The Battle of Eltham's Landing was the baptism by fire for the Texas Brigade of Gen. John Bell Hood. Hood's Texas Brigade's first combat experience proved they were a force to be reckoned with.

Of the many infantry brigades in Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade earned the reputation as perhaps the premier unit. From 1862 until Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the brigade fought in most of the major campaigns in the Eastern Theater and several more in the Western, including the Seven Days, Second Manassas (Second Bull Run), Sharpsburg (Antietam), Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Knoxville, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, the siege of Richmond and Petersburg, and Appomattox. Distinguished for its fierce tenacity and fighting ability, the brigade suffered some of the war's highest casualties. This volume chronicles Hood's Texas Brigade from its formation through postwar commemorations, providing a soldier's-eye view of the daring and bravery of this remarkable unit.

The Texans from Hood's Texas Brigade and other regiments who fought at Gettysburg on 1-3 July 1863 described their experiences of the battle in personal diaries, interviews, newspaper articles, letters and speeches. Their reminiscences provide a fascinating and harrowing account of the battle as they fought the Army of the Potomac. Speeches were given in the decades after the battle during the annual reunions of Hood's Brigade Association and the dedication of the Hood's Brigade Monument that took place on 26-27 October 1910 at the state capital in Austin, Texas. These accounts describe their actions at Devil's Den, Little Round Top and other areas during the battle. For the first time ever, their experiences are compiled in Texans at Gettysburg: Blood and Glory with Hood's Texas Brigade.

"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 combating 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.

Excerpt from Hood's Texas Brigade: Its Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements Events are related in the order of their occurrence; and since deeds speak louder than words, the privilege of character izing the conduct and performances of individuals, singly and collectively, is left to the reader. Fortitude and courage, trial, endurance, hardship and privation, speak for themselves and need no aid from adjectives and' adverbs. Much has been omitted that, forty years ago, would have been of interest, but now would burden the story, and only such movements and operations of the Confederate armies are mentioned as are necessary to show the relation of Hood's Texas Brigade to other commands. The righteousness of the cause for which it fought and suffered is taken as granted and confessed by every fair - minded native-born American. In brief, the effort of the author has been to relate the acts and achievements of the Southern soldiers whose place was at the front, on the firing line - his own feelings being in perfect accord with those of the writer of the following verses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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