Between the Enemy and Texas: Parsons's Texas Cavalry in the Civil War

Much of the Civil War west of the Mississippi was a war of waiting for action, of foraging already stripped land for an army that supposedly could provision itself, and of disease in camp, while trying to hold out against Union pressure. There were none of the major engagements that characterized the conflict farther east. Instead, small units of Confederate cavalry and infantry skirmished with Federal forces in Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana, trying to hold the western Confederacy together. The many units of Texans who joined this fight had a second objective--to keep the enemy out of their home state by placing themselves "between the enemy and Texas."

Historian Anne J. Bailey studies one Texas unit, Parsons's Cavalry Brigade, to show how the war west of the Mississippi was fought. Historian Norman D. Brown calls this "the definitive study of Parsons's Cavalry Brigade; the story will not need to be told again." Exhaustively researched and written with literary grace, Between the Enemy and Texas is a "must" book for anyone interested in the role of mounted troops in the Trans-Mississippi Department.

Author: Anne J. Bailey
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press
Published: 07/19/2005
Pages: 358
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.83d
ISBN13: 9780875653075
ISBN10: 0875653073
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | Civil War Period (1850-1877)
- History | Military | General
- History | United States | State & Local | Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX)

About the Author
Anne J. Bailey, a native Texan, is professor of history at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville and the author of seven books on the Civil War. Her most recent book is In the Saddle with the Texans: Day-to-Day with Parsons's Cavalry Brigade, 1862-1865.