Texas State Monument (Antietam)

Description

Sculpted by Gary Casteel
Size: 4 ½” x 1 ½” 9”
Weight: .9lbs
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
The battle of Antietam held particular significance for Texans.  Over a thousand miles from their homes, the Confederate soldiers of Hood’s Texas Brigade would suffer the second-highest casualty rate of any unit during the Civil War.  On the morning of September 17, 1862, the men of the First, Fourth, and Fifth Texas Infantry regiments were held in reserve and attempting to cook breakfast as the fighting opened.  They arrived in the hamlet of Sharpsburg, Maryland at the end of several months of hard campaigning in Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.  Assigned to duty in Virginia early in the war, the Texans earned a reputation for hard fighting after battles at Seven Pines, the Seven Days battles, and the second battle of Manassas.  Lee affectionately referred to the men of Hood’s Brigade as “my Texans.” Lee’s army had reversed Confederate fortunes in Virginia, defeating two Federal armies and completely clearing the Commonwealth of Federal forces.  Lee’s fateful decision to invade Maryland brought his ragged and outnumbered army to a defensive position in the Maryland countryside opposite George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac.
The Texan’s breakfast was abruptly interrupted when the Federal army launched an assault on the Confederate left flank. Hood’s Brigade fell into formation and marched north, passing wounded and frightened Confederates streaming to the rear.  Emerging from the woods in the vicinity of the Dunker Church, named for a German Baptist sect noted for its pacifism, the Texans were ordered forward in a counterattack.  The Lone Star soldiers launched a ferocious assault through a cornfield, driving Federal units before them.  The attack eventually foundered in the face of intense artillery and musket fire.  The Texans stubbornly attempted to move forward, but massive casualties decimated their ranks. Eventually Hood’s Brigade was forced to withdraw under heavy fire.  When the Texas Brigade regrouped and counted their losses, it was determined that over 550 of the brigade’s 850 soldiers had been killed, wounded, or captured.  The First Texas Infantry, advancing the farthest of any unit in the brigade, suffered a casualty rate of 82% of the 226 men engaged in the battle.
The “Ragged Old First” lost their regimental colors as well.  Historian John Cannon reports that when a Federal soldier later in the battle picked them up, he found thirteen Texans lying dead within arm’s reach of the Lone Star flag.  The First Texas’ casualty rate at Antietam was the second-highest of the Civil War on either side.  (From the article
Texans at Antietam: 150 Years Ago Today
by Nicholas Roland)
The monument is located on Cornfield Avenue and was dedicated on November 11, 1964.
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