DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passing it along. August of 1861. Right here in Washington County, a man named Captain J.B.
Robertson stood up and raised a company of fighting men. They called themselves The Texas Aides — Co. I, Fifth Texas Infantry Regiment, Army of Northern Virginia.
Doesn't have the thunder of a cannon just yet, does it? Give it time. They would ride — well, march — into some of the most brutal fighting the Civil War had to offer.
Gaines Mill. Second Manassas. Antietam.
Gettysburg. Chickamauga. The Wilderness.
You say those names to anyone who knows their history and you'll see something shift behind their eyes. Those weren't skirmishes. Those were the kind of places men wrote letters home about, hoping the letters would arrive before the news did.
The unit was part of what became known as Hood's Texas Brigade, and that name tells part of the story — but only part. Robertson, the very captain who raised these men right here in Washington County, rose through the ranks to brigadier general and took over command of the brigade in October of 1862, succeeding Hood himself. Then in January of 1864, Brigadier General John Gregg stepped in to replace Robertson.
And after Gregg, Colonel R.M. Powell held the post on through to the very end. The end.
Appomattox. April 12, 1865. The brigade surrendered that day with twelve percent of its enlistees surviving.
Twelve percent. You let that number sit a moment and it does its own work. Out of every hundred men who signed on, eighty-eight were gone.
But the marker — and somebody chose these words carefully — doesn't end on the surrender. It ends on this: "Defeat could not dim their record." Raised right here. Marched into history.
And twelve percent came home to tell it.
What the marker says
Co. I, Fifth Texas Infantry Regt., Army of Northern Virginia, was raised here Aug. 1861, as "The Texas Aides" by Capt. J.B. Robertson. Unit fought in many battles of Civil War--Gaines Mill, Second Manassas, Antietam, Gettysburg, Chickamauga and the Wilderness. Robertson became brigadier general and succeeded Hood as Commander Oct. 1862. Replaced by brigadier general John Gregg, Jan. 1864. Col. R.M. Powell later held post until end of the war. The brigade surrendered at Appomatox, April 12, 1865, with 12% enlistees surviving. "Defeat could not dim their record." (1968)