Confederate Veteran
Volume 35, Number 7, Page 265
July 1927

[From reminiscences by the late D. S. Combs, of Bastrop, Tex., on the part taken by the Combs and Cocreham boys in the War between the States. D. S. Combs was the first to join the army, which he did in the summer of 1861. Going to Bastrop, he joined Company D of Terry's Texas Rangers, and the command was sent immediately to Kentucky. He tells the story in the following article.]

In the first battle of the regiment, Colonel Terry was killed. The regiment was in many battles, particularly Perryville, Ky., Murfreesboro (my horse was killed under me at Murfreesboro), and Chickamauga, Tenn., and hundreds of smaller battles. Before General Banks's raid up Red River, I got my first furlough, and returned home, but, on account of the difficulty of getting back across the Mississippi River, I was assigned to Colonel Ford's Regiment at Brownsville, Tex., and was there until the close of the war. J. W. (Jack) Combs was in the Commissary Department at Port Hudson, La., when it was bombarded after the fall of Vicksburg and was severely wounded by a shell bursting near him, and when the fort was surrendered, he was paroled and went home. After he was sufficiently recovered, he was commissioned to take charge of a squad and collect and forward beef cattle to the army in Louisiana. He was in Karnes County, Tex., with a head of beeves ready to start for the army when he was notified of General Lee's surrender, and the beeves were turned loose on their own range.

J. H. Combs joined Company E, 6th Texas Infantry, Capt. John P. White and Col. R. R. Garland commanding. We left Seguin (where the company was organized in October, 1861), and marched to Victoria, where the regiment was organized and drilled six months. In the spring of 1862, we were ordered to Little Rock, Ark., and the regiment was put in General Holmes's brigade. I was left sick at Navasota, Tex., being laid up a month with inflammatory rheumatism, when I was able to be taken home. Shortly after reaching home, I was taken with typhoid ever and was sick six or eight weeks. Before I could get transportation to Arkansas, the regiment was taken prisoner at the battle of Arkansas Post and carried North. There were quite a number who escaped after the battle and those absent on sick furlough, and these and all refugees from Texas who escaped from Arkansas Post were, in the fall of 1862, ordered to Shreveport, La., and organized into the 17th Consolidated Texas Infantry, under Col. Jim Taylor, of East Texas. Later, Gen. J. C. DePolignac was put in command of the brigade, made up of several Texas regiments and a battalion. Those from the 6th Texas Infantry were put in Company H, under Capt. J. J. McCowen or McGowen. We marched nearly all over the western part of Louisiana, camping and drilling at various places.

Our first fight was at Vidalia, opposite Natchez, on the Mississippi River. Then we were in a gunboat fight at [Harrisonburg], on the Ouchita River, and fell back, crossed Red River at Alexandria, and fell back before General Banks until we met reenforcements at Mansfield. Here Gen. Dick Taylor decided to give battle. We were then in General Mouton's Division, DePolignac's Brigade, Dick Taylor's Corps. Almost at the beginning of the battle General Mouton was killed, and General DePolignac took command of the division; Col. Jim Taylor commanded the brigade. Lieutenant Colonel Nobles was killed in our first charge, as was our company commander, Lieut. Jose Garza. Our brigade was moved to the left, and, late in the afternoon, we came up in front of a new line of the enemy some three miles from where Lieutenant Colonel Nobles was killed.

I was shot down about a hundred years from the Yankee line, and Colonel Taylor was killed a little farther on. I lay where I fell until ten or eleven o'clock next day, not able to even turn over. At that time the ambulances came along and gathered up those near me and carried us to the hospital at Mansfield, the Baptist church, all the chruches and school houses being used as hospitals.

I remained there until the third day or night, when a nurse dropped a candle in the cotton used for our beds, and the church was completely burned down. I managed to get to a private house, Mr. Joe Jackson's, and remained there six weeks, when I was taken to Mr. Ed Ragsdale's at Jacksonville, Tex. There I became worse, and three weeks later, my brother-in-law came after me and took me home, which we reached on June 25, 1864. After I was able to ride horseback, I was detailed to help my brother Jack with gathering and forwarding beef cattle to the army in Louisiana. We were in Karnes County, with a hard of beeves ready to start to the army when we heard of General Lee's surrender and the close of the war. So we turned the cattle out and went home.

In the fall of 1861 John W. Cocreham went back to school at Bosqueville, near Waco, but shortly afterwards joined a company of State troops and went to Galveston. After six months they were mustered out, and each joined where he preferred in the regular army. John joined a company in Colonel Sweet's Regiment of Cavalry, to be with his brother (Bess) Sylvester (called Bes). The regiment was then on its way to Little Rock, Ark. John had not been in camp long before he took pneumonia and died. After this, Bess arranged to transfer to the company I had joined, and Jim Kincaid transferred to the company Bess had left, to be with some of his Kincaid relatives.

The 6th Texas Infantry was captured at the fall of Arkansas Post and taken to Camp Douglas, near Chicago. They were finally exchanged and sent South to some Atlantic port in Virginia or Carolina, and put into a brigade and division over there. At the battle of Chickamauga, Bess was killed and buried on the battle field.

J. M. Kincaid, my brother-in-law, joined Colonel Sweet's Regiment with Bess Cooreham. The regiment was organized at San Antonio and went immediately to Little Rock, Ark. Later on he was detailed to work in the Confederate harness and saddles shop, and was sent back to San Antonio, where he remained to the close of the war. He was in one battle in Arkansas.

Near the close of the war the old men in each country were organized as Home Guards, and D. R. Cocreham, my stop-father, was a lieutenant in command of the company in this part of Hays County, and served until the close of the war. They were never ordered out of the county or adjoining counties.