Old Marshall Cemetery

Earlier this week I returned from a Spring Break trip to Louisiana. On the way there, I stopped off at the Old Marshall (Texas) Cemetery to visit the final resting place of Horace Randal. In the spring of 1862, Randal raised and then commanded the 28^th Texas Cavalry, a regiment raised in East Texas. Although the soldiers initially complained about their young commander and the discipline that he imposed, they eventually came to respect him. Randal was an 1854 graduate of the United States Military Academy and served for a few months in the Army of Northern Virginia before returning to Texas. In the fall of 1862, Randal started commanding a brigade in a division that became known as Walker’s Texas Division. Randal and his soldiers saw limited combat before the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864. In April 1864, though, his brigade fought at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and Jenkins’ Ferry. The thirty-one year old soldier fell mortally wounded at Jenkins’ Ferry, and he was buried at Tulip, Arkansas. Later, his body was exhumed and buried in Marshall, Texas. The photographs show both the old grave marker and a modern one. For more information about the 28^th Texas Cavalry see my book, Peculiar Honor: A History of the 28^th Texas Cavalry, 1862-1865.