Terry's Rangers Monument in Austin, Texas

In the early days of my career as a lawyer, I used to travel to Austin, Texas quite regularly in my professional capacity. However, I have not been back to Texas’s capital in a decade and a half. When I used to go Austin, I had observed all of the Texas Civil War monuments in the city, but, since I was writing-up histories of the monuments, I did not take extensive photos of them. When I returned to be part of my nephew’s wedding in May, I was looking forward to photographing the old monuments, and I was delighted to find out another Civil War-related monument had been erected in 2015. I will tell you about the new monument in another chapter of this guide, but in this installment I want to talk about the monument to Terry’s Texas Rangers.

The monument is on the Texas Confederate Memorial Lawn off of Congress Ave. and East 11th St. The Terry Monument is just up from the Texas Confederate Monument. On days when the legislature is not in session, there is metered parking on the streets surrounding the Capitol, We went on a Saturday morning and found ample parking.

The Capitol was finished in 1888, so it was not used during the Civil War. However, the site became a major ceremonial ground for the memory of the Confederacy from the end of Reconstruction until the 21st Century.

The monument was installed nearly twenty years after the construction of the capitol. The sculptor was Pompeo Coppini and it was erected in 1907. Coppini was born in Italy and had been involved in sculpting since he was ten years old. He immigrated to New York City in 1896. In 1901, he moved to Texas, where there were very few European-trained sculptors, and within a few years he took on major statuary assignments, including the Texas Confederate Memorial on the Capitol grounds, and six statues for the University of Texas.

Coppini’s statue is quite different from many other equestrian statues dedicated during the first half-century after the Civil War. First, it commemorates a common trooper, not a general or a colonel. Second, it is an action packed depiction of a man in combat. This shows the trooper in a state of flux as the battle begins.

Terry’s Texas Rangers became the 8th Texas Cavalry when it joined the Confederate Army. The unit was formed by Benjamin Franklin Terry, a prominent citizen of Fort Bend County, west of Houston. Terry was born in Kentucky in February 18, 1821 and he would die in his native state in 1861. His family moved to Texas while he was still a boy and the Terry family became one of the largest landowners. The family used slaves to increase their fortune, but in March of 1844 two slaves on Terry’s plantation rose up against Benjamin Franklin Terry. Terry became a hero to supporters of slavery by overpowering the slaves with a whip and shooting one of the rebels. In 1851, Terry started work on Texas’sfirst railroad, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, using slave labor. He also used his slaves to farm sugar cane and cotton on his extensive landholdings.

In January of 1861, Terry was elected to Texas’s Secession Convention. He supported the move towards secession. In June of 1861, Terry went to Richmond to offer his services to the Confederate government. He was placed under the command of James Longstreet and saw action at the Battle of First Bull Run. Immediately afterwards, Terry returned to Texas as a Confederate colonel.

Frank Terry, who recently visited Virginia, in company with several other citizens of
Texas, has returned home, with a Colonel’s commission and authority to raise a regiment for the
seat of war. He, as well as Mr. Tom Lubbock, Col. Thatcher, and the other members of the party
were in time to render valuable service the great battle of Manassas. A letter dated Fairfax courthouse July 22, to the Richmond Enquirer, says, that on the morning of that day Col. Terry, with a
detachment of Capt. Whitehead’s Rangers from Amherst, entered that village. Soon he, with his
own unerring rifle, shot away the stars and stripes, which the Lincolnites had placed upon the
cupola of the court-house. [Civilian and Gazette, Galveston, Texas August 13, 1861]

In September, 1861, Terry’s Rangers were formed. Rather than a thousand man complement, there were 1,170 men enrolled in the Rangers.

On December 17, 1861, the Rangers had their first major engagement at the Battle of Rowlett’s Station in Kentucky. The Texans were arrayed against the 32nd Indiana Regiment, a unit made up of German immigrants. The 32nd was led by August Willich, a German refugee who had fled his native land after the revolutions of 1848 had failed. Unlike most German refugees, Willich was a communist as were many men in his regiment. During the war, these German radicals were one of the most successful regiments in the Union Army.

Terry was killed by one of Willich’s men.

Forty years after the battle, Colonel Shannon recalled the battle:

…Our troops were briskly forming in line of battle. Our camp had been pitched overlooking the
Green River. I was close to Terry and present when General Hindman, our brigade commander,
rode up and gave orders for the advance of our line. The “ping” of [minie] bullets just then rang
unpleasantly in our ears. Colonel Terry, noting this, said to Hindman: “General, this seems a
dangerous place for one like you carrying so much responsibility.” General Hindman turned and
replied, with a pleased look upon his face: How about regimental commanders?” Terry responded
with: “General, here is my place: I will lead the charge.” All this said without display or bravado.
…With the first of the Rangers I noticed Colonel Terry reel in his saddle. I caught him in my
arms. The Colonel pointed out to his son, David, the man who had shot him. [Dallas Morning
News, Dallas, Texas, September 30, 1901]

After Terry died, command went to Thomas Saltus Lubbock, whom Lubbock, Texas is named after. Lubbock was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1817. At the start of the Civil War, Lubbock owned 31 slaves. Before the war, he was a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle and in 1860 he emerged as a leading advocate of secession. Lubbock was already sick when he get command of the Rangers and he died just a few weeks later on January 9, 1862.

John Wharton next took over command of the regiment. He was born in 1828 in Nashville, Tennessee. By 1860, Wharton owned 135 slaves. When Texas considered secession, he was elected to the Secession Convention where he voted to leave the United States. Wharton left the regiment when he was promoted to general and he was killed on April 6, 1865 by a fellow Confederate officer, Col. George Baylor.

When Terry formed his Texas Rangers he had hoped to bring them to Virginia, however they were placed in the West. The men were mustered in with a pledge to serve until the end of the war. They moved to Kentucky for a Confederate invasion of the state. On December 17, 1861, the Rangers lost their commander at the Battle of Rowlett’s Station. According to the memoir Terry’s Texas Rangers by L.B. Giles the unit was in heavy. The Rangers were fighting against the 32nd Indiana which was proving more difficult than expected. According to the memoir:

“…the officers and men were Germans, who had probably learned their tactics in the old country. They were ignorant of the English language. They were brave fellows and stood like veterans until shot down.” p. 21

Colonel Willich reported on the Texas Rangers in his report:

“With lightning speed, under infernal yelling, great numbers of Texas Rangers rushed upon our whole force. They advanced to within fifteen or twenty yeards of our line…and opened fire with rifles and revolvers….They were repulsed with severe loss…” pp. 21-22

Confederate General Hindman reported that that even after Terry was killed, the Rangers were able to repulse an attack by the 32nd Indiana. p. 23

The battle ended, the Texans had to figure out how to survive in Kentucky in the winter. The closely fought defeat at Battle of Rowlett’s Station meant that the Confederate Army had to retreat out of Kentucky and back into Tennessee. The Rangers then rode to Corinth, Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant and Don Carlos Buell perused the Rangers and the rest of the Confederate Army.

On April 6, the Rangers saw their next engagement, the Battle of Shiloh. After their defeat at Shiloh, the regiment retreated back to Corinth, Mississippi. Following this, the Rangers went north to Murpheesboro where they worked with Nathan Bedford Forrest. The operation resulted in the capture of fifteen companies from the Union forces there. L.B. Giles says that after this victory, the regiment was engaged in “many marches and skirmishes” in Kentucky.

On October 8, 1862, the Rangers fought in the Battle of Perryville. Then the Rangers returned to Murphreesboro on December 31, 1862. After thus defeat, the men of the Rangers lost confidence in the commander of their army, General Braxton Bragg. Giles said that the Confederate actions at the battle were “useless sacrifices of life.” By the summer of 1863, the Rangers had fallen back to Chattanooga. The regiment was on the extreme left of the Confederate line and they had a successful charge against the Third Ohio Cavalry. After the victory, the Rangers joined in “Wheeler’s Great Raid.”

After the raid, the regiment went back to help with the besieging of Chattanooga. General Bragg then sent General James Longstreet to try to capture Knoxville. The Rangers went with him. The regiment was sent to try to cut off supplies carried downriver to the Union forces in Knoxville. They were to cut down trees to trap the supplies as they rolled down the river. As Giles said, the Rangers had no experience using axes to cut down trees, Giles said that the men of the unit “had slaves to do their chapping” at home. When the Confederates were driven from Missionary Ridge, Longstreet raised the siege of Knoxville and he retreated to Georgia.

As supplies ran low, the Rangers scavenged the countryside for food to support the Confederate Army. Giles said that their constant foraging led many of the “mountaineers” to hide out along the roads to try to kill the Confederate raiders in Georgia. From here onward, the Rangers were hard pressed by the Union forces and always in retreat. Even when the Rangers had temporary success against the Union Army under General William T. Sherman, they could follow up their tactical victory.

After the fall of Atlanta, the new commander of the Army of Tennessee, John Bell Hood, took most of the army with him to Tennessee in a predictable ill-fated failed effort to divert Sherman’s army. The Rangers were attached to General Wheeler’s forces and this small contingent tried to stop Sherman’s overwhelming force in Georgia and South Carolina. In March of 1865, the regiment made its last charge at the Battle of Bentonville. Even with the war only month away from ending, the charge was successful and scores of Union men were captured, but the battle ended with another Confederate retreat. On April 28, 1865 General Wheeler issued an order thanking his men for their service and telling them that they had been defeated.

Giles said that the fact that all of the men had been horsemen in Texas before the war meant that they were among the best riders in the cavalry. Wheeler later said that the Rangers were “unceasing vigilant, matchlessly brave and daring.”