The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961 Page: 465
574 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Recruiting Confederate Cavalry in Texas
his volunteers in the Austin-San Antonio area. On February 2o,
after the men were fully mounted, they rode into northern Texas
to capture Camp Colorado, Fort Chadbourne, Camp Cooper, and
Fort Belknap. Colonel McCulloch then obtained a commission
in the Confederate Army and set about raising additional com-
panies for his cavalry regiment. On April 15, 1861, ten full com-
panies from Bexar, Travis, Gonzales, and contiguous counties or-
ganized as the First McCulloch Texas Mounted Rifles, the first
cavalry outfit from Texas to enter the Confederate service.8
While Henry McCulloch recruited around San Antonio, John
S. Ford traveled through the Houston-Galveston area seeking
men. By February 20 he had 5oo eager volunteers in six com-
panies. The next day they boarded two boats, sailed down the
coast to capture Brazos de Santiago and Fort Brown, and after-
wards occupied the various frontier forts from Brownsville out
to El Paso. On May 23 the regiment was sworn into Confed-
erate service by order of Governor Edward Clark and was desig-
nated the Second Texas Cavalry.0
Ford's and Henry McCulloch's regiments formed the nucleus
of the Confederate cavalry in the Trans-Mississippi. During the
rest of the year 1861, the War Department commissioned over
fourteen colonels to raise cavalry regiments in Texas and to add
them to this initial cavalry force. Most of these outfits were re-
tained for service in Texas or in Arkansas, but some were trans-
ferred east of the Mississippi. In the absence of any over-all re-
gional command throughout 1861, these units received their oper-
ational assignments from the War Department. The story of the
recruiting of these volunteer cavalrymen in 1861 is one abound-
ing in lively events, humor, and even tragedy.
The first need for additional cavalry in Texas arose through
the appearance of serious trouble on the northern border late in
February. After the convention at Austin announced in February
that Texas was no longer a state in the Union, Federal troops
sEdward Clark to Jefferson Davis, April 4, 1861, Oficial Records, ser. I, vol. I,
621; Dudley G. Wooten (ed.), A Comprehensive History of Texas (2 vols., Dallas,
1898), II, 573-574-
9John S. Ford, Memoirs (7 vols. preserved as typescript copies, Archives, Univer-
sity of Texas Library), V, 998-xooo. Documents dealing with the surrender of
Federal forts in the lower Rio Grande may be found in Oficial Records, ser. I,
vol. LIII, 618-666.465
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 64, July 1960 - April, 1961, periodical, 1961; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101190/m1/502/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.