Wells’s Texas Battalion

Wells's Texas Battalion organized in July 1863 at the Spencer Academy in Doaksville, Indian Territory, under Lt. Col. John W. Wells. Wells formed the battalion by consolidating independent companies and squadrons with men from Bexar, Collin, and Smith counties. Capt. John Miller’s Company, formally known as Witt's Company of the Eighteenth Texas Cavalry, formed the nucleus of the battalion. Joining this unit were Capt. Levi E. Gillette's Company and Capt. John C. Scanland's Squadron. Wells's Battalion saw limited fighting in Arkansas around Camden and Poison Spring and the Indian Territory at the Second Battle of Cabin Creek. For a brief time the battalion served as scouts for Col. Stand Watie's command of the First Cherokee Cavalry Regiment during a demonstration on Fort Smith in Arkansas. After the disbandment of Gano's Brigade, Wells's Battalion merged with Good's Battalion to form Wells's Regiment, which dissolved in May 1865 while camped at Hempstead, Texas.