Hood's Texans by Mark Maritato
The Texas Brigade was organized on October 22, 1861, in Richmond, Va. It was initially commanded by Brig. Gen. Louis T. Wigfall and composed of the 1st, 4th, and 5th Texas Infantry regiments, the only Texas troops to fight in the Eastern Theater. On November 20, 1861, the 18th Georgia Infantry was attached to the brigade, followed by the infantry battalion of Wade Hampton's South Carolina Legion on June 1, 1862. The Georgians and South Carolinians were later transferred out in November 1862 and the 3rd Arkansas Infantry joined the brigade.
Wigfall resigned command on February 20, 1862, and on March 2, Col. John Bell Hood, commanding the 4th Texas, was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command. Hood would only command the brigade until fall of 1862 - when he rose to division command - but because of his courageous and resolute leadership throughout the Peninsula Campaign, and his popularity among the troops, Hood's Texas Brigade would forever bear his name.
The small band would see some of the hardest fighting in Gen. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, taking part in nearly every major battle from the Peninsula Campaign to Appomattox, with the exception of Chancellorsville. They would gain a reputation as some of the best fighters in the army. In the Peninsula Campaign, summer of 1862, they saw their first battle at Eltham's Landing, where they held back a Union attempt to get around the army's flank. And at Gaines' Mill they made a famous charge, led by Hood in person, that broke through the Federal line. Those two actions were the Texans' first claim to fame.
Hood's Texans would go on to see action in the following battles and campaigns: Second Manassas; Fox's Gap at South Mountain; in the infamous Cornfield at Sharpsburg (Antietam); Fredericksburg; Siege of Suffolk; July 2 at Gettysburg on Houck's Ridge, in Devil's Den and up Little Round Top; Chickamauga in the Viniard Field; Chattanooga and Wauhatchie; the Knoxville Campaign; the Wilderness on May 6, including the famous "Lee to the rear" incident; Spotslyvania C.H.; North Anna; Cold Harbor; the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign; and finally Appomattox.
After Hood had risen to division command, Col. Jerome B. Robertson of the 5th Texas was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862. Robertson commanded the brigade until late 1863, after which Brig. Gen. John Gregg was given command. Gregg led the Texas Brigade throughout the Overland Campaign and on into the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, where he was later killed in the brigade's last charge of the war in the battle of Darbytown and New Market Roads on October 7, 1864.
Of the estimated 5,300 men who served in the three Texas and one Arkansas regiments throughout the war, only 617 remained to surrender at Appomattox. The 1st Texas surrendered with 16 officers and 133 enlisted men, the 4th Texas with 15 officers and 145 enlisted men, the 5th Texas with 12 officers and 149 enlisted men, and the 3rd Arkansas with 15 officers and 130 men. (Note that these numbers vary slightly according to different sources.)
References:
Simpson, Harold B., Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier Guard (Waco, Texas: Texian Press, 1970)
Williams, Edward B., Hood's Texas Brigade in the Civil War (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2012)
Bringing the