{"id":473,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:54","latitude":30.679574099999999958754415274597704410552978515625,"longitude":-95.5522823000000016691046766936779022216796875,"title":"Hood’s Texas Brigade: Walker County’s Men in the Fourth Infantry","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/081a64f031f5fe9cc60d0b6e678ac411.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":12,"creator":["Danielle Garbarino"],"description":"The Battle of Gettysburg constituted the most important engagement of the American Civil War, resulting in over 40,000 casualties. Hood’s Texas Brigade proved to be a critically important unit in the battle. Established in Richmond, Virginia, in 1861, Hood’s Brigade consisted of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas infantry regiments. The Fourth Texas Infantry Regiment consisted of men from multiple counties across Texas, including Walker County. The Walker County men were from Company H of the Porter Guards. [1]<br />\r\n<br />\r\nConfederate officials assigned John Bell Hood to command the Fourth Infantry Regiment as a colonel, with John F. Marshall appointed lieutenant colonel. Previously, the Fourth had been assigned to General Louis T. Wigfall after Hood assumed command of the brigade. General Wigfall resigned command of the brigade on February 20, 1862, after which Hood was promoted to Brigadier General; hence the name: Hood’s Texas Brigade [2]<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe Fourth Infantry Regiment first saw combat on the Virginia Peninsula on May 7, 1862, at Elthem’s Landing. However, Hood’s Texas Brigade and the Fourth Infantry were able to establish their reputation at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill in 1862. Hood’s Texas Brigade broke the Union line on Turkey Hill, an attempt the Confederates had made before with no success. The Fourth Infantry continued to fight in multiple battles throughout the Civil War, including the Battle of Second Manassas (otherwise known as the Second Battle of Bull Run) on August 30th, the Battle of South Mountain, and the Battle of Antietam. Eventually, the Fourth Infantry was engaged in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863. It participated in the attack against the Union left flank in the fight for Little Round Top, which resulted in the deaths of 140 men, including a lieutenant colonel. [3]<br />\r\n<br />\r\nThe infantry remained a major part of the Confederate army, with engagements at Chickamauga, Wauhatchie, and the Wilderness. At the Battle of the Wilderness, the Fourth Infantry Regiment was part of the famous interaction with General Robert E. Lee, in which Texans did not allow General Robert E. Lee to lead the Confederate Army from the front. The Texans shouted, “Lee to the rear!” This engagement ended in 124 casualties. The Fourth Infantry was also involved in the fighting at Spotsylvania and fought against the Union attack at Cold Harbor on June 3, 1864. <br />\r\nOnce General Robert E. Lee had surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, the Fourth Texas Infantry had 1,343 men, with 909 casualties by the end of the war, but had a reputation as one of the most reliable and hard-fighting units in the Confederate Army [4].<br />\r\n<br />\r\nHistorian Susannah J. Ural wrote on the history of the Texas Brigade and the soldiers’ social lives. She includes details about minstrel shows, in which white actors performed in blackface for the soldiers in the brigade camp. Blackfacing was a process in which white actors would paint their faces black and give performances that invoked Black stereotypes. As Ural further reveals, the brigade also had close connections to their home communities back in East Texas, as Ural wrote about a fundraising effort organized by their families. The families of soldiers in East Texas sent frontline soldiers hundreds of letters, socks, shoes, and other consumer goods [5]<br />\r\n<br />\r\nHood’s Texas Brigade consisted of men from middle-class households from East Texas, including blacksmiths, farmers, urban professionals, skilled laborers, and even a few lawyers, with the majority of the brigade’s officers coming from slave-owning households. The issue of slavery’s survival united the Brigade; The potential abolition of slavery was seen as a threat to their social status and economic prospects, both of members of Hood’s Brigade and many white Texans in general. The soldiers were very much behind their cause, with a strong ideological identification with the Confederacy and white supremacy [6]. <br />","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":["[1] HISTORY.com Editors, “Battle of Gettysburg,” History, last updated May 28, 2025, https://www.history.com/articles/battle-of-gettysburg; Texas State Historical Association, “Hood’s Texas Brigade Joins Battle at Gettysburg,” Texas Day by Day, accessed March 30, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/texas-day-by-day/entry/141; Jeffrey William Hunt, “Fourth Texas Infantry,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 30, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/fourth-texas-infantry","[2] “Fourth Texas Infantry,” Handbook of Texas Online; Don Pfanz, “Lee to the Rear,” American Battlefield Trust, accessed March 30, 2026, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/lee-rear","[3] “Hood's Texas Brigade,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 30, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hoods-texas-brigade; Don Pfanz, “Lee to the Rear,” American Battlefield Trust, accessed March 30, 2026, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/lee-rear","[4] Pfanz, “Lee to the Rear”","[5] Susannah J. Ural, Hood’s Texas Brigade : The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit (Baton Rouge: Louisiana, 2003),  243-247; Britannica Editors, \"Minstrel Show,\" Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed March 30, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/art/minstrel-show","[6] Susannah J. Ural, Hood’s Texas Brigade : The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit (Baton Rouge: Louisiana, 2003), 143-147; L. Bao Bui, \"Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit,\" SFA Scholarworks, Stephen F. Austin University, 2018, https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=history"],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/081a64f031f5fe9cc60d0b6e678ac411.jpg":{"id":3303,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Hood&#039;s Texas Brigade Flag","description":"https://web.archive.org/web/20110728090256/http://www.texasstudies.org/FlagExhibit/FlagExhibitImages/HoodsTxBrigade.jpg","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/081a64f031f5fe9cc60d0b6e678ac411.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/24aa1d10910eba8f6dccae2d1bd2df89.jpg":{"id":3304,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Hood&#039;s Texas Brigade Monument","description":"https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=96262<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPhotographed by Don Morfe, June 6, 1998","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/24aa1d10910eba8f6dccae2d1bd2df89.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/122dd6826858131278d8ccb1f4afc79b.jpg":{"id":3305,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Reenactors of the Battle of Gettysburg","description":"https://govbooktalk.gpo.gov/2013/07/02/gettysburg-americas-bloodiest-battle/<br />\r\n<br />\r\nBattle of Gettysburg Reenactors at “the Wall”. Image source: Breitbart.com","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/122dd6826858131278d8ccb1f4afc79b.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/7b313c8a8b2147d8c968db92c01be9b2.jpg":{"id":3306,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"4th Texas Infantry Regiment Battle Flag","description":"https://iamericasflags.com/4th-texas-infantry-regiment-4x4-battle-flag/","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/7b313c8a8b2147d8c968db92c01be9b2.jpg"},"https://easttexashistory.org/files/fullsize/949fa706bbfed6bf54a20eee19e64cd2.jpg":{"id":3307,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Painting of Hood&#039;s Texas Brigade","description":"https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hoods-texas-brigade<br />\r\n<br />\r\nPainting, Hood&#039;s Texas Brigade by Don Troiani. Courtesy of Penn State University. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.","thumbnail":"https://easttexashistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/949fa706bbfed6bf54a20eee19e64cd2.jpg"}}}