b'Rangers continued from page 19and in going would be leaving Texas anyway. That Virginia-born US Army Colonel was Robert E. Lee.Ben McCulloch would have just one year and one month left of life, as he, by then a Confederate Army major general, was killed leading his men in the bitter cold of an Arkansas winter at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Lawrence Sul Ross was appointed commander of the 9th Texas Cavalry Brigade with the rank of general in December 1863, having rendered honorable service in the 6th Texas Cavalry in fierce battles from Pea Ridge up through Corinth and had participated in raids under the command of the feared and notorious Nathan Bedford Forrest behind Union lines during the Vicksburg campaign. He would lead the 9th Cavalry, by then known as "Ross\'s Brigade" throughout the Atlanta campaign, then, riding north to Tennessee, heJuan Nepomuceno Cortinaand his men would rejoin Forrest\'sCavalry for Hood\'s Tennessee Campaign (November-December 1864). Ross and his men were unable to succor Hood during the horrendous carnage of the Battle of Franklin, where six Confederate generals and over 6,000 men, almost 1/6 of Hood\'s Confederate Army of the Tennessee were killed in Hood\'s foolhardy attempt to charge one mile across a field of fire to break through Union lines, but they participated honorably through the battle and the ensuing Battle of Nashville over two weeks later where Hood\'s Army was completely smashed. Afterwards, Ross and his cavalry would shield the decimated remnants of Hood\'s Army as they crossed the Duck River, retreating south into Mississippi in the midst of a Christmas Day snowstorm.It is said that as the Confederates retreated in sad disarray across the frozen Duck they - and especially the men of Ross\'s Brigade, many of whom were former Rangers just like their commanding officer, sang a sad song to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas."And now I\'m going southward, My heart is filled with woeI\'m going back to Georgia, To see my Uncle Joe (referring to General Joseph Johnston, their 10% OFF former and future commander, who was replaced by Hood during the Atlanta Campaign - and soon would be replacing him after the Tennessee disaster)You may talk about your Beauregard and sing of Bobby LeeBut the gallant Hood of Texas, He played hell in TennesseeANY REGULAR PRICED ITEM While the war was over for Ross, who had gone on furlough back to Texas following the Nashville campaign, never returning to his command, his laurels would still be on the rise, eventually becoming governor of Texas.Excludes Tools & Equipment. And his former commanding officer, RIP Ford, didn\'t do so badly either. As a colonel leading Confederate forces along the Texas coast, he and his men thwarted a Union advance Mention Arizona Real Country Magazine. on Brownsville and decisively defeated Union forces under the command of Colonel Theodore Barrett at the battle of Palmito Ranch (May 12-13 1865), arguably considered to be the last battle of the Civil War. Barrett had two all-Black regiments in his brigade, the U.S.C.T. (Colored Troops) 87th and 62nd - and many of those soldiers were captured as Ford\'s men swept the field, driving the Union forces in final retreat. The captured Black soldiers, many of them being former Texas slaves, knowing the fate of their comrades who were slaughtered by Forrest after surrendering a year earlier at Fort Pillow (Ross and his men were in Georgia at the time, serving under Major General Joseph "Fighting Joe" Wheeler and did not tarnish their reputation by being involving in the notorious massacre) expected to be either killed where they stood or be returned to slavery. Imagine their surprise and relief when Ford paroled them and permitted them to go with the white Union soldiers captured at Palmito Ranch.As Ford noted in his official report of the battle: Some of the Sixty-Second Colored (Union) Regiment were also taken (at Palmito Ranch). They had been led to believe that if captured they would either be shot or returned to slavery. They were agreeably surprised when they were paroled and permitted to depart with the white prisoners. Several of the (Black) prisoners were from Austin and vicinity. They were assured they would be treated as prisoners of war. There was no disposition to visit on upon them a mean spirit of revenge.Ford would become a newspaper publisher in the aftermath of the Civil War, but also, perhaps more significantly, become an also be advocate for Black Texans, insisting they had the right to vote. Ford\'s benevolent demeanor was in marked contrast to that of his fellow Texas Confederate and briefly Confederate governor of Arizona, Colonel John R. Baylor, a notorious racist who advocated the extermination of Native Americans and the enslavement of Blacks (and no, Baylor University was NOT named for John R. Baylor as has erroneously been reported at times). 20 December 2021'