dc.description.abstract | Hood's Texas Brigade was formally organized near Dumfries, Virginia, about November 1, 1861. It was originally comprised of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas volunteer infantry regiments. These regiments consisted of thirty-two companies raised during 1861 and 1862 in twenty-seven Texas counties. At various times during the war three other infantry regiments were assigned to Hood's Texas Brigade. The Eighteenth Georgia Infantry was assigned to the Brigade from December, 1861, to November, 18621 the eight infantry companies of Hampton's South Carolina Legion were assigned from .June, 1862, to November, 1862; and the Third Arkansas Infantry was assigned to the Texas Brigade in November, 1862, and fought with it until Appomattox. General Louis Trezavant Wigfall was the first commander of the Texans in Virginia. Wigfall, more of a politician than a soldier, left the Brigade in February, 1862, to assume a seat in the Confederate Congress as a senator from Texas. John Bell Hood replaced Wigfall as commander. He was the most outstanding and admired of the several Brigade commanders. Hood's rapid promotion to major-general limited his tenure as leader of the Brigade to less than six months. However, his character and pugnacity so impressed the men that the unit bore his name throughout the war regardless of subsequent commanders. Succeeding Hood as brigade commander were Colonel W. T. Wofford, Generals Jerome B. Robertson and John Gregg, Lieutenant-Colonel C. M. Winkler, and Colonels F. S. Bass and Robert M. Powell. Hood's Texas Brigade participated in thirty-eight engagements. It first saw action along the Potomac line in the fall of 1861, and fired its last shot near Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The Brigade played a major role in six of the greatest battles of the war-- Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862; Second Manassas, August 29-30, 1862; Antietam, September 16-17, 1862; Gettysburg, July 1-3, 1863; Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863; and the Wilderness, April 5-6, 1864. It is estimated that 3,884 men enlisted in the three Texas regiments during the war. Of this number only 427, about 11 percent, were left to be paroled at Appomattox. Bullets and disease had killed hundreds; hundreds more had been invalided home from crippling wounds and prolonged sickness-- only a few had deserted. The soldiers of Hood's Texas Brigade, whether acting in the capacity of scouts, sharpshooters, skirmishers, or line of battle fighters, had few, if any, equals in the annals of American fighting men from Bunker Hill to the battle of the Bulge. Hood's Texas Brigade stood among the first of the brigades, in the Confederate army for sustained action and combat losses. General Lee said, "I rely on the Texans in all tight places." | |