher and Capt. B. R. Tyus; Seventh Texas, Captain Collet and Capt. O. B. Forrest; Tenth Texas, Col. R. Q. Mills, Lieut.-Col. R. B. Young, Col. C. R. Earp; Seventeenth and Eighteenth Texas, Capt. D. G. Manion and Capt. F. L. Knight; Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Texas, Col. F. C. Wilkes and Capt. J. F. Mathews. Col. Thos. Harrison's brigade, composed of the Eighth Texas, Col. G. Cook; Eleventh Texas, Col. G. R. Reeves; Douglas' battery, Lieut. J. H. Bingham, Lieut. Ben Hardin; and Gen. L. S. Ross' cavalry brigade. Hynson's battery, Capt. H. C. Hynson, was with General Marmaduke in the Missouri expedition under General Price, after his return to the Trans-Mississippi department. The services of the Texas troops in Louisiana and Arkansas in the years 1863 and 1864 were as follows: Early in the spring of 1863 Sibley's brigade was ordered to Louisiana, and with Louisiana troops under General Mouton took part in the battle of Camp Bisland on Bayou Teche in Southern Louisiana, April 13th,Brigadier-General Sibley commanding all the forces in the [132] battle. Col. James Reily was killed at the head of his regiment, and General Sibley left the command after the battle on account of a disagreement with Gen. Richard Taylor, commanding the district, who was near the locality of the battle. Thereby Col. Tom Green, a senior colonel, became commander of the brigade and returned to the Sabine river with it. Again that brigade proceeded with Louisiana troops in a campaign down the bayous and captured the Federal post at Berwick bay. In the summer of 1863 Lieut.-Col. A. W. Spaight's battalion and Ed. Waller's battalion had gone from Texas to Louisiana, and a part of J. W. Spaight's brigade, Lieut.-Col. James E. Harrison in command, had come there from the Indian Territory. These, joined to Green's brigade and some Louisiana troops, were engaged in the battle of Fordoche, September 29, 1863, a hard fought and destructive engagement, in which the Confederates were successful. In the meantime Col. Tom Green had been promoted to brigadier-general, in command of a cavalry division, consisting of the old Sibley brigade under Col. A. P. Bagby, and another brigade under Colonel Major, composed of Lane's and Stone's regiments of partisan rangers, the latter under Lieut.-Col. Isham Chisum, and some other troops. To these brigades were attached Ed. Waller's battalion and two companies of artillery. Three Texas infantry regiments—one being Roberts' regiment under Lieut.-Col. Jas. H. Jones, another (Spaight's) under Lieut.-Col. Jas. E. Harrison, and the third (King's)—were, under the command of Col. O. M. Roberts, attached to Green's command. This Confederate force, commanded by Brig.-Gen. Tom Green, had a severe engagement with the rear guard of General Franklin's army, commanded by General Burbridge, on November 3, 1863, and gained a decided victory. The battle occurred on Bayou Bourbeau (Boggy creeks, 8 miles south of Opelousas, in southern Louisiana. Maj.-Gen. Dick Taylor, in his [133] report, called it ‘a brilliant feat of arms.’ The report of casualties happens to be accessible, showing that the Texas troops lost in the three infantry regiments, 21 killed, 77 wounded, 41 missing; and the two brigades of cavalry and the artillery lost 1 killed, 26 wounded and 14 missing. The Federals lost 25 killed, 129 wounded and 562 missing. About the 1st of March, 1864, General Banks came up the Mississippi river with gunboats, transports and an army of 30,000 or 40,000 troops and commenced a march up Red river. From what was afterward known, this course was adopted to reach the heart of Texas. It was reported, as one evidence of it, that the wagon train had in it scythes to reap the wheat. Walker's and Mouton's divisions and Tom Green's two brigades of cavalry impeded the Federal march up the river step by step until the 8th of April, 1864, giving time for a large number of Texas troops, and Missouri and Arkansas troops under General Price, to come in haste to their assistance. On the day named, General Price not having quite reached them, the battle of Mansfield was fought by the Texas and Louisiana troops under the command of Gen. Dick Taylor, the son of ‘Old Rough-and-Ready’ President Taylor. From General Taylor's report it is learned that the following Texas forces were in the battle of Mansfield and that of Pleasant Hill, which took place on the next day: Maj.--Gen. John G. Walker's infantry division, including the three brigades of Gens. T. N. Waul, Wm. R. Scurry and Horace Randal; Gen. Tom Green's cavalry command, consisting of his old brigade under Colonel Bagby and General Major's brigade; Waller's battalion, Buchel's, Hardeman's, Terrell's, Debray's and McNeill's cavalry regiments (Gen. H. P. Bee had command ,of a part of this cavalry), Brigadier-General Polignac's infantry brigade, and Mosely's, McMahon's and the Valverde batteries. [134] The battle of Mansfield was glorious in its timely conception, wise plan of attack, splendid execution, and victorious result that sent the confident invader with his whole host back on the road he came; and the battle of Pleasant Hill gave a thundering warning to the Northern invader to seek a safer place by continued retreat, with his hopes of renown by the conquest of Texas blasted. Brig.-Gen. Thomas Green, beloved and honored by everybody as a man, the chevalier of Texas soldiery, whose training as a soldier was commenced at San Jacinto and was perfected as captain of cavalry in Indian warfare and at Monterey in Mexico, and whose flag floated in the ascendent in every battle in Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico where his sword was drawn, determined to capture the enemy's gunboats on Red river. In the attempt at Blair's Landing, April 12th, his valuable life was given to his country, on the banks of the river, while leading his men to the onset. His name had been a household word in Texas, and his fame is still cherished in memory throughout the State that he honored in his life. A portion of the Texas and Louisiana forces attended General Banks, encouraging his retreat all the way to the Mississippi river, and it may be presumed that he drew a long breath when, with his great army, he had floated down to New Orleans. Maj.-Gen. Kirby Smith having arrived at Mansfield, perhaps the day after the battle at Pleasant Hill, took Walker's division of Texas infantry on a march to southern Arkansas to join Price's cavalry in meeting General Steele, who with a Federal force estimated at 18,000 was moving south in the expectation of joining General Banks at Shreveport. This formidable array of Southern troops approaching him, General Steele commenced a retreat, and was found by the Confederate advance protected with such fortifications as could be hastily erected on the west bank of the Sabine river at Jenkins' [135] Ferry. The whole bottom of the river was overflowed with water, which had to be waded some distance to reach him. As from previous arrangements it was expected that General Fagan with Arkansas cavalry had got in Steele's rear, and would impede or prevent his crossing the river, General Smith determined to give battle in the hope of being able to capture the whole Federal army. Therefore the Southern forces waded into the overflow of the river, and on April 30th attacked the enemy. The fighting under such circumstances was terrible and destructive. It did not move Steele from his position, and General Fagan's cavalry, from some accident, did not appear on the opposite bank, but the hot fight gave General Steele's forces such a warning as induced him to abandon meeting his friends at Shreveport. In that battle we lost two generals and other good officers and men, and many others were wounded, and it was reported that some of the men on being shot down were drowned during the fight. One of the generals killed was Horace Randal. As a Texas youth he was educated at West Point, but left the Federal army and raised a Texas regiment, with which he fought his way up to promotion to brigadier-general. The other was William R. Scurry, the brilliant orator, lawyer, statesman and soldier. He was a major in the Mexican war and distinguished himself as major and lieutenant-colonel in the New Mexico campaign under General Sibley, also in the battle of Galveston, and as brigadier-general at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. The recurring memory of the patriotic deeds of these heroes will ever be a pleasure, and will constantly verify the adage that Death's arrow finds a shining mark. Space fails to tell of the nobility in patriotism and manhood possessed by many comrades-in-arms, both officers and privates, who fell devoted to the cause for which they fought and died. These great battles left the extensive territory of west- [136] ern Louisiana, southern Arkansas, the Indian Territory and all Texas, except a narrow strip on the Rio Grande, free from the heavy tread of the enemy's infantry, the bugle sound of their cavalry, and the rumbling noise of their flying artillery; and so our condition remained substantially up to the close of the war in 1865. [137]
