USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 20
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In the counties of Austin, Fayette, and Colorado there was much opposition manifested among the Germans to the enforcement of the conscript law ; but this does not seem to have been prompted by any devoted attacliment to the American Union, but to have been a decided indisposition to serve in the Confederate or any other army. They were mostly small farmers, and they were decidedly opposed to leaving their families and farms for any considerable length of time ; and their views and sentiments are expressed in a communication to William G. Webb, Brig- adier-General, Second Brigade Texas State Troops, signed by several German citi- zens of Fayette County, dated January 4, 1863, as follows :-
"At a public meeting held by the citizens in Beigel Settlement, Fayette County, Texas, on January 4, 1863, the following declaration was adopted as an expression of the sentiments of said meeting :-
"The measures taken by the government to protect this State against invasion are so far-reaching and serious in their consequences that they fill our minds with dread and apprehension.
"The past has already taught us how regardlessly the government and the county authorities have treated the families of those who have taken the field. We have been told that they would be cared for, and what, up to this time, has been done? They were furnished with small sums of paper money, which is almost worthless, and which has been refused by men for whose sake this war and its calamities were originated.
"Last year we made tolerably good crops ; the prospect for the next is not very encouraging, and we cannot look forward with indifference upon starvation, which we apprehend for our wives and children. Although it has been said that we will not be needed for more than three months, the time for planting will then be over and our children may go begging, for the small pay which we are to receive for our services is insufficient to purchase bread for our families. We and our families are almost destitute of clothing, and have no means for getting enough to protect us, even imperfectly, against the cold, from which cause sickness and epidemics result, as has been experienced in the army, where more men have fallen victims of disease than by the sword of the enemy.
"Last autumn we applied to procure eloth from the penitentiary, but up to this time we have not been able to obtain any, whereas negro-hoklers, whom we could name, can get such things and fetch them home. For these reasons we sym- pathize with all the unfortunate who have to provide for their own maintenance, and hope that our authorities will look upon us as men and not as chattels. With what spirit and what courage can we so fight, and that, moreover, for principles so far removed from us ?
" Besides the duty of defending one's country, there is a higher and more sacred one,-the duty of maintaining the families. What benefit is there in pre- serving the country while the families and inhabitants of the same, nay, even in the army, are bound to perish in misery and starvation ?
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MILITARY EVENTS AND OPERATIONS IN TEXAS.
"In view of the foregoing, we take the liberty hereby jointly to declare that unless the army, and we, obtain a guarantee that our families will be protected, not only against misery and starvation, but also against vexations from itinerant bands, we shall not be able to answer the call, and the consequences must be attributed to those who caused them.
" Furthermore, we decline taking the army oath (as prescribed) to the Con- federate States, as we know of no law which compels Texas troops, who are designed for this State, to take the same."
In other portions of the State the spirit of disloyalty to the Southern cause took even a bolder turn. In Medina County a committee of German citizens who were loyal to the Confederate States appealed to the military authorities for protec- tion against the aggressiveness of the Unionists. This committee, consisting of Frank Reicherger, Charles de Montel, Thomas P. Wycale, and G. S. Haas, repre- sented that a majority of the citizens of that county were disaffected towards the government of the Confederate States ; that most, if not all, of the county officers elected in August, 1863, were of conscript age, known to be disloyal, and in no way qualified for the offices to which they were elected ; while their opponents were men of tried loyalty, above the conscript age, and known to be well qualified for the respective offices for which they offered ; that the result of the election was that every secession candidate was defeated by a majority of five to one, while men just released from prison, where they had been incarcerated on charges of disloyalty, were triumphantly elected.
They further represented that the sum of thirteen hundred dollars, which had been appropriated by the legislature for the support of families who were dependent on soldiers in the army, was distributed by the Commissioners' Court to the families of deserters and traitors, while the indigent families of soldiers of known loyalty who had been secessionists from the beginning of the war did not receive any part of it. They invoke the protection of the military, inasmuch as the civil authori- ties cannot and will not protect them ; and ask that the local authorities be pre- vented from further injuring loyal citizens and their families, and from rewarding treason and disloyalty.
The rigid enforcement of the conscript law caused many appeals to the courts to test its validity, but it was held by the Supreme Court not to be unconstitutional, in opinions delivered by Chief Justice Royall T. Wheeler and Associate Justice George F. Moore, but in which Associate Justice Jaines H. Bell dissented.
In 1863, Dr. R. R. Peebles, D. J. Baldwin, and - Zinke were arrested on the charges of treason and plotting to release the Union prisoners confined at Hempstead, and, on application to the Supreme Court for discharge under the writ of habeas corpus, they were released.
A number of Mexicans, residents of Zapata County, refused to bear allegiance to the Confederacy, and openly declared their intention of supporting no govern- ment except the United States, and, rather than take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate States, retired into Mexico. In October, 1862, they made a raid into Texas near Carizo, and drove off 'a large number of stock, but were intercepted in their raid by Captain Mat Nolan, of the Second Regiment Mounted Rifles, and a number of them killed.
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
In May, 1864, Captain William B. Pace, commanding the local company of State troops at Lampasas, reported that a short time previously William E. Willis and Gideon Willis came into that country from Mexico, for the purpose, as they stated, of recruiting for the Union army, and were reported to have enlisted a com- pany of about one hundred men. They passcd over the country in small parties, threatening the destruction of the property of all secessionists, and for a time caused almost a reign of terror among those peaceful hamlets ; but the appearance of Licu- tenant-Colonel Jackson, with several companies of State troops, in the community, had the effect of allaying the apprehensions of the inhabitants and causing the Willises and their comrades to keep quiet.
In Wise and Denton Counties there was a very strong Union sentiment, and many deserters from the Confederate army congregated there in such large numbers that in the early part of the year 1864 grave fears were entertained that an insurrection would occur. For a time there was intense excitement for fear that those citizens who were supporting the Southern cause would be murdered and robbed by a gang of outlaws commanded by a noted character named Fox, associated with the hostile Indians on the frontier. The people appealed to the military authorities for pro- tection, and Colonel James Bourland sent a detachment from his regiment under Lieutenant Hamilton to investigate the state of affairs, and to arrest deserters and conscripts. He found that a large body of men who were defying the authorities were encamped in a thicket some twelve miles southeast from the town of Denton, in Elm Creek bottom, and had been engaged in stealing supplies of every descrip- tion from the citizens living in the neighborhood, and had "pressed," as they called it, shot-guns and six-shooters, by going into the houses of citizens and taking them without leave, and had taken horses from citizens on the highways.
One William Parnell, a former resident of Denton County, who had gone to the North and joined the Union army at the outbreak of the war, returned in the latter part of the year 1863, and was at the head of this disaffected element, about one hundred and fifty strong, and publicly proclaimed his intention of lending them through to the North as soon as the grass would do to travel on. These men re- ceived information of the preparations being made by Colonel Bourland to attack them, and left the country, going in a westerly direction to join another party com- posed principally of deserters and conscripts who had assembled on the Concho, and thence made their way to New Mexico.
The sentiment of dissatisfaction and disloyalty to the Southern cause seems to have pervaded different commands of the State troops to a considerable extent. One J. M. Luckey, captain of the State troops in Parker County, was arrested and sent to Houston in May, 1864, charged with attempting to incite the soldiers to desert.
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CHAPTER II.
THE SERVICE OF TEXAN TROOPS IN THE ARMIES OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.
T HE number of troops furnished by the State of Texas to the Confederate army is a matter of great surprise when the smallness of the entire popu- lation is taken into consideration. By the census of 1860 the State had a population of six hundred and four thousand two hundred and fifteen, which at the usual ratio would give the State a population above the age of twenty-one years of about one hundred and twenty thousand, and to say that seventy-five per cent. of this number were in the army would not be an unreasonable statement. The State furnished forty-five regiments of cavalry, twenty-three regiments of infantry, twelve battalions of cavalry, four battalions of infantry, one regiment of heavy artillery, and thirty batteries of light artillery to the Confederate army, which passed beyond the control of the State authorities ; and besides these, the State maintained at its own expense five regiments and four battalions of cavalry and four regiments and one battalion of infantry. The usual allotment of one thousand men to each regiment, five hundred to each battalion, and one hundred to each battery of light artillery, would give a total of eighty-nine thousand five hundred soldiers furnished out of an adult population of one hundred and twenty thousand. It would thus seem that Texas was, indeed, a nation of soldiers.
The following list only includes those organizations which were mustered into the Confederate army. Besides these there were five regiments and four battalions of cavalry and four regiments and one battalion of infantry maintained by the State at its own expense, bat as these did service in the State exclusively, and were not engaged in any active campaigns, their history would be a dull detail of dreary camp life, and is therefore omitted.
Besides the troops furnished the Confederate army by Texas, the Union senti- ment in the State was so intense that many left their homes and joined the Union army. One full regiment and another partially recruited, with two or three inde- pendent companies, are all the regularly organized commands of Texans that were in the Union army ; but it is believed that half as many more left the State and joined organized commands from other States. The most conservative estimates place the whole number of Texans who served in the Union army at two thousand.
LIST OF ORGANIZATIONS OF TEXAS TROOPS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY.
First Lancers. (See Twenty-first Cavalry Regiment. )
First ( Speight's) Infantry Battalion. (Merged into Fifteenth Regiment. ) --- Lieutenant-colonel, J. W. Speight ; major, James E. Harrison.
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
First Battalion, Sharp-shooters .- Major, James Burnet ; Company A, captain, B. D. Martin ; Company B, captain, - Bridges ; Company C, captain, Wirt Smith ; Company D, captain, J. M. Hurt ; Company E, captain, Jesse Kuyken- dall.
This command was raised in Grayson and adjoining counties early in 1862, saw some hard service, and did some effective fighting in Louisiana, around Baton Rouge, and in Mississippi at Jackson, Raymond, and other places, under General J. E. Johnston.
First Texas Rangers. (See Eighth Texas Cavalry, or Terry's Rangers. )
First Cavalry Regiment, Arizona Brigade .- Colonel, William P. Hardeman ; lieutenant-colonel ; colonel, Peter Hardeman ; major, Michael Looscan ; lieutenant- colonel, Edward Riordan ; major, Alexander W. Terrell. (See history of Green's brigade. )
First Indian Texas Regiment. (See Twenty-second Texas Cavalry. )
First Regiment Partisan Rangers .- Colonel, Walter P. Lane ; lieutenant- colonel, R. P. Crump ; major, A. D. Burns.
This regiment took a conspicuous part in repulsing General Banks's Red River expedition in the spring of 1864.
First Cavalry Battalion. (Merged into Thirty-second Cavalry. )-Major ; lieutenant-colonel, R. P. Crump.
First Cavalry Battalion, Arizona Brigade. ( Also called Fourth Battalion. )- Major ; lieutenant-colonel, A. H. Davidson ; major, Michael Looscan.
Served in New Mexico, Arizona, and Louisiana.
The First Regiment Heavy Artillery was raised during the summer and fall of 1861 for the purposes of coast defence. Its field officers were : colonel, Joseph J. Cook ; lieutenant-colonel, John H. Manley ; major, Edward Von Harten.
Colonel Cook being a graduate of the United States Naval Academy at An- napolis, and having served several years in the navy, gave to his regiment the full benefit of his knowledge, skill, and experience, and the command soon rose to the highest degree of proficiency. Several companies of this regiment manned the siege-guns on Galveston Island, and the other companies were stationed at different points along the coast between Sabine Pass and Velasco, where they frequently tried the mnettle of their guns on the blockading flect. A portion of the regiment, commanded by Colonel Cook in person, took a prominent and creditable part in the recapture of the city of Galveston, January 1, 1863, for which they received the highest commendations by General Magruder in general orders.
Company F of this regiment, of which F. H. Odlum was captain, was stationed at Sabine Pass, and on the Sth of September, 1863, during the temporary absence of Captain Odlum, General Franklin, of the Union army, attacked the place with a large fleet, with the intention of landing his corps of fifteen thousand men for the invasion of Texas. The company was at the time commanded by First Lieutenant Dick Dowling, who drove back the invaders, captured two gunboats and three hundred and fifty prisoners, which, having been accomplished with only forty-two men, has passed into history as one of the most wonderful achievements of the Civil War. For the details of this brilliant affair the reader is referred to the account given of it under the head of Military Operations in Texas, in a former chapter.
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TEXAN TROOPS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY.
The regiment served with constancy and unflinching devotion to duty to the end of hostilities, and only surrendered its guns when the great conflict ended.
First Regiment Texas Mounted Riflemen .- Among the first, if not the first, military commission issued by Jefferson Davis as President of the Confederate States was one issued by him to Ben McCulloch, a distinguished citizen of Texas, authorizing him to raise and command a regiment of mounted riflemen for twelve months' enlistment for the protection of the Texas frontier. This commission was transmitted to Ben McCulloch by Mr. Davis without consultation and with authority, if he did not accept it, to transfer it to whoever he might select, with the assurance that his selection would meet the approval of the War Department. As Henry E. McCulloch had, by the authority of the secession convention, just captured the United States military stores at Camp Colorado, Fort Chadbourne, Camp Cooper, and Fort Belknap, had taken possession of these posts in the name of the State of Texas, and had volunteers then stationed at these places defending the frontier of Texas, Ben McCulloch transferred this commission to him, with the request that he accept it and raise and command the regiment. This he did, at once authorizing each of the following-named gentlemen to raise a com- pany for the regiment, viz. : William G. Tobin, of Bexar County ; Governeur H. Nelson, of Bexar County ; William A. Pitts, of Travis County ; Travis H. Ashby, of Gonzales County ; Green Davidson, of Bell County ; Thomas C. Frost, of Comanche County ; James B. Barry, of Bosque County ; Mil- ton M. Boggess, of Rusk County ; Sam Richardson, GENERAL HENRY E. MCCULLOCH. of Harrison County ; James H. Fry, of Burleson County. Messrs. Tobin, Nelson, Fry, Pitts, Boggess, and Richardson were instructed to report at San Antonio with their respective companies by the 15th of April, while Messrs. Frost, Davidson, and Barry were ordered to report at Camp Colorado, Fort Chadbourne, and Camp Cooper, where they were already on duty by authority of the secession convention. All of these gentlemen raised and organized their companies and reported promptly except Mr. Richardson, who failed, and a company raised in Lamar County, com- manded by Captain Milton Webb, was accepted in his stead. The regiment being thus organized, Colonel McCulloch not having been furnished any money to equip and maintain it, and being the first and only military officer in Texas at that time, proceeded at once to organize the Military Department of Texas, with Major Mack- lin chief commissary, Major Joseph F. Minter chief quartermaster and ordnance officer, and Captain W. T. Meckling assistant adjutant-general. with head-quarters at San Antonio. He also appointed Captain Wash. L. Hill, of Travis County, quartermaster of this regiment ; Major John R. King, of Wilson County, commis- sary ; William O. Yeager, of Guadalupe County, adjutant ; and Dr. Henry P. Howard, of Bexar County, surgeon and temporary medical purveyor of the post of San Antonio. Colonel McCulloch then prevailed upon Governor Edward Clark and the military commission, composed of Hon. Samuel A. Maverick, Dr. Philip
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
N. Luckett, and Hon. Thomas J. Devine, who had been appointed by the conven- tion to receive the military stores at San Antonio when captured by Colonel Ben McCulloch, to turn them over to him as the only representative of the Confederate States in Texas. This gave him the means not only to equip and maintain his own regiment, but also such other Confederate troops as might be enrolled and organized in the State. These proceedings were duly reported to and approved by the War Department of the Confederate States, and Colonel Earl Van Dorn was sent to relieve Colonel McCulloch of the command of the Department of Texas. As soon as the companies were mustered in, Colonel McCulloch ordered an elec- tion for field officers of the regiment, and, although he had been appointed colonel and was then acting under the appointment, he was unwilling to command volun- teers without their consent, so he submitted his name to them for their approval. Although he had some opposition, he was elected colonel of the regiment by a handsome majority, and Captain Thomas C. Frost was elected lieutenant-colonel and Edward Burleson major. Before the term of service expired Major Burleson resigned, and Captain James B. Barry was elected major. The regiment occupied all the old United States posts on the northwestern frontier, and other strategical points from the mouth of the Big Wichita on Red River to Fort McKavitt. The services rendered by this regiment during its organization were of inestimable value in protecting the settlers on the frontier against Indian raids, and with unflinching gallantry they held back the horde of ruthless savages who sought to take ad- vantage of the absence of so many men in the army to plunder the settlements and murder or carry into barbarous captivity the helpless women and children. Many were the fierce encounters with these savage tribes of which no record was kept, and for long years many traditions prevailed on the border of the daring courage of many men of this regiment in such conflicts. Among them may be mentioned the running fight on Pease River between a detachment of this regiment under Major Barry and a party of Indians, in which many of the latter were killed. Another bloody affair was the attack by fifteen men of Company A, under Sergeant W. Barrett, upon a camp of Lipan Indians, October 15, 1861, near Fort Inge, in which ten Indians were killed and several wounded, with a loss on the part of the Texans of three killed and one wounded. Upon the expiration of its term of ser- vice six companies of the regiment disbanded and joined other regiments in different fields of action, and the other four were organized into a battalion, of which Dr. Joseph Taylor was elected major, and it was called the Eighth Texas Cavalry Bat- talion. Robert A. Myers afterwards became major of this battalion, and it, with William O. Yager's battalion of six companies, was merged into Colonel Buchel's regiment, which took the name of the First Texas Cavalry Regiment, made vacant by the expiration of the First Regiment of Mounted Rifles. At the expiration of the term of service of this regiment it was succeeded in frontier defence by the "Frontier Regiment," commanded successively by Colonels James M. Norris and W. E. McCord, which was subsequently designated as the Fourth Texas Cavalry Regiment.
First Texas Cavalry Regiment ( Buchel's) .-- This regiment was organized in 1862 by the consolidation of Taylor's Eighth Battalion and Yager's Third Bat talion. The former was the remnant of McCulloch's First Regiment of Mounted
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TEXAN TROOPS IN THE CONFEDERATE ARMY.
Rifles, and was formed at the time of the expiration of the enlistment of McCul- loch's regiment. The following were the field officers of the First Texas Cavalry at its organization : colonel, Augustus Buchel (promoted from lieutenant-colonel of Third Infantry Regiment ) ; lieutenant-colonel, William O. Yager ; major, Robert A. Myers.
Until the spring of 1864 this regiment served in the State entirely, doing gar- rison and picket duty at different points along the coast. Portions of the regiment engaged in some unimportant skirmishes with the Union troops on Matagorda and other islands at the time of the attempted invasion of the State by General Banks. When the Union army under Major-General Banks started on the celebrated Red River expedition this regiment was among those which marched from Texas to reinforce the Confederate army which was opposing him in Louisiana. It arrived at Mansfield on April 5, 1864, just in time to take a prominent part in that bloody battle, in which its gallant conduct largely contributed to the Confederate victory and won unfading laurels. Its losses in that engagement and in the battle of Pleasant Hill the next day were heavy, including among the killed its brave colonel, whose conspicuous gallantry attracted the attention and favorable notice of the com- manding general. Colonel Buchel was a German by birth, and received his mili- tary education and training in the Prussian army, and the high degree of efficiency to which he brought his regiment was largely attributable to this cause. Since the close of the war the State of Texas has honored his memory by naming a county for him. The regiment also participated in the subsequent engagements at Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, and maintained the high reputation which it had won at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill.
The Second Texas Infantry."-In the early summer of 1861, Captain John C. Moore, of the regular Confederate army, who was in command of the defences at Galveston, upon the recommendation of General Earl Van Dorn, who was then commanding in Texas, received authority from the Confederate War Department to organize a regiment of infantry for service in the war between the States which was then believed to be impending. As soon as this was known steps were at once taken to raise troops.
During the months of July and August, 1861, several companies of this regi- ment were mustered into service, and the organization was completed by the enrol- ment of the others during the first week in September. The completion of the regiment was then reported to the War Department, and it was accepted as the First Texas Infantry Regiment, and the commission then issued to Colonel Moore by President Davis so designated it. But a few days afterwards intelligence was received that the number of the regiment had been changed to the Second ; the explanation given being that several independent companies from Texas having reached Virginia had been organized into first a battalion and then a regiment, of which Senator Wigfall was made colonel, and claimed the right to be called the First Texas. This was thought at the time to be the result of political influences at the Confederate capital, but it was acquiesced in, and the name of the Second Texas
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