Walker's Texas Division

Major General John G. Walker,C.S.A.

Walker's Texas Division was organized at Camp Nelson, near Austin, Arkansas, in October 1862. The only division in Confederate service composed, throughout its existence, of troops from a single state. It took its name from Maj.General John George Walker, who took command from its organizer, Brig.General Henry Eustace McCulloch, on January 1, 1863. During its existence it was commonly called the "Greyhound Division" or "Walker's Greyhounds", in tribute to its special capability to make long, forced marches from one threatened point to another in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Elements of the division attempted to relieve the siege of Vicksburg by attacking the federal troops at Millken's Bend in June and took part in the battle of Bayou Boubeau in Louisiana in November 1863. The high point of its service was during the early months of 1864, when it opposed federal Maj. Nathaniel Bank's invasion of Louisiana by way of the Red River valley.
On april 8-9, 1864, it was committed with other Confederate forces in the battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, halting Bank's advance on Shreveport and Marshall. On april 10, 1864, with Thomas J. Churchill's and William H. Parson's division, it began a forced march north to intercept federal Maj. General Frederick Steele, who was moving from Little Rock to Camden, Arkansas, in cooperation with Bank's invasion from the south. Stelle reached Camden on April 15, then evacuated it on the 27th. On the 30th he was overtaken by Confederate forces, including Walker's Division, at Jenkin's Ferry on the Saline River, fifty-five miles north of Camden. The ensuing fighting was desperate, costing the lives of two of the three brigade commanders of the division, Brig. Gen. William Read Scurry and Brig. Gen. Horace Randal. Steele completed his withdrawal to Little Rock, ending the last real threat to western Louisiana and Texas during the war. In June 1864, Walker was directed to assume command ot the District of West Louisiana, and Maj.Gen. John Horace Forney took command of the division. During March and April 1865 the division marched to Hempstead, Texas where the men disbanded themselves in May 1865

Initially, the division was made up of four brigades
1st Brigade composed of the Twelfth, Eighteeth and Twenty-second Texas Infantry regiments, the Thirteenth Texas Cavalry (dismounted), and Haldeman's Texas Battery
2nd Brigade composed of the Eleventh and Fourteenth Texas Infantry regiments, the Twenty-eighth Texas Cavalry (dismounted), the Sixth (Gould's) Texas Cavalry Battalion (dismounted), and Daniel's Texas Battery
3rd Brigade composed of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and nineteenth Texas Infantry regiments, the Sixteenth Texas Cavalry (dismounted), and Edgar's Texas Battery
4th Brigade composed of the Tenth Texas Infantry and the Fifthteenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-fifth Texas Cavalry regiments (dismounted).
The original regiments of the Fourth Brigade were detached from the division shortly after its organization, and these were captured intact at Arkansas Post on January 11, 1863. Later in the war another Fourth Brigade was reconstituted which included the Sixteenth and Eithteenth Texas infantry and the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry regiments (dismounted). At the same time the Twenty-ninth Texas Cavalry (dismounted) was added to the First Brigade and the Second Regiment of Texas Partisan Rangers (dismounted) to the Third Brigade. For a brief period, during the Jenkin's Ferry phase of the Red River Campaign , the Third Texas Infantry was assigned to the Third Brigade, but this regiment was ordered to return to Texas shortly thereafter.
Brigade commanders in Walker's Texas Division were:
First Brigade:
Colonel Overton Young
General James M. Hawes
General Thomas N. Waul
General Wilburn King
Second Brigade:
General Horace Randal
General Robert P. Maclay
Third Brigade:
Colonel George M. Flournoy
General Henry E. McCulloch
General William R. Scurry
General Richard Waterhouse
Fourth Brigade:
General James Deshler
The fighting service of Walker's Texas Division was less arduous than that of many similar commands in the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of Tennessee. It operated efficiently, however, under peculiar difficulties unknown east of the Mississippi River and it deserved major credit for preserving Texas from federal invasion.
Source: The New Texas Handbook, Lester N. Fitzhugh




Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi
by Dr. Richard Lowe

Texans in the Civil War
The General Store
Biographies

Email: rhowald527@aol.com