Book Description

"Walker's Texas Division, the only one on either side to consist during its entire existence of regiments from a single state, was the largest single body of Texans to fight in the Civil War. The regiments of the division were raised in the winter and spring of 1862, but the Texans' first engagement with Federal forces came more than a year later, during the Vicksburg compaign. The division's most important contribution to the Confederate war effort was its leading role in the struggle to turn back the Federal Red River campaign in the spring of 1864. The Greyhounds measured up to their reputation that spring, marching nine hundred miles in two months, fighting hard in three important battles, and losing nearly 40 percent of their number in killed, wounded, and missing in only three weeks. The Confederate victory in the Red River valley not only ended further Federal attempts to penetrate Texas, it also prevented Union divisions from joining Gen. William T. Sherman's critical Atlanta campaign and freed up Confederate troops to join the fight against Sherman in north Georgia, prolonging the war perhaps another six months." -- Pref.