The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 15, July 1911 - April, 1912 Page: 90

90 Texas Historical Association Quarterly
Reminiscences of the Civil War and other Sketches is the title
of a twenty-six page pamphlet by Ralph J. Smith, of San Marcos.
Mr. Smith belonged to Company K, Second Texas Infantry. The
company was organized by Clark Owen in Jackson county and
ordered to Houston in October, 1861. In March of the next year
it was ordered to the front and participated in the battle of
Shiloh, April 6th. In this battle the author was wounded and
captured, and spent the next six months in Northern prisons re-
cuperating. After being exchanged, he rejoined his command,
and served in and near Vicksburg. The fall of Vicksburg again
made him a prisoner, but he was soon paroled and came home.
Having been assured of his exchange, he again entered the service
in October, 1863, but spent most of the time at Galveston till the
close of the war.
The author does not pretend to write history. The reminis-
ences concerning his personal adventures and of such men as
Colonels John C. Moore and Ashbel Smith are told in language
that is sometimes quite picturesque. W.
Hood's Texas Brigade, Its Marches, Battles, and Achievements.
By J. B. Polley. [New York and Washington: The Neale Pub-
lishing Company, 1910. Pp. 347.]
It is safe to say that no single brigade on either side in the
Civil War gained greater or more merited fame than Hood's Texas
Brigade. Composed at first of the First, Fourth, and Firth Texas,
the Eighteenth Georgia, and Hampton's Legion from South Caro-
lina, and later of the three Texas regiments and the Third Ar-
kansas, and serving most of the time in the division of its favorite
commander, John B. Hood, it has always clung to its distinctive
name. Proud of its reputation, the survivors have maintained an
active organization, erected to their comrades a monument in Aus-
tin, and have commissioned one of their number to write "a fair
and impartial history" of its career and services.
Mr. Polley has executed his commission most admirably; the
volume is well conceived and well written. The greater part of
the story is compiled from the memories and diaries of the author
and his surviving comrades, but it is substantiated by the official
records as far as they have been preserved. Naturally enough,