7/2/1863: Hood's Texas Brigade joins battle at Gettysburg

[Craig Tx]

On this day in 1863, Hood's Texas Brigade became a major participant in the battle of Gettysburg.

The brigade had been organized in 1861 in Richmond, Virginia. It was composed of the First, Fourth and Fifth Texas Infantry regiments, the only Texas troops to fight in the Eastern Theater. Col. John Bell Hood had been commander of the Fourth. On July 2, 1863, the brigade led the assault at Devils Den and Little Round Top, the crucial action of the second day of the battle. A soldier of the First Texas called the assault on Devil's Den "one of the wildest, fiercest struggles of the war." After routing the Union forces at the Devil's Den, however, the brigade was unable to capture Little Round Top. A thirty-five-foot monument to the men of Hood's Texas Brigade stands on the south drive of the Capitol in Austin.