"15 Milam County Men Rode with Terry’s Texas Rangers" by Jeanne Williams

15 Milam County Men Rode with Terry’s Texas Rangers

by Jeanne Williams - Temple Daily Telegram

December 12, 2011

CAMERON — While most Milam County men of military age were joining Hood’s Brigade or

Sibley’s Brigade during the late summer of 1861, at least 15 signed up for service in

the Eighth Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry’s Texas Rangers.

This regiment, the most famous cavalry unit from Texas during the War Between the

States, distinguished itself in numerous battles from 1861 to 1865.

In early 1861, Benjamin Franklin Terry, a wealthy sugar planter from Fort Bend County,

and Thomas S. Lubbock, a commission merchant from Houston, journeyed to Virginia at

their own expense to serve as aides at the first battle of Manassas.

Both were commissioned to return to Texas and organize a regiment of skilled horsemen

for immediate service in the Confederate Army. They established headquarters in

Houston.

Company A, nicknamed the Prairie Rovers and organized by Capt. Thomas Harrison of Waco,

was recruited primarily in Central Texas and included a small group of Milam County

volunteers.

The companies enrolled for Terry’s regiment rendezvoused in September 1861 in Houston,

where they mustered in for the war, according to accounts.

However, the organization of the regiment was delayed until it reached Bowling Green,

Ky. It was officially designated as the 8th Regiment, Texas Cavalry, but was more

commonly known during and after the war as Terry’s Texas Rangers in honor of its first

commander.

Among the volunteers from Milam County were Edward H. Ross, a corporal killed July 13,

1862, in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Charles A. Allday, a prisoner at Camp Chase, Ohio,

during the last months of the war; J.W. Baldridge, who died in Atlanta, Ga., in 1862;

R. Grantham, discharged for sickness after only a few months of service; B.R. Johnson,

who died in Nashville Tenn., in November 1861; Robert H. McCann, wounded in battle at

Farmington, Tenn., in 1863; J.T. Mitchell, who died at a private residence near Bowling

Green, Ky., on Dec. 1, 1861; Richard H. Mumford, who died in Nashville in November 1861

and whose remains were shipped to Bryant Station in Milam County for reburial; James J.

Rawls; W.P. Rice, later a member of Company D, until discharged for disability in

August 1862; James F. Stewart, a prisoner of war confined at Rock Island Barracks,

Ill., for more than a year; and the Richards brothers: James T.B., who was promoted to

corporal; Samuel L., who was wounded; W.C.B., a courier; and William F., who was

promoted to sergeant.

The regiment’s first action was at Woodsonville, Ky., on Dec. 17, 1861, and produced

more than its fair share of tragedy. Terry was killed leading the first charge into

action. About 12 men were either killed or wounded.

The regiment, so impressed with Terry’s character and personality, adopted the name

Terry’s Texas Rangers for the remainder of the war.

At this time a federal officer, writing a letter home, had this to say about Terry’s

Texas Rangers: “The Texas Rangers are as quick as lightning, they ride like Arabs,

shoot like archers at a mark and fight like devils.”

The Rangers also were famous for “the terrific rebel yell” they used when going into

battle, according to historical accounts.

William Preston Johnston, in his book on the life of his father, Confederate Gen.

Albert Sidney Johnston, wrote: “They left Houston 1,600 strong, and were augmented by

500 recruits during their term of service. They shared in more than 100 engagements

from first to last and finally surrendered at the close of the war 244 men in all, with

but one deserted during that time. This is a noble record, but their fame was clearly

bought with the blood of most of these fearless horsemen, who following the example of

their chivalric leader rode gaily and dauntlessly down to death.”

The many battles that Terry’s Texas Rangers fought in included Shiloh, April 6-8, 1862;

Perryville, Oct. 8, 1862; Murfreesboro, Dec. 31, 1862 to Jan. 2, 1863; Chickamauga,

Sept. 19-20, 1863; and Chattanooga, Nov. 24-25, 1863. The 8th Texas Cavalry also was

involved in the Atlanta campaign from May 1 to Sept. 2, 1864, and served as raiders in

Kentucky and Tennessee under Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, according to history

books.

During the last several months of the war, the rangers were part of the inadequate

force under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston that attempted to slow Maj. Gen. William T.

Sherman’s inexorable “march to the sea.”

Rather than surrender with the rest of Johnston’s army at Durham Station, N.C., on

April 26, 1865, the regiment’s survivors slipped through Union lines to join other

Confederates still in the field. With the total collapse of the Southern cause,

however, Terry’s Texas Rangers drifted home as individuals and in small groups, having

never officially surrendered.

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram