Third Texas.
L. S. Ross,
Brig. Gen’l.
At the proper time I presented myself to Colonel Boggess at Henderson, and reported to him that I was ready to start back. He told me he had no idea that we could cross the river, as it was reported to be from five to twenty-five miles wide; that he had sent a man to ascertain whether it was possible for us to cross it, and if so he would let me know, and directed me to return to Rusk and remain until I heard from him. Thus matters stood until the startling news reached us that General R. E. Lee had surrendered his army in Virginia. This was followed in quick succession by the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina, the other commanding officer, and finally by General E. Kirby Smith’s surrender of the trans-Mississippi department.
And then—then the four years’ war, with all its fun and frolic, all its hardships and privations, its advances and retreats, its victories and defeats, its killing and maiming, was at an end.
I am unable to give the losses of Ross’ brigade sustained in the Atlanta campaign. If it was ever given out officially I never saw it. But our ranks were very much depleted as the result of this long campaign. Some went to the hospitals badly wounded, some were furloughed with wounds not considered dangerous, some were rolled in their blankets and buried where they fell, and others were carried to Northern prisons, there to die or remain until the close of the war.
Nor can I now give the loss we sustained in the Nashville campaign. It was carefully made up in detail, but I do not remember it. I remember that John B. Long, of Company C, was shot through both thighs, and I remember two gallant members of Company B, Bud McClure and Joe Robinson, were killed near Pulaski on the retreat.
The regulation that our horses should be listed and valued now and then, to show the estimation placed upon horseflesh in the currency of our Government, I give the following valuations made in the early part of the year 1864, of the officers and men then present for duty, viz.:
Captain John Germany, one bay horse, $2000; Lieutenant W. H. Carr, one sorrel horse, $1200; Lieutenant R. L. Hood, one sorrel horse, $1600; Lieutenant S. B. Barron, one black horse, $1400; one bay mule, $1000; First Sergeant John B. Long, one bay horse, $900; Second Sergeant R. L. Barnett, one sorrel mare, $1500; First Corporal D. H. Allen, one sorrel horse, $1600; S. D. Box, one bay horse, $1500; Stock Ewin, one sorrel horse, $2500; J. J. Felps, one brown mule, $900; Luther Grimes, one sorrel horse, $1400; J. B. Hardgraves, one sorrel horse, $1500; J. R. Halbert, one sorrel mare, $1200; J. T. Halbert, one gray horse, $1500; W. H. Higginbotham, one gray horse, $1200; J. H. Jones, one bay mare, $1000; W. H. Kellum, one brown mule, $900; S. N. Keahey, one gray horse, $1100; G. A. McKee, one sorrel mule, $1400; Jno. Meyers, one dark roan horse, $800; Tom Petree, one sorrel horse, $1100; J. B. Reagan, one black mule, $900; C. M. Roark, one sorrel horse, $1200; A. B. Summers, one black horse, $1500; J. W. Smith, one brown horse, $1600; E. S. Wallace, one bay horse, $1600; J. R. Watkins, one sorrel horse, $2000; C. Watkins, one cream horse, $1200; T. F. Woodall, one sorrel horse, $1000; R. F. Woodall, one sorrel horse, $1600; J. W. Wade, one gray horse, $1800; T. H. Willson, one gray mule, $1000; E. W. Williams, one sorrel horse, $1400; N. J. Yates, one black mule, $1000.
THE END