LONE STAR
Valor
TEXANS OF THE BLUE & GRAY
AT GETTYSBURG
JOE OWEN
Battle of Gettys burg. Charge of the Confederatse on Cemetery Hill Niday Picture Library. Alamy Stock Photograph.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967923
ISBN-978-0-9993049-5-2
eISBN-978-0-9993049-7-6
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used, reproduced, or transmitted by any means electrical, mechanical, including recording, photocopying, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author and the publisher:
Printed in the United States
Copyright 2019 Joe Owen
First Edition
Please visit our website www.Gettysburgpublishing.com for information on all our titles.
Front Cover Image "Clubs Are Trumps" by Dale Gallon
www.gallon.com
Back Cover Images "The Angle" Mark Maritato
www.maritato.com
Civil War Drum Courtesy of the Library of Congress
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:8
Dedicated to :
CTRSN K IMBERLY K AYE S TILLWELL , USN,
M AY 12, 1965 A PRIL 16, 1985.
A dear friend and an outstanding sailor in every sense. She served her country with Honor and Distinction.
RD G REAT -G RANDFATHER , 3 RD L IEUTENANT T HOMAS S. H AYES ,
A UGUST 27, 1821 M ARCH 11, 1912,
12 th Battalion, (Days) Tennessee Cavalry Regiment.
RD G REAT -U NCLE , 3 RD L IEUTENANT J OHN T. G ROSS ,
A PRIL 22, 1836 N OVEMBER 7, 1911,
57 th Georgia Infantry Regiment.
ND G REAT -G RANDFATHER , S ERGEAN T G EORGE A. W ILLIS ,
M ARCH 29, 1829 F EBRUARY 17, 1872,
8 th Georgia Infantry Regiment.
RD G REAT -G RANDFATHER P RIVATE W ILLIAM D UNBAR G ROSS ,
A UGUST 28, 1820 A UGUST 14, 1897,
6 th Mississippi Infantry Regiment.
How many a glorious name for us,
How many a story of fame for us
They left: Would it not be a blame for us
If their memories part
From our land and heart,
And a wrong to them, and shame for us?
No, no, no, they were brave for us,
And bright were the lives they gave for us;
The land they struggled to save for us
Will not forget
Its warriors yet
Who sleep in so many a grave for us.
But their memories ere shall remain for us,
And their names, bright names, without stain for us;
The glory they won shall not wane for us,
In legend and lay Our heroes
Shall forever live over again for us.
Abram Joseph Ryan
Foreword
O f all the soldiers present at the Battle of Gettysburg, perhaps none had a clearer understanding of the stakes than the men from Texas. After all, they had been through the crucible of independence before, giving them a practical, battle-forged experience in nation building that no other Confederates possessed.
Once a territory of Mexico, Texas declared its independence in 1835 and defended that claim in a revolution that lasted until 1836. For ten years thereafter, the independent Republic of Texas sat in the borderlands between an embittered Mexico, plotting revenge, and the United States of America, enticed by the rich resources Texas could bring to the Union. Finally, after much political wrangling and heated debate, Texas became the 28th state in 1845, although it took the Mexican-American War (1846-48) to settle the matter.
Today, we might rather glibly say, Remember the Alamo! repeating lines weve heard from movies, but in 1861 when the Civil War broke out, the Alamo remained a fresh and painful memory. The cost of independence, most keenly remembered there but felt on a dozen other Texas battlefields, struck a somber and all-too tangible chord. Texas did not vote to secede lightly. They, of any Confederate state, understood the potential cost in blood.
During the ensuing two years, the Texans paid that cost, toomost notably at Gaines Mill outside of Richmond, where the Texas Brigade first earned its everlasting fame, and in the dreaded cornfield of the Miller farm at Antietam. Between 1861 and 1863, Texans from more than a dozen regiments left their blood in the soil of Virginia and Maryland.
Through the lens of hindsight, we can see the forces that conspired to bring the Confederate army to Gettysburg in early July 1863, and through that same lens of hindsight, we often see Gettysburg as a crucial turning point of the conflict. The veterans themselvesthose from north and southused that same lens to look back at the battle with special purpose and meaning. The newspaper articles and soldiers letters home, Joe Owen has collected in this volume show Gettysburg through those two power lenses that, combined, offering a unique view of the most famous battle of the Civil War. While many of these articles have appeared in print beforemost notably, as Joe points out, in the original newspapers themselvesthey have never before been collected into a single volume. As such, this book will stand as a useful companion to Joes other collections, Texans at Gettysburg: Blood and Glory with Hoods Brigade and Texans at Antietam: A Terrible Clash of Arms, September 16-17, 1862 , both of which provide excellent compilations of similar letters and newspaper accounts.
For researchers, Joes curatorial work makes an extremely useful contribution to the overall literature of the battle. For Civil War buffs, Texans, and other interested parties, this edited collection offers a special view of the battle from a group of men uniquely qualified to understand the stakes involved.
Also of note are the Union accounts Joe has included here. In the years following the American Civil War, much of Americas attention turned westward, captured by the spirit of expansion. Texas had a powerful allure then, and many mensome alone, some with their families sought their fortunes in the Lone Star State just as men had done a generation earlier in the years before the Texas revolution. As former northerners, they had a perspective of their own that included a powerful understanding of the wars stakes too, which included a much different understanding of the power and meaning of liberty than the perspective their southern-born neighbors shared.
Lone Star Valor: Texans of the Blue and the Gray at Gettysburg, allows us to read for ourselves the words and ideas of the Texans at Gettysburg south and north whose differing experiences set them apart from everyone else on the field of battle.
Chris Mackowski, Ph.D.
Editor-in-Chief, Emerging Civil War
www.emergingcivilwar.com
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Kevin Drake and Bernadette Loeffel-Atkins for their wonderful support in Lone Star Valor: The Texans of the Blue and the Gray at Gettysburg . American Historical Artist Mark Maritato, who generously gave permission for the use of his paintings, The Angle Armistead at Gettysburg, and Confederate Skirmish Line , which is on the back cover. Also would like to thank artist Dale Gallon for use of Clubs are Trumps which is on the front cover. Much gratitude to John Hoopes, for the photograph of his great-great grandfather, Private William Abernathy of the 17 th Mississippi Infantry Regiment. Heartfelt thanks to Chris Mackowski, founder and editor of the outstanding Emerging Civil War website. Chriss contribution, advice and support was invaluable.
