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Chapter II: Preparing an Invasion (Part 4)
Command of the Second Corps was assigned to Major-General John George Walker. He was born in Cole County, Missouri, July 22, 1822. He received his early education at the Jesuit College in St. Louis. Commissioned directly into the United States Army in 1846, he served during the war with Mexico and had attained the rank of captain by the time he resigned, on July 31, 1861, to enter Confederate service. He was immediately commissioned major of cavalry in the regular army, and after being appointed lieutenant colonel of the 8th Texas Cavalry, was made brigadier-general on January 9, 1862. He distinguished himself with the Army of Northern Virginia through the Maryland campaign, and was promoted major-general on November 8, 1862. His division of two brigades took possession of Loudoun Heights in the operations against Harpers Ferry in September of that year, and subesquently rendered gallant ervice during the Battle of Sharpsburg. At this juncture he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department, where he assumed command of the Texas infantry division.
Walker's Texas division was given to Brigadier-General Thomas Neville Waul's. He was born on January 5, 1813, in Sumter District, South Carolina and attended South Carolina College until his junior year. After techting school for a time in Florence, Alabama, he studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar in 1835. Soon after, he moved to Gonzales County, Texas, where he established a plantation and also practiced his profession. An unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the United States Congress in 1859, he was elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy in 1861 and served until the erection of the permanent government. He recruited Waul's Texas Legion in 1862, and was commissioned its colonel on May 17. Waul was surrendered with his command at Vicksburg in July 1863, and was promoted after his exchange to brigadier-general from September 18, 1863. In the Red River campaign of 1864, he commanded a brigade in Walker's division at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Later he was transferred to Arkansas to oppose Steele and fought at Jenkins Ferry. His division counted 4,000 men.
Waul's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Overton Stephen Young. He was born on September 26, 1826 in Lawrenceville, Georgia and first attended Amherst College in Massachusetts before returning to his home state to study law. He moved to Texas in 1851 and began practicing in Fort Bend County. After his marriage, Young changed his occupation to planting and established himself in Brazoria County. On December 12, 1861, he was commissioned as colonel of the 12th Texas Infantry and joined what would be known as McCulloch's and later Walker's Texas division. Young was for a brief period appointed brigade commander until he reverted to the command of his former regiment in April 1863. In that capacity he participated with great distinction in the battles of the Red River campaign and the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, where he was slightly wounded in the wrist. In his official report, Waul took pains to „especially commend“ his behavior on the field. As at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, he behaved courageously and cooly, managing his men with great skill and exhibiting much fitness for command. The brigade of 1,300 men included the 8th, 18th and 22nd Texas Infantry Regiments as well as the 13th Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Colonel Philip Noland Luckett commanded the second brigade in the division. Luckett was born in 1823 in Virginia, where he was educated as a physician, and later moved to Ohio and Texas in 1847. Through the late 1840s he served as a surgeon of a company of Texas Rangers and he took part in the 1861 Texas Secession Convention. During the fall of 1861, Luckett was elected colonel of the 3rd Texas Infantry, whose men had been recruited in Austin and San Antoni
n August 8, 1863, he was promoted to the command of the Western Subdistrict of Texas until his reassignment to Scurry's brigade of Walker's Texas division in April 1964. Luckett's men took part in the Red River campaign and the campaign in Arkansas, which culminated in the repulse of Frederick Steele at Jenkins Ferry. Scurry was killed there, and Luckett took command of the brigade. His outfit fielded 1,600 men in his old unit, the 16th, 17th and 19th Texas Infantry Regiments and the 16th Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Waul's last brigade was led by Colonel Oran Milo Roberts. He was born on July 9, 1815, in Laurens District, South Carolina. Roberts was educated at home until he entered the University of Alabama in 1832, graduated four years later and was admitted to the bar in 1837. After serving a term in the Alabama legislature, he moved in 1841 to San Augustine, Texas where he was appointed a district attorney in 1844 and got elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1856. As president of the Secession Convention in Austin, Roberts led the passage of the ordinance removing Texas from the Union. In 1862 he returned to East Texas, where he helped raise the 11th Texas Infantry of Walker's Texas division. He succeeded brigade commander Horace Randal after the latter's deadly wound at Jenkins Ferry. In addition to his old regiment, the brigade included the 14th Texas Infantry Regiment, the 28th Texas Cavalry Regiment and Gould's Texas Infantry Battalion, 1,100 men all in all.
Rounding up the division were two batteries of six guns each under Captains James M. Daniel and William Edgar.
The second division of Walker's corps was commanded by Brigadier-General Thomas James Churchill. He was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on March 10, 1824, and was educated at St. Mary's College and Transylvania University, where he studied law. After the Mexican War, in which he participated as a 1st lieutenand of the 1st Kentucky Rifles, he settled near Little Rock, Arkansas, of which city he was postmaster in 1861. He recruited the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles and rendered notable service with this regiment at Wilson's Creek. He was commissioned brigadier-general to rank from March 4, 1862. After fighting at Richmond, Kentucky, under Kirby Smith, Churchill in January 1863 made a gallant defense at Arkansas Post, which he finally was forced to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. He later participated in the Red River campaign and in the attack on Steele at Jenkins Ferry. His division fielded about 4,900 men.
Churchill's first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General James Camp Tappan. He was born in Franklin, Tennessee, September 9, 1825. Educated at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and at Yale, from which he was graduated in 1845, Tappan studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. Moving to Helena, Arkansas, he served two terms in the legislature of that state, the last as speaker. He was also elected a circuit court speaker. His New England antecedents notwithstanding, Tappan promptly offered his services to the Confederate cause, and in May 1861 was commissioned colonel of the 13th Arkansas. He was commended by General Leonidas Polk for his dispositions at the Battle of Belmont , and led his regiment at Shiloh where it participated in repeated charges on the famous Hornet's Nest. Colonel Tappan then took part in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and fought at Richmond and Perryville. Appointed brigadier-general on November 5, 1862, he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department and commanded a brigade under Sterling Price in 1863. He fought with great credit at Pleasant Hill in the Red River campaign and was thereafter sent against Steele. His brigade of 1,600 men included the 24th, 27th, 33rd, 38th and Hardy's Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
Colonel Lucien Coatsworth Gause commanded the second brigade in the division. Gause was born near Wilmington, North Carolina, on December 25, 1836. He attended the University of Virginia and Cumberland University to study law and was admitted to the Arkansas state bar in 1859. At the outbreak of the war, he entered the Confederate army as a lieutenant and was later promoted to colonel. His brigade fielded 1,000 men in the 26th, 32nd and 36th Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
The third brigade was led by Brigadier-General Alexander Travis Hawthorn, who was born near Evergreen, in Conecuh County, Alabama, January 10, 1825. He was educated at Evergreen Academy and Mercer University and the studied law at Yale University for two years from 1846 to 1847, and located to Camden, Arkansas, where he commenced his practice. When the 6th Arkansas Infantry was organized in 1861, he was elected first its lieutenant colonel and then, the following spring, was appointed its colonel. He was present at the Battle of Shiloh and took a gallant part in the assault on Fort Hindman, in 1863, during the attack on Helena, Arkansas. In 1864 he led a brigade in General Churchill's division, during the joint campaign of the Federal Generals Banks and Steele and shortly beforehand had been promoted brigadier from February 18, 1864. His 1,300 men strong brigade incorporated the 34th, 35th, 37th and Cocke's Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
Churchill's last brigade followed the orders of Brigadier-General Thomas Pleasant Dockery, who was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina, on December 18, 1833. His father soon moved to Tennessee, and subsequently to Arkansas, where he established a large plantation in Columbia County, and where he was instrumental in constructing the first railroad in the state. The younger Dockery went into the Confederate army as colonel of the 5th Arkansas State Troops, later becoming colonel of the 19th Arkansas Infantry, which he commanded at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. He participated in the Battle of Corinth, and recrossing the Mississippi River with Sterlin Price, was for a time in command of a subdistrict in Arkansas. He commanded the 2nd brigade of Bowen'S division at Vicksburg, where he was captured and paroled; and was commissioned brigadier-general on August 10, 1863. In 1864, directing a brigade of Arkansas regiments, he took part in the battles at Jenkins Ferry and Marks' Mills. His 1,000 men strong brigade included the 18th, 19th and 20th Arkansas Infantry Regiments and the 12th Arkansas Infantry Battalion.
Accompanying the division were two batteries of six guns each under Captains John G. Marshall and Chambers B. Etter.
The final division of Walker's corps was led by Major-General Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac. He was born at Millemont, Seine-et-Oise, France, February 16, 1832 and was the son of the president of King Charles X#s council of ministers and an English mother. Educated at the College of Stanislaus in Paris, he entered the 3rd Regiment of Chasseurs in 1853, served with the 4th Hussars in the Crimea, and then with rank of lieutenant transferred to the 4th Chasseurs. Polignac secured his discharge in 1859, and was in Central America at the outbreak of the war. He immediately offered himself to the Confederate cause , was commissioned lieutenant colonel and served on General Beauregard's and General Bragg's staffs in the spring and summer of 1862. He was promoted brigadier-general on January 10, 1863, and major-general from April 8, 1864, after having distinguished himself in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. His consolidated division counted 4,400 troops.
Polignac's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Michael Looscan. He was born in Caher, County Mayo, Ireland, on September 25, 1838 and moved with his parents to the United States in 1855. Looscan worked briefly in Utica, New York, and Mobile, Alabama, before moving to Texas, settling in Earpville, and working as a schoolteacher. He also studied law and passed his bar examination in the spring of 1861. In the beginning of the war he served as adjutant and secretary to military governor of New Mexico and Arizona, John R. Baylor, and joined the Arizona Brigade. During the fall and winter of 1863 and early 1864, Looscan was stationed aliong the Texas-Arkansas border until being reassigned to Polignac's old unit. His brigade of 1,600 men included the 15th, 17th, 22nd, 31st and 34th Texas Cavalry Regiments.
Colonel Henry Gray commanded the second brigade in the division. Gray was born in Laurens District, South Carolina, January 19, 1816, and was graduated from South Carolina College in 1834. Admitted to the bar, he shortly settled in Mississippi, where he was for some years district attorney of Winston County. After serving a term in the legislature, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Whig ticket. He moved to Louisiana in 1851, and was a Buchanan Elector in 1856. While a member of the Louisiana legislature in 1860, he was defeated for a seat in the United States senate by but one vote; his opponent was Judah P. Benjamin. Upon the secession of Mississippi, Gray enlisted as a private in a regiment from that state; however, President Davis recalled him from this duty, and he was elected colonel of the 28th Louisiana Infantry, which he had organized at Davis' request. Gray led his regiment at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill during the Red River campaign, and afterwards was put in brigade command. His unit fielded 900 men in the 18th Consolidated, 28th and Consolidated Crescent Louisiana Infantry Regiments.
The third brigade was led by Brigadier-General Daniel Weisinger Adams. He was born in Francfort, Kentucky, probably in May or June of 1821. After reading law, he was admitted to the Mississippi bar and subsequently practiced in Louisiana. Meanwhile he had killed in a duel an editor who had criticized in the columns of his paper Adams' father, a Federal judge. In 1861 he was appointed by Governor Moore of Louisiana one of three members of a board to place the state on a war's footing. His first army service was a lieutenant colonel of the 1st Louisiana Regulars, of which he was later promoted colonel. Present at Pensacola, his regiment greatly distinguished itself at the Battle of Shiloh, where Adams lost his right eye. He was promoted brigadier-general on May 23, 1862, and commanded the Louisiana Brigade at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and at Chickamauga, where he was wounded and captured. After his recovery and exchange, he was briefly given command of a cavalry brigade in North Alabama until he returned to Louisiana. His brigade included the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th Louisiana State Guard, 1,900 men all in all.
Rounding up the division was a battery of six guns under Captain Florian O. Cornay.
Commander of Price's cavalry corps was Major-General James Fleming Fagan. He was born in Clark County, Kentucky, March 1, 1828, and the family moved to Arkansas when he was ten. He served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War, and one term in the Arkansas legislature thereafter. Among the first in his state to recruit men for the Confederate cause in 1861, he became colonel of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, which he led at the Battle of Shiloh. Commissioned brigadier-general to rank from September 12, 1862, Fagan was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department and took part in the Battle of Prairie Grove and the repulse of Steele's Camden Expedition and promoted major-general to rank from April 25, 1864.
Fagan's first division was given to Brigadier-General Joseph Orville Shelby, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 12, 1830. He was educated by his step-father and at Transylvania University. Shelby engaged in the manufacture of rope, first at Lexington and Waverly, Missouri, and eventually became one of the wealthiest and most influencial citizens of the state. He led a band of pro-slavery Kentuckians in the Missouri-Kansas conflict of the late 1850s. At the outbreak of the war, he organized a cavalry company and enlisted under the banner of the Confederacy. Usually attached to the forces of Sterling Price, Shelby was active in almost every campaign of the war west of the Mississippi River. He fought at Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Helena and Camden as well as in scores of minor actions. His reputation west of the river compared favorably with that of Bedford Forrest in the east, and earned him contemporary renown in the area. Shelby was appointed brigadier-general to rank from December 15, 1863. His division counted 3,100 men.
Shelby's famous Iron Brigade was commanded by Colonel David Shanks. The native Kentuckian enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 and became captain in the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and later lieutenant colonel of the consolidated 2nd/12th Missouri Cavalry. Shanks was promoted to colonel on August 20, 1863. His brigade of 1,400 men included the 5th, 11th, 12th and Elliott's Missouri Cavalry Regiments and Crisp's Missouri Cavalry Battalion.
Colonel Sidney Drake Jackman commanded the second brigade in the division. He was born on March 21, 1828, in Jessamine County, Kentucky and moved with his family to Howard County, Missouri in 1830. In the late 1840s, Jackman worked as a schoolteacher and farmer and organized local militias to deal with Jayhawkers in 1855. He chose to follow the Confederate cause in 1861 and entered the Missouri State Guard. Jackman would serve in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, mainly participating in irregular guerilla style tactics and regularly recruited men in Missouri. His brigade fielded 1,700 men in his own and Hunter's Missouri Cavalry Regiment as well as Schnable's and Williams' Missouri Cavalry Battalions and the 46th Arkansas Mounted Infantry.
Rounding uo the division was a battery of six guns under Captain Richard A. Collins.
The second division of Fagan's cavalry corps was commanded by Brigadier-General James Patrick Major, a native of Fayette, Missouri, who was born May 14, 1836. He won an appointment to West Point in 1852, and was graduated four years later. After a year at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, he served on the Texas Frontier where he killed three Indians during a skirmish. He resigned from the U.S. Army on March 21, 1861 and served on the staffs of Generals Van Dorn and Twiggs until he participated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek as lieutenant colonel of a Missouri State Guard regiment. As acting chief of artillery to Van Dorn he aided in repulsing the Federal fleet at Vicksburg in 1862. Thereafter, in common with many of the capable officers in the Trans-Mississippi Department, his service was mainly distinguished by participation in the Red River campaign, during which he fought commendably at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Upon the recommendation of General Richard Taylor, he had meanwhile been appointed brigadier-general to rank from July 21, 1863. His division fielded about 2,500 men.
Major's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Walter Paye Lane, a native of Ireland, who was born in County Cork, February 18, 1817, and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1821. The family first settled in Guernsey County, Ohio. At the age of eighteen Lane went to Louisville and then to Texas, where he fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. His subsequent antebellum occupations ranged from cruising the Gulf of Mexico to fighting Indians and teaching school, and included service in the Mexican War as captain of a ranger company. He spent time mining in California, Nevada, Arizona and Peru and was elected lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Texas Cavalry in 1861, with which he fought at Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. Lane was later active in Louisiana in 1863, and in the Red River campaign the following year. During the Battle of Mansfield he was wounded. His brigade of 900 men included the 1st and 2nd Texas Partisan Rangers as well as the 2nd and 3rd Arizona Cavalry Regiments.
Colonel Arthur Pendleton Bagby junior commanded the second brigade in the division. Bagby was born in Claiborne, Alabama on May 17, 1833 as a son of Alabama Governor Arthur P. Bagby. He was graduated from West Point in 1852 and studied law until he was admitted to the bar in Alabama in 1855. On october 12, 1861, Bagby joined the Confederate army, serving as a major in the 7th Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers. He served in the New Mexico campaign and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 4, 1862 and to colonel on November 15, 1862. His brigade fielded 900 men in the 4th, 5th and 7th Texas Cavalry Regiments and the 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion.
The third brigade was led by Colonel George Washington Carter. He was born in January, 1826, in Fauquier County, Virginia and became a minister in the Methodist Church when he was twenty-one years old. In January 1860 the Texas Methodist Conference invited him to become president of Soule University at Chappell Hill, Texas. After the outbreak of the war he raised three regiments and went to Arkansas with his force in 1862. Carter led his men into Missouri with John Marmaduke in 1863 and fought along the Red River in 1864. His brigade included the 12th, 19th and 21st Texas Cavalry Regiments, 700 men altogether.
Accompanying the division were two batteries of four guns each under Captains Martin V. B. McMahan and William E. Gibson.
Command of the Second Corps was assigned to Major-General John George Walker. He was born in Cole County, Missouri, July 22, 1822. He received his early education at the Jesuit College in St. Louis. Commissioned directly into the United States Army in 1846, he served during the war with Mexico and had attained the rank of captain by the time he resigned, on July 31, 1861, to enter Confederate service. He was immediately commissioned major of cavalry in the regular army, and after being appointed lieutenant colonel of the 8th Texas Cavalry, was made brigadier-general on January 9, 1862. He distinguished himself with the Army of Northern Virginia through the Maryland campaign, and was promoted major-general on November 8, 1862. His division of two brigades took possession of Loudoun Heights in the operations against Harpers Ferry in September of that year, and subesquently rendered gallant ervice during the Battle of Sharpsburg. At this juncture he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department, where he assumed command of the Texas infantry division.
Walker's Texas division was given to Brigadier-General Thomas Neville Waul's. He was born on January 5, 1813, in Sumter District, South Carolina and attended South Carolina College until his junior year. After techting school for a time in Florence, Alabama, he studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar in 1835. Soon after, he moved to Gonzales County, Texas, where he established a plantation and also practiced his profession. An unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the United States Congress in 1859, he was elected to the Provisional Congress of the Confederacy in 1861 and served until the erection of the permanent government. He recruited Waul's Texas Legion in 1862, and was commissioned its colonel on May 17. Waul was surrendered with his command at Vicksburg in July 1863, and was promoted after his exchange to brigadier-general from September 18, 1863. In the Red River campaign of 1864, he commanded a brigade in Walker's division at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Later he was transferred to Arkansas to oppose Steele and fought at Jenkins Ferry. His division counted 4,000 men.
Waul's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Overton Stephen Young. He was born on September 26, 1826 in Lawrenceville, Georgia and first attended Amherst College in Massachusetts before returning to his home state to study law. He moved to Texas in 1851 and began practicing in Fort Bend County. After his marriage, Young changed his occupation to planting and established himself in Brazoria County. On December 12, 1861, he was commissioned as colonel of the 12th Texas Infantry and joined what would be known as McCulloch's and later Walker's Texas division. Young was for a brief period appointed brigade commander until he reverted to the command of his former regiment in April 1863. In that capacity he participated with great distinction in the battles of the Red River campaign and the Battle of Jenkins Ferry, where he was slightly wounded in the wrist. In his official report, Waul took pains to „especially commend“ his behavior on the field. As at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, he behaved courageously and cooly, managing his men with great skill and exhibiting much fitness for command. The brigade of 1,300 men included the 8th, 18th and 22nd Texas Infantry Regiments as well as the 13th Texas Cavalry Regiment.
Colonel Philip Noland Luckett commanded the second brigade in the division. Luckett was born in 1823 in Virginia, where he was educated as a physician, and later moved to Ohio and Texas in 1847. Through the late 1840s he served as a surgeon of a company of Texas Rangers and he took part in the 1861 Texas Secession Convention. During the fall of 1861, Luckett was elected colonel of the 3rd Texas Infantry, whose men had been recruited in Austin and San Antoni
n August 8, 1863, he was promoted to the command of the Western Subdistrict of Texas until his reassignment to Scurry's brigade of Walker's Texas division in April 1964. Luckett's men took part in the Red River campaign and the campaign in Arkansas, which culminated in the repulse of Frederick Steele at Jenkins Ferry. Scurry was killed there, and Luckett took command of the brigade. His outfit fielded 1,600 men in his old unit, the 16th, 17th and 19th Texas Infantry Regiments and the 16th Texas Cavalry Regiment.Waul's last brigade was led by Colonel Oran Milo Roberts. He was born on July 9, 1815, in Laurens District, South Carolina. Roberts was educated at home until he entered the University of Alabama in 1832, graduated four years later and was admitted to the bar in 1837. After serving a term in the Alabama legislature, he moved in 1841 to San Augustine, Texas where he was appointed a district attorney in 1844 and got elected to the Texas Supreme Court in 1856. As president of the Secession Convention in Austin, Roberts led the passage of the ordinance removing Texas from the Union. In 1862 he returned to East Texas, where he helped raise the 11th Texas Infantry of Walker's Texas division. He succeeded brigade commander Horace Randal after the latter's deadly wound at Jenkins Ferry. In addition to his old regiment, the brigade included the 14th Texas Infantry Regiment, the 28th Texas Cavalry Regiment and Gould's Texas Infantry Battalion, 1,100 men all in all.
Rounding up the division were two batteries of six guns each under Captains James M. Daniel and William Edgar.
The second division of Walker's corps was commanded by Brigadier-General Thomas James Churchill. He was born in Jefferson County, Kentucky, on March 10, 1824, and was educated at St. Mary's College and Transylvania University, where he studied law. After the Mexican War, in which he participated as a 1st lieutenand of the 1st Kentucky Rifles, he settled near Little Rock, Arkansas, of which city he was postmaster in 1861. He recruited the 1st Arkansas Mounted Rifles and rendered notable service with this regiment at Wilson's Creek. He was commissioned brigadier-general to rank from March 4, 1862. After fighting at Richmond, Kentucky, under Kirby Smith, Churchill in January 1863 made a gallant defense at Arkansas Post, which he finally was forced to surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. He later participated in the Red River campaign and in the attack on Steele at Jenkins Ferry. His division fielded about 4,900 men.
Churchill's first brigade was commanded by Brigadier-General James Camp Tappan. He was born in Franklin, Tennessee, September 9, 1825. Educated at Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and at Yale, from which he was graduated in 1845, Tappan studied law in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and was admitted to the bar in 1846. Moving to Helena, Arkansas, he served two terms in the legislature of that state, the last as speaker. He was also elected a circuit court speaker. His New England antecedents notwithstanding, Tappan promptly offered his services to the Confederate cause, and in May 1861 was commissioned colonel of the 13th Arkansas. He was commended by General Leonidas Polk for his dispositions at the Battle of Belmont , and led his regiment at Shiloh where it participated in repeated charges on the famous Hornet's Nest. Colonel Tappan then took part in Bragg's invasion of Kentucky and fought at Richmond and Perryville. Appointed brigadier-general on November 5, 1862, he was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department and commanded a brigade under Sterling Price in 1863. He fought with great credit at Pleasant Hill in the Red River campaign and was thereafter sent against Steele. His brigade of 1,600 men included the 24th, 27th, 33rd, 38th and Hardy's Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
Colonel Lucien Coatsworth Gause commanded the second brigade in the division. Gause was born near Wilmington, North Carolina, on December 25, 1836. He attended the University of Virginia and Cumberland University to study law and was admitted to the Arkansas state bar in 1859. At the outbreak of the war, he entered the Confederate army as a lieutenant and was later promoted to colonel. His brigade fielded 1,000 men in the 26th, 32nd and 36th Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
The third brigade was led by Brigadier-General Alexander Travis Hawthorn, who was born near Evergreen, in Conecuh County, Alabama, January 10, 1825. He was educated at Evergreen Academy and Mercer University and the studied law at Yale University for two years from 1846 to 1847, and located to Camden, Arkansas, where he commenced his practice. When the 6th Arkansas Infantry was organized in 1861, he was elected first its lieutenant colonel and then, the following spring, was appointed its colonel. He was present at the Battle of Shiloh and took a gallant part in the assault on Fort Hindman, in 1863, during the attack on Helena, Arkansas. In 1864 he led a brigade in General Churchill's division, during the joint campaign of the Federal Generals Banks and Steele and shortly beforehand had been promoted brigadier from February 18, 1864. His 1,300 men strong brigade incorporated the 34th, 35th, 37th and Cocke's Arkansas Infantry Regiments.
Churchill's last brigade followed the orders of Brigadier-General Thomas Pleasant Dockery, who was born in Montgomery County, North Carolina, on December 18, 1833. His father soon moved to Tennessee, and subsequently to Arkansas, where he established a large plantation in Columbia County, and where he was instrumental in constructing the first railroad in the state. The younger Dockery went into the Confederate army as colonel of the 5th Arkansas State Troops, later becoming colonel of the 19th Arkansas Infantry, which he commanded at the Battle of Wilson's Creek. He participated in the Battle of Corinth, and recrossing the Mississippi River with Sterlin Price, was for a time in command of a subdistrict in Arkansas. He commanded the 2nd brigade of Bowen'S division at Vicksburg, where he was captured and paroled; and was commissioned brigadier-general on August 10, 1863. In 1864, directing a brigade of Arkansas regiments, he took part in the battles at Jenkins Ferry and Marks' Mills. His 1,000 men strong brigade included the 18th, 19th and 20th Arkansas Infantry Regiments and the 12th Arkansas Infantry Battalion.
Accompanying the division were two batteries of six guns each under Captains John G. Marshall and Chambers B. Etter.
The final division of Walker's corps was led by Major-General Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac. He was born at Millemont, Seine-et-Oise, France, February 16, 1832 and was the son of the president of King Charles X#s council of ministers and an English mother. Educated at the College of Stanislaus in Paris, he entered the 3rd Regiment of Chasseurs in 1853, served with the 4th Hussars in the Crimea, and then with rank of lieutenant transferred to the 4th Chasseurs. Polignac secured his discharge in 1859, and was in Central America at the outbreak of the war. He immediately offered himself to the Confederate cause , was commissioned lieutenant colonel and served on General Beauregard's and General Bragg's staffs in the spring and summer of 1862. He was promoted brigadier-general on January 10, 1863, and major-general from April 8, 1864, after having distinguished himself in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. His consolidated division counted 4,400 troops.
Polignac's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Michael Looscan. He was born in Caher, County Mayo, Ireland, on September 25, 1838 and moved with his parents to the United States in 1855. Looscan worked briefly in Utica, New York, and Mobile, Alabama, before moving to Texas, settling in Earpville, and working as a schoolteacher. He also studied law and passed his bar examination in the spring of 1861. In the beginning of the war he served as adjutant and secretary to military governor of New Mexico and Arizona, John R. Baylor, and joined the Arizona Brigade. During the fall and winter of 1863 and early 1864, Looscan was stationed aliong the Texas-Arkansas border until being reassigned to Polignac's old unit. His brigade of 1,600 men included the 15th, 17th, 22nd, 31st and 34th Texas Cavalry Regiments.
Colonel Henry Gray commanded the second brigade in the division. Gray was born in Laurens District, South Carolina, January 19, 1816, and was graduated from South Carolina College in 1834. Admitted to the bar, he shortly settled in Mississippi, where he was for some years district attorney of Winston County. After serving a term in the legislature, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress on the Whig ticket. He moved to Louisiana in 1851, and was a Buchanan Elector in 1856. While a member of the Louisiana legislature in 1860, he was defeated for a seat in the United States senate by but one vote; his opponent was Judah P. Benjamin. Upon the secession of Mississippi, Gray enlisted as a private in a regiment from that state; however, President Davis recalled him from this duty, and he was elected colonel of the 28th Louisiana Infantry, which he had organized at Davis' request. Gray led his regiment at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill during the Red River campaign, and afterwards was put in brigade command. His unit fielded 900 men in the 18th Consolidated, 28th and Consolidated Crescent Louisiana Infantry Regiments.
The third brigade was led by Brigadier-General Daniel Weisinger Adams. He was born in Francfort, Kentucky, probably in May or June of 1821. After reading law, he was admitted to the Mississippi bar and subsequently practiced in Louisiana. Meanwhile he had killed in a duel an editor who had criticized in the columns of his paper Adams' father, a Federal judge. In 1861 he was appointed by Governor Moore of Louisiana one of three members of a board to place the state on a war's footing. His first army service was a lieutenant colonel of the 1st Louisiana Regulars, of which he was later promoted colonel. Present at Pensacola, his regiment greatly distinguished itself at the Battle of Shiloh, where Adams lost his right eye. He was promoted brigadier-general on May 23, 1862, and commanded the Louisiana Brigade at Perryville, Murfreesboro, and at Chickamauga, where he was wounded and captured. After his recovery and exchange, he was briefly given command of a cavalry brigade in North Alabama until he returned to Louisiana. His brigade included the 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th Louisiana State Guard, 1,900 men all in all.
Rounding up the division was a battery of six guns under Captain Florian O. Cornay.
Commander of Price's cavalry corps was Major-General James Fleming Fagan. He was born in Clark County, Kentucky, March 1, 1828, and the family moved to Arkansas when he was ten. He served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War, and one term in the Arkansas legislature thereafter. Among the first in his state to recruit men for the Confederate cause in 1861, he became colonel of the 1st Arkansas Infantry, which he led at the Battle of Shiloh. Commissioned brigadier-general to rank from September 12, 1862, Fagan was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department and took part in the Battle of Prairie Grove and the repulse of Steele's Camden Expedition and promoted major-general to rank from April 25, 1864.
Fagan's first division was given to Brigadier-General Joseph Orville Shelby, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, December 12, 1830. He was educated by his step-father and at Transylvania University. Shelby engaged in the manufacture of rope, first at Lexington and Waverly, Missouri, and eventually became one of the wealthiest and most influencial citizens of the state. He led a band of pro-slavery Kentuckians in the Missouri-Kansas conflict of the late 1850s. At the outbreak of the war, he organized a cavalry company and enlisted under the banner of the Confederacy. Usually attached to the forces of Sterling Price, Shelby was active in almost every campaign of the war west of the Mississippi River. He fought at Carthage, Wilson's Creek, Pea Ridge, Helena and Camden as well as in scores of minor actions. His reputation west of the river compared favorably with that of Bedford Forrest in the east, and earned him contemporary renown in the area. Shelby was appointed brigadier-general to rank from December 15, 1863. His division counted 3,100 men.
Shelby's famous Iron Brigade was commanded by Colonel David Shanks. The native Kentuckian enlisted in the Confederate army in 1861 and became captain in the 2nd Missouri Cavalry and later lieutenant colonel of the consolidated 2nd/12th Missouri Cavalry. Shanks was promoted to colonel on August 20, 1863. His brigade of 1,400 men included the 5th, 11th, 12th and Elliott's Missouri Cavalry Regiments and Crisp's Missouri Cavalry Battalion.
Colonel Sidney Drake Jackman commanded the second brigade in the division. He was born on March 21, 1828, in Jessamine County, Kentucky and moved with his family to Howard County, Missouri in 1830. In the late 1840s, Jackman worked as a schoolteacher and farmer and organized local militias to deal with Jayhawkers in 1855. He chose to follow the Confederate cause in 1861 and entered the Missouri State Guard. Jackman would serve in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, mainly participating in irregular guerilla style tactics and regularly recruited men in Missouri. His brigade fielded 1,700 men in his own and Hunter's Missouri Cavalry Regiment as well as Schnable's and Williams' Missouri Cavalry Battalions and the 46th Arkansas Mounted Infantry.
Rounding uo the division was a battery of six guns under Captain Richard A. Collins.
The second division of Fagan's cavalry corps was commanded by Brigadier-General James Patrick Major, a native of Fayette, Missouri, who was born May 14, 1836. He won an appointment to West Point in 1852, and was graduated four years later. After a year at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, he served on the Texas Frontier where he killed three Indians during a skirmish. He resigned from the U.S. Army on March 21, 1861 and served on the staffs of Generals Van Dorn and Twiggs until he participated in the Battle of Wilson's Creek as lieutenant colonel of a Missouri State Guard regiment. As acting chief of artillery to Van Dorn he aided in repulsing the Federal fleet at Vicksburg in 1862. Thereafter, in common with many of the capable officers in the Trans-Mississippi Department, his service was mainly distinguished by participation in the Red River campaign, during which he fought commendably at Mansfield and Pleasant Hill. Upon the recommendation of General Richard Taylor, he had meanwhile been appointed brigadier-general to rank from July 21, 1863. His division fielded about 2,500 men.
Major's first brigade was commanded by Colonel Walter Paye Lane, a native of Ireland, who was born in County Cork, February 18, 1817, and emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1821. The family first settled in Guernsey County, Ohio. At the age of eighteen Lane went to Louisville and then to Texas, where he fought in the Battle of San Jacinto. His subsequent antebellum occupations ranged from cruising the Gulf of Mexico to fighting Indians and teaching school, and included service in the Mexican War as captain of a ranger company. He spent time mining in California, Nevada, Arizona and Peru and was elected lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Texas Cavalry in 1861, with which he fought at Wilson's Creek and Pea Ridge. Lane was later active in Louisiana in 1863, and in the Red River campaign the following year. During the Battle of Mansfield he was wounded. His brigade of 900 men included the 1st and 2nd Texas Partisan Rangers as well as the 2nd and 3rd Arizona Cavalry Regiments.
Colonel Arthur Pendleton Bagby junior commanded the second brigade in the division. Bagby was born in Claiborne, Alabama on May 17, 1833 as a son of Alabama Governor Arthur P. Bagby. He was graduated from West Point in 1852 and studied law until he was admitted to the bar in Alabama in 1855. On october 12, 1861, Bagby joined the Confederate army, serving as a major in the 7th Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers. He served in the New Mexico campaign and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on April 4, 1862 and to colonel on November 15, 1862. His brigade fielded 900 men in the 4th, 5th and 7th Texas Cavalry Regiments and the 13th Texas Cavalry Battalion.
The third brigade was led by Colonel George Washington Carter. He was born in January, 1826, in Fauquier County, Virginia and became a minister in the Methodist Church when he was twenty-one years old. In January 1860 the Texas Methodist Conference invited him to become president of Soule University at Chappell Hill, Texas. After the outbreak of the war he raised three regiments and went to Arkansas with his force in 1862. Carter led his men into Missouri with John Marmaduke in 1863 and fought along the Red River in 1864. His brigade included the 12th, 19th and 21st Texas Cavalry Regiments, 700 men altogether.
Accompanying the division were two batteries of four guns each under Captains Martin V. B. McMahan and William E. Gibson.
- Lothar
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