CONCLUSION.
I am well aware of the imperfections of this work. I can only say that
I have tried to tell an unvarnished tale, to do no one injustice,
nothing extenuate nor set down aught in malice. Beyond a few old
letters which have escaped the ravages of mice, and such official
reports as I could find, I have been compelled to rely on memory--frail
and unreliable at best, more so after the lapse of half a century. I
beg to remind those who may find fault that it is much easier to find
fault than to do good work. No two persons see events exactly alike.
This is illustrated in our courts every day.
From the standpoint of the martinet our organization could hardly be
called a regiment. A distinguished lieutenant general is reported as
saying that it was not a regiment at all but “a d--d armed mob.” If
there was ever any serious attempt to discipline it the effort was soon
abandoned. Volunteers we began, volunteers we remained to the end. If
any wished to evade duty, they found a way, and the punishment for
evasion was light. To our credit it may be said that few ever avoided
a fight. There were few real cowards among us, and they were simply
objects of pity. If a man did not wish to go into a fight he held his
horse until it was over.
One reason of our almost uniform success was the superiority of our
arms. It will be remembered that at the beginning the possession of a
good pistol was a requisite for enlistment. If a man died or was killed
his comrades kept his pistol. When a prisoner of the enemy’s cavalry
was taken this part of his outfit was added to the general stock, so
that after a few months most, if not all, had two weapons of this kind,
and some even tried to carry three or four. No other regiment of the
army was so supplied.
Again, it was a noteworthy fact that the men were all good horsemen,
accustomed to the use and management of horses from childhood. When
three or four hundred of such men, charging as fast as their horses
would go, yelling like Comanches, each delivering twelve shots with
great rapidity and reasonable accuracy, burst into the ranks of an
enemy, the enemy generally gave way. It did not take us long to find
this out; also the enemy were not slow to “catch on.”
If it be said that other commands lost more men in battle, the
explanation is simple and easy. The purpose of fighting is to destroy
the enemy in battle; all drill, organization and hard marches are to
this end--to kill and wound as many of the enemy as possible. If this
is granted, the Rangers invite comparison with the best in any army.
It is safe to claim that the regiment killed, wounded and captured a
number of the enemy at least several times our highest enlistment of
nearly 1200. If it be said that my claim for superiority is biased by
prejudice in favor of my own regiment, I will give estimates of others.
In a letter to me acknowledging an invitation to one of our reunions,
General Wheeler said:
“They were unceasingly vigilant, matchlessly brave and daring.”
General Thomas Jordan, an educated soldier, a writer of ability,
chief of staff to General Beauregard, was selected by Forrest and his
principal officers to write a history of the campaigns of that great
soldier. In a note on page 160 of his book, General Jordan says:
“This regiment was raised and commanded by the lamented Colonel Terry,
whose brief military career, beginning as a volunteer scout at the
first Manassas, was full of distinction. He was killed at Woodsonville,
Kentucky. The privates included a large number of the wealthiest and
best educated young men of Texas, who, with many others specially
trained in the business of stock raising on the vast prairies of that
State, had acquired a marvelous skill in horsemanship. The career of
this regiment has been one of the most brilliant in the annals of war.”
Dr. John A. Weyeth, who also wrote a life of Forrest, says, “No braver
men ever lived than the Texas Rangers.”
General Hood (“Advance and Retreat,” page 202) writes of the cavalry:
“I had, moreover, become convinced that our cavalry were able to
successfully compete with double their numbers. The Confederacy
possessed, in my opinion, no body of cavalry superior to that which I
found guarding the flanks of the Army of Tennessee when I assumed its
direction.”
I now quote Federal authority. Writing of the comparative merits of
the soldiers of the two armies, in a paper on the Kentucky campaign,
General Buell, while denying the superiority of the Southern soldiers
over the Northern, admits it was true of the cavalry. He says:
“Another sectional distinction produced a more marked effect in the
beginning of the war. The habits of the Southern people facilitated
the formation of cavalry corps which were comparatively efficient
even without instruction; and accordingly we see Stuart, John Morgan
and Forrest riding with impunity around the union armies, destroying
or harassing their communications. Late in the war that agency was
reversed. The South was exhausted of horses, while the Northern cavalry
increased in numbers and efficiency, and acquired the audacity which
had characterized the Southern.”
Read that again. It comes very near saying that the South was overcome
because the supply of horses failed. The writer is an educated soldier
and student of war.
L’ENVOI.
My task is done. My story is told. I have derived pleasure as well as
pain and grief from the recital; pleasure in going back over the dreary
waste of years to the morning of life, and dwelling in memory amid the
scenes of my early manhood; pain that I can not do justice to all who,
at the call of country, periled their young lives for home and the
right; grief for the heroic dead, who sleep in unmarked graves wherever
duty lead to danger and death. Their matchless courage and devotion
earned undying fame.
“Their praise is hymned by loftier harps than mine;
Yet, one I would select from that proud throng”:
Because he was my bedfellow, and I loved him as a brother; faithful in
the discharge of every duty, clean, brave, and true--William Nicholson.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Italics markup is enclosed in _underscores_.
Some typographical errors have been corrected.
Page Printed Correction Extract
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58 Leutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Baylor of the Rangers
59 brough brought a message was brought to
95 enlisments enlistments 1200 enlistments charged with
97 month months for several months
99 Alamaba Alabama Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi
End of Project Gutenberg's Terry's Texas Rangers, by Leonidas B. Giles