General Alexander W. Terrell / Texas in the Civil War

Alexander W. Terrell, born in Virginia in 1827, came to Texas in 1852 and served as a district judge from 1857 to 1863. He entered Confederate service in 1863 as a lieutenant colonel and commanded Terrell’s Texas Cavalry, which was assigned special duty to help keep open vital cotton supply sources, the lifeblood of the South. In the Red River Campaign of 1864, he led his unit in efforts to prevent a Union invasion of Texas and was wounded at the Battle of Mansfield. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1865, went to Mexico rather than surrender at the end of the war, and soon returned to Texas. He later authored the present primary election law as a state legislator and served as minister to Turkey from 1893 to 1897. During the Civil War, from 1861 to 1865, Texas committed itself fully to the Confederacy after a three-to-one popular vote for secession. Ninety thousand troops, noted for mobility and daring, fought on every battlefront. The state successfully defended a two thousand-mile frontier and coastline from Union troops and Indians, while wagon trains loaded with cotton crossed Texas to Mexico to trade for medical supplies, clothing, and military goods. State and private industry produced wagons, pots, kettles, leather goods, ammunition, guns, salt, and hospital supplies, while at home old men, women, children, and slaves provided grain, meat, cotton, and cloth to the army, giving much and keeping little.

Sanderson, Texas · United States