"Who are you, my boys?"
General Robert E. Lee inquired after trotting over to a cluster
of gray-clad infantry. Appearing out of the smokey woods, they
quickly filed past him to form a defensive line.
They answered, "Texas boys !"
The small group was followed by a column of hundreds. The 1st Corps, commanded by General James
Longstreet, had arrived after a forced march.
Leading the way was the famed Texas Brigade under the command of
Brigadier General John Gregg.
"Hurrah for Texas !" Lee waved his hat in a rare moment of
exuberance then proclaimed, "Texans always move them!"
It was May 6, 1864.
The Wilderness Campaign was in its second day. It was General Ulysses S. Grant's first
battle with the Union Army's most lethal foe, Robert E. Lee. Content to let his subordinates manage the
fighting, the famed Union general coolly spent most of his time whittling on a
stick of wood. Meanwhile, both armies
became ensnared in the dense woods.
Their lines became intertwined, disoriented and hopelessly lost. To make matters worse, the gunfire touched
off raging fires that consumed wounded soldiers who couldn't crawl fast enough
or be carried away by their comrades. After
a day of heavy fighting and a night of ghastly horrors, both armies were at a
stalemate. The Confederates, however,
were at a distinct disadvantage. They
were heavily outnumbered and their line was like a dilapidated wooden fence:
full of holes and ready to collapse at the slightest push. The push would come from a morning attack led
by General Winfield Scott Hancock. A
line of blue appeared within view of Lee's headquarters; a ramshackle cabin
owned by the widow Catharine Tapp. It
would appear all was lost and Lee's Army of Northern Virginia would be irreparably
split in two.
General Gregg exhorted his troops. "Men of the Texas
Brigade! The eyes of General Lee are
upon you! Forward!" The Texas
Brigade, arrayed in attack formation, advanced toward Hancock's line. Much to their surprise, Lee was advancing
with them, a perilous move for any commanding general on horseback. "Go back, General Lee, go back. We won't go forward until you go
back." Brigade members grabbed
Lee's horse bridle to turn him around.
"Lee to the rear!" Lee
complied and headed back to confer with his officers. The Texas Brigade plowed into the Union line
at a frightful cost. The Union attack
was stifled but over half the brigade was lost.
Lee had won the first round against Grant, but the fight was far from
over.
This special moment, in Texas Civil War history, is
wonderfully captured in a new diorama acquired by the Texas Civil War Museum. Those talented students, from Gilbert
Arizona's Highland High, constructed a superb depiction of the Texas Brigade's
most heralded moment. Like the popular
Battle of Palmito Ranch diorama, the
figures and landscape are finely detailed.
Robert E. Lee, astride his horse "Traveler," stands out amidst
the advancing Confederates. Check out
these pictures then stop by the museum for a firsthand look.
