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

Introduction

Introduction H istorians analyzing the American Civil War tend to ignore the vast area west of the Mississippi River. Military actions in the Trans-Mississippi Department (Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, most of Louisiana, the Indian Territory or modernday Oklahoma, and parts of present-day New Mexico and Arizona) did not alter the outcome of the conflict; after the fall of Vicksburg the region was cut off and virtually forgotten. Far more important to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government was the eastern theater-more specifically Virginia. Even the western theater, which included those Southern states between Virginia and the Mississippi River, demanded more attention. Yet, in terms of fighting, the state with the third most military events (following Virginia and Tennessee) was Missouri. Men who fought on the "other side" of the Mississippi believed the theater merited more attention. Colonel William Henry Parsons, in a letter to a Confederate reunion in 1878, asserted: "The Texas Regiments of Virginia may have for a time succeeded in keeping the Federal armies out of Richmond, but the army of the Trans-Mississippi ... did keep formidable Federal armies out of Texas, and never permitted hostile foot to march over her soil." He pointed out that Federal armies occupied much of Arkansas and Louisiana, "but to the alertness and valor of this army whose praises and annals are yet unrecorded, and unrecognized," Texas never suffered the destruction that accompanied an invading army.1 Fighting in the Trans-Mississippi was not characterized by stupendous engagements like those at Gettysburg or Antietam, and it never received any acclaim. In 1925 George H. Hogan, a former member of Colonel Parsons's Twelfth Texas Cavalry, complained in an article for the Confederate Veteran: At our State and general reunions, I often hear remarks by the careless observer that, "you fellows in the Trans-Mississippi didn't know what fighting was. You should have been with us under Lee and Jackson, Joe Johnston; then you could tell what Xl xii ;Between the Enemy and Texas Flag of Parsons's Brigade (courtesy Hill College History Complex. Confederate Research Center, Hillsboro, Texas). a battle looked like." I have refuted these aspersions so long, and have seen so little in our beloved Veteran about "our side of the river," that I am tempted to come to the front and tell of some of the operations as witnessed by a "high private" in our brigade as a refutation that we never saw any service on this side [of} the river. . 2 The fighting west of the river presented a different kind of war. There was no Anny of Northern Virginia led by a Robert E. Lee nor was Introduction; xiii there an Army of Tennessee proudly claiming victory at Chickamauga. There were few major battles, but as historian Norman Brown observed, "The fighting was often as fierce in the Trans-Mississippi Department as in the other two theaters." 3 For Parsons's cavalry, scouting in Arkansas and Louisiana, the conflict was day by day-sometimes boring, sometimes lively, but never-ending. Instead of a clash between armies, it was a contest between men who knew their opponent well-not always personally , but by name and reputation. On both sides, animosity combined with vengeance to produce bitter hatred. Parsons's Texans reconnoitered along the Mississippi River and its tributaries from mid-1862 until the end of the war, performing an often monotonous but valuable service for the South. Their efforts kept the Confederate hierarchy (headquartered first at Little Rock and later at Shreveport) advised of enemy movements. The troops spent little time in camp; the nature of their service kept them constantly on the move. Unlike infantrymen, who often spent the winters in tents, the cavalry scouted year-round. Colonel Parsons observed that his brigade served as the "sleepless eye, the good right arm" protecting the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. Further, he asserted, that "whether in the incessant skirmish[es] on the enemy's out-post or lines, or in repeated attacks upon gun-boats on the White, the Mississippi, or the Red rivers," his men had always impressed the enemy "with a conception of number that had no existence in reality." Parsons firmly believed his Texas troops never received the recognition they deserved, especially in 1862, when they shielded the fledgling army organizing near Little Rock.4 Parsons's Texans were typical Southerners. They enjoyed drinking, gambling, singing; they were expert horsemen...