A Brief History of the 2nd Texas Partisan Rangers
by Justin M. Sanders
The Second Texas Partisan Rangers was a cavalry regiment which was organized in March, 1863, at Fairfield, TX under Col. B. Warren Stone of Dallas. Isham Chisum of Kaufman county was its Lt. Colonel and later was its colonel. The counties where some of the companies were raised were: Co A (Wood), Co C (Dallas), Co G (Dallas), Co H (Denton, Dallas, Ellis), Co I (Collin?), Co K (Kaufman). The regiment went to Louisiana in May 1863, where it found in Col. James P. Major's cavalry brigade. It was involved in numerous skirmishes in southeastern Louisiana among which were the battle at Donaldsonville on 28 Jun 1863 and Bayou Bourbeau on 3 Nov 1863.
In December 1863, the Second Texas Partisan Rangers returned to Texas and were stationed at Virginia Point on the coast near Galveston Island. Their stay in Texas was short, for the Union launched the Red River Expedition, an attempted invasion of Texas from Louisiana and Arkansas, in March 1864. Chisum's regiment (as it was then known) was engaged in the battles of Mansfield, LA, 7 Apr and Pleasant Hill, LA, 9 Apr which turned back the Union advance. It continued to see action in harassing the retreating Union army down the Red River through the remainder of April 1864. The regiment remained in Louisiana through August 1864.
In September 1864, Chisum's cavalry was ordered to Arkansas where the most notable event was the skirmish at Hurricane Creek, near Benton, AR, 23 Oct.
By January 1865, Chisum's regiment was back in Texas. It escorted a group of prisoners from the prisoner-of-war camp at Tyler to Shreveport in February, and at Shreveport the regiment was dismounted in order to serve as infantry. After it was dismounted, Chisum's regiment returned to Texas, and it disbanded near Houston in May 1865.
