REGIMENTAL JOURNAL
​
May 16, 1861
Company A, B mustered into service in New Orleans, Louisiana "for one year". Companies begin leaving New Orleans in a body by the Mississippi Central rail Road to Grand Junction Tenn. And then east by Chattanooga, Knoxville and Bristol to Richmond. A grand ovation, music, cakes, pies, flowers, pretty girls and enthusiastic cheers greeted the regiment every where except at Knoxville, Tenn.
May 19, 1861
Company C mustered into service in New Orleans, Louisiana "for one year"
May 28, 1861
Company F mustered into service in New Orleans, Louisiana "for one year"
June 1, 1861
Companies begin arriving Richmond Virginia. 1st Texas is formed By this date the entire 1st Regiment had arrived in Richmond with Wigfall as colonel, Hugh McLeod as Lieutenant Colonel and A.T. Raney as Major. Encamped at the "Fair Grounds" Richmond drilling and learning the manual of arms and guard duty while awaiting arrival of remaining companies.
June 6, 1861
Company D, E mustered into service in New Orleans "for one year"
June 21, 1861
1st Texas order from its encampment in Richmond to Dumfries, Va.
June 23, 1861
Company G mustered into service in Palestine, Texas "for the war"
June 24, 1861
Company H, I mustered into service in New Orleans, Louisiana "for the war"
July 21, 1861
Rushed to a long special train of box cars and started over the Richmond and Fredricksville rail road late in the afternoon for Manassas junction in a pouring rain. Floods and rain had fallen during the day and it was dark and rainy as we steamed northward with what is called a ‘double header" i.e. an engine in front and one in the rear of our long train containing about 1300 men. About 9:00pm the train dashed into a washout culvert, and a frightful wreck ensued. About 40 young men were killed and crippled, and half a dozen cars crushed into kindle wood.
​
July 22, 1861
The command after caring for its dead and wounded went on. The regiment reached Manassas junction during the morning and walked over the battle field to camp across Bull Run. The bloody prints of war were view. The cries of the suffering could be heard as well as the shouts of victory.
July 23-30 , 1861
Pursed fleeing elements of Union army.
July 31, 1861
Returned to Dumfries Va.
October 11, 1861
Company K mustered into service near Richmond Virginia "for the war"
On October 25, 1861
The Fourth and Fifth Texas were officially assigned with the First Texas, per General Orders No. 15. On the same day, Brig. Gen. Louis T. Wigfall was designated commander of the 2nd Corps Fifth Brigade, Fourth Division, Potomac District, Dept. of Northern Virginia commanded by Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Wigfall's Brigade consisted of the three Texas regiments and a Louisiana regiment of unknown designation.
November 4, 1861
Colonel Wigfall appointed Brigadier. Lieutenant Colonel Hugh McLeod was made regimental commander a veteran of the Texas war of Independence and earnest while commander of the Sante Fe expedition in 1841. Major A.T Rainey was the Major of the First, a lawyer.
November 7, 1861
The regiment was manning the Potomac defense line in Northern Virginia based at Camp Texas.
November 12, 1861
On the night of November 12, the Fourth and Fifth Texas broke bivouac and began a march for Dumfries, hastened by an urgent request from General Wigfall for assistance in repelling a large Federal force which had supposedly crossed the Potomac and entrenched above the Occoquan River. The march was moonless and muddy, and many troops fell by the wayside.
November 13, 1861
The exhausted 4th and 5th regiments Texas arrived in Dumfries only to learn that Co. Wigfall had sounded a false alarm. This action was immediately followed by another false report of a Federal advance further down the Potomac.. The entire brigade was formed scurried north toward the Occoquan to meet the nonexistent threat. Thus the men under Cols. John B. Hood and James J. Archer learned of the panicky nature of their brigade commander. Fortunately, they were not destined to suffer long.
November 16, 1861
Col. Wigfall was elected by the Texas Legislature to represent the Lone Star State in the Confederate Senate.
November 17, 1861
First Texas went into winter camp - Camp Quantico near Quantico Creek with short rations.
November 18, 1861
Joined by the Eighteenth Georgia Infantry under the command of Col. William T. Wofford. The Georgians set up their Camp Fisher near the Potomac between Powell's Run and Neabsco Creek. Thus were joined the first four regiments of Wigfall's (later Hood's) Texas Brigade.
December 1861
As 1861 slipped into its final month, the regiments of the Texas Brigade began a routine of patrolling and entrenching along the Potomac, foraging supplies from the local citizens, constructing winter quarters, and keeping themselves entertained. The brigade was responsible for guarding the Virginia-side of the Potomac from Occoquan Creek to Quantico Creek -- a distance of about ten miles. The false alarms of northern invasions continued to be sounded by the jumpy Gen. Wigfall, whose judgment in such instances was often clouded by his fondness for hard cider. Joseph B. Polley of the Fourth Texas wrote that ``Wigfall's imagination was too often quickened by deep potations to be reliable.'' By mid-winter, Cols. Hood and Archer of the Fourth and Fifth Texas began ignoring the long rolls coming from brigade headquarters. The impending harsh winter weather forced the members of the brigade to scour the surrounding countryside for materials from which to build suitable winter quarters.
Log cabins became popular, but so did plank structures built with timbers stolen from nearby homesteads, both abandoned and not. A Mr. Dunnington of Dumfries wrote to Confederate authorities on December 16 that when he arrived at his future home, he ``found every plank taken from the stable, the office removed, the kitchen and servant's house all gone but the brick chimneys, the shed portions of the dwelling entirely gone, the window-sash and doors and weather-boarding torn off and carried away, the fencing gone, and what I expected to be my future home a complete wreck... The enemy have not destroyed any man's property so completely.'' Because of bad weather, few large-scale drills or formations were held. The troops chiefly employed themselves with cooking, eating, sleeping, picketing, and policing the camp. For amusement, the troops engaged in playing cards, ``news walking'' (spreading news and gossip), visiting relatives and friends in nearby regiments, hunting, visiting the brigade sutler, or attending the ``Lone Star Theater''. The theater was made up of professional and amateur actors, musicians, and singers who organized themselves into brass bands, choirs, and an acting troupe known as ``Hood's Minstrels.'' Despite these distractions, the troops did suffer some hardships. According to Polley, ``The one monotony was the staying in one place -- the grievous lack was feminine society.''