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

1. "A Healthy Bunch of Scrappers"

1. "A Healthy Bunch of Scrappers" ~ he campaigns fought west of the Mississippi River seemed "small indeed by comparison with the more imposing and dramatic events of the far east," asserted William Henry Parsons, "but momentous in results to the fortunes of [the] Trans-Mississippi department, and especially to the fate of Texas. "I As he astutely pointed out, "Our lines once broken, whether on the Mississippi or the Arkansas, or the Red River, would have thrown open the approach to the invasion of Texas, by an ever alert and powerful foe." Parsons strongly believed the Army of the Trans-Mississippi, including his own command, never received the recognition it merited for "again and again foiling the invasion and intended devastation" of Texas.2 Parsons had a point; the men who served under him gained scant acknowledgment for shielding Texas from Federal occupation. Yet his troops took part in almost fifty battles (although most were too small to rate a name), and they were responsible for watching Federal operations from Memphis to Vicksburg. For three years the men provided outposts and scouts for the army headquartered first at Little Rock and later at Shreveport. The brigade rarely mustered in full at any single place; instead , the troops generally fought by detachments or regiments. Even during the winter when the infantry retired to camps, Parsons's cavalrymen remained in the field. And, proudly insisted George Hogan: "It was a noted fact that whether fighting as a company, battalion, or regiment, the brigade was never whipped" until the last major engagement at Yellow Bayou during the Red River campaign of 1864.3 Parsons's Texas Cavalry Brigade was a veritable collage, described by one Confederate as /I a healthy bunch of scrappers.,,4 Its nucleus was the Fourth Texas Dragoons (later designated the Twelfth Texas Cavalry), a regiment Parsons raised in North Central Texas soon after the war began . One year later his command included the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry from the Dallas area, under District Judge Nathaniel Macon Burford; the Twenty-first Texas Cavalry mainly from South Central Texas, under 3 4: Between tht? Enemy and Texas Methodist minister George Washington Carter; and Charles Morgan's command, a hodgepodge of companies from throughout the state. Morgan began with a squadron in 1862 but three yean; later had gained enough companies to attain regimental strength. For artillery, Joseph H. Pratt's Tenth Field Battery from Jefferson in East Texas provided welcome firepower that Parsons used with great efficiency. This amalgamation represented the best of Texas-men from the Piney Woods of East Texas, the Cross Timbers and blackland prairies of Central Texas, and the Gulf Coast of South Texas. The Confederate Congress never promoted Parsons to brigadier general, although he acted in that capacity for much of the war. Several times he was recommended for field promotion, but the government never granted him a commission. Twice the authorities superseded him with an officer unacceptable to the rank and file. In each instance the troops protested so fiercely that the bureaucracy had to reinstate him. After the war the governor of Texas appointed Parsons a major general of the home guard for services never recognized by the hierarchy in Richmond.5 The loyalty most members of the brigade exhibited for Parsons mystified outsiders. The colonel had the ability to inspire affection, to motivate men in order to gain their devotion. If he had one fault, recalled "A Healthy Bunch of Scrappers" :5 Lieutenant L. T. Wheeler, "it was in the carefulness of the lives of his men." 6 But even this proved advantageous. The hardheaded and individualistic Texans appreciated his compassion as much as they admired his bravery under fire. Although it appeared that creating a homogenous unit from such an amalgam would prove difficult, through admiration, respect, and mutual trust Parsons molded his brigade into an effective fighting force. By birth Parsons was a Northerner, by training and preference a fervent, even fanatical, Southerner. Born in 1826 of Puritan stock, William could claim that his ancestors had arrived in the early 1600s on the second voyage of the Mayflower. Over the years the Parsons family flourished, and several of William's ancestors fought with distinction in the American Revolution. William's father Samuel was a native of Maine but had married a woman from a distinguished New Jersey family , and it was there that William was born.7 William's family...