The Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia was one of the best units to fight on either side in the American Civil War. Three factors made that success possible: their strong self-identity as Confederates, the mutual respect shared between the brigade's junior officers and their men, and a constant desire to maintain their reputation not just as Texans, but also as the best soldiers in Robert E. Lee's army and all the Confederacy. Hood's Texas Brigade is a study of the soldiers and families of this elite unit that challenges key historical arguments about soldier motivation, volunteerism and desertion, home front morale, and veterans' postwar adjustment.

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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.

Presbyterian minister Nicholas A. Davis joined the Fourth Regiment of Texas Volunteers as chaplain in 1861. Soon after, the unit moved to Virginia, where they fought in the Seven Days Campaign, Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg. Rev. Davis wrote his memoir two years into battle, drawing upon keen observational skills and a diary he kept faithfully. He delves deeply into little known topics such as religion in the field, the duties of army chaplains, the appalling condition of wounded men, and war-time Richmond. First published in 1863 and expanded by historian Donald E. Everett in 1962, this present volume has won acclaim from both scholars and history buffs.

One of the most effective units to fight on either side of the Civil War, the Texas Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia served under Robert E. Lee from the Seven Days Battles in 1862 to the surrender at Appomattox in 1865. In Hood’s Texas Brigade, Susannah J. Ural presents a nontraditional unit history that traces the experiences of these soldiers and their families to gauge the war’s effect on them and to understand their role in the white South’s struggle for independence. According to Ural, several factors contributed to the Texas Brigade’s extraordinary success: the unit’s strong self-identity as Confederates; the mutual respect among the junior officers and their men; a constant desire to maintain their reputation not just as Texans but as the top soldiers in Robert E. Lee’s army; and the fact that their families matched the men’s determination to fight and win. Using the letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper accounts, official reports, and military records of nearly 600 brigade members, Ural argues that the average Texas Brigade volunteer possessed an unusually strong devotion to southern independence: whereas most Texans and Arkansans fought in the West or Trans- Mississippi West, members of the Texas Brigade volunteered for a unit that moved them over a thousand miles from home, believing that they would exert the greatest influence on the war’s outcome by fighting near the Confederate capital in Richmond. These volunteers also took pride in their place in, or connections to, the slave-holding class that they hoped would secure their financial futures. While Confederate ranks declined from desertion and fractured morale in the last years of the war, this belief in a better life—albeit one built through slave labor— kept the Texas Brigade more intact than other units. Hood’s Texas Brigade challenges key historical arguments about soldier motivation, volunteerism and desertion, home-front morale, and veterans’ postwar adjustment. It provides an intimate picture of one of the war’s most effective brigades and sheds new light on the rationales that kept Confederate soldiers fighting throughout the most deadly conflict in U.S. history.

John Bell Hood was a career soldier, the commander of the Texas Brigade, a staunch supporter of the Confederacy, serving Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. His military history embraced both incredible success and dismal failure as he moved from the traditions of West Point to lead the ragged Confederate army. Hood sacrificed both his left arm and his right leg to the cause of Southern independence. At Sharpsburg and Gettysburg he was lauded as a brilliant officer and admired by the Southern belles who had heard of his unparalleled reputation for bravery on the battlefield. The Gallant Hood provides the reader with a sharp and affecting portrait of a man who helped to shape American history. It is the story of a warrior who would not give up his dream of an independent Southern nation no matter how heavy the consequences.—www.Goodreads.com