- Joined
- Nov 8, 2018
- Location
- Palm Coast, Florida
I've been doing research on Cleburne and his men for several years now. I am by no means an expert in the field by now, and I imagine the coming thread will have some errors. However, I seek to post what I have gleaned from the several books on Cleburne, the brigade, and the campaigns they took part in, to paint a picture of the unit, the men who commanded them, and the men who served in the brigade.
The origins of the brigade are quite complicated, though one could begin with the garrison of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post in late 1862. Here the 5000 Texans were organized into two brigades, one consisting of the 6th Infantry and the 24th and 25th Dismounted Cavalry under the command of the 6th's Colonel Robert R. Garland, and the other consisting of the 10th Infantry, and the 15th, 17th and 18th Dismounted Cavalry under the command of Col. James Deshler. These men fought at Fort Hindman in the engagement of January 11th, 1863, where the garrison under Brigadier Thomas Churchill surrendered after three and a half hours of combat. Around 1030 Texans escaped captured, while 3912 would join in the surrender and be marched off to Federal prison camps.
Eventually, in May of 1863, the brigade was exchanged at City Point, Virginia, and joined the Army of Tennessee near Wartrace. Here, they joined the division of Patrick Cleburne, whom they would have a connection with for most of the rest of the conflict. It was also here that the command was consolidated into a single brigade under Churchill, who later left for the Transmississippi theater once again, leaving command to now Brigadier Deshler. In addition, the 7 Texas regiments were consolidated into just two; 6th, 10th, and 15th Texas Consolidated under Colonel Roger Q. Mills of the 10th Texas; and 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th Texas Consolidated under Colonel Clayton Gillespie of the 25th, later by Francis Wilkes of the 24th. Counting the 19th/24th Arkansas of the Fort Hindman Garrison, still assigned to the brigade, they numbered around 1700 men.
After some minor engagements during the Tullahoma Campaign, and the almost battle at McLemore's Cove, the brigade finally saw action at Chickamauga. Marching to the right flank late in the day to relieve Liddell's division, Deshler's Arkansans and Texans took part in Cleburne's night assault on Richard Johnson's Division in Winfrey Field, bagging around a hundred prisoners, the flags and commanders of the 77th Pennsylvania and 79th Illinois, and 150 stands of arms. The next day, the brigade was sent in Cleburne's ill fated early assault against Thomas' center, resulting in heavy casualties. Among the losses was Deshler, killed instantly by a Union bullet. The Brigade brought 1693 men to the fight, 1467 in the consolidated Texas regiments, which lost 341 of the 447 total brigade casualties.
After the battle, Colonel James Argyle Smith, a West Point Graduate and Colonel of the 5th Confederate Irish, was promoted to Brigadier and assigned to command the Texans. The 19th/24th Arkansas transferred to Govan's Arkansas Brigade, while the 7th Texas, under Hiram Granbury, joined the brigade. The unit took part in the siege of Chattanooga. On November 25th, the Brigade was at the center of Sherman's flank assault on Tunnel Hill. The Texans performed admirably, though Brigadier Smith and Colonel Mills were both wounded in a counterattack, resulting in Colonel Granbury taking command of the brigade. Cleburne's men held, but the remainder of the army fled the field. Thus, Cleburne's Division held the army's rear guard at Ringgold Gap. Here, on the 27th, the Texans held the right flank against Charles Woods' Union brigade, holding their own alongside Polk's and Lowrey's Brigade against the Union assault, before the wagon train passed out of danger and Cleburne withdrew his division. The Texans suffered a mere 62 casualties, while helping inflict 507 upon the union troops to their front. Granbury, for his capable leadership in both battles, would be promoted to Brigadier in March of the next year. In the December 1863 reports, the brigade numbered 1502 men and 1079 arms.
The Brigade saw action throughout the Georgia Campaign. Most notably, it faced the assault of both William Hazen's and William Gibson's brigades at Pickett's Mill, May 27th, 1864. Quickly redeployed and with no entrenchments prepared, the Texans had the advantage of a 30 foot ravine in front of their position, allowing them to cut down Union troops with ease. When night fell, Granbury ordered a bayonet charge to clear the ravine of federal stragglers, capturing some 200 men from Hazen's and Gibson's shattered brigades. By the end of the engagement, the brigade had lost 32 men killed and 114 wounded, out of Cleburne's total of 85 killed and 363 wounded. Against this, the brigade had (with the help of Govan's Arkansas Brigade and Thomas Key's battery to the Texans' left) inflicted around 687 casualties on Gibson's Brigade alone, and contributed to the 212 killed, 927 wounded and 318 missing or captured from Tom Wood's hapless division that day. This would be the brigade's high water mark of the war.
Between the aftermath of Pickett's Mill and the action at Cheatham's Hill, the brigade saw many changes. At the start of June, Brigadier Granbury, partially due to the stresses of the campaign, partially due to his minor head wound at Pickett's Hill, and partly due to the recent bad news of family back in the west, took a sick leave to the Atlanta Hospital, leaving command of the brigade to the recently recovered and returned James Smith. In addition, after Brigadier Polk was wounded at Gilgal Church, Polk's Brigade was disbanded, with the 35th Tennessee and 5th Confederate (Smith's old command) joining the Texans. The 35th Tennessee remained detached as Provost Guard for the army; the 5th Confederate, made up of Irishmen from Memphis, soon earned the informal title "5th Texas" amongst the brigade. The Brigade helped support Cheatham's division during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, helping repulse Newton's Division.
After Johnston fell back from the Chattahoochee line to Atlanta, he was replaced with General Hood. The announcement of his rise to army command received a mixed reaction from the men of the brigade. Cleburne's men were held in reserve at Hood's first action, losing only 2 killed and 18 wounded to artillery fire on the 20th, having almost been sent into action when news of McPherson's flanking march from the East arrived. Cleburne's division was sent to the Eastern flank defenses, where the Texans were posted to the right flank near Bald Hill. Here, the Federals of the 17th Corps pushed back Smith's men, exposed to artillery fire from the high ground, and lost possession of the hill as well as 47 killed, 120 wounded, and 19 captured.
The next day, the Brigade took part in the climactic Battle of Bald Hill, also known more boisterously as the "Battle of Atlanta". Here, the brigade overlapped Colonel Hall's Iowa Brigade, helping overrun and capture the 16th Iowa and part of the 15th Iowa, along with Colonel Robert Scott, and numerous ambulances, artillery pieces, and enemy battle flags. There is much dispute amongst the members of the brigade as to whom claimed the honor, but it is certain that someone from the Texas Brigade killed Major General James B. McPherson. The Brigade had by now cut off Hall's retreat and were poised to strike at Colonel Scott's Ohioans on Bald Hill from the east, opposite their entrenchments. The Unions troops jumped over their breastworks and fired upon Smith's advancing men. In the process, Smith went down with a wound, along with Colonel Mills once again, leaving command of the brigade to Lt. Colonel Robert B. Young of the 10th Texas. By now, General Logan had organized a counterattack; Col. John Oliver's Union Brigade overran the exposed 17th/18th Texas and the 5th Confederate, capturing 158 out of the 252 men of the two regiments which went into battle. Young, seeing the futility of the situation, pulled the remnant of his brigade back. His men took part in one final assault against Union positions, but this only resulted in the decimation of Lowrey's brigade.
On July 23rd, Young noted that his brigade numbered some 750 strong, having lost 19 killed, 107 wounded, 25 missing and 160 captured, for a total of 311 casualties. Combined with previous two day's losses, the Texans and Irish lost some 68 killed, 245 wounded, 25 missing and 179 captured, for a total of 517 casualties in just 3 days of combat, as many casualties it had suffered at Chickamauga, Ringgold Gap, and Pickett's Mill combined. The Texans had in the process decimated Hall's Brigade, captured 15 cannon, two stands of colors, numerous ambulances (much needed now with the casualty bill), and the killing of the highest ranking federal officer of the war. The Texans could take pride in achieving the most of any single brigade on that mismanaged day of combat.
Granbury returned to command the brigade later in July, and would lead the brigade in their next action at Jonesboro. Here, the brigade, at the far left end of the Confederate line on the first day of the battle, August 31st, went against orders and chased off Kilpatrick's cavalry to the west, diverting the rest of the Division, under Mark Lowrey while Cleburne led Hardee's Corps, with them while Maney and Brown followed Cleburne's orders and slammed into the federal line to the northwest. Cleburne could not bring his division back into formation until 5 pm, by which the first day had ended. Granbury had lost 16 killed and 32 wounded this day. The next day, Granbury's Brigade refused to the right when Govan's brigade collapsed in the face of the union assault. Hardee and Lowrey thought the Texans were retreating and were reprimanding Granbury for his action, with Granbury replying to Hardde, "General, my men never fall back unless ordered back". Cleburne pulled up a brigade from Maney's division to plug the gap, sealing the breach for now. It was clear to everyone there at Jonesboro, as well as Hood back in Atlanta, that the position was now untenable. That night, Hardee withdrew his Corps to Lovejoy Station, while Hood and the remainder of the army evacuated Atlanta. The Texans had suffered an additional 18 killed and 89 wounded on the Second day of battle at Jonesboro.
The brigade took part in Hood's raid against the Western & Atlantic Railroad, helping capture the garrison of Dalton, though that incident could have ended in a massacre of the USCT troops holding the post, as the Texans were constantly breaking the terms of truce. Eventually, the troops assembled at Tuscumbia to prepare for Hood's Tennessee Campaign.
On November 29th, Hood sent Cheatham's Corps, with Cleburne's division in the lead, across the Duck River near Columbia to cut off the retreat of Schofield's Army of the Cumberland. The Texans took part in Cleburne's attack against Wagner's Division at Spring Hill, being repulsed and preparing another assault that never came, due to the lack of initiative from Cheatham and fellow division commander John C. Brown. This allowed the Union Army to retreat up the Columbia Turnpike in the night, stealing a march on the Confederates.
The next day, November 30th, 1864, the Texans marched north and took part in the doomed assault at Franklin. They helped break through Wagner's Forward line, following the fleeing yankees into the works. Granbury was killed leading his men in, along with his chief of staff Lt. Colonel Young. As the Texans pushed forward into the line around the Carter House, Emerson Opdycke's Brigade rushed in to seal the gap. In brutal hand to hand fighting, Opdycke's Tigers pushed the Texans out onto the faces of the union breastworks. Here, many remained, pinned down by Union fire. Only nightfall allowed for the Confederates to withdraw, across a field littered with the dead and dying. The Texans had gone into action with around 1100 men, and had a mere 460 by the end, a staggering 60% casualty rate. Command of the brigade fell to the sickly Captain Edward Broughton, Company D, 7th Texas. The Texans also discovered their beloved division commander had fallen in battle as well. November 30th was a dark day for the men of Granbury's Brigade.
The brigade, barely a regiment in strength, moved with Hood onto Nashville, where they dug in to prepare for a Union assault. It finally came on December 15th. On the right flank of the Confederate line, the 344 Texans, stationed in what became known as "Granbury's Lunette" for their fallen commander, repulsed an assault by Charles Cruft's division of USCT and garrison troops, for a loss of 30 men killed or wounded. Among the casualties was Captain Broughton, wounded, and command fell to Capt. James Selkirk of the 6th/15th Texas. On the second day, the brigade helped repulse the Union assaults on Overton Hill, before being sent to reinforce the collapsing left flank. Here, the remnant of the Texas Brigade, some 300 men, joined in the rout, the first time they had fled the field so utterly. This would be their last true battle.
The Brigade fell back with the rest of Hood's Army to Corinth, from which it marched to join Joe Johnston's Army in the Carolinas. Under the command of Lt. Colonel William Ryan of the 17th/18th Texas, the brigade joined Johnston's force at Bentonville too late to take part in the first day assault, and saw no major action the remaining days. The Brigade would then be consolidated into the 1st Texas Consolidated Regiment, numbering 407 men, and attached to Daniel Govan's Brigade. The men surrendered with the Army on April 26th.
The origins of the brigade are quite complicated, though one could begin with the garrison of Fort Hindman at Arkansas Post in late 1862. Here the 5000 Texans were organized into two brigades, one consisting of the 6th Infantry and the 24th and 25th Dismounted Cavalry under the command of the 6th's Colonel Robert R. Garland, and the other consisting of the 10th Infantry, and the 15th, 17th and 18th Dismounted Cavalry under the command of Col. James Deshler. These men fought at Fort Hindman in the engagement of January 11th, 1863, where the garrison under Brigadier Thomas Churchill surrendered after three and a half hours of combat. Around 1030 Texans escaped captured, while 3912 would join in the surrender and be marched off to Federal prison camps.
Eventually, in May of 1863, the brigade was exchanged at City Point, Virginia, and joined the Army of Tennessee near Wartrace. Here, they joined the division of Patrick Cleburne, whom they would have a connection with for most of the rest of the conflict. It was also here that the command was consolidated into a single brigade under Churchill, who later left for the Transmississippi theater once again, leaving command to now Brigadier Deshler. In addition, the 7 Texas regiments were consolidated into just two; 6th, 10th, and 15th Texas Consolidated under Colonel Roger Q. Mills of the 10th Texas; and 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th Texas Consolidated under Colonel Clayton Gillespie of the 25th, later by Francis Wilkes of the 24th. Counting the 19th/24th Arkansas of the Fort Hindman Garrison, still assigned to the brigade, they numbered around 1700 men.
After some minor engagements during the Tullahoma Campaign, and the almost battle at McLemore's Cove, the brigade finally saw action at Chickamauga. Marching to the right flank late in the day to relieve Liddell's division, Deshler's Arkansans and Texans took part in Cleburne's night assault on Richard Johnson's Division in Winfrey Field, bagging around a hundred prisoners, the flags and commanders of the 77th Pennsylvania and 79th Illinois, and 150 stands of arms. The next day, the brigade was sent in Cleburne's ill fated early assault against Thomas' center, resulting in heavy casualties. Among the losses was Deshler, killed instantly by a Union bullet. The Brigade brought 1693 men to the fight, 1467 in the consolidated Texas regiments, which lost 341 of the 447 total brigade casualties.
After the battle, Colonel James Argyle Smith, a West Point Graduate and Colonel of the 5th Confederate Irish, was promoted to Brigadier and assigned to command the Texans. The 19th/24th Arkansas transferred to Govan's Arkansas Brigade, while the 7th Texas, under Hiram Granbury, joined the brigade. The unit took part in the siege of Chattanooga. On November 25th, the Brigade was at the center of Sherman's flank assault on Tunnel Hill. The Texans performed admirably, though Brigadier Smith and Colonel Mills were both wounded in a counterattack, resulting in Colonel Granbury taking command of the brigade. Cleburne's men held, but the remainder of the army fled the field. Thus, Cleburne's Division held the army's rear guard at Ringgold Gap. Here, on the 27th, the Texans held the right flank against Charles Woods' Union brigade, holding their own alongside Polk's and Lowrey's Brigade against the Union assault, before the wagon train passed out of danger and Cleburne withdrew his division. The Texans suffered a mere 62 casualties, while helping inflict 507 upon the union troops to their front. Granbury, for his capable leadership in both battles, would be promoted to Brigadier in March of the next year. In the December 1863 reports, the brigade numbered 1502 men and 1079 arms.
The Brigade saw action throughout the Georgia Campaign. Most notably, it faced the assault of both William Hazen's and William Gibson's brigades at Pickett's Mill, May 27th, 1864. Quickly redeployed and with no entrenchments prepared, the Texans had the advantage of a 30 foot ravine in front of their position, allowing them to cut down Union troops with ease. When night fell, Granbury ordered a bayonet charge to clear the ravine of federal stragglers, capturing some 200 men from Hazen's and Gibson's shattered brigades. By the end of the engagement, the brigade had lost 32 men killed and 114 wounded, out of Cleburne's total of 85 killed and 363 wounded. Against this, the brigade had (with the help of Govan's Arkansas Brigade and Thomas Key's battery to the Texans' left) inflicted around 687 casualties on Gibson's Brigade alone, and contributed to the 212 killed, 927 wounded and 318 missing or captured from Tom Wood's hapless division that day. This would be the brigade's high water mark of the war.
Between the aftermath of Pickett's Mill and the action at Cheatham's Hill, the brigade saw many changes. At the start of June, Brigadier Granbury, partially due to the stresses of the campaign, partially due to his minor head wound at Pickett's Hill, and partly due to the recent bad news of family back in the west, took a sick leave to the Atlanta Hospital, leaving command of the brigade to the recently recovered and returned James Smith. In addition, after Brigadier Polk was wounded at Gilgal Church, Polk's Brigade was disbanded, with the 35th Tennessee and 5th Confederate (Smith's old command) joining the Texans. The 35th Tennessee remained detached as Provost Guard for the army; the 5th Confederate, made up of Irishmen from Memphis, soon earned the informal title "5th Texas" amongst the brigade. The Brigade helped support Cheatham's division during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, helping repulse Newton's Division.
After Johnston fell back from the Chattahoochee line to Atlanta, he was replaced with General Hood. The announcement of his rise to army command received a mixed reaction from the men of the brigade. Cleburne's men were held in reserve at Hood's first action, losing only 2 killed and 18 wounded to artillery fire on the 20th, having almost been sent into action when news of McPherson's flanking march from the East arrived. Cleburne's division was sent to the Eastern flank defenses, where the Texans were posted to the right flank near Bald Hill. Here, the Federals of the 17th Corps pushed back Smith's men, exposed to artillery fire from the high ground, and lost possession of the hill as well as 47 killed, 120 wounded, and 19 captured.
The next day, the Brigade took part in the climactic Battle of Bald Hill, also known more boisterously as the "Battle of Atlanta". Here, the brigade overlapped Colonel Hall's Iowa Brigade, helping overrun and capture the 16th Iowa and part of the 15th Iowa, along with Colonel Robert Scott, and numerous ambulances, artillery pieces, and enemy battle flags. There is much dispute amongst the members of the brigade as to whom claimed the honor, but it is certain that someone from the Texas Brigade killed Major General James B. McPherson. The Brigade had by now cut off Hall's retreat and were poised to strike at Colonel Scott's Ohioans on Bald Hill from the east, opposite their entrenchments. The Unions troops jumped over their breastworks and fired upon Smith's advancing men. In the process, Smith went down with a wound, along with Colonel Mills once again, leaving command of the brigade to Lt. Colonel Robert B. Young of the 10th Texas. By now, General Logan had organized a counterattack; Col. John Oliver's Union Brigade overran the exposed 17th/18th Texas and the 5th Confederate, capturing 158 out of the 252 men of the two regiments which went into battle. Young, seeing the futility of the situation, pulled the remnant of his brigade back. His men took part in one final assault against Union positions, but this only resulted in the decimation of Lowrey's brigade.
On July 23rd, Young noted that his brigade numbered some 750 strong, having lost 19 killed, 107 wounded, 25 missing and 160 captured, for a total of 311 casualties. Combined with previous two day's losses, the Texans and Irish lost some 68 killed, 245 wounded, 25 missing and 179 captured, for a total of 517 casualties in just 3 days of combat, as many casualties it had suffered at Chickamauga, Ringgold Gap, and Pickett's Mill combined. The Texans had in the process decimated Hall's Brigade, captured 15 cannon, two stands of colors, numerous ambulances (much needed now with the casualty bill), and the killing of the highest ranking federal officer of the war. The Texans could take pride in achieving the most of any single brigade on that mismanaged day of combat.
Granbury returned to command the brigade later in July, and would lead the brigade in their next action at Jonesboro. Here, the brigade, at the far left end of the Confederate line on the first day of the battle, August 31st, went against orders and chased off Kilpatrick's cavalry to the west, diverting the rest of the Division, under Mark Lowrey while Cleburne led Hardee's Corps, with them while Maney and Brown followed Cleburne's orders and slammed into the federal line to the northwest. Cleburne could not bring his division back into formation until 5 pm, by which the first day had ended. Granbury had lost 16 killed and 32 wounded this day. The next day, Granbury's Brigade refused to the right when Govan's brigade collapsed in the face of the union assault. Hardee and Lowrey thought the Texans were retreating and were reprimanding Granbury for his action, with Granbury replying to Hardde, "General, my men never fall back unless ordered back". Cleburne pulled up a brigade from Maney's division to plug the gap, sealing the breach for now. It was clear to everyone there at Jonesboro, as well as Hood back in Atlanta, that the position was now untenable. That night, Hardee withdrew his Corps to Lovejoy Station, while Hood and the remainder of the army evacuated Atlanta. The Texans had suffered an additional 18 killed and 89 wounded on the Second day of battle at Jonesboro.
The brigade took part in Hood's raid against the Western & Atlantic Railroad, helping capture the garrison of Dalton, though that incident could have ended in a massacre of the USCT troops holding the post, as the Texans were constantly breaking the terms of truce. Eventually, the troops assembled at Tuscumbia to prepare for Hood's Tennessee Campaign.
On November 29th, Hood sent Cheatham's Corps, with Cleburne's division in the lead, across the Duck River near Columbia to cut off the retreat of Schofield's Army of the Cumberland. The Texans took part in Cleburne's attack against Wagner's Division at Spring Hill, being repulsed and preparing another assault that never came, due to the lack of initiative from Cheatham and fellow division commander John C. Brown. This allowed the Union Army to retreat up the Columbia Turnpike in the night, stealing a march on the Confederates.
The next day, November 30th, 1864, the Texans marched north and took part in the doomed assault at Franklin. They helped break through Wagner's Forward line, following the fleeing yankees into the works. Granbury was killed leading his men in, along with his chief of staff Lt. Colonel Young. As the Texans pushed forward into the line around the Carter House, Emerson Opdycke's Brigade rushed in to seal the gap. In brutal hand to hand fighting, Opdycke's Tigers pushed the Texans out onto the faces of the union breastworks. Here, many remained, pinned down by Union fire. Only nightfall allowed for the Confederates to withdraw, across a field littered with the dead and dying. The Texans had gone into action with around 1100 men, and had a mere 460 by the end, a staggering 60% casualty rate. Command of the brigade fell to the sickly Captain Edward Broughton, Company D, 7th Texas. The Texans also discovered their beloved division commander had fallen in battle as well. November 30th was a dark day for the men of Granbury's Brigade.
The brigade, barely a regiment in strength, moved with Hood onto Nashville, where they dug in to prepare for a Union assault. It finally came on December 15th. On the right flank of the Confederate line, the 344 Texans, stationed in what became known as "Granbury's Lunette" for their fallen commander, repulsed an assault by Charles Cruft's division of USCT and garrison troops, for a loss of 30 men killed or wounded. Among the casualties was Captain Broughton, wounded, and command fell to Capt. James Selkirk of the 6th/15th Texas. On the second day, the brigade helped repulse the Union assaults on Overton Hill, before being sent to reinforce the collapsing left flank. Here, the remnant of the Texas Brigade, some 300 men, joined in the rout, the first time they had fled the field so utterly. This would be their last true battle.
The Brigade fell back with the rest of Hood's Army to Corinth, from which it marched to join Joe Johnston's Army in the Carolinas. Under the command of Lt. Colonel William Ryan of the 17th/18th Texas, the brigade joined Johnston's force at Bentonville too late to take part in the first day assault, and saw no major action the remaining days. The Brigade would then be consolidated into the 1st Texas Consolidated Regiment, numbering 407 men, and attached to Daniel Govan's Brigade. The men surrendered with the Army on April 26th.