- Joined
- Oct 17, 2012
- Location
- Middle Tennessee
Last edited:
View attachment 131993
Hood's Texans by Mark Maritato
Started with 5,300 and ended up with 617. My word!!!
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 fallowing 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 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)
This thread is intended to serve as the location for general regimental history, photographs, stories, articles and any other relevant information about Hood's Texas Brigade in the Regimental Histories Forum. Please do not start new threads - just add your content about the brigade and its regiments under this existing thread so others can easily find it. Thank you so much for contributing information for this brigade.
View attachment 187624 Alex G. Beaumont, Soule 1863 , Company I, "Texas Aides", 5th Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Hood's Texas Brigade, enlisting September 7, 1861. Discharged September 25, 1862 due to tuberculosis.Initiated in Phi Gamma Delta after his discharge.
This is pretty Cool! Do you have any info on the 3 I am Looking up? Boyd, Cotton & Hoffler?
Captain Rich W Cotton 1st Texas Co. II didn't see your request before. Get me their full names and I'll see what I can do.
I had experiences like this too, it's like they call to you to find them.Seems like a good place to post this. I was in Galveston today on business. When I drove by the old cemetery on Broadway,the flowers were in bloom there and I couldn't resist a quick stop. Walked up on this looking for another gravesite. Didn't know it was there beforehand. Only had my cellphone camera and had to crop the pic a bit but it made my day.
View attachment 186511
This is pretty Cool! Do you have any info on the 3 I am Looking up? Boyd, Cotton & Hoffler?
This is awesome!!!! Thank you for spending some time digging it up for me!Here's Captain Cotton.
We had Jim Ogden for a guide for 3 days during our Hood's Texas Brigade Associated Re-activated 2016 tour of Chattanooga/Chickamauga. Part of the Brigade participated in the Battle of Wauhatchie. We started where the Catoosa Platform was and ended at Tunnel Hill where Hood stayed one night before being evacuated to Richmond.
Those may be from the 3rd Confederate (Marmaduke's 18th Arkansas)Much appreciated that post. I snapped this picture at the Chattanooga Confederate Cemetery in June but,so far I've found no record of the 2 soldiers from the 3rd ARK that are named on it.
View attachment 119089
Trying to locate copies of Simpson's book on the Texas Brigade (for less than $60-200) is quite difficult, but I'm still trying. The usual places (eBay, AbeBooks, etc.) have copies, but they're all a bit too much to pay for me. A pity they can't receive a reprint. Did Landmark Publishing Inc. go out of business, or is there a way to contact them?
If I could only get one, it would be Lee's Grenadier Guard, the main history of the brigade. No luck so far, but that's all right.Simpson has written several books on the brigade. Which one are you interested in getting?