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The Ninth Texas Cavalry consisted of about 1,000 mounted volunteers from Grayson, Tarrant, Hunt, Hopkins, Cass, Red River, Titus, and Lamar counties. They gathered about 15 miles northwest of here at Brogdon's Springs on October 2, 1861, and were mustered into Confederate service under Colonel William B. Sims. Under Colonel Sims the Ninth Cavalry saw considerable action in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma before joining General Ben McCulloch's army in Arkansas in late January 1862. Colonel Sims was wounded during the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862 and Lt. Colonel William Quayle took command. The Ninth Cavalry numbered 657 men in late spring 1862 when they marched to Mississippi to join the Third, Sixth, and Twenty-Seventh Texas Cavalry units and formed a cavalry brigade under the command of Lawrence S. Ross. For 15 months Ross' Brigade saw almost continual action in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. They participated in the assault that captured and burned the Federal gunboat "Petrel" in 1864. By November 1864 the Ninth Cavalry consisted of only 110 men. Ross' Brigade surrendered to Federal troops at Jackson, Mississippi, on May 4, 1865. Veterans of Ross' Brigade formed an association in 1878. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995 |
