After Hood’s failure in Tennessee, command of the army was returned to General Joseph Johnston in January, 1865. For the rest of the war the Texans in Johnston’s army fought in vain to arrest Sherman’s advance from Savannah into the Carolinas. At the time of the surrender there were only about six hundred men in the eight regiments that composed Granbury’s old brigade. In one company of the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry there were but five men left.[117]
Elsewhere, earlier in the war, Ross’ Cavalry Brigade had engaged in extensive raiding operations in the Alabama-Mississippi-Tennessee area. Ross’ command was composed of the Third Texas Cavalry, the Sixth Texas Cavalry, The Ninth Texas Cavalry, and Twenty-Seventh Texas Cavalry. After patrolling to the south of Vicksburg, the brigade spent much of the remainder of 1864 harassing a large Union force that shifted from the Mississippi Valley to the east, and in defending Atlanta. While striving to delay United States advances against Atlanta, the brigade averaged a fight a day for over three months. Late that fall, Ross was ordered to support Hood’s re-entry into Tennessee. In raids of late November and December, Ross lost over one hundred men; yet he captured over five times that number of prisoners, he seized nine Federal colors, he relieved the enemy of a great amount of equipment, he destroyed two fully loaded United States railway supply trains, and he captured almost fifty supply wagons. Ross’ Brigade ended the war again conducting patrol actions in Mississippi.[118]
Similarly active was Terry’s Texas Rangers. After suffering forty per cent casualties in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga struggles, the Rangers so diligently carried out raids against Federal camps that they crossed and re-crossed the Tennessee River on six different occasions in the winter of 1863-64. After the fall of Atlanta and the commencement of Hood’s Tennessee campaign, the Rangers remained in Georgia with Wheeler’s Cavalry Corps—the only sizable unit left to oppose Sherman’s march across Georgia. When the Union army reached Savannah and redirected its march into the Carolinas, the Texans kept up their futile efforts to delay the advance of the overpowering Federal forces. Finally, in April of 1865, at Greensboro, North Carolina, the Texans learned of General Joseph Johnston’s surrender. In spite of this, a number of men agreed to evade their captors and to flee westward in small groups to join Kirby Smith’s army in the Southwest. But by the time these men reached the Mississippi River, news was heard of the surrender of all Confederate forces to the west. Disappointed brigade members then realized the hopelessness of their situation and disbanded.[119]
Texas contributed heavily to the Confederate military effort in terms of manpower and in the area of leadership. It contributed one general, Albert Sidney Johnston. It was the adopted home of a lieutenant general, John Bell Hood. It furnished three major generals: S. B. Maxey, John A. Wharton, and Tom Green. In addition there were thirty-two brigadier generals and almost one hundred colonels.[120] As for troop units, the Lone Star State supplied the Confederate army with forty-five regiments of cavalry, twenty-three regiments of infantry, twelve battalions of cavalry, four battalions of infantry, one regiment of heavy artillery, and three light artillery batteries. Besides these units mustered into Confederate service, Texas had many organizations that remained under state control. A current listing of named Texas units includes thirty artillery batteries, one artillery regiment, thirty-nine cavalry battalions, sixty-one cavalry regiments, thirteen infantry battalions, twenty-eight infantry regiments, and two legions.[121] These organizations fought in all parts of the South and their operations ranged from Maryland to Arizona and from the Potomac River to the Rio Grande. As for heroism, the state produced such outstanding regiments as those of Hood’s Brigade and such noted individuals as Lieutenant Dick Dowling. In all, the men of Texas did their utmost to support the Southern cause to which they had pledged their allegiance.
THE BREAK-UP: 1865
By spring, 1865, the soldiers of the trans-Mississippi region were showing signs of the increasing defeatist feeling. A Union officer who scouted widely in the Rio Grande valley reported that “the demoralization of the rebel army in Texas is very extensive. In all the counties from San Antonio to Austin up to the mountains the rebel soldiers are coming home in large numbers, and in two or three places have notified the enrolling officer and provost-marshal that their services were no longer needed.”[122]
But on the other hand, the Confederate government and General Kirby Smith were taking extreme measures to keep the field forces intact. In February, 1865, all non-fighting troop details were outlawed except where soldiers were needed to keep a few key manufacturies in operation, all white men from eighteen to forty-five were ordered to report for immediate military service, and all leaves were cancelled.[123] Kirby Smith implored Richmond to make available the $50,000,000 in back pay due his men.[124] All Confederate prisoners on parole in Texas were declared to be exchanged and were commanded to rejoin their units. Unauthorized absentees were promised pardons if they returned to their companies within twenty days.[125] Once more Federal invasion troops were moving up the Red River and down from Arkansas. Only by thus scraping the bottom of the barrel could Texas hope to keep the determined foe at bay.
In late April, 1865, just as a number of scandals involving illegal seizures of privately owned cotton were coming to light, the word arrived in Texas that General Lee had surrendered in Virginia. General Kirby Smith and Governor Murrah quickly penned proclamations asking the soldiers and citizens of the trans-Mississippi region to continue the struggle. Murrah declared that “These unforeseen calamities imposed additional responsibilities on the State of Texas” because Southerners now looked “with eager eyes and anxious hearts to the people and armies of this Department, for rescue and deliverance. They will not—they must not look in vain. With God’s blessing, it may yet be the proud privilege of Texas, the youngest of the Confederate Sisters, to redeem the cause of the Confederacy from its present perils.”[126]
But such inspiring words failed miserably to compensate for the common realization that the Confederacy had failed. It could now be seen that for many months past the Southwest had endured the war in a desperate hope that Lee would soon achieve complete victory. With this one great hope crushed, the entire department was too demoralized to continue the fight. Desertions in very large numbers followed. Oftentimes bands of ten and twenty men would leave their undersized regiments in a single night. In Galveston, only the timely calling out of faithful troops prevented the attempted desertion of four hundred soldiers.[127]
By May, surrender negotiations between Kirby Smith’s representatives and the United States government were in progress. It was at this time that the last land action of the war took place in the isolated Brownsville sector. In mid-May some eight hundred Union soldiers were moving from their Brazos de Santiago base when they suddenly made contact with several hundred of Colonel John S. Ford’s Confederates who were camped at White’s Ranch. The Southerners had heard nothing of Lee’s surrender, but had been warned of the presence of Union troops by French and Mexican observers on the south side of the Rio Grande. The Federals quickly formed a skirmish line, pushed against the Confederates, and then entrenched in the sandy soil of Palmetto Ranch. As this occurred, Ford managed to position six artillery pieces on Palmetto Hill and fired down into the United States soldiers’ defensive works. This forced the superior Federal command to retire from the field. In all, the Union lost over one hundred prisoners. When these captives convinced Ford of Lee’s surrender, the Texans were so stunned that no pursuit of the retreating enemy soldiers was attempted.[128]