The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 1

THE SOUTHWESTERN HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
VOL. LXII JULY, 1958 No. 1
Zhe Gexaw of 1860
LLERENA B. FRIEND
HE TEXAN Of 1860 was already regarded as a man some-
what apart and was considered, like Kipling's Fuzzy-
Wuzzy, as "a first class fighting man." One contemporary
critic said that Texans had "little of union sentiment in their biog-
raphies" and "more of separateness in their geography, commerce,
and history" than had the citizens of other states.' This sense of
separateness derived both from colonial experiences on a border
between antagonistic races and from the ten years of national
independence, but it rubbed off on men who came to the area
after 1836 and again after 1845. The brevity of the war for Texas
independence with its spectacular climax at San Jacinto, plus the
reports of United States regulars as to the prowess, attire, and
uncouthness of the Texans who participated in the Mexican
War, tended to characterize the Texan as a fighter. It was no
wonder that an East Tennessee farmer in 1861 encountered
some Texas troops en route to Virginia and hailed his family:
"Say, old woman, and you gals, all of you come out here, these
are Texicans."2 A Texas soldier whose way east led through Ala-
bama was amused at the "terror and apprehension" felt by the
citizens of Tuscaloosa when they learned that a brigade of Texans
had arrived in town.3 Events of 186o to 1865 did nothing to dimin-
ish this military reputation. John H. Reagan once wrote that he
would rather have been a worthy member of Hood's Texas Brigade
1Charles Anderson, Texas, Before and on the Eve of the Rebellion (Cincinnati,
1884), 5-7.
2R. M. Collins, Chapters from the Unwritten History of the War between the
States (St. Louis, 1893), 35-36.
BS. B. Barron, The Lone Star Defenders: A Chronicle of the Third Texas Cavalry,
Ross' Brigade (New York, 19o8), 186.