A Remembrance by the Grandson of James Harper Cobb

When I started on my search about a year ago to find out about my Grandfather James Harper Cobb, I had only a vague remembrance of the one time I ever saw him, and I knew nothing of his service in the Terry's Texas Rangers (8th Texas Cavalry) other than that my mother had told me that Grandpa Cobb was well respected in Bay City, Texas. And, as you can imagine, when I was young, I was too busy with my own life and trying to get ahead to give any real thought to Grandpa Cobb. My mother spoke highly of Grandpa. Since I would have been 11 years old when Grandpa Cobb died in 1939, thoughts of him passed away.

According to a letter dated March 11, 1862, written by General Thomas Neville Waul who formed Waul's Legion at Brenham, Texas in the spring of 1862, James H. Cobb was in the cavalry led by Ben McCulloch which surrounded General Twiggs, the Commander of the Union Forces at San Antonio and accomplished a bloodless surrender of all the cannon, guns and other military supplies stored in the Alamo, as well as the Union military personnel who were allowed to proceed to Indianola and debark on ships to return to the north. The surrender of Union Forces occurred February 16, 1861.

General Waul also states that James H. Cobb was a member of the Texas cavalry which proceeded to Indianola, Texas under the command of Colonel Van Dorn and captured a Union unite there who refused to surrender. The Texas cavalry may have included the
"Gonzales Invincibles" which belonged to the Texas Mounted Rifleman Service, Capt. G. W. L. Fly in command.

But now that I know and understand the trials and tribulations he went through as a Terry's Texas Ranger in the civil war, I have come to realize how tough those men were who were accepted into the Rangers. Too, they had to be expert horsemen, expert pistol shots (their attacks and battles were only done at close quarters). When they went to Houston to enlist,
they had to have the following: two pistols, a shotgun, and a Bowie knife. General Albert Sidney Johnston promised to assign them the best Kentucky horses available when they arrived at his headquarters in Bowling Green Kentucky.

There was one other significant requirement before they could be accepted into Terry's Rangers...they had to be TEXANS. It seems that the Texas men who were raised in the country, grew up riding horses, and learning to shoot straight had earned an enviable reputation as great warriors against the Indians and also the Mexican forces during the war with Mexico. And that reputation carried over into the Civil War generals, many of whom had been stationed in Texas.

Colonel Terry accepted only 1,150 men as volunteers at Houston, although over 4000 applicants showed up to enlist. I might add that at the end of the Civil War on the day before the surrender terms were accepted, there were only 248 Rangers of the original 1,150 present for duty. Those who wished to make their way back to Texas without surrendering were released. On April 26, 1865 Captain Tom Weston, Ranger Company H,
accepted the surrender terms. Only ninety members of the 8th Texas Cavalry remained.

According to the Texas State Archives, in October, 1862, James H. Cobb was wounded and furloughed (to recover from wounds). I remember the only time I saw Grandpa Cobb in Bay City, Texas (I was about 6), he showed us where he had been bayoneted in the ribs and he said he killed the Yankee who wounded him.

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