Texas 6th Cavalry Regiment


HISTORICAL NOTES: The Texas 6th Cavalry Regiment [also called 2nd Regiment] was organized with 1,150 men at Dallas, Texas, in September, 1861. Many of the men were from Dallas, McKinney, Waco, Austin, and Lancaster, and Bell County. The unit skirmished in the Indian Territory, fought at Elkhorn Tavern, then moved west of the Mississippi River. It contained 803 effectives in the spring of 1862 and was dismounted during the battles at Corinth and Hatchie Bridge. Here the regiment reported 148 killed, wounded, or missing. Assigned to Ross' Brigade, it served with the Army of Tennessee during the Atlanta Campaign, was active in Tennessee, and ended the war in Mississippi attached to the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana. FIELD OFFICERS: Colonels:
Lawrence S. Ross
B. Warren Stone
Jack Wharton
Lieutenant Colonels:
John S. Griffith
Peter F. Ross
Robert M. White
Stephen B. Wilson
ASSIGNMENTS: June 1861 Department of Texas.
July 1861 Indian Territory.
July - August 1861 McCulloch's Brigade.
August - September 1861 Indian Territory.
September 1861 - January 1862 McCulloch's Division, Department #2.
January 1862 McIntosh's Brigade, McCulloch's Division, Department #2.
January - March 1862 McIntosh's Brigade, McCulloch's Division, Trans - Mississippi District, Department #2.
March - April 1862 Greer's Cavalry Brigade, Price's Division, Trans - Mississippi District, Department #2.
April 1862 Greer's Cavalry Brigade, Army of the West, Department #2.
April - July 1862 Hebert's Brigade, Price's - Little's Division, Army of the West, Department #2.
September - October 1862 Hebert's Brigade, Little's - Hebert's - Green's Division, Price's Corps, Army of West Tennessee, Department #2.
October - December 1862 Griffith's - Whitfield's Cavalry Brigade, Maury's Division, Price's Corps, Army of West Tennessee, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
January - February 1863 Whitfield's Brigade, 2nd Division, Van Dom's Cavalry Corps, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
February 1863 Whitfield's Brigade, Jackson's Division, Van Dom's Cavalry Corps, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
February - May 1863 Whitfield's Brigade, Jackson's Division, Van Dom's Cavalry Corps, Army of Tennessee.
June - July 1863 Whitfield's Brigade, Jackson's Cavalry Division, Department of the West.
July - August 1863 Whitfield's Brigade, Jackson's Cavalry Division, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
August 1863 - January 1864 Whitfield's - Ross' Brigade, Jackson's Division, Lee's Cavalry Corps, Department of Mississippi and East Louisiana.
January - May 1864 Ross' Brigade, Jackson's Division, Lee's Cavalry Corps, Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.
May - July 1864 Ross' Brigade, Jackson's Cavalry Division, Army of Mississippi.
July 1864 - February 1865 Ross' Brigade, Jackson's Cavalry Division, Army of Tennessee.
February - May 1865 Ross' Brigade, Jackson's Division, Forrest's Cavalry Corps, Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana.
Stewart Sifakis, Compendium of the Confederate Armies - Texas, (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1995), p. 47 - 48.
BATTLES: • Wilson's Creek, Missouri (August 19,1861)
• Chustenahlah, Indian Territory (December 26,1861)
• Pea Ridge, Arkansas (March 7-8, 1862)
• Campaign and evacuation at Corinth Mississippi (April-June 1862)
• Iuka, Mississippi (September 19, 1862)
• Corinth, Mississippi (October 3-4 1862)
• Oakland, Mississippi (skirmish) (December 3,1862)
• Holly Springs , Mississippi (raid) December 20, 1862)
• Davis Mills, Tennessee (December 21, 1862)
• Middleburg, Tennessee (December 24, 1862)
• Thompson's Station, Tennessee (March 5,1863)
• Vicksburg Campaign (May-July 1863)
• Jackson Siege and evacuation (July 1863)
• Meridian Mississippi Campaign (February-March 1864)
• Snyder's Bluff, Mississippi (March 30, 1864)
• Marion county Alabama (Antiunionist campaign) (April 1864)
• Atlanta Campaign and Siege (May-September 1864)
• Flat shoals, Georgia (July 28, 1864)
• Brown's Mill, Georgia(July 29, 1864)
• Newman, Georgia (30, 1864)
• Franklin-Nashville Tennessee campaign ( October-December 1864)
ROSTERS: Company A, originally commanded by Capt. A.J. Hardin
Company B, the Rockwall Cavalry, was commanded by John Summerfield Griffith, who would serve as Lt. Col. of the 6th, and engineer the brilliant raid on Holly Springs, MS, in December of 1862.
Company G was recruited from McLennan county, and commanded by Pete Ross, whose brother, Lawrence Sullivan "Sul" Ross, was also in that Company. The latter was elected Major of the 6th in September of 1861, and one year later was elected to lead the regiment during its reorganization subsequent to passage of the Conscription Act. Ross too would serve Texas as governor, from 1886-1890.
Company K's first Captain was legislator James Webb Throckmorton, of Collin county, who would later serve as governor of Texas, and be illegally removed from that post during Reconstruction.
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