The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 30
672 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
O'Brien as a member of his county convention in early 1861
strenuously opposed secession. Nevertheless, after Texas with-
drew from the Union, he enlisted on August 23, 1861, for the
duration of the war, as a private in an infantry company being
raised by a kinsman, Captain King Bryan." This company sub-
sequently became Company F, 5th Texas Infantry Regiment of
Hood's Texas Brigade. It was the same unit in which served
O'Brien's friend and fellow townsman, William A. Fletcher, the
peripatetic author of Rebel Private Front and Rear. The 5th Tex-
as, along with two other Texas regiments, the Ist and 4th, arrived
in Virginia in the summer and fall of 1861 and spent the winter
of 1861-1862 near Dumfries. The severe weather caused a great
deal of sickness, especially among the Texas troops who were
accustomed to mild winters. At one time there were not more
than twenty-five out of the 8oo men in the 5th Texas fit for duty."
O'Brien succumbed to a serious case of measles and for a time
it was thought that this illness would prove fatal. His health
appearing to have become permanently impaired, he was given
a medical discharge on December io, 1861, before he saw any
action.'
After he returned to his home in Beaumont, O'Brien was not
long in regaining his health. By March 29, 1862, he had re-enlisted
in the Confederate Army and was this time commissioned a cap-
tain in command of Company E of Likens' Battalion Texas Vol-
unteers which he had recruited from the young men of Beaumont
and nearby communities.
Likens' Battalion had been organized by Major James B.
Likens, a lawyer of Sabine Pass, in late 1861. It was a mixed
battalion of cavalry, artillery, and infantry and was made up of
men from the southeast Texas counties of Jasper, Newton,
Orange, Jefferson, Tyler, Hardin, Chambers, and Liberty. Cavalry
Company A was commanded by Captain O. M. Marsh of Sabine
Pass, artillery Company B by Captain J. R. Burch of Sabine
Pass, infantry Company C by Captain Josephus S. Irvine of New-
1George W. O'Brien Papers (in possession of his grandson, Chilton O'Brien,
Beaumont, Texas).
=J. B. Polley, Hood's Texas Brigade (New York and Washington, 1910), 17.
sGeorge W. O'Bryan carded file (War Department Collection of Confederate
Records, National Archives, Washington, D.C.).
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/50/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.