Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 475 of 894
762 p., [172] leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 30 cm.View a full description of this book.
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398
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
1839, he was with Col. John H. Moore in the fight
with the Comanche Indians at Wallace's Greek,
seven miles above San Saba. In April, 1839, he
was in the Cordova fight, under Burleson, four
miles east of Seguin. He served as a member of
the celebrated mounted company commanded by
Ben McCulloch, during the Mexican War of 1846.
He has been married three times and farmed on the
San Marcos river until sent by his county to the
State Secession Convention of 1861. In politics
Gen. Hardeman is a Democrat of the strict construction
school and, believing that secession alone
could preserve the institutions of the South from
Federal aggression, he voted for secession and on
many a bloody field he sought to establish it with
arms. He joined the command destined for Arizona
and New Mexico with a full company of young
men, the very flower of the Guadalupe valley, and
became senior Captain in the regiment commanded
by Col. Riley, in which the lamented William R.
Scurry was Lieutenant-Colonel, and Henry Raguet
was Major. At the battle of Val Verde, he was
promoted for distinguished gallantry on the field
and became the Major of the regiment. The
charge on McRae's battery, made by the Confederates
at Val Verde, is one of the most remarkable
in the annals of war. In this battle
Hardeman was wounded. During that expedition
Hardeman was sent to Albuquerque with Capts.
Walker and Copewood, to hold the plain with
150 men. In that town all the ammunition, reserve
supplies, and medicines for the army, were
stored. Fifteen hundred Federal soldiers attacked
the position. Hardeman was advised of their approach
and could have retreated, but his retreat
meant the surrender of the army, for behind it was
a desert, destitute of supplies. For five days and
nights, his men never leaving their guns, he sustained
the attack and held the position until reinforcements
arrived from Santa Fe. This defense
saved the army. A council of war was held the
night before the army began to retreat from Albuquerque.
The situation was fully discussed, but
no officer proposed any definite action, until Maj.
Jackson called on Hardeman, who was present, to
express his views on the situation. Gen. Sibley
then invited Hardeman to speak. He remarked
that it was manifest that the enemy could reinforce
quicker than the Confederates, and the sooner the
army got away the better. He was the only man
who had the moral courage to advise a retreat,
which all knew was inevitable, and his advice was
promptly adopted by Gen. Sibley.
When the retreat began, Gen. Green's regiment
was attacked at Peralto. It was saved by thetimely return of Hardeman, who was then in command
of his regiment and who had started to capture
Fort Craig, then garrisoned by Federal troops
under Kit Carson. His men waded the river, which
was full of floating ice, during the night. The line
of retreat was across the mountains to a point on
the river below Fort Craig. To Hardeman is due
the credit of saving the artillery on that retreat.
On the arrival of the army at El Paso he was
ordered by Col. Riley to go to the interior of
Texas and recruit. Here was exemplified Hardeman's
unselfish devotion to duty. His first impulse
was that of joy at the prospect of soon seeing
again his wife and children, but he knew that his
long experience as a frontiersman better qualified
him to take the regiment safely across the plains,
than any other one in the command, and he asked
Gen. Sibley to countermand the order. He was in
the battle of Galveston, with the land forces, on
January 1, 1863, when the Federal boats were
either captured or driven from the harbor and a
Massachusetts regiment captured.
After the battle of Galveston, Gen. Magruder
requested Hardeman, then Lieutenant-Colonel of
the Fourth Regiment, to resign, and accept command
of Peter Hardeman's regiment, for the purpose
of organizing a new force to return to
Arizona. Afterward, when Col. Riley fell at
Iberia, Louisiana, Gen. E. Kirby Smith ordered
Hardeman back to command his own regiment,
with which he remained until the close of the war.
After his return to his old regiment he participated
in the disastrous night attack on Fort Butler. Lieut.
Wilkins was present when Gen. Geeen requested
Hardeman's opinion about making the attack.
Hardeman said that many good men would fall
and nothing could be gained, for the river was full
of gunboats and, if the night attack should be
successful, the enemy would recapture the fort next
day. lIe added: "If the attack is made I will
lead my regiment in the fight." Green's orders to
attack were imperative and the result was more
disastrous to the command than any other battle of
the war In this attack Hardeman was again
wounded. With 250 men he met the advance of
the army, under Gen. Banks, near Pleasant Hill.
With his small force he stubbornly resisted the
march of the Federal army, retreating and fighting
at every step, until night. At night the enemy
camped on the south side of a creek near the old
mill and Hardeman, with his little force, rested for
a time in the woods on the other side. In the
night, at ten o'clock, he put his men in motion and
fiercely charged the whole Federal army. The
strength of the attacking force was not known and
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/475/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.