345
edits
Changes
created page
The Confederate victory, primarily due to the effort of John Bell Hood and his troops, saved Richmond from capture; although the victory came at a high cost in terms of human life. The casualties for Hood’s Texas Brigade were significant:
* Hampton’s South Carolina Legion: 2 Killed; 65 Wounded
* 5th Texas: 13 Killed; 62 Wounded* 1st Texas: 13 Killed; 62 Wounded* 18th Georgia: 14 Killed; 128 Wounded; 3 Missing* 4th Texas: 44 Killed; 208 Wounded; 1 Missing
In total, Hood’s casualties were 86 killed, 481 wounded, and 4 missing. Significantly, Colonel Marshall was mortally wounded and the commander of the 1st Texas, Colonel Rainey, was killed in action.<ref>''OR'', series I, vol. 11, part II, 973.</ref/>The day after the battle, a young private who had been slightly wounded was sent on an errand that required him to cross over the battle field at Gaines’s Mill. Years later, the private remembered, “‘there were still men on the field that had not been buried…some partly buried, with a hand or a foot sticking out.’” When he approached a building where doctors had been working, he saw “‘a pile of limbs four or five feet high and in other places, seven or eight large horses [lay] dead in a pile.’”<ref>Letter from Basil Brashear to Frank B. Chiton, March 5, 1911. Quoted in Simpson, 132.</ref>
== Conclusion ==
Hood’s Texas Brigade is considered by historians and military experts to be second only to the Stonewall Brigade in terms of tenacity and valor of all of the brigades that fought for the Confederacy during the American Civil War. Hood, like Jackson, was a leader who displayed no fear and projected a fierce sense of pride and determination among his men. Of the many leaders who commanded the brigade, it was Hood who instilled an ethic and confidence in the men who comprised the brigade that still bears his name.
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Wikis]] [[Category:Civil War]] [[Category:U.S. History]] [[Category:Military History]]
{{Contributors}}
