4th Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade

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Company D, 4th Texas Cavalry Regiment of the Arizona Brigade at Ellis County, Texas, ca. spring, 1864.

In April, 1862 Lt. Col. John R. Baylor was authorized by the Confederate War Department to recruit a brigade of volunteers in order to recapture southwestern territory. At the same time, Col. Spruce M. Baird also began recruiting volunteers in Texas for the same purpose. A year later these volunteers recruited by Baylor and Baird were organized into four regiments - the "Arizona Brigade" - yet none of the four ever set foot into Arizona Territory, and only two (the 2nd and 3rd) served in the same brigade, but they still retained their original name. The 4th mostly ended up serving in Texas in John "Rip" Ford's cavalry command, while the other three regiments went on to see action in Louisiana and Arkansas.

In 1863 Col. Baird began recruiting most of his men from around the Pecos River in West Texas, which drew in all kinds of ruffians and undesirables, draft evaders, deserters, outlaws, etc. Of the four regiments, the 4th was probably the roughest of the bunch and generally lacked any kind of discipline.

Link to history of the 4th Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade:
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qkf17

Further reading on the 4th Texas Cavalry and the Arizona Brigade:
http://www.chab-belgium.com/pdf/english/Arizona Brigade.pdf
http://caarchrebel.blogspot.com/2012/08/4th-texas-cavalry-arizona-brigade.html
 
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Recently came across this image of Private George T. Brown of the 3rd Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade. Thought I'd add it to this old thread. You can zoom in on the image here: http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/jtx/id/1198

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Of the four "Arizona Brigade" Texas cavalry regiments, the 2nd and 3rd were probably put to the best use. The 2nd and 3rd Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade were sent to Louisiana in April, 1863 to form part of Brig. Gen. James P. Major's Second Texas Cavalry Brigade, which served in Richard Taylor's District of Western Louisiana. Major's Brigade saw action at Donaldsonville (attack on Fort Butler), Kock's Plantation, Sterling's Plantation, Bayou Bourbeau, and in the Red River Campaign at Wilson's Farm, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Yellow Bayou, along with numerous skirmishes in between.
 
Do you have a count of the number of men in each regiment?
There's some information in this link: http://www.chab-belgium.com/pdf/english/Arizona Brigade.pdf

There it states that Baylor had recruited 1,500 men by Dec. 1862, and that's not counting Col. Baird's recruits, which would become the 4th regiment. That would be about 500 men per regiment, but the volunteers were organized into battalions at first until Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder had them reorganized into regiments in Feb. 1863. Since Col. Baird's 4th regiment was recruited separately I'm not sure what number they started out with, but it was probably similar.
 
Interestingly enough, it would appear that they have pattern 1853 Enfield muskets in that picture...which solidified my decision to purchase a pattern 1853 Musket that has turned up which has lightly carved into the right side of the butt a Texas star, JWB, Co. D, 4th Regt. Ariz Brigade...and the gun is an Anchor S dated 1863 which would have come through the ports in Galveston according to The English Connection. Hopefully I can figure out how to add a picture to this post. According to the records, the only JWB in the 4th was Private J. W. Barkley

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