Hood’s Texas Brigade: The Soldiers and Families of the Confederacy’s Most Celebrated Unit

General John Bell Hood was not the first commander of the Texas Brigade, but he was at the helm when the unit won lasting fame during the battles of 1862 in the Eastern Theatre. Indeed, the Brigade compiled a distinguished record of service: Seven Days, Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, the Overland Campaign, and fittingly, Appomattox. The Texans paid dearly for their glory. At Antietam in 1862 the Brigade suffered a 64% casualty rate; the 1st Texas Infantry alone lost 86% its members (128). Some 1,300 went to Georgia in 1864 for the late summer campaign; 570 because casualties (192). At war’s end, only 617 men of the Brigade remained to surrender at Appomattox (250)