Consolidated Regiment of the 17th and 18th Texas Cavalry Battle Flag

The 17th Texas Cavalry was organized during the spring of 1862 and consisted of around 1000 men from Cherokee, Smith, and Red River counties.

The regiment was mustered into service on March 15th, 1862, and then transferred to Arkansas on April 24th and assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department. By August of 1862, the 17th Texas Cavalry was dismounted and assigned to the 5000-man garrison at Fort Hindman in Arkansas Post to defend the fort. Similarly, the 18th Texas Cavalry was also organized and mustered into service in Dallas on March 15th, 1862 with men from Bastrop, Bell, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Harris, Henderson, Johnson, Travis, and Williamson counties.

The 18th was first assigned to duty in the Indian Territory but in July was also dismounted and sent to Fort Hindman in Arkansas Post. From January 4th – 11th 1863, in what is known as the Battle of Arkansas Post, Union forces totaling around 30,000 men equipped with ironclad gunboats and some 40 cannons, attacked the fort compelling the badly outnumbered Confederate defenders to surrender as the walls of the fort were destroyed from the heavy cannon fire. With the exception of the very few that were able to escape, nearly the entire garrison was captured.

Three months later, most of the men were paroled on a prisoner exchange, including the 17th and 18th Texas Cavalries. Because of their significantly reduced numbers, they were consolidated into one regiment known as the 17th and 18th Texas Cavalry. They remained dismounted and were combined with six other units to comprise what became known as “Granbury’s Brigade” commanded by Brigadier General Hiram Granbury. The brigade was assigned to Major General Patrick Cleburne’s division in the Army of Tennessee. Granbury’s Brigade soon distinguished itself as one of the hardest fighting regiments in the Army of Tennessee’s best division.

Cleburne’s Division was responsible for saving the Army of Tennessee during their retreat from Chattanooga and fought Sherman’s Army to a stalemate on multiple occasions during the Atlanta Campaign. In 1863, the men of Cleburne’s Division resisted orders to replace their Hardee pattern battle flags with standard red battle flags. Because of their reputation as fighters, they became the only division in the Army of Tennessee allowed to keep their distinct Hardee-style battle flags. This was considered an honor. The 17th and 18th Texas Cavalry received their new battle flag in November of 1863 which replaced their old and tattered one.

It was a Hardee pattern flag inscribed with the previous battle honors “Arkansas Post”, “Tunnel Hill”, Chickamauga”, and “Ringgold Gap”. “17th & 18th Texas” appears on the white ellipse in the center of the flag. On July 25th, 1864, the 17th and 18th Texas was fighting on the front lines during the Battle of Atlanta where they were surrounded and cut off by Union forces, and a large number of the men as well as their battle flag was captured. The flag was retained by Union General William T. Clark. In 1914 General Clark’s widow returned the flag, and it is now in the possession of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

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