Edit: I'll continually go back and add a few more photos to these posts here on the first page, either images that were buried in later pages of this thread or that I have since found elsewhere.
Of course we can't leave out John Bell Hood. Most are aware of Hood's time as a division commander in the ANV and later for his unsuccessful (to put it lightly) career as a corps and army commander in the AoT. But before all of that Hood was was only colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry and later brigadier general in command of the Texas Brigade. In April 1861, Hood resigned his commission from the U.S. Army, enlisting in the Confederate Army at Montgomery, Alabama, the following month. After Col. Robert T. P. Allen of the 4th Texas Infantry resigned, Hood was appointed colonel of the regiment in Sept. 1861. He drilled the 4th Texas thoroughly in fall of that year, but still managed to earn the Texans' respect - to the point where they would follow him anywhere.
On Feb. 20, 1862, Hood assumed command of the Texas Brigade and was officially promoted to brigadier general on March 3, 1862. He commanded the brigade throughout the Peninsula Campaign and into the Seven Days. In the battle of Gaines' Mill on June 27, Hood took his place among the ranks of the 4th Texas Infantry and personally led the famed charge across Boatswain's Creek. The Texas Brigade was the first to break the Federal line at Gaines' Mill, and in the process captured a total of 14 artillery pieces, dozens of prisoners, and turned back a cavalry charge. In July 1862, Hood assumed command of the division after the former commander left on medical furlough. He was promoted to major general in October of that year and given full command of the division. From there, Hood's record moves away from the brigade; however, Hood's Texas Brigade would forever bear his name, and he would always be remembered as their favorite brigade commander.
Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson.
Robertson, originally born in Kentucky, later moved to and accepted Texas as his adopted state. In 1861, Robertson raised a volunteer company - later Co. I of the 5th Texas Infantry. He was elevated through the ranks, promoted to lieutenant colonel in November 1861 and to colonel on June 1, 1862. He fought with the regiment in the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days, and Second Manassas, being wounded in the latter. Overcome by exhaustion at South Mountain, he was carried from the field, missing the battle of Antietam.
Overall, Robertson was popular among the troops and was known as "Aunt Polly" because he was always concerned with their well-being. After the promotion of Hood, Robertson was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. He commanded the Texas Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign (in which he was wounded), at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and in the Knoxville Campaign. But due to tension amongst Longstreet's Corps in the Knoxville Campaign, Longstreet filed charges against Robertson alleging delinquency of duty and accusing him of pessimistic remarks. Robertson was reprimanded, replaced as commander of the Texas Brigade and transferred to Texas, where he commanded the state reserve forces until the end of the war. He was sorely missed by the troops of the brigade; in the words of Joe Polley, Co. F, 4th Texas, "The Texas Brigade heartily approved of his course, and its survivors are yet grateful to him for the firm stand he took and for the interest and fatherly solicitude he always manifested in the well-being of his men."
Brig. Gen. John Gregg, the Texas Brigade's last brigadier general.
John Gregg, an Alabama native who later moved to Fairview, Texas, had organized and commanded the 7th Texas Infantry after the war began. In command of the 7th Texas, he fought and was captured at Fort Donelson. Shortly after being exchanged on August 15, 1862, Gregg was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade in the Vicksburg Campaign, fighting at Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi.
In the battle of Chickamauga, Gregg was severely wounded when he rode ahead of his own brigade, too close to an enemy skirmish line, and was shot in the neck. Hood's Texas Brigade just so happened to stumble across Gregg lying wounded on the field, helping him and his horse to the rear. After recovering from his wounds, Gregg was given command of the very brigade that had saved him at Chickamauga, replacing Robertson.
He led the Texans in the Overland Campaign - including the "Lee to the rear" incident at the Wilderness - and the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. In the Texas Brigade's last charge of the war at the battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads on October 7, 1864, Gregg was shot in the neck a second time and died of his wounds. His widow, Mary Garth Gregg, traveled through the lines to retrieve his body. Gregg was laid to rest at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Members of the Star Rifles, Company D of the 1st Texas Infantry, from Jefferson, Marion County, Texas.
Standing L-R: Lt. Cornelius R. Curtright, Absalom Carter "A.C." Oliver, Henry P. Oliver
Seated L-R: John A. Oliver, William H. Oliver, Francis Thomas "Frank" Oliver
Lt. Curtright later resigned in 1862; Henry and John Oliver died of pneumonia early that year. William died of wounds received at Chickamauga. Only Absalom and Francis made it to Appomattox.
Lt. Benjamin A. Campbell, Co. G "Reagan Guards," 1st Texas Infantry. Born in Alabama in 1842, Campbell later moved to Anderson County, Texas, with his family. He was married to Eppinina "Eppie" Micheaux in May 1860, they later having a son. In June 1861 he enlisted in the Reagan Guards, Company G of the 1st Texas, and was elected 3rd lieutenant. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in May 1862 (later rising to 1st lieutenant according to some sources), and was sent back to Texas on recruiting service in October to December 1862.
Campbell was acting commander of Company G at Gettysburg. As the 1st Texas fought its way up Houck's Ridge on July 2, 1863, a gap started to form between it and the 3rd Arkansas on its left, so Lt. Col. Philip A. Work sent Campbell with his company to plug it. As he fulfilled that task Campbell took a shot through the heart and was killed instantly.
Lt. Col. Work says in his official report:
"While this regiment was closely following our skirmishers, and had reached to within about 125 yards of the enemy's artillery, the Third Arkansas Regiment, upon my left, became hotly engaged with a strong force of the enemy upon its front and left, and, to preserve and protect its left flank, was forced to retire to a point some 75 or 100 yards to my rear and left, thus leaving my left flank uncovered and exposed, to protect which I halted, and threw out upon my left and rear Company G, commanded by Lieut. B. A. Campbell (some 40 men), which soon engaged the enemy and drove them from their threatening position to my left and the front of the Third Arkansas. It was while in the execution of this order that Lieutenant Campbell, a brave and gallant officer, fell, pierced through the heart."
Inscribed inside the case, behind the image is: "Likeness of B.A. Campbell taken in Richmond, Virginia 1861 and presented to his wife Eppie Campbell."
Here is the link to an article on him in Military Images Magazine:
https://militaryimages.atavist.com/for-life-and-lone-star-honor-summer-2017
Cousins, Pvt. Emzy Taylor (left) and Pvt. George M. Taylor, Company E, "Lone Star Guards," 4th Texas Infantry. Emzy enlisted July 13, 1861, at Waco. He received a discharge for disability on December 4, 1861, and returned to Texas. He would later help organize a company in the 16th Texas Infantry and serve in the Red River Campaign. George enlisted July 13, 1861, at Waco. He was wounded in the arm at Gaines' Mill and was listed sick in hospital at Richmond several times throughout the war, though he surrendered and was paroled at Appomattox.
Pvt. Jacob F. Lown, Co. H, "Porter Guards," 4th Texas Infantry.
Lown enlisted at Grimes County on March 14, 1862. He was wounded in the battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, and was captured near Knoxville in late 1863. He died at the U.S. Military General Hospital at Louisville on January 18, 1863, and was buried in Grave 71, Range 2, of Cave Hill Cemetery there.
Sgt. Valerius Cincinnatus Giles, born in Shelby County, Tennessee, Jan. 26, 1843. In 1849 he and his family settled on a farm near Austin, Texas. At 18 he enlisted in the Tom Green Rifles, Co. B of the 4th Texas Infantry, and served with the Texas Brigade from 1861 to mid 1864, until he was captured at Wauhatchie (aka Raccoon Mountain by the Texans) on Oct. 29, 1863. Giles was sent to Camp Morton, though he managed to escape soon after, later joining Walker Taylor's cavalry command in Kentucky, which he served with for the remainder of the war. Giles later authored the memoir, Rags and Hope.
George L. Robertson in Co. B, Tom Green Rifles, 4th Texas Infantry.
ROBERTSON, GEO. L. - Prom., 1Cpl., July 24, 1862: W. (neck & shoulder) & POW, Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862): Exchanged: Wound furlough granted, Dec., 1862: AWOL in Tex. since May 3, 1863: Paroled, Austin, July 27, 1865.
Robertson served in the same company as Val C. Giles. All Giles has to say of him in his company roster is:
"Robertson, George L.; was left on the battlefield at Sharpsburg for dead; recovered, returned to Texas and died in Austin in 1898."
William R. "Bill" Hamby, also a member of Co. B, Tom Green Rifles, 4th Texas Infantry.
According to J.B. Polley's history of the brigade, p. 293, Hamby served in the regiment until November 1862, after which he was discharged due to wounds suffered at Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. He returned to Texas in March 1863 and set out to join Morgans cavalry with ten other men; they were attached to Helm's Scouts in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry. Hamby was made First Lieutenant then, which was probably around when this photo was taken. His company later became Co. H of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry. Hamby was wounded and captured in July 1863, later exchanged and returned to active duty. He was in command of the company when they surrendered and were paroled on April 26, 1865. Some of Hamby's reminiscences are also included in Polley's history of the Texas Brigade.
In his company roster, Val C. Giles says of Hamby:
"Hamby, Wm. R., handsomest man in the regiment, severely wounded at Second Manassas and before recovery went into battle at Sharpsburg—without shoes—but came out shod. After the war closed he went to Nashville, Tenn., and when Porter was elected governor of that state he appointed Hamby as Adjutant General; later on his returned to Texas, represented Travis county in the legislature, and is now President of the Citizens' Bank and Trust Company."
Giles, Robertson and Hamby are seen in this group portrait of Company B, Tom Green Rifles, taken in 1897 during a reunion in Nashville, TN.
Rufus K. Felder (left) and his cousin Miers Felder in Co. E, 5th Texas Infantry. Coming from a prominent and wealthy family in South Carolina, Rufus Felder accompanied his widowed mother and four siblings to a new family plantation in Chappell Hill, Texas, in 1855. Many wealthy families from across the South settled into the Chappell Hill area, for the Brazos floodplains yielded good cotton. Rufus was a student at Soule University when the war began; at 21 years old, he and his cousin Miers (29) enlisted in Capt. John Rogers' Dixie Blues at Washington, Texas, on July 11, 1861. Rufus served with the Texas Brigade throughout the war until Appomattox, although his cousin Miers was discharged due to wounds at Second Manassas.
Lt. James Rodgers Loughridge, Co. I, "Navarro Rifles," 4th Texas Infantry.
Born on November 12, 1821 in Laurens, SC, Loughridge later moved to Corsicana, Texas to practice law. He founded the first newspaper in Corsicana, the Prairie Blade, in 1855. That same year Loughridge married Mary Felicia Martin of Corn Ridge, Tennessee; they had six children. I'm not certain where he started, but after the war began Loughridge found himself elected 1st Lieutenant in Co. I, 4th Texas Infantry. He was wounded at Gaines' Mill in June 1862. On July 21, 1863, after Capt. Clinton M. Winkler was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, Loughridge was promoted to captain of his company. He was cited for bravery at the battle of Chickamauga and then resigned from the army on November 10, 1863, upon his election to the Texas House of Representatives. After the Civil War, Loughridge owned a cotton warehouse at Loughridge Bluff on the Trinity River near Rural Shade and Kerens. He served on a committee that convinced the Houston and Texas Central Railroad to go through Corsicana and was active in veterans' affairs with the Hood's Brigade Association. He died on November 10, 1886, and was buried in Ingram Cemetery near Rural Shade.
Capt. Ike Turner, Co. K, 5th Texas Infantry.
Isaac Newton Moreland "Ike" Turner was born in Putnam County, Georgia, April 3, 1839. His father, Joseph A. S. Turner, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, was a planter with Texas land holdings in Polk and Liberty counties. The Turner family moved to Texas just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, Ike helped to recruit and organize a mounted artillery company of 80 Polk County volunteers. Elected captain, he assembled his company at the county courthouse in Livingston on Sept. 3, 1861. Upon receiving the company flag from the ladies of Polk County, he waved his cap and told them he would send "each man back a hero." The company was later converted to infantry and would become Co. K of the 5th Texas Infantry.
At 22 years, Captain Turner was one of the youngest company commanders in Hood's Texas Brigade, though one of the best. He was known as a gifted "outpost officer," often taking command of the skirmish or picket line; he also temporarily assumed command of the regiment at both Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. It was said that Turner "was a brave and daring officer, quick to observe any advantage in position, prompt to take action thereunder...." He was breveted major with the idea that the rank would become permanent and Turner would organize and command a sharpshooter battalion in the Texas Brigade. However, on April 14, 1863, while the brigade was stationed at Fort Huger during the Suffolk Campaign, Turner stood atop the parapet and was, ironically, shot by a sharpshooter from across the James River. Mortally wounded, his last request to his men was, "Men, if you can, please take me home to my mother, for I fear she will worry so about me.", though he died the following day.
Captain Turner's brother, Charles, transported his body back to the family's former plantation, "Turnwold," near Eatonton, Georgia, for burial. Believing it was his last wish to be buried among his relatives, in 1995 his remains were finally disinterred, transported from Georgia to Texas and reburied in the family cemetery.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin Carter, 4th Texas Infantry.
Mayor of Austin, Texas 1858-59. Benjamin Franklin Carter was born in 1831, in Maury County, Tennessee, and graduated from Jackson College, in Columbia, Tenn. He relocated to Texas and served as Mayor of Austin, and as an attorney before the war. On July 11, 1861, Carter was commissioned Captain of Company B "Tom Green Rifles" of the 4th Texas Infantry, being promoted to major on June 27, 1862, and lieutenant colonel on July 10, 1862. Lt. Col. Carter was mortally wounded by shell fragment in the face and legs as he attacked the western slope of Little Round Top at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Carter died on July 21, but after much difficulty finding a local cemetery that would accept the Confederate officer's remains, Carter was finally interred in the cemetery of the Methodist Church in an unmarked grave.
Lt. Col. Philip Alexander Work, 1st Texas Infantry.
Born in Cloverport, Kentucky, on February 17, 1832, Philip A. Work and his family moved to Velasco, Texas, in 1838 - several years later settling in Town Bluff, Tyler County. After receiving a good education, Philip Work was admitted to the bar in Woodville in 1853. In 1854 he enlisted and served with the rank of first sergeant for four months in Capt. John G. Walker's Co. B, Mounted Battalion of Texas Volunteers. Work was one of the two delegates from Tyler County to the Secession Convention in 1861, but before the convention reconvened on March 2 he resigned to raise a company of troops from Tyler County - the Woodville Rifles, later organized as Co. F of the 1st Texas Infantry.
By mid 1863, Work had been promoted to Major and later elected Lt. Colonel. After Col. Alexis T. Rainey was wounded at Gaines' Mill, Lt. Col. Work took command of the regiment. Thereafter, Work commanded the 1st Texas Infantry in the battles of Second Manassas, Boonesboro Gap, Sharpsburg/Antietam, and Gettysburg. He was one of the 40 (out of 226) in the regiment that made it out of the infamous Cornfield at Antietam unscathed. Also to note, his father, Dr. John Work, was assistant surgeon of the 1st Texas Infantry from October 1862 to July 1864. Work became ill on Sept. 18, 1863, before the battle of Chickamauga, and had no further field service with his regiment; his resignation as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Texas Infantry on Nov. 12, 1863, was accepted by the War Department in Jan. 1864.
He returned to Texas and, after recovering his health, raised and commanded a company in Col. David Smith Terry's Texas Cavalry regiment from the fall of 1864 to the end of the war. Work resumed his law practice in Woodville, but in October 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where he practiced law and entered the steamboat business. After 1874 he resided in Hardin County, Texas, where he attained eminence as a land lawyer. He also was the owner of the steamboat Tom Parker, which navigated the Neches River. In his later years Work wrote several accounts of his wartime experiences, but only fragments of these manuscripts have been preserved. At Woodville on May 8, 1855, he was married to Adeline F. Lea, and they were the parents of four children. Work died on March 17, 1911, and was buried in the old Hardin Cemetery near Kountze.
Sgt. George A. Branard, color-bearer of the 1st Texas Infantry.
Born on Galveston Island on January 5, 1843, Branard enlisted in Co. L, "Lone Star Rifles" of the 1st Texas Infantry. He was said to have been one of the bravest men in the regiment. At Gettysburg, Branard famously planted the First's colors at the summit of Houck's Ridge on July 2, 1863. After being wounded by a shell, he refused to pass on the flag until he fell unconscious and was carried to the rear by his comrades. He was wounded a second time in the Knoxville Campaign, losing his arm. Afterward, he was reassigned as sergeant in the ambulance corps, and remained in that position until the end of the war. He returned home to Texas, married and had ten children, and never missed a Texas Brigade reunion.
Of course we can't leave out John Bell Hood. Most are aware of Hood's time as a division commander in the ANV and later for his unsuccessful (to put it lightly) career as a corps and army commander in the AoT. But before all of that Hood was was only colonel of the 4th Texas Infantry and later brigadier general in command of the Texas Brigade. In April 1861, Hood resigned his commission from the U.S. Army, enlisting in the Confederate Army at Montgomery, Alabama, the following month. After Col. Robert T. P. Allen of the 4th Texas Infantry resigned, Hood was appointed colonel of the regiment in Sept. 1861. He drilled the 4th Texas thoroughly in fall of that year, but still managed to earn the Texans' respect - to the point where they would follow him anywhere.
On Feb. 20, 1862, Hood assumed command of the Texas Brigade and was officially promoted to brigadier general on March 3, 1862. He commanded the brigade throughout the Peninsula Campaign and into the Seven Days. In the battle of Gaines' Mill on June 27, Hood took his place among the ranks of the 4th Texas Infantry and personally led the famed charge across Boatswain's Creek. The Texas Brigade was the first to break the Federal line at Gaines' Mill, and in the process captured a total of 14 artillery pieces, dozens of prisoners, and turned back a cavalry charge. In July 1862, Hood assumed command of the division after the former commander left on medical furlough. He was promoted to major general in October of that year and given full command of the division. From there, Hood's record moves away from the brigade; however, Hood's Texas Brigade would forever bear his name, and he would always be remembered as their favorite brigade commander.
Brig. Gen. Jerome B. Robertson.
Robertson, originally born in Kentucky, later moved to and accepted Texas as his adopted state. In 1861, Robertson raised a volunteer company - later Co. I of the 5th Texas Infantry. He was elevated through the ranks, promoted to lieutenant colonel in November 1861 and to colonel on June 1, 1862. He fought with the regiment in the Peninsula Campaign, the Seven Days, and Second Manassas, being wounded in the latter. Overcome by exhaustion at South Mountain, he was carried from the field, missing the battle of Antietam.
Overall, Robertson was popular among the troops and was known as "Aunt Polly" because he was always concerned with their well-being. After the promotion of Hood, Robertson was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. He commanded the Texas Brigade in the Gettysburg Campaign (in which he was wounded), at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, and in the Knoxville Campaign. But due to tension amongst Longstreet's Corps in the Knoxville Campaign, Longstreet filed charges against Robertson alleging delinquency of duty and accusing him of pessimistic remarks. Robertson was reprimanded, replaced as commander of the Texas Brigade and transferred to Texas, where he commanded the state reserve forces until the end of the war. He was sorely missed by the troops of the brigade; in the words of Joe Polley, Co. F, 4th Texas, "The Texas Brigade heartily approved of his course, and its survivors are yet grateful to him for the firm stand he took and for the interest and fatherly solicitude he always manifested in the well-being of his men."
Brig. Gen. John Gregg, the Texas Brigade's last brigadier general.
John Gregg, an Alabama native who later moved to Fairview, Texas, had organized and commanded the 7th Texas Infantry after the war began. In command of the 7th Texas, he fought and was captured at Fort Donelson. Shortly after being exchanged on August 15, 1862, Gregg was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade in the Vicksburg Campaign, fighting at Raymond and Jackson, Mississippi.
In the battle of Chickamauga, Gregg was severely wounded when he rode ahead of his own brigade, too close to an enemy skirmish line, and was shot in the neck. Hood's Texas Brigade just so happened to stumble across Gregg lying wounded on the field, helping him and his horse to the rear. After recovering from his wounds, Gregg was given command of the very brigade that had saved him at Chickamauga, replacing Robertson.
He led the Texans in the Overland Campaign - including the "Lee to the rear" incident at the Wilderness - and the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. In the Texas Brigade's last charge of the war at the battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads on October 7, 1864, Gregg was shot in the neck a second time and died of his wounds. His widow, Mary Garth Gregg, traveled through the lines to retrieve his body. Gregg was laid to rest at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Aberdeen, Mississippi.
Members of the Star Rifles, Company D of the 1st Texas Infantry, from Jefferson, Marion County, Texas.
Standing L-R: Lt. Cornelius R. Curtright, Absalom Carter "A.C." Oliver, Henry P. Oliver
Seated L-R: John A. Oliver, William H. Oliver, Francis Thomas "Frank" Oliver
Lt. Curtright later resigned in 1862; Henry and John Oliver died of pneumonia early that year. William died of wounds received at Chickamauga. Only Absalom and Francis made it to Appomattox.
Lt. Benjamin A. Campbell, Co. G "Reagan Guards," 1st Texas Infantry. Born in Alabama in 1842, Campbell later moved to Anderson County, Texas, with his family. He was married to Eppinina "Eppie" Micheaux in May 1860, they later having a son. In June 1861 he enlisted in the Reagan Guards, Company G of the 1st Texas, and was elected 3rd lieutenant. He was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in May 1862 (later rising to 1st lieutenant according to some sources), and was sent back to Texas on recruiting service in October to December 1862.
Campbell was acting commander of Company G at Gettysburg. As the 1st Texas fought its way up Houck's Ridge on July 2, 1863, a gap started to form between it and the 3rd Arkansas on its left, so Lt. Col. Philip A. Work sent Campbell with his company to plug it. As he fulfilled that task Campbell took a shot through the heart and was killed instantly.
Lt. Col. Work says in his official report:
"While this regiment was closely following our skirmishers, and had reached to within about 125 yards of the enemy's artillery, the Third Arkansas Regiment, upon my left, became hotly engaged with a strong force of the enemy upon its front and left, and, to preserve and protect its left flank, was forced to retire to a point some 75 or 100 yards to my rear and left, thus leaving my left flank uncovered and exposed, to protect which I halted, and threw out upon my left and rear Company G, commanded by Lieut. B. A. Campbell (some 40 men), which soon engaged the enemy and drove them from their threatening position to my left and the front of the Third Arkansas. It was while in the execution of this order that Lieutenant Campbell, a brave and gallant officer, fell, pierced through the heart."
Inscribed inside the case, behind the image is: "Likeness of B.A. Campbell taken in Richmond, Virginia 1861 and presented to his wife Eppie Campbell."
Here is the link to an article on him in Military Images Magazine:
https://militaryimages.atavist.com/for-life-and-lone-star-honor-summer-2017
Cousins, Pvt. Emzy Taylor (left) and Pvt. George M. Taylor, Company E, "Lone Star Guards," 4th Texas Infantry. Emzy enlisted July 13, 1861, at Waco. He received a discharge for disability on December 4, 1861, and returned to Texas. He would later help organize a company in the 16th Texas Infantry and serve in the Red River Campaign. George enlisted July 13, 1861, at Waco. He was wounded in the arm at Gaines' Mill and was listed sick in hospital at Richmond several times throughout the war, though he surrendered and was paroled at Appomattox.
Pvt. Jacob F. Lown, Co. H, "Porter Guards," 4th Texas Infantry.
Lown enlisted at Grimes County on March 14, 1862. He was wounded in the battle of Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, and was captured near Knoxville in late 1863. He died at the U.S. Military General Hospital at Louisville on January 18, 1863, and was buried in Grave 71, Range 2, of Cave Hill Cemetery there.
Sgt. Valerius Cincinnatus Giles, born in Shelby County, Tennessee, Jan. 26, 1843. In 1849 he and his family settled on a farm near Austin, Texas. At 18 he enlisted in the Tom Green Rifles, Co. B of the 4th Texas Infantry, and served with the Texas Brigade from 1861 to mid 1864, until he was captured at Wauhatchie (aka Raccoon Mountain by the Texans) on Oct. 29, 1863. Giles was sent to Camp Morton, though he managed to escape soon after, later joining Walker Taylor's cavalry command in Kentucky, which he served with for the remainder of the war. Giles later authored the memoir, Rags and Hope.
George L. Robertson in Co. B, Tom Green Rifles, 4th Texas Infantry.
ROBERTSON, GEO. L. - Prom., 1Cpl., July 24, 1862: W. (neck & shoulder) & POW, Antietam (Sept. 17, 1862): Exchanged: Wound furlough granted, Dec., 1862: AWOL in Tex. since May 3, 1863: Paroled, Austin, July 27, 1865.
Robertson served in the same company as Val C. Giles. All Giles has to say of him in his company roster is:
"Robertson, George L.; was left on the battlefield at Sharpsburg for dead; recovered, returned to Texas and died in Austin in 1898."
William R. "Bill" Hamby, also a member of Co. B, Tom Green Rifles, 4th Texas Infantry.
According to J.B. Polley's history of the brigade, p. 293, Hamby served in the regiment until November 1862, after which he was discharged due to wounds suffered at Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. He returned to Texas in March 1863 and set out to join Morgans cavalry with ten other men; they were attached to Helm's Scouts in the 10th Kentucky Cavalry. Hamby was made First Lieutenant then, which was probably around when this photo was taken. His company later became Co. H of the 13th Kentucky Cavalry. Hamby was wounded and captured in July 1863, later exchanged and returned to active duty. He was in command of the company when they surrendered and were paroled on April 26, 1865. Some of Hamby's reminiscences are also included in Polley's history of the Texas Brigade.
In his company roster, Val C. Giles says of Hamby:
"Hamby, Wm. R., handsomest man in the regiment, severely wounded at Second Manassas and before recovery went into battle at Sharpsburg—without shoes—but came out shod. After the war closed he went to Nashville, Tenn., and when Porter was elected governor of that state he appointed Hamby as Adjutant General; later on his returned to Texas, represented Travis county in the legislature, and is now President of the Citizens' Bank and Trust Company."
Giles, Robertson and Hamby are seen in this group portrait of Company B, Tom Green Rifles, taken in 1897 during a reunion in Nashville, TN.
Rufus K. Felder (left) and his cousin Miers Felder in Co. E, 5th Texas Infantry. Coming from a prominent and wealthy family in South Carolina, Rufus Felder accompanied his widowed mother and four siblings to a new family plantation in Chappell Hill, Texas, in 1855. Many wealthy families from across the South settled into the Chappell Hill area, for the Brazos floodplains yielded good cotton. Rufus was a student at Soule University when the war began; at 21 years old, he and his cousin Miers (29) enlisted in Capt. John Rogers' Dixie Blues at Washington, Texas, on July 11, 1861. Rufus served with the Texas Brigade throughout the war until Appomattox, although his cousin Miers was discharged due to wounds at Second Manassas.
Lt. James Rodgers Loughridge, Co. I, "Navarro Rifles," 4th Texas Infantry.
Born on November 12, 1821 in Laurens, SC, Loughridge later moved to Corsicana, Texas to practice law. He founded the first newspaper in Corsicana, the Prairie Blade, in 1855. That same year Loughridge married Mary Felicia Martin of Corn Ridge, Tennessee; they had six children. I'm not certain where he started, but after the war began Loughridge found himself elected 1st Lieutenant in Co. I, 4th Texas Infantry. He was wounded at Gaines' Mill in June 1862. On July 21, 1863, after Capt. Clinton M. Winkler was wounded at the battle of Gettysburg, Loughridge was promoted to captain of his company. He was cited for bravery at the battle of Chickamauga and then resigned from the army on November 10, 1863, upon his election to the Texas House of Representatives. After the Civil War, Loughridge owned a cotton warehouse at Loughridge Bluff on the Trinity River near Rural Shade and Kerens. He served on a committee that convinced the Houston and Texas Central Railroad to go through Corsicana and was active in veterans' affairs with the Hood's Brigade Association. He died on November 10, 1886, and was buried in Ingram Cemetery near Rural Shade.
Capt. Ike Turner, Co. K, 5th Texas Infantry.
Isaac Newton Moreland "Ike" Turner was born in Putnam County, Georgia, April 3, 1839. His father, Joseph A. S. Turner, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, was a planter with Texas land holdings in Polk and Liberty counties. The Turner family moved to Texas just prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. In 1861, Ike helped to recruit and organize a mounted artillery company of 80 Polk County volunteers. Elected captain, he assembled his company at the county courthouse in Livingston on Sept. 3, 1861. Upon receiving the company flag from the ladies of Polk County, he waved his cap and told them he would send "each man back a hero." The company was later converted to infantry and would become Co. K of the 5th Texas Infantry.
At 22 years, Captain Turner was one of the youngest company commanders in Hood's Texas Brigade, though one of the best. He was known as a gifted "outpost officer," often taking command of the skirmish or picket line; he also temporarily assumed command of the regiment at both Second Manassas and Sharpsburg. It was said that Turner "was a brave and daring officer, quick to observe any advantage in position, prompt to take action thereunder...." He was breveted major with the idea that the rank would become permanent and Turner would organize and command a sharpshooter battalion in the Texas Brigade. However, on April 14, 1863, while the brigade was stationed at Fort Huger during the Suffolk Campaign, Turner stood atop the parapet and was, ironically, shot by a sharpshooter from across the James River. Mortally wounded, his last request to his men was, "Men, if you can, please take me home to my mother, for I fear she will worry so about me.", though he died the following day.
Captain Turner's brother, Charles, transported his body back to the family's former plantation, "Turnwold," near Eatonton, Georgia, for burial. Believing it was his last wish to be buried among his relatives, in 1995 his remains were finally disinterred, transported from Georgia to Texas and reburied in the family cemetery.
Lt. Col. Benjamin Franklin Carter, 4th Texas Infantry.
Mayor of Austin, Texas 1858-59. Benjamin Franklin Carter was born in 1831, in Maury County, Tennessee, and graduated from Jackson College, in Columbia, Tenn. He relocated to Texas and served as Mayor of Austin, and as an attorney before the war. On July 11, 1861, Carter was commissioned Captain of Company B "Tom Green Rifles" of the 4th Texas Infantry, being promoted to major on June 27, 1862, and lieutenant colonel on July 10, 1862. Lt. Col. Carter was mortally wounded by shell fragment in the face and legs as he attacked the western slope of Little Round Top at Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. Carter died on July 21, but after much difficulty finding a local cemetery that would accept the Confederate officer's remains, Carter was finally interred in the cemetery of the Methodist Church in an unmarked grave.
Lt. Col. Philip Alexander Work, 1st Texas Infantry.
Born in Cloverport, Kentucky, on February 17, 1832, Philip A. Work and his family moved to Velasco, Texas, in 1838 - several years later settling in Town Bluff, Tyler County. After receiving a good education, Philip Work was admitted to the bar in Woodville in 1853. In 1854 he enlisted and served with the rank of first sergeant for four months in Capt. John G. Walker's Co. B, Mounted Battalion of Texas Volunteers. Work was one of the two delegates from Tyler County to the Secession Convention in 1861, but before the convention reconvened on March 2 he resigned to raise a company of troops from Tyler County - the Woodville Rifles, later organized as Co. F of the 1st Texas Infantry.
By mid 1863, Work had been promoted to Major and later elected Lt. Colonel. After Col. Alexis T. Rainey was wounded at Gaines' Mill, Lt. Col. Work took command of the regiment. Thereafter, Work commanded the 1st Texas Infantry in the battles of Second Manassas, Boonesboro Gap, Sharpsburg/Antietam, and Gettysburg. He was one of the 40 (out of 226) in the regiment that made it out of the infamous Cornfield at Antietam unscathed. Also to note, his father, Dr. John Work, was assistant surgeon of the 1st Texas Infantry from October 1862 to July 1864. Work became ill on Sept. 18, 1863, before the battle of Chickamauga, and had no further field service with his regiment; his resignation as lieutenant colonel of the 1st Texas Infantry on Nov. 12, 1863, was accepted by the War Department in Jan. 1864.
He returned to Texas and, after recovering his health, raised and commanded a company in Col. David Smith Terry's Texas Cavalry regiment from the fall of 1864 to the end of the war. Work resumed his law practice in Woodville, but in October 1865 he moved to New Orleans, where he practiced law and entered the steamboat business. After 1874 he resided in Hardin County, Texas, where he attained eminence as a land lawyer. He also was the owner of the steamboat Tom Parker, which navigated the Neches River. In his later years Work wrote several accounts of his wartime experiences, but only fragments of these manuscripts have been preserved. At Woodville on May 8, 1855, he was married to Adeline F. Lea, and they were the parents of four children. Work died on March 17, 1911, and was buried in the old Hardin Cemetery near Kountze.
Sgt. George A. Branard, color-bearer of the 1st Texas Infantry.
Born on Galveston Island on January 5, 1843, Branard enlisted in Co. L, "Lone Star Rifles" of the 1st Texas Infantry. He was said to have been one of the bravest men in the regiment. At Gettysburg, Branard famously planted the First's colors at the summit of Houck's Ridge on July 2, 1863. After being wounded by a shell, he refused to pass on the flag until he fell unconscious and was carried to the rear by his comrades. He was wounded a second time in the Knoxville Campaign, losing his arm. Afterward, he was reassigned as sergeant in the ambulance corps, and remained in that position until the end of the war. He returned home to Texas, married and had ten children, and never missed a Texas Brigade reunion.