“One of Lee’s most dependable brigades†Harold Simpson, Civil War History
The Texas Brigade distinguished itself for its dogged tenacity and tremendous fighting ability throughout the American Civil War.
As a division of the Army of Northern Virginia these Texans fought in most battles that Lee led his army to, the only exception was Chancellorsville, but the brigade more than made up for it by combatting the Union at Suffolk, Chickamauga, and Nashville.
J. B. Polley, at the age of only twenty-one when the war broke out, enlisted in Company F of the Fourth Texas Infantry, a regiment in Hood’s Brigade. His eyewitness account, along with the reminiscences of many of his comrades and numerous battle reports written various generals form the basis of his book.
Although commonly known as “Hood’s Texas Brigade†Polley explains that the Brigade was initially formed by John Allen Wilcox and under the command of Louis T. Wigfall before it came under the control of the brave, and at times reckless, leader John Bell Hood who gave the brigade its eponymous name.
Polley takes the reader through the actions of the brigade battle by battle, interspersing these engagements with details on their lives through the war.
Hood’s Texas Brigade, along with the Stonewall Brigade, were considered to be the Confederate Army’s best shock troops. By the end of the war of those who had enlisted only ten per cent remained to surrender at Appomattox.
This book is essential reading for anyone interesting in one of the most important Confederate regiments and the impact that they made on the war between the states.
J. B. Polley served valiantly through the American Civil War and saw many major engagements. He was eventually forced out of the army after he lost a foot at the Battle of Darbytown Road in October, 1864. After the war he became a lawyer and was commissioned by the Hood’s Texas Brigade Association to write Hood’s Texas Brigade, which was published in 1910. He died in Texas in 1918.
