page_title: 32nd Texas Cavalry Regiment
section_title: 1864–1865
hierarchical_section_title: 32nd Texas Cavalry Regiment / History / 1864–1865
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Major General Samuel Gibbs French
context_page_description: The 32nd Texas Cavalry Regiment, sometimes incorrectly named Andrews's 15th Texas Cavalry Regiment, was a unit of volunteer cavalry mustered into the Confederate States Army in May 1862 and which fought during the American Civil War. The regiment was formed around companies from Richard Phillip Crump's 1st Texas Cavalry Battalion which fought in Indian Territory and at Pea Ridge. Many of the soldiers died of disease in the unhealthy camps near Corinth, Mississippi. The cavalrymen were dismounted in July 1862 and served as infantry for the rest of the war. The regiment fought at Richmond, Ky., Stones River, and Chickamauga in 1862–1863, in the Meridian and Atlanta campaigns and at Nashville in 1864, and at Spanish Fort and Fort Blakeley in 1865. The regiment's 58 surviving members surrendered to Federal forces on 9 May 1865.
context_section_description: After Chickamauga, Ector's brigade transferred to Mississippi where it joined the division of Samuel Gibbs French in Leonidas Polk's corps. The brigade participated in the Meridian campaign in early 1864. For the Atlanta Campaign, Ector's brigade included the 29th and 39th North Carolina Infantry, the 9th Texas Infantry, Jacques's Battalion, and the 10th, 14th, and 32nd Texas Cavalry. On 19 May 1864, French's division joined Joseph E. Johnston's army with 4,174 soldiers. In the Atlanta Campaign, the 32nd Texas Cavalry lost 11 killed and 35 wounded. The brigade fought at Cassville, New Hope Church, Latimer's Farm, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Lovejoy's Station. At the Battle of Allatoona on 5 October 1864, the regiment was assigned to guard the artillery and missed this bloody action. However, Captain Somerville of the regiment led a raid on a Union warehouse in which he was wounded in the stomach and left for dead. Somerville was captured and nursed back to health by the Federal doctors, dying in 1917. Colonel Andrews succeeded to command of the brigade after Allatoona. Ector was wounded during the Atlanta campaign and lost his leg, though he later rejoined the army. 
  During John Bell Hood's invasion of Tennessee, Ector's brigade missed the Battle of Franklin since it was guarding the army's pontoon bridges. Colonel Andrews was badly wounded on 4 December 1864 and left the army to recover. The 32nd Texas Cavalry was commanded by Major Estes during the Battle of Nashville on 15–16 December. Ector's brigade was part of Alexander P. Stewart's corps and led by Colonel D. Coleman. The regiment lost at least four wounded and 13 captured at Nashville. Ector's brigade, now reduced to only about 500 soldiers, formed part of the army's rearguard during the retreat after Nashville. In January 1865, Estes, Quartermaster John S. Fowlkes, and Surgeon High G. McClarty were furloughed.
  Ector's brigade defended Mobile, Alabama in the spring of 1865. Edward Canby commanded 45,000 Union troops while Dabney H. Maury led 10,000 Confederate soldiers and 300 cannons. In the Battle of Spanish Fort two divisions of the Union XIII Corps under Gordon Granger on the left and two divisions of the Union XVI Corps under Andrew Jackson Smith on the right invested the fort. The fort was defended by the brigades of Ector, James T. Holtzclaw, and Randall L. Gibson, from left to right. After Union troops seized a foothold, the fort was evacuated on the night of 8–9 April 1865 with the loss of about 50 guns and 500 prisoners. The next day, in the Battle of Fort Blakeley, the Federals launched a massive assault and overran the fortifications. The Union troops lost 113 killed and 516 wounded while 3,423 Confederate troops were captured. The 4,500 survivors of Maury's command retreated toward Montgomery, Alabama. The 32nd Texas Cavalry lost seven wounded and 28 captured in the fighting. 
  Nine officers and 49 rank and file of the 32nd Texas Cavalry under the command of Brevet Major Nathan Anderson marched to Meridian where they surrendered on 9 May 1865. Over 1,000 men served with the regiment during the war. Captain Travis C. Henderson of G Company later served in the Texas state legislature. Francis A. Taulman of G Company became mayor of Hubbard, Texas. The Estes brothers helped found the city of Texarkana, Texas. Cullen Montgomery Baker of Company I became a notorious outlaw and killer. Colonel Andrews moved several times and died at 90 years of age in 1930.
caption: Samuel Gibbs French
exif: {}