Mutiny!

Harriet Perry opened a letter written by her husband, Theophilus, on 9 March 1864 and read: “Our Regiment has been much corrupted with a spirit of Mutiny” (p. 224). Captain Perry's regiment, the 28^th Texas Cavalry (dismounted), served in Walker’s Texas division and had several complaints. The men were still disgruntled over being dismounted nearly two years previously, but the ongoing cotton trade with the enemy infuriated them. What? Trading with the enemy? For several months Confederate officials had actively traded cotton to the enemy in exchange for various supplies including medicine and clothing. Soldiers were suspicious that this trade was nothing more than a way for high-ranking officers to get luxury items such as coffee and other desirable items. At least three units (the 28^th Texas, Gould’s Battalion, and the 14^th Texas Infantry) in Colonel Horace Randal’s brigade of Walker’s Texas division were roiled by turmoil.

Captain Perry described the situation:

“Expecting to have their grievances redressed satisfacterly [sic] by a bold show of resistance a large number of them on last Friday and Saturday refused to do any duty whatever. My Company [F] was badly misled in this disgraceful affair. I have had to arrest four of them and prefer charges against them to be tried before a general Court Martial” (p. 225). The next scene in the drama occurred when Lieutenant Colonel Eli H. Baxter, the commanding officer of the 28^th Texas, arrested all five commanders of the companies involved in the mutiny—Captain Perry was part of the group. He explained to his wife that higher ranking officers pressured Baxter to arrest the company commanders. Perry observed that “Col. Baxter is alarmed. He is in the greatest trouble of mind. He knows, he feels that we will be able to show ourselves clean, and he already fears that we will fix the blame on him if any officer is to blame, for what they knew nothing at all about before hand. Col. Baxter says, he prays for a fight. Then all things will be dropped…He turns white when he thinks of what he has done” (p. 227-228).

Somehow, these soldiers put the controversy and turmoil behind them and performed effectively during the Red River campaign. Captain Perry fell mortally wounded at the battle of Pleasant Hill on 9 April 1864, just a month after he first mentioned the mutiny to his wife.

Note: all quotes are from Johansson, M. Jane, ed. Widows by the Thousand: The Civil War Letters of Theophilus and Harriet Perry, 1862-1864 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000).

An Exciting Find!

[First Lieutenant Eli H. Baxter, Confederate States Army], a photo by SMU Central University Libraries on Flickr. Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs Collection.

While surfing the net today, I came across this great wartime image that depicts Eli H. Baxter, Jr. as a member of the "Marshall Guards," a company in the 1st Texas Infantry. In the spring of 1862, however, Baxter became the lieutenant colonel of the 28th Texas Cavalry that was dismounted later in the year. What is exciting to me about this image is that it is the first documented wartime image of a member of the 28th Texas Cavalry that I have ever viewed--true, the photograph shows Baxter as a member of the 1st Texas Infantry, but this is close enough for me!

Baxter entered the United States Military Academy from Georgia in 1853 at the age of 16 and resigned in January 1854 because of academic deficiencies in mathematics and English. Following his resignation, Baxter went on to become an attorney and immigrated to Marshall, Texas, in the spring of 1858. Two years earlier, a young attorney named Theophilus Perry had immigrated to Marshall from North Carolina; he became a captain in the 28th Texas Cavalry and his letters reveal a dislike for Baxter.

For more information about both Baxter and Perry see my books:

Peculiar Honor: A History of the 28th Texas Cavalry, 1862-1865. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1998.

Widows by the Thousand: The Civil War Letters of Theophilus and Harriet Perry, 1862-1864. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.