Terry's Texas Rangers

By Mrs. Kate Scurry Terrell.
A Comprehensive History of Texas, Vol . 2

On the stage between Austin and Brenham, in March of the fateful year 1861, three delegates returning from the secession convention were discussing the prospect of war. Believing an invasion emminent, and to repel it a duty of every man in the south able to bear arms, they determined to offer themselves to President Davis and set about raising troops for the field. These men were Frank Terry, a wealthy sugar-planter of Fort Bend County, frank, generous, and courtly, a typical Southerner of ante-bellum times, Tom Lubbock, a commision merchant of Houston, and kinsman of Terry, and John Wharton, planter and lawyer, of Brazoria, a native Texan, with all the ardor of youth and the stimulus of a fighting family behind him. Terry and Lubbock started overland for Montgomery, Alabama, but Wharton, thinking to make the trip more quickly, went by way of the Gulf and was taken prisoner. After a detention of 2 weeks and some heavy tongue engagements with the enemy, he was relesed, and returning home, recruited a company of young planters, the Company B of the "Rangers." In the mean time Terry and Lubbock, catching the enthusiasm east of the Mississippi, rushed on through to Virginia just as "Major-General Scott had his orders got to push on his columns to Richmond." They reported to General Longstreet, and served with distinction on his staff at the battle of Manassas. General Beauregard in his official report of the engagement, "finds it proper to acknowledge the signal services rendered by Colonels B. F. Terry and T. Lubbock, of Texas. They made valuable reconnoissances of the enemy's posistion and carried orders to the field. Colonel Terry, with his unerring rifle, severed the halliard, and thus lowered the Federal flag floating over the court-house, and also secured a large Federal garrison flag designed, it is said, to be unfurled over our entrenchments at Manassas." A short time afterwards Terry and Lubbock recieved their commisions, with orders to "recruit a regiment of skilled horseman for immediate service." Returning to Texas, the established head-quarters at Houston and issued the following call for volunteers:

"Having been authorized by the Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America to raise a regiment of mounted rangers for service in Virginia, we hereby apoint Captain ------ to raise and enroll a full company, to consist of one captain, one first leutanant, two second leutenants, four corporals, one blacksmith, two musicians, and from sixty-four to one hundred privates, and to report the same to us on or before the 1st day of september next. Each man will be required to furnish equipments for horse and to arm himself. The company will be transported free. The term of service will be during the war unless sooner discharged.

B. F. Terry.
T. S. Lubbock."

No Highland torch ever gathered Scottish clan more quickly than did this call muster young planters, professional men, merchants,--the "kid-glove gentry" of the Old South. They came from every direction, with flags flying and bugles blowing, their young hearts aglow with patriotism and pride, eager to set out for fear the war might be over they could reach Virginia to see the fun and win their spurs. In less than 30 days ten companies of one hundred men each had reported at Houston, been sworn in for "as long as this war shall last," and, without waiting to organize a regiment, started on their way to Virginia amid the waving of handkerchiefs and the tearful "God speed you" of sweethearts and wives. At New Orleans Terry recieved a letter from General Albert Sydney Johnston, then recruiting an army at Bowling Green, Kentucky, requesting that the "Rangers" report to him, and promising that while under him they should be an independent command. A vote was put to the regiment and the voice was for Kentucky. Colonel Terry made a halt at Nashville to enable the different companies to overtake him.

The dare-devil reputation of the "Rangers" had preceded them, and one of the questions asked by coquettish bright eyes was, "Where are your horns?" A flourished sombrero was to prove the bright head underneath incapable of growing 'em! About the middle of November Terry reported to General Johnston at Bowling Green, and though he was a commissioned officer he proceeded to organize his regiment on the good old democratic plan of election by majority, with the following result: colonel, B. F. Terry; lietenant-colonel, T. S. Lubbock; major, Thomas Harrison; adjutant, Martin A. Royston; quartermaster, B. A. Botts; commissary, R. H. Simmons; surgeon, J. M. Weston; assistant surgeon, Robert E. Hill; sergeant-mojor, William B. Sayers; quartermaster-sergeant, M. F. Deballegathy; ordnance-sergeant, James Edmondson; hospital steward, Thomas J. Potts. The regiment was mustered into service as the Eighth Texas Cavalry, but was better known to the army and to fame as "Terry's Texas Rangers." At Bowling Green soldiering began in earnest. Cold, privation, and constant exposure scourged with camp diseases these delicately bred youths, of whom many died and some were discharged and sent home. From Bowling Green Major Thomas Harrison was sent with two companies on a scout to Jamestown, where, discovering a force of five thousand Yankees, he very properly faced about and returned to Bowling Green. This did not suite our young bloods spoiling for a fight, who in derision dubbed him the "Jimtown Major." Afterwards, in leading the regiment into battle, Major Harrison would call out, "Now follow your Jimtown Major," and they would ride fast and far, through storm of shot and shell, who followed. Another scouting party to Green River had a "little brush" with the Yankees, but without casualties.

Early in December Colonel Terry was ordered to the Louisville Pike to join a small force of infantry under General Hindman. At Woodsonville, December 17, 1861, the "Rangers" made thier first charge, and gallant Colonel Terry was killed in leading it. The main body of the Federal army was laying at Camp Wood on Green River. Colonel Willich, with a regiment of German troops, had been sent across to test the strength of the Confederates, and had deployed his men behind fences, haystacks, and trees, near the river. Colonel Terry had instructions from General Hindman to decoy the enemy up the hill , so that he could use his infantry and artillery with effect. Leaving General Hindman several miles in the rear, Terry came upon the enemy's pickets at half-past nine in the morning. Ordering Captain Ferrell to take half the regiment and move to the right of the enemy, he with the other half marched rapidly to the left. A deep railroad cut divided the two commands until they reached an open field, where, at a given signal, they simultaneously charged. Colonel Terry on the left, at the head of his seventy-five "Rangers," charged upon three hundred of the enemy behind thier defenses, routed and drove them back, but fell mortally wounded. At the same time Ferrell had made a headlong charge on the right, the "Rangers" discharging thier shot-guns within thirty yards of the Federals and thier six-shooters in thier faces. Retiring and reloading they made a second charge, when Major Royston was seen coming across the railroad bridge in a storm of shot to tell them of Terry's death and that Ferrell was now in command. Hindman's infantry coming up, the "Rangers" moved back to carry their dead colonel and wounded to the rear. General Hardee, in his official report, says of this charge: "The conduct of the Rangers was marked by impetuous valor. In charging the enemy, Colonel Terry was killed in the moment of victory. His regiment deplores the loss of a beloved and brave commander, the army one of its ablest officers." There is a slight discrepancy between the reports of this fight. General Buell reports, "the rebels ingloriously defeated." Some days after the battle the scouts captured a Federal officer who was in the fight on Terry's side of the railroad. Among his papers was a letter to his sweetheart, in which he says: "The Texas Rangers are as quick as lightning. They ride like Arabs, shoot like archers at a mark, and fight like devils. They rode upon our bayonets as if they were charging a commissary department, are wholly without fear themselves, and no respecters of a wish to surrender." Lieutenant-Colonel Tom Lubbock died a few days afterwards, and Captain John A. Wharton, of Company B, was elected colonel. In General Johnston's retreat to Corinth the "Rangers" were continuall scouting, dashing to the rear for supplies, and through and around the Federal Camps for information. Individual acts of daring were of daily occurrence.

The latter part of March, 1862, Judge David S. Terry, of California, and Mr. Clinton Terry, of Brazoria, brothers of Colonel Frank Terry, joined the regiment. The sick and wounded reported for duty, and the opening guns of Shiloh found them in the saddle and ready. Wharton's official report to General Beauregard reads as follows:

"The Rangers were holding the bridge across Owl Creek on Sunday, the 6th. Here I recieved an order from General Beauregard to cross Owl Creek and co-operate with the left of the army. Reporting to General Hardee, in command of our left, I was ordered to dismount the Rangers and protect a battery then opening on the enemy. The enemy apperently retiring, General Hardee ordered me to pursue them. Mounting the command, I promptly proceeded in the direction I supposed them to be, when the head of the column recieved a heavy fire from a large force lying in ambush. Having been compelled to cross a boggy ravine in single file, the head of the regiment was a full four hundred yards in advance of the rear, when I and twenty or thirty of those in advance came under a heavy fire from the concealed Federals not forty yards distant. Clinton Terry fell mortally wounded at my side. It being impossible from the nature of the ground to form for a charge, I drew off the regiment in good order, with some few wounded, myself among the number. I then dismounted my men and joined the infasntry in our rear. After a severe struggle we succeeded in driving the enemy back. I then mounted again, going to the extreme left to a battery that needed support. I threw five dismounted companies forward as skirmishers. My men behaved most gallantly, advancing upon the enemy and driving them through the camp which they were guarding. I encamped for the night on the extreme left, near the battery I had been sustauining. My command lay upon their arms during the night prepared for action. On Monday, April 7, the left flank of the army fell back about daylight. At ten, General Beauregard ordered me to charge the right of the enemy, which was heavily pressing our left. I was compelled to pass through a wood down the sides of a ravine. Again this threw the head of the regiment in advance of the rear. Upon rising a hill, I found it occupied by the reserves of the Federals advancing in line of battle, who opened a disatrous fire upon us, killing and wounding many and disabling my horse. I withdrew the command a short distance. While thus engaged on the left, our army fell back upon Shiloh Church, and I returned to posistion in the rear of our infantry to protect the retreat ordered by General Beauregard. On Tuesday morning my wound became so painful--Having been in the saddle for two days after it was recieved--that I decided to report myself to Corinth, turning over my command to Major Harrison. I respectfully refer you to Major Harrison's report for a brilliant led by himself on Tuesday afternoon.

John A. Wharton."

Of this charge Harrison reports to Colonel Wharton: "We captured forty three prisoners, leaving forty dead on the ground. My loss was two killed, seven wounded among them being Captain Gustave Cook, Lieutenants Story and Gordon. Colonel Bedford Forrest, who volunteered into the charge with us, was slightly wounded. The Rangers acted throughout the affair with admirable coolness and courage. I cannot say more than that they fully sustained the ancient fame of the name they bear. They could not do more. I cannot discriminate between them, because each one displayed a heroism worthy the cause we are engaged for."

Near the middle of April a Kentucky regiment under Colonel Adams and the “Rangers” under Wharton were sent to scout in Middle Tennessee, and floundered about without purpose for a month.  On May 10, Captain Houston, with the First Kentucky Cavalry and a detachment of the “Rangers,” was ordered to cut off the retreat of the enemy on Elk River.  They had a sharp fight near the railroad bridge at Bethel.  Captain Harris and five “Rangers” were killed.  Of the Federals seventeen were killed and forty-nine taken prisoners.  Captain Houston was given much credit in the reports for this skirmish.  On June 9, 1862, the “Rangers,” under that heaven-born cavalryman, Colonel Bedford Forrest, were brigaded with the Fourth Tennessee under Colonel Baxter Smith, First Georgia under Colonel Crews, and the Second Georgia under Colonel Lawton.  Up to this time the “Rangers” had been, as General Johnston promised, an independent command.  Bragg was now in command of the Army of Tennessee, and his slogan, “On to Kentucky.”  Forrest began the forward movement, and made his first raid in the rear of the Federal army.  Like “Stonewall” Jackson, he was always an unknown quantity to the enemy, cutting his line of communication to-day, and to-morrow destroying his supplied miles away, dashing into wagon-trains and capturing arms, ammunition, medicine, stores, and prisoners by the score.  At McMinnville Forrest reorganized his command. The Fourth Tennessee was now under Captain Paul Anderson, Colonel Baxter Smith having been captured.  This Tennessee regiment was known to the army as “Paul’s people,” not from having “met the Lord in the highway and been converted,” but from the affectionate manner Colonel Anderson had of speaking of them as “my people.”  This dashing young officer had all of Forrest’s scorn for tactics.  His command were volunteers from “Lebanon in the Cedars,” and he had christened it “Cedar-Snags.”  His morning exercise was:  “Fall in, Cedar-Snags!  Double up on Jim Britton!  Double up ag’in!  March!”  In battle his commands were:  “Attention, Cedar-Snags!  Line up on Jim Britton!  Charge!”  This was all the tactics he knew or needed.

At Murfreesboro’ General Buell had a force of two thousand infantry and a battery of artillery guarding his supplies there.  Forrest determined to capture them.  Late in the afternoon of July 12, 1862, twelve hundred men started on an all-night’s ride to Murfreesboro’.  At Woodbury, in the middle of the night, women, “like angels in white,” came to the windows to cheer them on.  One grief-distracted wife caught Colonel Wharton’s stirrup and besought him to rescuer her husband, who was to be hung as a spy at noon in Murfreesboro’.  Wharton assured her that if he lived he would.  In the gray light of the summer’s dawn the order came down the line, “Halt!  Dismount!  Tighten girths!  Recap guns!”  Here Forrest sent a courier to Colonel Wharton for a trusted officer and ten men.  Lieutenant Weston and ten men from Company H were sent to him. Forrest said:  “Lieutenant Weston, I desire the pickets in our front captured without the firing of a gun.”  Shortly Weston reported the duty done.  Then, like the surge of the sea, was heard the beat of their horses’ hoofs as they galloped into Murfreesboro’, Forrest and Wharton leading.  By some mistake only the “Rangers” followed.  Wharton with one hundred and twenty men charged on the infantry at the right of the town, who, notwithstanding their surprise, defended their camp gallantly, pouring a galling fire into the “Rangers,” wounding Colonel Wharton and causing him to fall back.  Forrest on the left charged on the artillery, but, on looking back, he found only thirty or forty “Rangers” behind him.  He rushed back for his Georgians, and, getting lost in the town, rode up to a house and routed out a citizen in his night-clothes, and, mounting the frightened man behind him, made him pilot him to his men.  He charged back to the relief of the “Rangers,” and with incomparable coolness began his strategy of “bluff.”  Marching his men in and out around the court-house, he sent a flag of truce to General Crittenden with this order:--

“Murfreesboro’, July 13, 1862.

General,--I must demand an unconditional surrender of your force as prisoners of war, or I will have every man put to the sword.  You are aware of the overpowering force at my command, and this demand is to prevent the effusion of blood.  I am, general,

Your very obedient servant,
“N. B. Forrest, C. S. A.

After a short consultation with General Duffield, who had been wounded in Wharton’s charge on the infantry, General Crittenden, thinking Bragg’s whole army upon him, surrendered at discretion his entire command, eighteen hundred and sixty-four privates, four commissioned officers, a battery of four guns, arms, ammunition, stores, horses, and mules, to the amount of a half-million dollars.  The mortification of the Federals was extreme when they found that Forrest had not enough men to guard his capture.  When offered parole, General Crittenden drew himself up and haughtily replied that he did not recognize guerillas as soldiers, and refused.  Forrest shrugged his shoulders, saying, “Very well,” and ordered two big West Texans, in buckskin and armed to the teeth, to guard him.  These old campaigners gave each other the wink and the general a most uncomfortable half-hour by telling ferocious yarns about what they were in the habit of doing with prisoners.  It was not long before Forrest was petitioned for a parole.  A pleasing instance of the amenities of war occurred in Captain Ferrell’s charge with Forrest on the artillery.  A citizen had volunteered to go with the “Rangers” into the fight.  In the charge he was severely wounded and about to fall from h is horse, when Private Graber, of Company B, caught him, and, as the command scattered, was left in the field with the wounded man.  Coming to a fence, which the “Ranger” could have jumped without difficulty had he been alone, he coolly dismounted, under a rain of bullets, and pulled the fence down.  The Federals, seeing the gallant act, ceased firing and cheered him as he carefully bore his man out of danger.

From Murfreesboro’ Forrest made his celebrated feint on Nashville, causing panic and wild confusion in that devoted town.  In his official report he says:  “I hear the enemy was badly scared.  I regret exceedingly I had so few men.  I might have captured the city without trouble.”  The Murfreesboro’ fight made Forrest a brigadier-general, and he was given command of a division.  Wharton was now in command of the brigade and Major Harrison of the “Rangers,” and Bragg and Buell were racing towards Louisville, the “Rangers” in front of Buell stubbornly contesting every mile of his march.  At Bardstown, Kentucky, Wharton was ordered by General Wheeler to hold a certain position for a given time, to allow Bragg to move away.  The brigade was in an open field, men and horses resting.  The “Rangers” had been in the saddle forty-eight hours, and most of that time fighting.  The scouts sent to reconnoiter came flying in to report that they were surrounded by Buell’s army.  Captain Jaron’s company, guarding the rear, was seen moving rapidly towards the regiment.  Coloenl Harrison remarked to Wharton:  “There is great danger when Jarmon retreats in a hurry.  What had best be done?”  Wharton replied: “Charge them outright.  Up, Rangers, and at them!”  And as the Federal cavalry, like a great blue cloud, charged down upon the little band with drawn sabers, gallant Ben Polk wrapped his bridle-reins around the pommel of his saddle, and, holding his six-shooter in his right hand, blew a defiant charge with his left.  Jarmon wheeled into position, and the “Rangers” with a wild yell thundered down upon the advancing column.  White got to one side with his two small cannon to allow the rear to pass, and, seeing a place to operate, unlimbered and poured shot into the enemy over the heads of the “Rangers.”  The Federals broke in confusion, throwing arms and accoutrements away as they scattered,-- “Texas six-shooter against Yakee sabre, and victorious.”  Wharton had cut his way through to Wheeler, and was made a brigadier for this charge.

On the morning of the 18^th of October, after twenty-three days of hard fighting, hunger, and hardship, they were halted on Harrodsburg Creek, near Perryville, Kentucky.  The Federals held a position on a timbered ridge opposite, on which they had posted on hundred and twenty cannon.  The Confederate army lay along the bluff on the creek; between the two armies was an open field.  While Bragg was awaiting an attack by the enemy’s artillery in the morning, Buell sent a detachment to flank his rear.  To extricate himself, Bragg ordered his cavalry to attack.  Wharton’s brigade moved out on the flank of the Federals until it was in line on the right of Hardee.  Wheeler’s cavalry filed in from the main body and assumed position on Wharton’s right.  It was soon discovered that the Confederate cavalry was to make one grand charge, and to pus h on until the Federal army should change its front or repel them.  Wharton and his staff took position at the head of the “Rangers,” and a charge was ordered.  They move like the wind on the batteries belching flame.  Whole sections of the brigade are moved down, but they ride steadily and faster until they reach the cannon’s mouth, and the six-shooter does its effective work.  Cheer after cheer comes up fro the Confederates in the valley, and Hardee and Cheatham ascend the hill in one of the most superb infantry charges of the war.  Slowly the Federals give back, and night closes with the Confederates in possession of the field.  In the night Bragg falls back towards Cumberland Gap, and the hotly-contested field of Perryville is “without results.”

Bragg’s retreat from Kentucky was pushed by Buell with energy and decision, the “Rangers” guarding his rear.  In Tennessee, the latter part of 1862, the duty of the “Rangers” was relaxed.  They were at home among the warm-hearted and hospitable Tennesseans.  Warm firesides, “square” meals, and the smiles of pretty girls made an Eden on earth awhile for the war-torn soldiers.  From the report on Christmas morning, they had recruited to an effective force of six hundred and ninety men, five hundred and seventy-two in camp and a hundred and eighteen off on special duty.  December 27, Rosecrans (now head of the class in “Lincoln’s Academy for the graduation of young and sudden field-marshals”) confronted Bragg on Stone River, near Murfreesboro’.  Wharton was sent with five days’ rations to the rear of the Federal army, to cut off communications and supplies.  He returned to the front on the morning of the 31st, and was ordered to attack the Federal pickets.  Driving them in, his command fell back and stood in line of battle under severe shelling from the enemy’s artillery.  He heard the cry:  “The enemy is giving way.  Bring up the cavalry,” but it proved only a fall-back for the reserves to move up.  Then the Confederates gave way and a cavalry charge was ordered.  This continued all day.  At night, the “Rangers” were ordered to the rear of the Federals for information.  They found Rosecrans’s army hurriedly retreating, leaving its wounded, its wagons, everything behind.  The “Rangers” returned to report the wonderful news, and found General Bragg in full retreat.  Each army “skedaddling” from the other,--spectacle for the gods and men!

Early in 1863 the “Rangers” were again with Forrest, now a major-general in Wheeler’s division.  In February, Forrest with eight hundred men made a raid to Fort Donelson, of disastrous memory, at this time heaveily protected by gunboats.  He did some sharp fighting but without success, and returned to Shelbyville.  At Donelson, Sam Maverick, of San Antonio, distinguished himself by swimming the Cumberland River, in a driving sleet, and setting fire to a number of the enemy’s transports.  During the winter and spring Forrest captured three thousand wagons, eight thousand mules, quartermaster’s and commissary stores, and prisoners without number.  He was always on the wing, swooping down upon the enemy when least expected, raiding from Sparta, Tennessee, to every point of the compass,--at times into Kentucky, again towards Nashville, fighting and dashing away seemingly into space.  In April, the Eleventh Texas was mounted, and with Duke’s regiment, the First Kentucky Cavalry, was sent to Wharton.  In June, Bragg began his retreat to Chattanooga, Wharton’s brigade doing picket duty in his rear, fighting at Gray’s Gap, Allision, Deckard, Battle Creek, and Trenton.  From this long and hard campaign the “Rangers” went into camp at Cave Springs, near Rome, Georgia, with two hundred and fifty men and one hundred and sixty horses fit for service.  Here they rested for two months, and returned to peaceful and pleasant ways of life.  Chaplain Bunting, mindful of their souls, now that he was not binding up their wounded bodies, held a series of revival meetings.  A Masonic lodge was formed, and “pie-rooting” and flirting kept pace with the more serious business.  General Wharton having had three horses killed under him, and having refused to run for governor of Texas (his mother had refused for him, saying her son’s place was “at the front, as long as there was need for a man there”), the “Rangers” determined to present him with the finest charger Confederate money would buy.  They bought a magnificent bay thoroughbred, and sent to San Antonio for a thousand-dollar Mexican saddle, all embroidery and jingling silver.  They gave a grand barbecue, and the whole surrounding country being invited, came and pitched their tents along with the soldiers.  Private John B. Rector (now a grave and reverent United States district judge) presented the horse to Colonel Wharton in a speech full of war poetry and fire-eating eloquence.  Spread-eagle oratory and fun were the order of the day.

For days after Chickamauga the “Rangers” were on scout duty, following Rosecrans’s retreat to Chattanooga.  They captured their food and ate it in the saddle.  Men slept in the saddle from exhaustion.  The regimental report, on October 1, shows that forty per cent. of them had been killed, wounded, and captured,--one-fourth of these off duty forever.  On the 18th of October, 1863, General Rosecrans was relieved from the Army of Tennessee, and U. S. Grant assumed command with autocratic powers.  He telegraphed Thomas to “hold Chattanooga at all hazards.”  Bragg had invested in Chattanooga, and held the Yankee army there at the point of starvation.  Wheeler’s cavalry, to which the “Rangers” were attached, had been sent to the rear to cut off supplies.  Near McMinnville, after a sharp fight, he captured seven hundred prisoners and a train of seven hundred wagons loaded with ammunition and other stores.  He then attacked McMinnville, capturing another large train and five hundred and thirty prisoners, and destroying several bridges and the railroad track.  He moved on to Shelbyville, where he captured and burned a large amount of stores.  The army supplies captured and destroyed by him in this raid is without precedent in the annals of raiding.

Near Shelbyville the “Rangers” had a desperate skirmish with Wilder’s cavalry, which charged down upon them with a battery of eight guns as they turned into the Louisburg Pike, cutting them off from Wheeler’s main body.  Colonels Cook and Christian and Ben Polk were wounded as the regiment cut its way through to Wheeler.  The “Rangers” were now sent to Knoxville, to guard Longstreet’s rear, and were with him during the East Tennessee campaign against Burnside, then intrenched at Knoxville.  The territory to be scouted over was large and full of secret foes (dastardly traitors to their own people), the cavalry few and worn out by long and hard service, the horses barely fit for use.  Incessant vigilance being necessary, the men were continually on duty.  The soldiers were without tents, and often with no other food than parched corn, scouting and skirmishing through snow and sleet, swimming swollen streams,--sometimes their clothes were frozen and their horses’ manes and tails solid icicles when they reached the opposite bank.  The Texans were ordered to take the fords below the other troops, in order to rescue the soldiers who were swept from their horses.  On one occasion Private Tom Gill swam his horse across with an Alabamian, clutched by the hair, in each hand.  At Strawberry Plains, almost starved, they came upon a track of flour which they traced to a covered outhouse.  The appropriated their “find” in short order, but before they could get their biscuits made a good angel, in the shape of a woman, ran up and told them that the flour was poisoned.  A test was made, and enough poison found to kill Longstreet’s army, much less the troublesome “Rangers.”

From the 1st of January, 1864, they were raiding continually.  They crossed and recrossed the Tennessee River six times, going around the Federal army, capturing supplies and prisoners, fighting and falling back, until the 13th of April, at Cleveland, Tennessee, where they made a gallant stand, but were driven back to the main army.  In the mean time, Bragg had been defeated at Chattanooga and Missionary Ridge by the “Great Hammerer” and had retreated to Dalton, Georgia, where he was removed and Joseph E. Johnston placed in command.  Grant had been transferred to the Army of the Potomac, and Sherman had taken command of the Western army,--his battle-cry, “On to Atlanta.”  He moved on to Dalton in three columns, under Thomas, Schofield, and McPherson.  Here Johnston was expected to give battle, but instead he retreated towards Atlanta.

Johnston in his retreat would get into position and offer battle.  Sherman would make a faint in front, while his flank would be on the move towards Johnston’s rear with nothing to oppose it but Wheeler’s cavalry.  At Resaca the “Rangers” had a short and sharp fight.  At Cassville they made a daring and successful charge.  They were on Wheeler’s left, dismounted and lying in the sunshine holding their horses, one company on picket.  Suddenly the two regiments in front were thrown into disorder by the Federal cavalry charging tino their midst and hammering them with their sabers.  “To mount!  To mount!” sounded Polk’s bugle; “Charge!” and making the woods ring with, “If you want to smell hell jist jine the cavalry,” the “Rangers” dashed to the rescue, the six-shooter again victorious.  At New Hope Church and at Big Shanty they were dismounted, fighting as infantry and doing work with pickaxe and spade, building the breastworks which General Johnston thought so necessary.  Napoleon said, “An army that remains behind intrenchments is beaten.”  At New Hope Church, at Altoona and Marietta, there was battle royal for hours, and again at Atlanta, where Johnston began at once to strengthen the defences.  Early in July Johnston was removed and Hood placed in command.  From Dalton to Atlanta Sherman had lost forty thousand men; Johnston had not lost a regiment, nor a wagon, nor (his soldiers say) a wagon-pin in that most wonderful retreat of history.  He had won the admiration of his own army and the very careful respect of William Tecumseh Sherman.

After the battle of Peachtree Creek, Hood, needing correct information of Sherman’s movement, asked Wheeler for a careful, fearless, and trusted officer and a small force, and Captain A. M. Shannon and three men from each company of the “Rangers” were sent to him.  Shannon’s order was, “Reliable information at all hazards.”

Captain Shannon divided his men into squads; each squad had orders to rendezvous at certain points at given times for further instructions, their movements to be independent but sure.  Woe to the Yankee house-burner, thief, and ravisher found in their path!  They watched for Sherman’s torch from the highest points, and when they saw a column of smoke a signal was given, and like a small cyclone they rushed down upon the “bummers” before they could recover their arms or make resistance.  But these miserable offscourings of the earth rarely resisted, oftener falling on their knees to beg for their coward lives.  Mr. Claiborne gives this exract from the diary of a private in Company B:  “August 9, 1864.  Saw a large smoke about a half-mile to our left.  Ten of us started to investigate.  Found eighteen or twenty Yankees burning house and gin of Mr. K.  Yankees looting, women and children trying to save anything they can, Negroes dancing and singing.  We moved upon them from two sides, and in a moment were among them, our six-shooters doing full duty.  Killed nine, wounded seven, balance prisoners.  Gave horse and grub to the family.  Whipped a few of the Negroes and warned them, divided greenbacks, arms, and accoutrements, and moved out for the next little expedition at hand.”

In July Sherman invested Atlanta, and sent Stoneman and McCook, with nine thousand cavalry, to tear up the railroad tracks around Macon and move on to Andersonville.  The purpose of this raid was to capture Andersonville and release seventy thousand prisoners there and to turn them against Johnston’s rear. Harrison’s and Ross’s brigades under W. H. Jackson met McCook at Newman, Georgia, and repulsed him, capturing two guns and a number of prisoners and leaving many killed and wounded.  “On the whole,” Sherman reports, “the cavalry raid is not deemed a success.”  Hood now sent Wheeler with his entire cavalry to raid on Sherman’s line of communication.  On the 31st of August, 1864, Hood telegraphed to Richmond that it was necessary to abandon Atlanta.  Sherman ordered the evacuation of the city, and the women and children were driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet.  General Hood, protesting that this was “ungenerous and unprecedented cruelty,” this modern Attila replied: “Talk this to the marines, not to me.  War is cruelty.”  His orders in Tennesee had been to “treat Southern sympathizers as wild beasts,” and well did his troops obey him.  Wherever his horse trod he left the abomination of desolation behind him.

Hood began his march in the rear of Sherman towards Tennessee, leaving only Wheeler’s cavalry to annoy and delay the “march to the sea.”  The “Rangers” fought the Federal cavalry daily.  At Aiken, South Carol.ina, they fought artillery.  At Johnstown, Anderson Court-House, Wilmington, Ayresboro’, Harrisboro’, Buckinghman House, and around Raleigh they had sharp skirmishes.  On the 10th of March, 1865, General Wade Hampton surprised General Kilpatrick at Monroe’s plantation, that brilliant soldier barely escaping with his life, and leaving his Arabian charger and his octoroon lady-love in his sudden flight.  The Confederates captured a large amount of stores and arms.  General Tom Harrison and his chief of staff, Major W. B. Sayers, were wounded in this charge.  From the fight with Kilpatrick to Bentonville, North Carolina, where the “Rangers” made their last charge, was a ten-days’ battle.  Cook and Jarmon, the last of the field officers, were wounded and sent to the rear.  Colonel Cook had so often been wounded that the soldiers called him “their Yankee lead-mine.”  Captain Doc Matthews, of Company K, a youth of twenty-three, was now in command of the regiment, and Colonel Baxter Smith, of Tennessee, after a twenty-two months’ imprisonment, was in charge of the brigade.  In the Century Magazine of October, 1887, Captain W. R. Friend, a “Ranger” who was there, gives the following account of this famous charge:--

The writer, who for four months, during the trying and exciting march from Atlanta to Bentonville, had been absent by reason of wounds, joined the regiment on the 22d of March.  The Confederate army was reported to be on the south side of Mill Creek.  A high causeway, a quarter of a mile long, led through marshy and boggy ground to a bridge over the stream.  I heard firing about a mile south of us.  Soon this causeway was filled with a disordered mob of Confederate cavalry making good time finding the rear.  From them it was learned that at least a corps of the enemy’s infantry had attacked and driven them back, and while they were telling the tale the enemy gained the high bank of the opposite side of the creek and cut off the only line of retreat for Hardee’s army.  Just here firing was again heard on the south side, and knowing the ‘Rangers’ were there, the writer ventured to tread the dangerous path to share their fate and fortune.  As he ascended the opposite hill, General Hardee and a few staff officers and couriers were on the right of the road.  As the enemy approached Butler’s cavalry, they retired so hastily that General Hardee asked: ‘Are there no troops, no men here to check this advance?’  It was suggested that the ‘Rangers’ were in reserve, and Hardee ordered them up.  When the head of the column approached, the veteran eye of the general scanning the juvenile face of Matthews indicated the belief that if the salvation of the army depended on him all was lost.  But to his order, ‘That this advance must be checked,’ the quick, decisive reply of Matthews, ‘We are the men to do it, general,’ gave him hope.  As the regiment passed the general, he and his sixteen-year-old son Willie, who had the day before enlisted in Company D, tipped their hats to each other.  And, as gallantly as at the first charge at Woodsonville, the ‘Rangers’ raised a yell and spurred at the long blue line of infantry regardless of disparity in numbers.  The enemy, scarcely making a stand, fired a volley or two and retreated as if panic-stricken.  Almost the first shot fired struck Willie Hardee, killing him instantly.  The writer met the regiment as it reformed near General Hardee and General Johnston, who had joined him.  A more gallant band never returned from victory.  Black as Mexicans from exposure, pine-smoke, and the lack of soap, ragged and dirty, a bronze front they formed, one hundred and fifty of them, all that was left of two thousand.  They had made their last charge, the last regular fight of Johnston’s army.”

Thirty days afterwards, at Greensboro’, North Carolina, Johnston formally surrendered to Sherman, and all was over.

All is gone,—
But the memory of those days; of the ranks that met the blaze
Of the sun adown the hill.  Charge on charge, I see them still.
All is gone,—
Yet I hear the echoing crash, see the sabers gleam and flash;
See the gallant, headlong dash. — All is gone.”

From their enlistment until the surrender the “Rangers” maintained themselves at their own  and the enemy’s expense.  True to themselves and their cause, they neither flinched nor faltered, but fought on until their flag was furled forever.  They felt that the reputation of the heroes of the Alamo and San Jacinto, and later the fame of the border frays of that dashing ranger, Captain Jack Hays, rested upon them; and with devotion and heroism, through victory and defeat, each man was counted worthy.  No battle-song has been penned for them, no history written of their valor; but not Travis nor Crockett, not Rusk nor the elder Whartons, offered their lives a more willing sacrifice to a cause they believed just.

The patience and silent heroism of that after-struggle with poverty and changed social conditions, under a military despotism that pales into insignificance the Russian occupation of Poland,—so-called “reconstruction,”—who can fitly portray it?  Some day, in a new generation, a new Carlyle, poet and historian, will tell the story to a listening world.  Thrice happy the State that claims such sons, doing their duty nobly, whether in storm of battle or stress of life.

In December of each year the remnant of the old regiment meet to ride and raid, in the track of old armies, under the shadow of the Tennessee mountains, by whispering streams, under silent stars, growing young and dashing and heroic again as they thrill to the shock of old battles.  God’s blessing rest upon them, until that last bugle calls them to “fall in” with the shadowy line, two thousand strong, on the other side.

Terrell, Kate Scurry. "Terry's Texas Rangers." A Comprehensive History of Texas, Vol . 2. Edited by Dudley G. Wooten. Dallas: William G. Scarff, 1898.