The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 537
616 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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or 6 weeks. The officers of the Regiment did not understand any-
thing about drilling. I, having had a little military experience,8 was
detached to drill the officers of our regiment, so that relieved me
from all camp duties, such as guard and fatigue. Our drill hours were
two in the morning and one in the evening. Early in July we
were ordered to Searcy about 40 miles North of Little Rock, Ark.
After we had been there about lo days our Company and one other
company was sent on a scout to Batesville and White River. When
within a few miles of Batesville we found that a portion of Cutises'
[sic] Army had taken possession of the town and had landed three
or four flat boats with troops and cotton and had started down White
River. We made for a place below them and as they passed gave them
a few round[s] with our shot guns, killing and wounding some dozen
or more. The yanks had two or three small cannons on their boats
and they immediately opened fire on us. By that time they had floated
out of range of our guns and we pulled out not being able to do
them any more damage. Our scouting party then returned to a
camp some 2o miles from Little Rock. Our command had a great
many sick with the measles and the death rate was heavy. About
the latter part of August Curtis (Federal) advanced down the East
side of White River as far as Cotton Plank and our brigade with
Parsons[']5 Brigade met them and had a running fight, we driving
them back a considerable distance to above Augusta, Ark. General
Deshler had been placed in command of our brigade." We were
ordered from our camp near Durall[']s Bluff on White River to
Brownsville about o2 miles East of Little Rock and in a few days
3Cooke's "military experience" consisted merely of such martial drill and regimen as
had been imposed by the various educational academies he had attended.
'The reference here is to Brigadier General Samuel R. Curtis, a long-time Union
regular. At Pea Ridge, on March 7, 1862, Curtis trounced a Confederate army under
Major General Earl Van Dorn and thus secured Missouri for the North. Bruce Catton,
Terrible Swift Sword (Garden City, N.Y., 1963), 218-224.
5A native of Alabama, William H. Parsons fought in the Mexican War under Zachary
Taylor. Following the war he lived in Texas and in 1861 he organized a cavalry regi-
ment in Ellis County and was elected its colonel. Parsons rose to the rank of general
and assisted in repelling two Union invasions of Texas. After the war he entered law,
but also found time to write a Condensed History of Parsons' Texas Cavalry Brigade,
z86z-1865. Webb and Carroll (eds.), Handbook of Texas, II, 342.
"Brigadier General James Deshler was an 1854 graduate of West Point whose Alabama
residence determined his decision to serve the Confederacy. He had fought in the East
under Lee and had suffered severe wounds. Upon his promotion to brigadier general he
was transferred to Cleburne's division in the West. Glenn Tucker, Chickamauga: Bloody
Battle in the West (New York, 1961), 245.537
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971, periodical, 1971; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101200/m1/549/: accessed April 20, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.