The Texans Leave for War WHEN HE VISITED Texas in 1863, Englishman Sir Arthur James Lyon Fremantle commented: "At the outbreak of the war it was found very difficult to raise infantry in Texas, as no Texan walks a yard if he can help it. Many mounted regiments were therefore organ- ized, and afterwards dismounted." The Texans were probably wise in their prejudice against infantry service; perhaps they knew the hardships that would await them on a long march to Virginia. But they were no less patri- otic, no less eager to join the Southern armies, than troops in other states. Out of Texas came the famous Hood's Texas Brigade. Chaplain of Hood's Texans was Nicholas A. Davis, a devout Presbyterian and a determined advocate of the glory of his soldier charges. In 1863 he had printed in Richmond a small volume that was one of the first of Confederate regimental histories. In this little book he recounts the difficulties which beset the Texans on their march to the Virginian theater of war, experiences in strong contrast to the journey of Henry Hotze's Cadets from Mobile to Norfolk. -44- |