Between the Enemy and Texas: Parsons's Texas Cavalry in the Civil War

Epilogue

Epilogue ~ he war was not won or lost in the Trans-Mississippi, but the region 's importance should not be ignored. Fighting west of the Mississippi was different from the other theaters, but the men who served on the "other side" of the river shared a common heritage with other Confederate soldiers: they were typical Southerners who fought with a reckless bravery that again and again impressed their Yankee opponents. Southerners were emotional-often quick to anger and always anxious to fight. These hardheaded and individualistic men had learned to ride and shoot at an early age and understood a culture that respected and honored the martial skills. The traditions of the Old South that shaped their values, habits, and manners also determined their strengths and weaknesses as soldiers. Early in the war Southerners gained a reputation for their aggressive charges coupled with the characteristic rebel yell. The peculiar scream used by the Texans sent fear through Union cavalrymen and caused the Yankees to dub Parsons's men the "Hell Yelpers." 1 From the first successful battle at Searcy, Arkansas, until the last disastrous charge at Yellow Bayou, Louisiana, the Texans almost always charged-usually on horseback but sometimes on foot-even when a frontal assault proved suicidal; as Grady McWhiney has pointed out, this devotion to the charge indicates that Southerners "valued tradition more than success. "2 Southerners particularly treasured their independence. Texans had a tendency to disregard orders they disagreed with, and Richard Taylor observed that discipline among the Texas cavalrymen was "shining by its utter absence."3 There are numerous instances where the men who belonged to Parsons's brigade refused to allow military regulations to interfere with their liberties; as Buck Walton of the Twenty-first Texas explained , the Texans "were free men" who only happened to be soldiers.4 Many of the nonprofessional citizen-soldiers who served in the Southern armies exhibited a strong allegiance to their leaders. The Texans under Parsons and Carter displayed a mystifying loyalty to one or 205 206: Between the Enemy and Texas the other of these two men, and the conflict over command of the brigade that developed between Colonel Parsons and Colonel Carter at times hampered the unit's effectiveness. This was manifest during the Red River campaign when the two men issued conflicting orders. Nevertheless, the majority of the Texans in the brigade, those belonging to the Twelfth and Nineteenth Texas and many under Morgan, displayed a clannish attachment to Parsons. The men's devotion and admiration for him and his corresponding respect for their lives and wellbeing turned the hardheaded, individualistic Texans into fine soldiers, and Parsons's brigade became one of the finest units in the Trans-Mississippi. After the Civil War ended, the three colonels-Parsons, Carter, and Burford-had long, active lives awaiting them, beginning with prominent roles in Reconstruction politics.5 Colonel Parsons left for South America but soon returned and served in the state senate from 1869 until 1871.6 In May 1865 Colonel Carter, who had claimed a disability from field duty, announced his intention to run for governor of Texas. 7 Colonel Burford, after resigning from the service, helped establish a Soldier's Home in Dallas, then was elected speaker of the Texas House in 1866.8 Two of the three eventually left Texas. In 1871, after President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him a United States Centennial Commissioner , Parsons moved to New York. He held various positions in the United States government and lived in Virginia and Washington, D.C. In the 1880s he visited his brother Albert in Chicago, where the younger Parsons was on trial and was later executed for his involvement in the Haymarket Square riot. At the age of eighty-one, on October 2, 1907, the colonel died at the home of his son Edgar in Chicago. He was buried next to his second wife Myra in the Mount Hope Cemetery, Hastingson -Hudson, New York.9 Colonel Carter also relocated. By 1870 he was involved in the heated politics of Louisiana, served in the Louisiana legislature, and became speaker of the house. In 1881 he was appointed the United States ambassador to Venezuela. Although he did not return to preaching after the war, Carter's name reappeared in the Methodist records of Virginia in 1892 when he was admitted on trial and appointed to Bedford City in Epilogue: 207 the Lynchburg District. Three...