A Few Facts about Terry’s Texas Rangers, CSA,

For Whom Camp 1937 is named

After a brief stint as an independent unit under General Albert Sydney Johnston, it was designated the 8^th Texas Cavalry. They didn’t like being second, much less eighth, so they kept the name of Terry’s Texas Rangers throughout the war

This was a crack unit patterned after the famous Texas Rangers of frontier Texas.

They wore stars on their hats, holsters, and belt buckles, as did some in Hood’s Brigade.

They carried Bowie Knives, Shotguns, and colt revolvers – two on their hip and two on their saddle.

They were non-conformists. Some trimmed red shirts with dark collars, cuffs, epaulets and flap pockets. They adopted red jacket collars, chevrons and trouser stripes despite that red was the regulation color for artillery units, and trouser stripes were supposed to be for officers. For headgear they used everything from Mexican sombreros to bandana handkerchiefs. Some even wore buckskins.

The most elite of the men were picked to join a unit late in the war called Shannon’s Scouts. They went behind enemy lines to harass and make Sherman’s troops pay for the plundering of women and property. They did this job well, and became notorious and feared by the Union army. Many of them paid with their lives, however, as they were e xecuted as spies when captured.

They fought under Albert Sydney Johnston, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Braxton Bragg, James Longstreet, John Bell Hood, Joseph E. Johnston, and Joe Wheeler.

Federal Generals had a lot to say about them: One said they were "the equal of the Old Guard of Napoleon". Another called them "a damned armed mob", while yet a third said, "I’d rather be a Texas Ranger than a general in the Union army".

They were in a regiment raised by Benjamin Franklin Terry, who was born in Kentucky in 1821, and moved to Texas with his mother and brothers in 1841. He engaged in sugar cane planting in Fort Bend County during the 1850’s and became one of the state’s wealthiest men. He was a delegate to the Texas Secession Convention in 1861, and following it’s conclusion went to Virginia. While acting as an aide to General Longstreet, he participated in the first Battle of Manassas. As he rode into the Fairfax county square, the U.S. flag still waved over the courthouse. He aimed his rifle from horseback and with one shot severed the halyard, and the flag fluttered to the ground. He was sent back to raise a unit of Texans who could ride and shoot like he could. And that is exactly what he did. Terry died leading a charge against Federal forces at Woodsonville, Kentucky, December 17, 1861, their first battle. Wrote one of his men, "We had brave leaders, but none like our matchless Terry." Another of his men wrote, "considering his fearlessness and dash, and also his ability as a commander, he would have proved another Forrest – a Napoleon of cavalry". His men had many other commanders, but elected to keep his name a part of their unit.

Found in a letter to his sweetheart when a Union officer was captured several days after the Battle of Woodsonville, in which he participated: “The Rangers are as quick as lightening. They ride like Arabs, shoot like archers at the mark, and fight like devils. They rode upon bayonets as if they were charging a commissary department, are wholley without fear themselves, and no respector of a wish to surrender.”

“To fight with the Rangers was to be in advancement in this world or the next.”
Ranger L.B. Giles

“Colonel Wharton has authorized me to say that he will not admit amateur fighters into the Regiment and further, this opens the way for joining a cavalry regiment that has seen more perilous service and which already enjoys more reputation than any other in the army. We want none but Texians.”
Ranger Chaplain Robert F. Bunting

General Nathan B. Forrest when demanding the surrender of the 9th Michigan infantry, said: “If you refuse, I will charge you with the Texas Rangers under the black flag.” The Federal troops promptly surrendered.

After the Bardstown fight, in which Col. Wharton and Major Harrison led the Rangers in a charge against a Federal Cavalry Brigade in which they were outnumbered two to one, General Leonidas Polk said about these two leaders that they were “worthy of applause and emulation of their comrades of all arms in the army.” As a result of the action, both men were promoted.

During a Kentucky campaign that lasted 38 days, the Rangers took fire 42 times with fighting or skirmishing going on daily, on of the Rangers wrote: “We had to form line and skirmish several times a day. The service was very trying. For more than a week there was no order given to unsaddle.”
Ranger L.B. Giles

As Joe Wheeler was preparing to attack Dover, a fortified post of Fort Donelson, the Federals sent gunboats to shell the Rangers position. Under the cover of dark, Ranger Sam Maverick jumped into the cold river with matches in his hair and swam hand over hand to one of the gunboats, which he set ablaze.

While the Rangers were resting near Cassville, Georgia, some Confederate soldiers flew toward them in a confused state, with Federals in hot pursuit. The Rangers jumped up to meet the Federals and a fight ensued. Suddenly, the Federal Commander realized who they were fighting and said: “Hell men, we’re fighting Texans. Every man cover his own rear and D….. quick at that, or it’s hell or Andersonville.”

Union General Judson Kilpatrick, who had been continuously harassed and had his men killed and captured by Shannon’s Scouts of Terry’s Texas Rangers, finally offered a $5000 reward for Shannon’s capture. Shannon later acknowledged the reward and said: “I want to thank you for the signal honour, but I’m going to go you one better. I gonna get you for nothing.”

At Bentonville, North Carolina, on the third day, two brigades of federal infantry threatened to take the bridge over the Neuse River. On the previous day, Terry’s Texas Rangers had lost every field officer they had to wounds, and that left senior Captain Doc Matthews in charge. Gen. Wheeler told Matthews to “mount up your men, go as fast as you can, and charge whatever you find at the bridge.” The Rangers along with the 4th Tennessee Cavalry assembled and took off for the bridge. Upon reaching a rise some 500 yards from the bridge, they stopped to close up the column. Gen. William Hardee, whose son had just moments before joined the Rangers, rode up and joined the Cavalry. Across the bridge, the federals, part of Slocums 17th Corps were quickly throwing up breastworks. Hardee said, “There they are, boys, charge them.” Capt. Matthews gave the order to charge. Along the way, more Tennesseans and some South Carolinians and Georgians joined. The Rangers pulled up short, fired their shotguns, threw them to the ground, and firing their revolvers, spurred for the center of the Federal line. The charge was a grand spectacle as it crashed into the Yankee line. Within minutes, the Federal line broke, the federals were routed and the bridge cleared. General Hardee turned to a fellow officer and said that he “had seen many a charge of cavalry, infantry and artillery on the plains of Mexico and elsewhere, and had seen the old U.S. dragoons charge, and the Comanches charge, but had never witnessed the equal of the charge just made.” Unfortunately, his 16-year old son Willie died in the charge. Ironically, the Union commander, Gen. Oliver Howard, had been Willie’s Sunday school teacher at West Point.

“No better soldiers ever drew battle-blade in freedom’s cause than Terry’s Texas Rangers.”
Texas Gov. Francis R Lubbock

Concerning the Texas secession vote of 4 Feb 1861, Thomas S. Lubbock, a delegate, and later to be a Terry’s Texas Ranger: “ Our people preferred fighting Massachusetts rather than Louisiana, if fighting should become necessary.”