In 1861 and 1862, the new Confederate States of America attempted to shape and mold a smattering of militia units and volunteers into a fighting machine capable of defending their lengthy frontier and coastlines. Units from across the south answered the initial call to arms, but it was only enough to stalemate the North. The Confederate government then began to debate conducting a draft or conscription, something that had never been done before in these United States. The debate raged in the Confederate Congress, and while it did, recruiting officers did a brisk trade across the South. The reason was simple: Volunteer units went to war with their friends and neighbors, and elected their officers, while the drafted conscripts were to be completely at the whim of the government.
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Here in Texas, Colonel Middleton Tate Johnson of Johnson's Station (now called Arlington), gained the necessary permission to recruit a regiment of troops. He was given little guidance. He found that most men were only willing to enlist for one year, rather than three or for the duration. He also found that no self respecting Texan would enlist in the infantry as long as his horse still drew breath. So Johnson began to raise a regiment, the 14th Texas Cavalry, a twelve-month outfit. This raised the ire of the Confederate Inspector General for Texas who complained bitterly about Johnson's activities and even mentioned that Johnson was attempting to raise an entire Brigade of cavalry. He recommended that Johnson be stopped from raising anymore 12 month cavalry. This was not done, for Johnson soon had five regiments of cavalry under his command, the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Texas Cavalry.
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After the disaster at Pea Ridge, the men of Johnson's Brigade were ordered to Arkansas when that state's forces were ordered to Tennessee. The 15th got a brutal introduction to combat when a portion of the regiment, armed mostly with squirrel rifles and shotguns, charged a Kansas cavalry outfit armed with Enfield rifled muskets. The charge was led by Captain Thomas J. Johnson, a former Texas Ranger, Mexican War veteran, and the son of Colonel Johnson. The men discovered the futility of fighting with shotguns against rifles as several saddles were emptied. Among the seven empty saddles was that of Captain Johnson, whose body was returned to Tarrant County for burial.
When the Confederate Army found itself with a surplus of cavalry, and a shortage of infantry it discovered that the fastest way to make a cavalryman fight on foot is to take is horse away from him. The entire brigade was dismounted, trained as infantrymen, and given rifled muskets to replace their shotguns, carbines, and six-shooters. In this capacity, the 15th, 17th, and 18th Texas Cavalry Regiments (Dismounted) found themselves defending a position called Fort Hindman, or Arkansas Post, in January of 1863. The 5,000 man garrison found themselves attacked by a 30,000 man forces commanded by a then obscure Union general named William T. Sherman.
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Captured after a day-long fight, the men were imprisoned in Illinois, where a combination of cold, pneumonia, smallpox, and dysentery culled one-third of their number. Exchanged after three months, they were sent by train and steamer to City Point, Virginia where they were soon sent to join the Confederate Army forming in Mississippi to relieve the embattled garrison at Vicksburg. Enroute, their orders were changed, sending them instead to Tullahoma, Tennessee where they joined the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
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The marriage of this army and these Texans was a good one, for they seemed destined for each other. The catalyst for the marriage was an Irish immigrant, turned Confederate General Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne was reputedly the only general in the army who was willing to command the men, since they were stigmatized by their surrender in Arkansas.
They fought for the first time in a large engagement with Cleburne, at the Battle of Chickamauga. A few weeks later at Tunnel Hill, at the end of Missionary Ridge, the Texas Brigade held its position against a Union attack that outnumbered them 14-to-1. After the retreat from Missionary Ridge, the Texas Brigade was part of the army's rear guard that repulsed the Yankee pursuit in fighting that was sometimes hand-to-hand at Ringgold Gap, Georgia. The unit saw heavy action during all of the struggles of the Atlanta Campaign, but in particular, distinguished itself in the Battle of Pickett's Mill and the Battle of Atlanta. It saved the Confederate position at Jonesboro, when it counterattacked and sealed a penetration of the Confederate line. In the Tennessee Campaign, the Texas Brigade saw a virtual swan song at the Battle of Franklin, when it went into frontal attack with 1104 men and emerged with just over 400. Generals Cleburne and Granbury, the Texas Brigade's commander, were killed in this fruitless assault. At the conclusion of the battle, Granbury's Texas Brigade was commanded by a Captain. Every General and Field grade officer was either killed, wounded or captured.
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The Brigade again saw heavy action at the Battle of Nashville, and then retreated with the rest of the army to Mississippi. From there, it was sent by over the battered Confederate rail system to North Carolina. It saw action in the final battle of the war for the Army of Tennessee, at Bentonville.
On April 26, 1865, General Joseph Johnston surrendered the Army of Tennessee. At the time of surrender, the entire Texas Brigade was consolidated into one regimental sized unit, the 1st Texas Consolidated Infantry Regiment. Out of the thousands of men that left North Texas for the war, only a few hundred were still gathered around the colors at the conclusion of the struggle. Some emerged from Union prison camps, or eventually left hospitals in both the North and South. However, much of the brigade was left in lonely graves from Texas to Illinois, from Virginia to Mississippi.
This is the legacy of one of the most famous units in the Confederate Army. While the unit gained much luster serving under Cleburne and Granbury, it should be remembered that it's genesis occurred under an ambitious Colonel from Texas named Middleton Tate Johnson. Determined to do his utmost to support his neighbors, he raised an entire brigade of what turned out to be some of finest troops to ever wear the gray.
