I focus on Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry, C.S.A., and its unique status among other Confederate military units. The raising of the company within the narrative of the regiment, its battles and campaigns, and the post-war experience of its men are the primary focal points of the thesis. In the first chapter, a systematic analysis of various aspects of the recruit’s background is given, highlighting the wealth of Company A’s officers and men. The following two chapters focus on the campaigns and battles experienced by the company and the praise bestowed on the men by brigade and divisional staff. The final chapter includes a postwar analysis of the survivors from Company A, concentrating on their locations, professions, and contributions to society, which again illustrate the achievements accomplished by the veterans of this unique Confederate unit. As a company largely drawn from Jefferson, Texas, a growing inland port community, Company A of the Nineteenth Texas Infantry differed from other companies in the regiment, and from most units raised across the Confederacy. Their unusual backgrounds, together with their experiences during and after the war, provide interesting perspectives on persistent questions concerning the motives and achievements of Texas Confederates.

In October 1863 the United States Army's Rio Grande Expedition left New Orleans, bound for the Texas coast. Reacting to the recent French occupation of Mexico, President Abraham Lincoln believed that the presence of U.S. troops in Texas would dissuade the French from intervening in the American Civil War. The first major objective of this campaign was Brownsville, Texas, a port city on the lower Rio Grande. Its capture would not only serve as a warning to the French in Mexico; it would also disrupt a lucrative Confederate cotton trade across the border. The expedition had a mixed record of achievement. It succeeded in disrupting the cotton trade, but not stopping it. Federal forces installed a military governor, Andrew J. Hamilton, in Brownsville, but his authority extended only to the occupied part of Texas, a strip of land along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The campaign also created considerable fear among Confederate soldiers and civilians that the ravages of civil war had now come to the Lone Star State. Although short-lived, the panic generated by the Rio Grande Expedition left an indelible mark on the memories of Texans who lived through the campaign. The expedition achieved its greatest success by establishing a permanent Federal presence in Texas as a warning against possible French meddling north of the Rio Grande.

This thesis studies the issue of unionism in Texas during the era of the Civil War.

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This study investigates the development of large unit command and control in the United States Army prior to the American Civil War. It examines the results of this development in one early campaign of the war. The paper's theme is that the excessive casualties suffered during the early stages of the war were not only a result of the improvements in weapons technology, the size of the armies or the personalities of the individual commanders. Another, and potentially more serious cause was the inability of the Union commanders to command, control, and maneuver these units to achieve campaign objectives.The paper begins by describing how war is organized into three levels: strategy, operations, and tactics; and defining the concepts related to command and control. The influences on the development of the Civil War leadership are next examined. These include: Napoleonic Warfare, the teachings of Jomini, Mahan, and Halleck; the the formal and informal educational experiences of the officers. Next command and control doctrine within the Union Army is examined.The case study used for examining operational command and control during the early period of the Civil War is the Maryland Campaign of 1862 which culminated at the Battle of Antietam in September of that year. Throughout the thesis, the education and performance of the Army of the Potomac's commander, George B. McClellan is examined.The conclusion of the paper is that the United States Army was poorly prepared for the conduct of large unit operations. This poor preparation, and performance, could not be blamed on any single individual, including McClellan. It was the result of complex educational, experiential, and organizational factors which shaped the pre-war Army.Finally, this paper concludes that General McClellan's inability to decisively maneuver the forces at his disposal was a significant factor in the outcome of the engagement at Sharpsburg, Maryland on 17 September, 1862.

This dissertation is a study of morale in the western Confederacy from early 1864 until the Civil War's end in spring 1865. It examines when and why Confederate morale, military and civilian, changed in three important western states, Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. Focusing on that time frame allows a thorough examination of the sources, increases the opportunity to produce representative results, and permits an assessment of the lingering question of when and why most Confederates recognized, or admitted, defeat. Most western Confederate men and women struggled for their ultimate goal of southern independence until Federal armies crushed those aspirations on the battlefield. Until the destruction of the Army of Tennessee at Franklin and Nashville, most western Confederates still hoped for victory and believed it at least possible. Until the end they drew inspiration from battlefield developments, but also from their families, communities, comrades in arms, the sacrifices already endured, simple hatred for northerners, and frequently from anxiety for what a Federal victory might mean to their lives. Wartime diaries and letters of western Confederates serve as the principal sources. The dissertation relies on what those men and women wrote about during the war - military, political, social, or otherwise - and evaluates morale throughout the period in question by following primarily a chronological approach that allows the reader to glimpse the story as it developed.

From its early days as a slave state, to its secession from the Union, to finally admitting that the south had failed, Texas played a major role in the Confederacy and the Civil War.

This thesis is concerned with the design of a Civil War Museum depicting battles which took place in and around the Fredericksburg, Virginia area. I chose the topic Civil War action dramatized at Fredericksburg, Virginia (1862-1864), because I was concerned with the future application for my career as an architect, with the personal significance as subject matter, and with an integrative vehicle for my studies. / Master of Architecture

The battle of Saltville Va. (Oct. 3, 1864) and the subsequent massacre of wounded prisoners from the 5th United States Colored Cavalry has been a neglected and misinterpreted topic. The narrative follows the Federal advance from Kentucky to southwest Virginia including Confederate delaying actions. The work studies the Southern victory and the massacre in detail and introduces new evidence that clarifies the extent of the carnage. The study rates Saltville as the worst battlefield atrocity of the American Civil War. / M.A.

In 1860, Patrick County. like the rest of Virginia and much of the South. wavered uneasily on the brink of secession. In a county where large planters were few, secession was not overwhelmingly popular. Slaveholding families, however, constituted almost one quarter of the white population in Patrick, as they did across the South, and when Virginia seceded. Patrick Countians flocked to serve in the Confederate Army. Although situated in Virginia, Patrick managed to escape physical decimation from war. In fact, no battles occurred in the county and Federal troops only invaded the county once in four years. Nevertheless, the Civil War came home to Patrick in a variety of ways: men were killed, livestock and crops impressed, and farms destroyed. With its prosperity of the 1850's disrupted by the war. Patrick's agricultural output dramatically decreased, industry failed, and labor shortages ensued. Despite the changes the Civil War brought to Patrick, the highest echelon of Patrick's social structure changed little. Those white men who had been well off before the war continued to flourish and continued to own the most and most valuable real estate. Small farmers before the war generally remained small farmers. Free blacks did not gain much status over the decades, and freedmen owned scarcely any land nor personal property; neither group by 1880 had achieved literacy. In Patrick County the rich stayed rich and the planters remained the most influential. / Master of Arts