This sketch has the merit of a terse, free, and familiar style, spiced with well chosen anecdotes, full of humor and illustrative of the every day life of the Confederate soldier. It has much good historical matter. Its great fault is its brevity, and a failure to deal more with the personalities of the men who composed this famous command. The memory of the war between the States,—a few of its great generals, its campaigns and its battles, will live forever, but the names of tens of thousands of the brave spirits that went down in that awful conflict have long since faded into utter oblivion. It seems to the writer that the main function of a sketch of this sort is to rescue such names and inscribe them upon a roll of fame that will be accessible to all the generations that are to follow. It would interest the average reader, who is familiar with the political record of Colonel Wigfall, to know the details of his military record during the brief period he commanded this regiment, and to know more of Lieutenant Colonel Black, its actual commander, who was killed at Ethan's landing. A complete roster of this regiment would be a valuable historical document of itself. As instances of how little is known, even of our most prominent Confederate officers, the writer had to consult an Alabama book to find a sketch of General John Gregg,—the official records at West Point for one of General Horace Randall, and personal inquiry among a large number of the survivors of the Terry Rangers failed to elicit any information about Colonel B. F. Terry's life previous to his brief military career. Such matter embraced in sketches on the order of Captain Todd's will greatly enhance their permanent historical value.
Z. T. FULMORE .
How to cite:
"Sketch of History. The First Texas Regiment, Hood's Brigade, A. N. Va.", Volume 012, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 312 - 313. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v012/n4/review_10.html
[Accessed Wed Dec 3 21:39:16 CST 2008]
