Book Description

The Texas 21st Cavalry Regiment [also called 1st Texas Lancers] was organized during the spring of 1862, with about 800 men. Methodist minister George Washington Carter received permission from Richmond to recruit a regiment of lancers. Highly publicized in South Central Texas, the regiment was to be the only one of lancers in Confederate service. The lancers never arrived and the regiment was assigned to Parson's Brigade. Parsons's Brigade was organized in the autumn of 1862 to serve as cavalry for the Army of the Trans-Mississippi then forming in Arkansas. For much of the war the brigade was commanded by Col. William Henry Parsons, who had raised the Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment in the summer of 1861. The permanent components of the brigade were Parsons's Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment, Nathaniel Macon Burford's Nineteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment, George Washington Carter's Twenty-first Texas Cavalry Regiment, Charles Leroy Morgan's Texas Battalion, and Joseph H. Pratt's Tenth Texas Field Battery. During the War Parsons's Brigade earned the reputation as one of the finest mounted units serving in the Trans-Mississippi Department. The brigade took part in almost fifty battles, although most were too small to rate a name, and the men were responsible for watching federal operations from Memphis to Vicksburg. For three years they provided outposts and scouts for the army headquartered first at Little Rock and later at Shreveport. Companies Of The Texas 21st Cavalry Regiment Company A - Walker County Company B - Burnet and Travis County Company C - Montgomery and Anderson County Company D - Bell and Milam County Company E - Austin and Lavaca County Company F - Washington County Company G - Orange County Company H - Grimes County Company I - Brazos County Company K - Goliad County Company L - McLennan County