USA > Texas > A comprehensive history of Texas, 1685-1897 > Part 36
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
Johnston in his retreat would get into position and offer battle. Sherman would make a feint in front, while his flank would be on the move towards Johns- ton's rear with nothing to oppose it but Wheeler's cavalry. At Resaca the "Rangers" had a short and sharp fight. At Cassville they made a daring and successful charge. They were on Wheeler's left, dismounted and lying in the sunshine holding their horses, one company on picket. Suddenly the two regi- ments in front were thrown into disorder by the Federal cavalry charging into their midst and hammering them with their sabres. "To mount ! To mount !" sounded Polk's bugle ; "Charge !" and making the woods ring with, "If you want to smell hell jist jine the cavalry," the " Rangers" dashed to the rescue, the six-shooter again victorious. At New Hope Church and at Big Shanty they were dismounted, fighting as infantry and doing work with pickaxe and spade, building the breastworks which General Johnston thought so necessary. Napoleon said, " An army that remains behind intrenchments is beaten." At New Hope Church, at Altoona and Marietta, there was battle royal for hours, and again at Atlanta, where Johnston began at once to strengthen the defences. Early in July Johnston was removed and Hood placed in command. From Dalton to Atlanta Sherman had lost forty thousand men ; Johnston had not lost a regiment, nor a wagon, nor (his soldiers say) a wagon-pin in that most wonderful retreat of history. He had won the admiration of his own army and the very careful respect of William Tecumseh Sherman.
After the battle of Peachtree Creek, Hood, needing correct information of Sherman's movements, asked Wheeler for a careful, fearless, and trusted officer and a small force, and Captain A. M. Shannon and three men from each company of the " Rangers" were sent to him. Shannon's order was, " Reliable information at all hazards."
Captain Shannon divided his men into squads ; each squad had orders to rendezvous at certain points at given times for further instructions, their move- ments to be independent but sure. Woe to the Yankee house-burner, thief, and ravisher found in their path ! They watched for Sherman's torch from the highest points, and when they saw a column of smoke a signal was given, and like a small cyclone they rushed down upon the "bummers" before they could recover their arms or make resistance. But these miserable offscourings of the earth rarely re- sisted, oftener falling on their knees to beg for their coward lives. Mr. Claiborne gives this extract from the diary of a private in Company B : "August 9, 1864. Saw a large smoke about a half-mile to our left. Ten of us started to investigate. Found eighteen or twenty Yankees burning house and gin of Mr. K. Yankees looting, women and children trying to save anything they can, negroes dancing and singing. We moved upon them from two sides, and in a moment were among them, our six-shooters doing full duty. Killed nine, wounded seven, balance pris- oners. Gave horses and grub to the family. Whipped a few of the negroes and warned them, divided greenbacks, arms, and accoutrements, and moved out for the next little expedition at hand."
In July Sherman invested Atlanta, and sent Stoneman and McCook, with nine thousand cavalry, to tear up the railroad tracks around Macon and move on to Andersonville. The purpose of the raid was to capture Andersonville and release
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TERRELL-TERRY'S TEXAS RANGERS.
seventy thousand prisoners there and to turn them against Johnston's rear. Har- rison's and Ross's brigades under General W. H. Jackson met McCook at Newman, Georgia, and repulsed him, capturing two guns and a number of prisoners and leaving many killed and wounded. "On the whole," Sherman reports, "the cavalry raid is not deemed a success." Hood now sent Wheeler with his entire cavalry to raid on Sherman's line of communication. On the 3Ist of August, 1864, Hood telegraphed to Richmond that it was necessary to abandon Atlanta. Sher- man ordered the evacuation of the city, and the women and children were driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet. General Hood, protesting that this was " ungenerous and unprecedented cruelty," this modern Attila replied : "Talk this to the marines, not to me. War is cruelty." His orders in Tennessee had been to "treat Southern sympathizers as wild beasts," and well did his troops obey him. Wherever his horse trod he left the abomination of desolation beliind him.
Hood began his march in the rear of Sherman towards Tennessee, leaving only Wheeler's cavalry to annoy and delay the "march to the sea." The "Rangers" fought the Federal cavalry daily. At Aiken, South Carolina, they fought artil- lery. At Johnstown, Anderson Court-House, Wilmington, Ayresboro', Harris- boro', Buckingham House, and around Raleigh they had sharp skirmishes. On the Ioth of March, 1865, General Wade Hampton surprised General Kilpatrick at Monroe's plantation, that brilliant soldier barely escaping with his life, and leaving his Arabian charger and his octoroon lady-love in his sudden flight. The Confed- erates captured a large amount of stores and arms. General Tom Harrison and his chief of staff, Major W. B. Sayers, were wounded in this charge. From the fight with Kilpatrick to Bentonville, North Corolina, where the " Rangers" made their last charge, was a ten-days' battle. Cook and Jarmon, the last of the field officers, were wounded and sent to the rear. Colonel Cook had so often been wounded that the soldiers called him "their Yankee lead-mine." Captain Doc Matthews, of Company K, a youth of twenty-three, was now in command of the regiment, and Colonel Baxter Smith, of Tennessee, after a twenty-two months' im- prisonnient, was in charge of the brigade. In the Century Magazine of October, 1887, Captain W. R. Friend, a " Ranger" who was there, gives the following ac- count of this famous charge :--
" The writer, who for four months, during the trying and exciting march from Atlanta to Bentonville, had been absent by reason of wounds, joined the regiment on the 22d of March. The Confederate army was reported to be on the south side of Mill Creek. A high causeway, a quarter of a mile long. led through marshy and boggy ground to a bridge over the stream. I heard firing about a mile south of us. Soon this causeway was filled with a disordered mob of Confederate cavalry making good time finding the rear. From them it was learned that at least a corps of the enemy's infantry had attacked and driven them back, and while they were telling the tale the enemy gained the high bank of the opposite side of the creek and cut off the only line of retreat for Hardee's army. Just here firing was again heard on the south side, and knowing the ' Rangers' were there, the writer ventured to tread the dangerous path to share their fate and fortune. As he ascended the opposite hill, General Hardee and a few staff officers and couriers were on the right of the road. As the enemy approached Butler's cavalry, they retired so hastily
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
that General Hardee asked : 'Are there no troops, no men here to check this advance?' It was suggested that the 'Rangers' were in reserve, and Hardee ordered them up. When the head of the column approached, the veteran eye of the general scanning the juvenile face of Matthews indicated the belief that it the salvation of the army depended on him all was lost. But to his order, 'That this advance must be checked,' the quick, decisive reply of Matthews, 'We are the men to do it, general,' gave him hope. The order, 'Forward, Rangers ! Front into line !' was given by the captain. As the regiment passed the general, he and his sixteen-year-old son Willie, who had the day before enlisted in Company D, tipped their hats to each other. And, as gallantly as at the first charge at Wood- sonville, the ' Rangers' raised a yell and spurred at the long blue line of infantry regardless of disparity in numbers. The enemy, scarcely making a stand, fired a volley or two and retreated as if panic-stricken. Almost the first shot fired struck Willie Hardee, killing him instantly. The writer met the regiment as it reformed near General Hardce and General Johnston, who had joined him. A more gallant band never returned from victory. Black as Mexicans from exposure, pine-smoke, and the lack of soap, ragged and dirty, a bronze front they formed, one hundred and fifty of them, all that was left of two thousand. They had made their last charge, the last regular fight of Johnston's army."
Thirty days afterwards, at Greensboro', North Carolina, Johnston formally surrendered to Sherman, and all was over.
" All is gone,-
But the memory of those days ; of the ranks that met the blaze Of the sun adown the hill. Charge on charge, I see them still. All is gone, -- Yet I hear the echoing crash, see the sabres gleam and flash ; See the gallant, headlong dash .-- All is gone."
From their enlistment until the surrender the "Rangers" maintained them- selves at their own and the enemy's expense. 'True to themselves and their cause, they neither flinched nor faltered, but fought on until their flag was furled forever. They felt that the reputation of the heroes of the Alamo and San Jacinto, and later the fame of the border frays of that dashing ranger, Captain Jack Hays, rested upon them ; and with devotion and heroism, through victory and defeat, each man was counted worthy. No battle-song has been penned for them, no history written of their valor ; but not Travis nor Crockett, not Rusk nor the elder Whartons, offered their lives a more willing sacrifice to a cause they believed just.
The patience and silent heroism of that after-struggle with poverty and changed social conditions, under a military despotism that pales into insignificance the Russian occupation of Poland, -so-called " reconstruction,"-who can fitly portray it ? Some day, in a new generation, a new Carlyle, poet and historian, will tell the story to a listening world. Thrice happy the State that claims such sons, doing their duty nobly, whether in storm of battle or stress of life.
In December of each year the remnant of the old regiment meet to ride and raid, in the track of old armies, under the shadow of the Tennessee mountains, by whispering streams, under silent stars, growing young and dashing and heroic again as they thrill to the shock of old battles. God's blessing rest upon them, until that last bugle calls them to "fall in" with the shadowy line, two thousand strong, on the other side.
CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF GREEN'S BRIGADE.
BY J. H. McLEARY.
D URING the Civil War Texas sent many thousand gallant soldiers to the field of battle. Where all acquitted themselves with honor it is useless to make comparisons. Although the great battles of the war were fought east of the Mississippi River, it should not be forgotten that the post of duty is the post of honor, and that there is as much danger in contests between small armies as there is when the forces engaged are numbered by corps and divisions instead of by brigades and battalions. It shall not be my purpose to compare Valverde with Manassas or Mansfield with Chickamauga, but without detracting from the glory of others, simply to tell the tale of what Green's cavalry brigade did for the Con- federacy, from August, 1861, until May, 1865, during "the period of the war " according to the terms of their enlistment. Let their actions tell the bloody story.
Although there was much talk of secession during the Presidential canvass of 1860, and until the 4th of March, 1861, the day of Lincoln's inauguration, and despite the fact that by that time all of the Gulf States had actually seceded, very few people in Texas believed that there would really be any war. Even the echo of Sumter's gun, on the 12th of April, 1861, failed to convince our people that there would be anything more than a display of an armed force, and then they thought that the government at Washington would "bid the erring sisters depart in peace." However, companies were organized and drilling all over Texas, and when the news of the great battle of Minassas reached the State, these isolated companies rushed to their several rendezvous and rapidly organized into battalions, regiments, and brigades.
General H. H. Sibley, who had been a captain in the United States army, and had been stationed in the Territory of New Mexico, resigned his commission and tendered his services to the Confederacy. He was at once commissioned a briga- dier-general, and authorized to raise a brigade for the occupation of New Mexico. He had only to let it be known that he wanted men, and thirty companies were at once on the march to meet him at San Antonio. On the 27th day of August, 1861, a company, raised in Guadalupe and Caldwell Counties, and commanded by Cap- tain William P. Hardeman, was mustered into the service, and was classed as Com- pany A of the First Regiment of this brigade. The next day Captain John S. Shropshire from Colorado County enrolled his company as Company A of the Second Regiment of Sibley's brigade. Day after day new companies arrived and were mustered into the service of the Confederate States "for the period of the war, unless sooner discharged by the proper authorities," until on the 26th of
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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF TEXAS.
October thirty companies were organized into three regiments ; and these, with three sections of artillery armed with two mountain howitzers each, composed the brigade.
During these two months these regiments were being drilled and taught the duty of the soldier at camps of instruction on the Leon and Salado in the imme- diate vicinity of San Antonio. This education was much needed, although many of the companies had been organized for several months, and had been drilling in the vicinity of their homes, waiting to be called into active service. These regiments were all cavalry, or they might have been called mounted infantry. After the regi- mental officers had been appointed, the first regiment of the brigade was called the Fourth Texas Mounted Volunteers, the second regiment was called the Fifth Texas Mounted Volunteers, and the third regiment was called the Seventh Texas Mounted Volunteers. These designations were afterwards changed to the Texas Volunteer Cavalry instead of Texas Mounted Volunteers, the numbers remaining the same.
The brigade organization consisted of Brigadier-General H. H. Sibley ; Major A. M. Jackson, assistant adjutant-general ; Captain R. R. Brownrigg, quarter- master ; Captain Griffin, commissary ; Dr. Covey, brigade surgeon ; Major W. L. Robards, aide-de-camp ; Thomas P. Ochiltree and Joseph E. Dwyer, volunteer aides.
The Fourth Texas Cavalry had the following regimental officers : colonel, James Reiley ; lieu- tenant-colonel, William R. Scurry ; major, H. W. Raguet ; quartermaster, H. E. Loebnits ; commis- sary, Captain Nobles; adjutant-general, - Reiley ; surgeon, Dr. William Southworth ; assistant sur- geons, Drs. J. W. Matchett and - Taylor.
The Fifth Texas Cavalry was commanded by Colonel Thomas Green, and had the following field and staff officers : lieutenant-colonel, Harry C. McNeill ; major, Samuel A. Lockridge ; quarter- GENERAL WILLIAM STEELE. master, Captain M. B. Wyatt ; commissary, Captain Joseph Beck ; adjutant, Lieutenant Joseph D. Sayers; surgeon, Dr. F. Bracht ; assistant surgeons, Drs. J. M. Bronaugh and J. R. McPhail.
The Seventh Texas Cavalry had the following officers : colonel, William Steele ; lieutenant-colonel, J. S. Sutton ; major, A. P. Bagby ; quartermaster, Captain Ogden ; commissary, Captain Lee ; adjutant, Thomas Howard ; surgeon. Dr. George Cupples ; assistant surgeons, Drs. Hunter and Greenwood. The Rev. Messrs. 1 .. Il Jones and William J. Joyce were chaplains in the brigade, and were quite as ready to handle the musket or the pistol as the Bible or the hymn-book. The names of the thirty captains commanding the companies in the brigade are not here given, but the most distinguished will be mentioned in connection with the marches and battles in which this command was engaged.
This sketch will necessarily be more or less imperfect from the fact that in their numerous battles, marches, and other casualties of war the records of this brigade were almost entirely destroyed.
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McLEARY-HISTORY OF GREEN'S BRIGADE.
The long and tiresome march from San Antonio, Texas, to Fort Fillmore, New Mexico, a distance of more than a thousand miles, showed the eagerness and deter- mination of the volunteers to meet the enemies of Texas on their own ground, and thus prevent an invasion of the Lone Star State. The brigade marched in detach- ments,-these being separated from each other by a few days' travel in order to secure water and grass for the horses and mules, and for convenience in camping. The first detachment of the Fourth Texas Cavalry started for El Paso on the 23d of October, 1861, and the first detachment of the Fifth left San Antonio for the same destination on the 10th of November. The march, after the brigade had proceeded a little beyond the frontier settlements of Castroville and Uvalde, lay through an unbroken wilderness, watered at long intervals by clear streams, water-holes, lakes, mountain springs, and sparsely timbered, more or less undulating, and in sections mountainous. It is needless to detail the hardships of this long journey, for, al- though to the troops they seemed at the time very great, the perils and 'pains of scouts and battles afterwards endured so far eclipsed the privations of marching and starvation as to make them appear trivial.
The command reached the upper Rio Grande on Christmas night, after a wearisome march. During all this time there was no rain, and no forage for the horses, reliance being had exclusively on the prairie grass, which the animals could crop around the camp at nights and mornings. Having reached the river near old Fort Quitman, the companies moved on up the Rio Grande, and in a week covered the eighty miles of valley and reached Fort Bliss on New Year's day, 1862.
All of Green's regiment having arrived at Franklin, they rested there several -
days, and then proceeded in detachments farther up the river. .
While the brigade was proceeding by detachments to the general rendezvous at Fort Thorn, they were considerably annoyed by the forays of hostile Indians, attacking small squads and especially isolated wagons or herds of horses, instigated purely by love of plunder and not from any desire to take part in the Civil War. During the month of January the Fourth and Fifth Regiments and six companies of the Seventh reached Fort Thorn, where General Sibley had established his head- quarters, and reconnoitring parties were sent out in the direction of Fort Craig, where it was evident that the Federal forces would make a stand.
In the mean time, for several months, Colonel John R. Baylor had been occu- pying the lower portion of the Territory, and had captured several posts and a large number of prisoners, with considerable quantities of supplies, which were of great use to General Sibley and his brigade.
The forces under Colonel Baylor were now united with Sibley's brigade, and the whole command under General Sibley was designated by the somewhat high- sounding title of the " Army of New Mexico." On the 14th of February the entire available Confederate force was united on the right bank of the Rio Grande, about ten miles below Fort Craig. Major Lockridge, with about six hundred men, moved up to within a mile and a half to reconnoitre, but did not succeed in drawing the Federals out of the fort. On his return to camp he captured a scouting party com- posed of twenty-one Mexican soldiers. These men were on the following Sunday released on parole.
On the 16th of February, 1862, the brigade drew up in line of battle on the
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right side of the Rio Grande, near Fort Craig, and in the afternoon a sharp skirmish ensued, in which one man was wounded on the Confederate side, the Union loss being unknown. W. C. Burton, of Company F, of the Fifth Texas Cavalry, was the wounded man in this the first engagement of the brigade. Three days were spent in manœuvring, and on the 19th the Confederates crossed the river to the east side and camped near the stream. Here they cooked three days' rations and slept on their arms. The next day they passed Fort Craig, in full view of it from the hills, on the left bank of the Rio Grande. Another skirmish ensued, without any loss on either side as far as is known. The country over which the troops marched was a trackless desert of sand, yet they kept toiling on hour after hour during the night through the ravines and over the hills, resting but a short time, and daylight found them on the crest of the ridge two miles from the river, overlooking a green valley with a mesa lying to the southwest between the Confederates and the fort. The men and their horses were much jaded and nearly famished for want of water ; but between them and the river lay a large Federal force, and it was plainly evident to all the Texans that if they drank water that day they would first have to fight for it. At nine o'clock the battle began. The Texans opened fire with their light batteries of artillery.
General Sibley, being quite unwell, remained in the rear, and intrusted the command of the Texans on the field to Colonel Thomas Green, of the Fifth Cavalry. His force consisted of the Fourth and Fifth and five companies of the Seventh Regiment of Texas Cavalry, Pyron's battalion of mounted men, and Teel's, Ful- crod's, and Riely's batteries, numbering, all told, not exceeding two thousand men. The artillery were six-pounder mountain howitzers and numbered about ten pieces. The cavalry were armed with shot-guns and pistols, except two companies, B and G, of the Fifth Regiment, and G of the Fourth Regiment, who were supplied with lances. The Union forces under General Canby consisted of fifteen hundred regular infantry and a battery of artillery, all well armed and equipped ; also of a regiment of volunteers from the Territory of New Mexico under the famous Colonel Kit Carson and other leaders. Altogether the Federals numbered about seven thousand effective men. To the advantage of superior numbers General Canby added that of a choice position, having his men posted along the river-bank and in the thick grove of large cottonwood-trees which covered the ground near the stream. Pyron brought on the engagement and was hard pressed by heavy forces, but held his ground until reinforced by the remaining Texans, who arrived on the field before ten o'clock. All the Texas cavalry were then dismounted except four companies of the Fourth, under Major Raguet, and the squadron of laneers from the Fifth, led by Captain Lang. The dismounted men were posted by Colonel Green in a dry slough or depression about eight hundred yards from the Federal lines. Here they remained for hours under a heavy fire of artillery. The men busied themselves in digging with their bowie-knives shallow trenches for protection and in watching the bursting shells, which for the most part went clear over them and fell among the horses some distance away, causing them to be several times removed farther from the scene of action. The Fifth Regiment was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel H. C. McNeill, who caused shallow wells to be dug in the rear of his lines to supply the men with drinking-water. The Fourth Regiment was under the leadership of
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McLEARY-HISTORY OF GREEN'S BRIGADE.
Lieutenant-Colonel William R. Scurry, who bore himself with great gallantry throughout the action. The Seventh Regiment was commanded by Lieutenant- Colonel J. S. Sutton, who was killed while leading his battalion in the charge. The Federals, first moving against the right wing of the Texans, were repulsed and retired on their artillery. Then large bodies of Federal cavalry appeared, pressing both wings. Green ordered Lang to charge with his lancers on the right and Raguet with his battalion on the left. The object of this was to divert attention from the centre, where a charge was ordered along the whole line. Raguet and Lang, while gallantly leading their men against overwhelming numbers, were both killed, and lost many of their men in killed and wounded. Lockridge led the charge of the Fifth and Scurry of the Fourth, comprising altogether fourteen com- panies. The men charged in line of battle, and ran for eight hundred yards in the face of a deadly fire of artillery and musketry before reaching the battery and the line of infantry posted to support it. The order to the Texans was : "Save your shot-guns until near enough to make their fire effective." Many reserved their fire until they were at the wheels of the cannon, and there was a hand-to-hand fight over these six-pound field-pieces. Major Lockridge fell dead about ten paces from the cannon's mouth, and the captain of the Federal battery, the gallant McRae, fell dead by his guns. Nearly every man of this artillery company was killed, wounded, or captured. Their defence was hardly less heroic than the charge of the vietors. A charge of the Federal cavalry made a gallant effort to recapture the guns, but was repulsed, and only succeeded to some extent in covering the retreat of the infantry, many of whom perished in crossing the river. The retreat of the Federals was almost a rout, and had it been closely followed up the fort might have been captured. But Fort Craig was seven miles away, and the Union commander sent in a flag of truce asking leave to bury his dead, and in the mean time night came on and closed the carnage.
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